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The Fifty Year Sword
In this story set in East Texas, a local seamstress named Chintana finds herself responsible for five orphans who are not only captivated by a storyteller’s tale of vengeance but by the long black box he sets before them. As midnight approaches, the box is opened, a fateful dare is made, and the children as well as Chintana come face to face with the consequences of a malice retold and now foretold.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 16, 2005
About the author
Mark Z. Danielewski
20 books8,800 followersMark Z. Danielewski is an American author best known for his books House of Leaves, Only Revolutions, The Fifty Year Sword, The Little Blue Kite, and The Familiar series.
Danielewski studied English Literature at Yale. He then decided to move to Berkeley, California, where he took a summer program in Latin at the University of California, Berkeley. He also spent time in Paris, preoccupied mostly with writing.
In the early 1990s, he pursued graduate studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television. He later served as an assistant editor and worked on sound for Derrida, a documentary based on the life of the Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher Jacques Derrida.
His second novel, Only Revolutions, was released in 2006. The novel was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award.
His novel The Fifty Year Sword was released in the Netherlands in 2005. A new version with stitched illustrations was released in the United States 2012 (including a limited-edition release featuring a latched box that held the book). On Halloween 2010-2012, Danielewski "conducted" staged readings of the book at the REDCAT Theater inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Each year was different and included features such as large-scale shadows, music, and performances from actors such as Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad).
On May 12, 2015, he released the first volume, The Familiar (Volume 1): One Rainy Day in May in his announced 27-volume series The Familiar. The story "concerns a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten..." The second volume, The Familiar (Volume 2): Into the Forest was released on Oct. 27, 2015, The Familiar (Volume 3): Honeysuckle & Pain came out June 14, 2016, and The Familiar (Volume 4): Hades arrived in bookstores on Feb. 7, 2017, and The Familiar (Volume 5): Redwood was released on Halloween 2017.
His latest release, The Little Blue Kite, is out now.
Quick Facts
He is the son of Polish avant-garde film director Tad Danielewski and the brother of singer and songwriter Annie Decatur Danielewski, a.k.a. Poe.
House of Leaves, Danielewski's first novel, has gained a considerable cult following. In 2000, Danielewski toured with his sister across America at Borders Books and Music locations, promoting Poe’s album Haunted, which reflects elements of House of Leaves.
Danielewski's work is characterized by experimental choices in form, such as intricate and multi-layered narratives and typographical variation.
In 2015, his piece Thrown, a reflection on Matthew Barney's Cremaster 2, appeared on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Official "Yarn + Ink" apparel inspired by his books House of Leaves and The Familiar is now available through his official website, Amazon and Etsy.
His latest short story, "There's a Place for You" was released on www.markzdanielewski.com in August 2020.
Read more on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Z....
Danielewski studied English Literature at Yale. He then decided to move to Berkeley, California, where he took a summer program in Latin at the University of California, Berkeley. He also spent time in Paris, preoccupied mostly with writing.
In the early 1990s, he pursued graduate studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television. He later served as an assistant editor and worked on sound for Derrida, a documentary based on the life of the Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher Jacques Derrida.
His second novel, Only Revolutions, was released in 2006. The novel was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award.
His novel The Fifty Year Sword was released in the Netherlands in 2005. A new version with stitched illustrations was released in the United States 2012 (including a limited-edition release featuring a latched box that held the book). On Halloween 2010-2012, Danielewski "conducted" staged readings of the book at the REDCAT Theater inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Each year was different and included features such as large-scale shadows, music, and performances from actors such as Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad).
On May 12, 2015, he released the first volume, The Familiar (Volume 1): One Rainy Day in May in his announced 27-volume series The Familiar. The story "concerns a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten..." The second volume, The Familiar (Volume 2): Into the Forest was released on Oct. 27, 2015, The Familiar (Volume 3): Honeysuckle & Pain came out June 14, 2016, and The Familiar (Volume 4): Hades arrived in bookstores on Feb. 7, 2017, and The Familiar (Volume 5): Redwood was released on Halloween 2017.
His latest release, The Little Blue Kite, is out now.
Quick Facts
He is the son of Polish avant-garde film director Tad Danielewski and the brother of singer and songwriter Annie Decatur Danielewski, a.k.a. Poe.
House of Leaves, Danielewski's first novel, has gained a considerable cult following. In 2000, Danielewski toured with his sister across America at Borders Books and Music locations, promoting Poe’s album Haunted, which reflects elements of House of Leaves.
Danielewski's work is characterized by experimental choices in form, such as intricate and multi-layered narratives and typographical variation.
In 2015, his piece Thrown, a reflection on Matthew Barney's Cremaster 2, appeared on display at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Official "Yarn + Ink" apparel inspired by his books House of Leaves and The Familiar is now available through his official website, Amazon and Etsy.
His latest short story, "There's a Place for You" was released on www.markzdanielewski.com in August 2020.
Read more on his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Z....
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 831 reviews
October 28, 2021
I BRAKE FOR SPOOKTOBER!
validation! http://www.salon.com/2013/11/07/gifs_...
candy??
what's this??
okay, so maybe it's not as bad as all that. and maybe as a live shadow show "performed only on halloween night," this would have been more enjoyable to me. but as a book read on halloween night, by someone desperate for distraction after being a hurricane shut-in for a week, it was pretty but not terrifically entertaining.
pretty isn't cutting it.
come to my blog!
validation! http://www.salon.com/2013/11/07/gifs_...
candy??
what's this??
okay, so maybe it's not as bad as all that. and maybe as a live shadow show "performed only on halloween night," this would have been more enjoyable to me. but as a book read on halloween night, by someone desperate for distraction after being a hurricane shut-in for a week, it was pretty but not terrifically entertaining.
pretty isn't cutting it.
come to my blog!
Want to Read
March 4, 2013Without providing a polemical piece on quantitative starrage ratings practiced so frequently in a consumer driven society, for THIS book, I've removed any trace of a star and imply no intention-to-mean by so doing. Sometime to revisit this objet d’art. But probably not until after Only Revolutions, and that one will be deferred.
____________
The following is an execrable review written by someone who had already turned off his mind and did not bother to attempt to understand the book. For an intelligent review of this book see either this goodreads review or this prophie review. Meanwhile, instead of Liking this review, pass on over to a review of a book which deserves a Like even if the Review doesn’t deserve that Like. Say hello to my Cat. And then Like the five star reviews by Megha, Ali, Jonfaith, MJ, David, Jesse, and then tolle, lege. I do this with all the love for House of Leaves which lovers of HoL’s rightfully possess. But that book is no longer and never again shall be MZD.
______________
MZD has created a book object
Fifty (50) Year Sword.
To flex my failed French, we’ll call it
Something.
i’Objet d’art.
It is stitched with red thread.
MZD’s little book-story is a childrens’ story, one of by for five(5)orphans. Perhaps a childrens’ books for adults’ books? But, yes, only that it requires [doesn’t it?] the imaginative imaginary we find only among our youngest. Perhaps.
Won’t it lead us?
childrens’ books de-sign-ed for the adult; one thinking here of Herrs Coover and Herrs Theroux?
A: White pages
______________
what went befour; cf Comments won thru twinty
____________
The following is an execrable review written by someone who had already turned off his mind and did not bother to attempt to understand the book. For an intelligent review of this book see either this goodreads review or this prophie review. Meanwhile, instead of Liking this review, pass on over to a review of a book which deserves a Like even if the Review doesn’t deserve that Like. Say hello to my Cat. And then Like the five star reviews by Megha, Ali, Jonfaith, MJ, David, Jesse, and then tolle, lege. I do this with all the love for House of Leaves which lovers of HoL’s rightfully possess. But that book is no longer and never again shall be MZD.
______________
with his newest {re}publication, his
To flex my failed French, we’ll call it
objet d’art.
Something.
It is/was/will be performed avec
de la musique.
Maybe here you will find yourself with
bits and bytes
4 your iBook.
i’Objet d’art.
It is stitched with red thread.
Won’t it lead us?
to turn to other
childrens’ books de-sign-ed for the adult; one thinking here of Herrs Coover and Herrs Theroux?
Q:
______________
what went befour; cf Comments won thru twinty
Read
April 6, 2022Let's strip this book of its components, one by one.
1. The book was done in collaboration with three "stitchers," who sewed the sometimes very elaborate patterns that are reproduced throughout the book. The problem here is that the stitching only intermittently connects with the narrative. The key moment when a box with five latches is opened (p. 212 ff.) is illustrated with full-page, full-color photographs of stitched rectangles intended to illustrate the latches. But there is no connection between the zig-zag patterns on the latches and the scene evoked in the narrative. Why curvilinear decorations on the latches? The mismatch between the single lines of text--in which each child lifts a latch--and the labor expended on the sewing isn't itself explained or motivated. The sewing works best in the pages that illustrate the spooky storyteller's swords (p. 196 ff.), because the imaginary swords in the story are rendered as static pictures of swords: a nice contrast with the slicing horrors the storyteller is evoking. But most episodes are disconnected from their narratives. The "Forest of Falling" is illustrated by falling lines of punched-out holes, but they're randomly stitched in patterns that look more like confetti than leaves. And so forth. An MFA-level critique would have been helpful here, matching the form of the stitching to the images and shapes in the story.
2. So imagine the book without the illustrations. The principal typographic innovation in this book is differently-colored quotation marks, that stand for different speakers. But it is apparently nearly from the first page that it is not possible to read every yellow quotation, for example, in sequence; and it is apparent from somewhere around page 20 that the five characters, introduced in the author's preface and coded by color, will not in fact be introduced or described in the book. And from that point on, a reader just reads straight through the colored quotation marks. Occasionally a slightly different point of view, or a briefly fragmented narrative, will recall the color coding, but it doesn't help read the book. This is in contrast to any number of modern and postmodern experiments with unnamed and unnumbered interlocutors, from "Ulysses" to Derrida's "Truth in Painting," where it really is interesting to try to figure out who is speaking.
3. Imagining the book without its colored quotation marks or its graphics, there's still the arrangement of words on the page. Occasionally that makes sense, for example when one of the characters is slicing herself up with an imaginary sword, and the words scatter to evoke her cuts. But for the most part, these are not inventive or expressive arrangements. I agree with the reviewer in the "New York Times": sometimes the space around sentences just doesn't work to emphasize them; and in addition, there are almost no imaginative pictorial arrangements of words, despite a century of precedents, from Mallarmé to Apollinaire and Huidobro.
4. So now imagine the book is just printed, in the usual way, with no special typography, no colors, and no graphical arrangement of text. There is one final obstacle between a reader and the narrative itself and that is Danielewski's penchant for inventing portmanteau words. I found this annoying and inept throughout. The modernist tradition of newly coined words, from "Finnegans Wake" through Matthiessen, Winterson, Burgess, and Bernstein, demands consistency: the author has to adopt a certain mode, a manner in relation to the voices she's imagining. What happens here is entirely different: Danielewski only occasionally invents word—one or two per page. As a result they are consistently distracting. Is it really a good idea to interrupt the climactic moment of the story, in which a woman is running to help another who is literally falling to pieces, by saying she was "racing forward, direticating others"? "Direticating" seems to be a portmanteau combination of "directing" and "dictating," with an echo of "dire." But all it does her is interrupt the narrative flow, bring the reader out of the scene, and compel her to solve a ridiculous little puzzle before continuing. There are many, many other examples—my copy is entirely marked up with them. Virtually none of them work with the narrative, the voice, the style, or any other component of the fiction: instead they forcibly compel a read to attend to Danielewski's show of skill. (Is that's what it is: I don't think portmanteau is especially difficult.)
What is left? A good, brief ghost story, suitable for children—except that it isn't suitable for any kind of children except the ones whose parents insist that they become sophisticated and literary.
People who praise Danielewski as a postmodernist (and there are over 500 reviews on the Goodreads site, most very positive, many mentioning Derrida and other postmodernists) are missing the book's preciousness, the fragility of Danielewski's writing skills, the superficial veneer of multiple dialogic voices, the mistaken belief that typographical finesse indicates deep engagement with postmodern narrative, the obliviousness to the meanings of the graphical interventions, and the overwhelming obviousness of the fact that Danielewski has an entirely conventional sense of narrative, which he obscures to himself by elaborations and multiplications. People who like this book must have an impoverished sense of the stakes of serious writing in the last thirty years. All this is applicable to the stalled project of The Familiar.
1. The book was done in collaboration with three "stitchers," who sewed the sometimes very elaborate patterns that are reproduced throughout the book. The problem here is that the stitching only intermittently connects with the narrative. The key moment when a box with five latches is opened (p. 212 ff.) is illustrated with full-page, full-color photographs of stitched rectangles intended to illustrate the latches. But there is no connection between the zig-zag patterns on the latches and the scene evoked in the narrative. Why curvilinear decorations on the latches? The mismatch between the single lines of text--in which each child lifts a latch--and the labor expended on the sewing isn't itself explained or motivated. The sewing works best in the pages that illustrate the spooky storyteller's swords (p. 196 ff.), because the imaginary swords in the story are rendered as static pictures of swords: a nice contrast with the slicing horrors the storyteller is evoking. But most episodes are disconnected from their narratives. The "Forest of Falling" is illustrated by falling lines of punched-out holes, but they're randomly stitched in patterns that look more like confetti than leaves. And so forth. An MFA-level critique would have been helpful here, matching the form of the stitching to the images and shapes in the story.
2. So imagine the book without the illustrations. The principal typographic innovation in this book is differently-colored quotation marks, that stand for different speakers. But it is apparently nearly from the first page that it is not possible to read every yellow quotation, for example, in sequence; and it is apparent from somewhere around page 20 that the five characters, introduced in the author's preface and coded by color, will not in fact be introduced or described in the book. And from that point on, a reader just reads straight through the colored quotation marks. Occasionally a slightly different point of view, or a briefly fragmented narrative, will recall the color coding, but it doesn't help read the book. This is in contrast to any number of modern and postmodern experiments with unnamed and unnumbered interlocutors, from "Ulysses" to Derrida's "Truth in Painting," where it really is interesting to try to figure out who is speaking.
3. Imagining the book without its colored quotation marks or its graphics, there's still the arrangement of words on the page. Occasionally that makes sense, for example when one of the characters is slicing herself up with an imaginary sword, and the words scatter to evoke her cuts. But for the most part, these are not inventive or expressive arrangements. I agree with the reviewer in the "New York Times": sometimes the space around sentences just doesn't work to emphasize them; and in addition, there are almost no imaginative pictorial arrangements of words, despite a century of precedents, from Mallarmé to Apollinaire and Huidobro.
4. So now imagine the book is just printed, in the usual way, with no special typography, no colors, and no graphical arrangement of text. There is one final obstacle between a reader and the narrative itself and that is Danielewski's penchant for inventing portmanteau words. I found this annoying and inept throughout. The modernist tradition of newly coined words, from "Finnegans Wake" through Matthiessen, Winterson, Burgess, and Bernstein, demands consistency: the author has to adopt a certain mode, a manner in relation to the voices she's imagining. What happens here is entirely different: Danielewski only occasionally invents word—one or two per page. As a result they are consistently distracting. Is it really a good idea to interrupt the climactic moment of the story, in which a woman is running to help another who is literally falling to pieces, by saying she was "racing forward, direticating others"? "Direticating" seems to be a portmanteau combination of "directing" and "dictating," with an echo of "dire." But all it does her is interrupt the narrative flow, bring the reader out of the scene, and compel her to solve a ridiculous little puzzle before continuing. There are many, many other examples—my copy is entirely marked up with them. Virtually none of them work with the narrative, the voice, the style, or any other component of the fiction: instead they forcibly compel a read to attend to Danielewski's show of skill. (Is that's what it is: I don't think portmanteau is especially difficult.)
What is left? A good, brief ghost story, suitable for children—except that it isn't suitable for any kind of children except the ones whose parents insist that they become sophisticated and literary.
People who praise Danielewski as a postmodernist (and there are over 500 reviews on the Goodreads site, most very positive, many mentioning Derrida and other postmodernists) are missing the book's preciousness, the fragility of Danielewski's writing skills, the superficial veneer of multiple dialogic voices, the mistaken belief that typographical finesse indicates deep engagement with postmodern narrative, the obliviousness to the meanings of the graphical interventions, and the overwhelming obviousness of the fact that Danielewski has an entirely conventional sense of narrative, which he obscures to himself by elaborations and multiplications. People who like this book must have an impoverished sense of the stakes of serious writing in the last thirty years. All this is applicable to the stalled project of The Familiar.
November 16, 2012
"'Barf barf barf barf barf barf barf
barf barf barf barf barf barf.
"'Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb
dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.
"'I can't believe I spent money on
this
piece of crap.'"
"'Should have learned my lesson
after
Only Revolutions.
May 17, 2015
UPDATE: I've re-read this book, this time in the form of the re-released version (the orange cover version). This re-released version is much better than the original "tall" version. Therefore, I'm changing my rating from 1 star to 3 stars.
I believe the orange version worked so much better because the length of each page was shorter. Really, it's that simple. The original tall version had a lot of text on each page, and with a story as intimating (language-wise) as this, the added intimidation of the long blocks of text made each page a struggle. After enough struggling, it's easy to stop reading.
* * *
This, a video review of Mark Z. Danielewski's The Fifty Year Sword, which gets released in the US in October 2012. Not many people have read this one. And if I can help it, not many more will.
Help me spread the good word by clicking the Like button under the YouTube video. Also, why not subscribe while you're at it?
I believe the orange version worked so much better because the length of each page was shorter. Really, it's that simple. The original tall version had a lot of text on each page, and with a story as intimating (language-wise) as this, the added intimidation of the long blocks of text made each page a struggle. After enough struggling, it's easy to stop reading.
* * *
This, a video review of Mark Z. Danielewski's The Fifty Year Sword, which gets released in the US in October 2012. Not many people have read this one. And if I can help it, not many more will.
Help me spread the good word by clicking the Like button under the YouTube video. Also, why not subscribe while you're at it?
November 15, 2015
'What I have to tell you,' he began slowly. 'I must show you. But what I show you I must also tell you. I have only myself and where I've been and what I found and what I now bring. And it will frighten you.'
I'm sure the majority of people that braved House of Leaves would likely never be willing to pick up another Danielewski book again. I know I wasn't planning to, but somehow this ended up going home with me. Quite similar to House of Leaves in that it also has strange formatting and a trippy story that doesn't appear to make any sort of sense. But this one really made no sense, at all.
Any book that starts off the first page with straight-up instructions should be given up on immediately. It's a BOOK. You read the words. No instructions required. But no, we get this long diatribe which the below is only a small section:
'...with characterizing phrases, temporal references, and even more quotation marks hopelessly nested within reiterating nests of still more marks; to delineate their respective and independently conducted interviews, colored quotation marks are used instead...'
If I was smart, I would have stopped there, said:
And went on with my life reading literature which didn't require instructions, or colored quotation marks. Not that the colored quotation marks actually made any fucking sense to begin with. I mean seriously, 1 is supposed to be a light purple, 2 is a yellowish, 3 is an orange, 4 is a red, and 5 is like a dark purple. And each number is supposed to be a different narrator except all the quotations are jumbled. My first thought was that you weren't meant to read the book straight through but read according to the color, but that didn't form coherent sentences so... basically, I ignored the quotation marks, read it in its entirety from the first word to the last, and that didn't really make much more sense than the other way.
Once you get past the first confusing 60 pages or so and get to the root of the story, about the man that came for the five orphans with the large box with five latches. He tells a story of how he obtained that box, and how it's up to the children to open it up. The book jacket was the part that really sold me though... a sword that can kill an idea? Whoa, trippy. Except... it wasn't ever in the book. Yeah, no answer to that either.
This is basically a large jumbled poem, except it's not even that large. Images took up the majority of the 288 pages and no text ever appeared on the right pages (reasoning for that is left unknown). So basically the book likely could have been condensed down to about 50 pages tops. I can only imagine what his publisher thought. I imagine it would've been something like this:
"So, you have a 50 page story but you want to make it 288 pages, not print anything on every other page but sometimes include large images that are completely irrelevant to the story and also include colored quotation marks that appear at random AND include instructions that the reader is supposed to understand but likely never will? Yeah, okay, sure, why not."
I'm sure the majority of people that braved House of Leaves would likely never be willing to pick up another Danielewski book again. I know I wasn't planning to, but somehow this ended up going home with me. Quite similar to House of Leaves in that it also has strange formatting and a trippy story that doesn't appear to make any sort of sense. But this one really made no sense, at all.
Any book that starts off the first page with straight-up instructions should be given up on immediately. It's a BOOK. You read the words. No instructions required. But no, we get this long diatribe which the below is only a small section:
'...with characterizing phrases, temporal references, and even more quotation marks hopelessly nested within reiterating nests of still more marks; to delineate their respective and independently conducted interviews, colored quotation marks are used instead...'
If I was smart, I would have stopped there, said:
And went on with my life reading literature which didn't require instructions, or colored quotation marks. Not that the colored quotation marks actually made any fucking sense to begin with. I mean seriously, 1 is supposed to be a light purple, 2 is a yellowish, 3 is an orange, 4 is a red, and 5 is like a dark purple. And each number is supposed to be a different narrator except all the quotations are jumbled. My first thought was that you weren't meant to read the book straight through but read according to the color, but that didn't form coherent sentences so... basically, I ignored the quotation marks, read it in its entirety from the first word to the last, and that didn't really make much more sense than the other way.
Once you get past the first confusing 60 pages or so and get to the root of the story, about the man that came for the five orphans with the large box with five latches. He tells a story of how he obtained that box, and how it's up to the children to open it up. The book jacket was the part that really sold me though... a sword that can kill an idea? Whoa, trippy. Except... it wasn't ever in the book. Yeah, no answer to that either.
This is basically a large jumbled poem, except it's not even that large. Images took up the majority of the 288 pages and no text ever appeared on the right pages (reasoning for that is left unknown). So basically the book likely could have been condensed down to about 50 pages tops. I can only imagine what his publisher thought. I imagine it would've been something like this:
"So, you have a 50 page story but you want to make it 288 pages, not print anything on every other page but sometimes include large images that are completely irrelevant to the story and also include colored quotation marks that appear at random AND include instructions that the reader is supposed to understand but likely never will? Yeah, okay, sure, why not."
October 20, 2012
The story itself is short but morbid and fantastical. A mysterious storyteller visits a party one night and tells five orphans a story about the Fifty Year Sword: one that is invisible but deadly. Definitely recommend.
It's written using quotes (from five different narrators) that are pieced together in a poem-like way to create the story. It was difficult to adjust to that pattern at first, but once you get in the rhythm it's great. The plot really picks up about halfway through, and it becomes easier to see characters emerge from the narrators based on their speech/grammar/spelling.
It's written using quotes (from five different narrators) that are pieced together in a poem-like way to create the story. It was difficult to adjust to that pattern at first, but once you get in the rhythm it's great. The plot really picks up about halfway through, and it becomes easier to see characters emerge from the narrators based on their speech/grammar/spelling.
November 27, 2023
Cinco estrellas como cinco soles por mi parte.
Una noche de Halloween diferente
Chintana, una costurera del Este de Texas, acude la noche de Halloween a una fiesta organizada por Mose Dettledown — de 112 años— en honor de Belinda Kite. Por desgracia, a Chintana no le cae muy bien Belinda dado que ha tenido una aventura bastante reciente con su marido. En la fiesta, Chintana se encuentra, además de algo perdida, con cinco huérfanos a los que acompaña cuando un sombrío narrador se presenta en la puerta cargando con una caja de dos metros marcada como T50YS. Y así nos sumergimos en la narración, en una especie de fantasía gótica con tintes heroicos, en un viaje de venganza digno de Kill Bill que comienza con una búsqueda por el Valle de la Sal, pasando por el Bosque de las Notas que Caen y finalizando en la Montaña de Muchos Caminos. La búsqueda de una espada. Una espada extraordinaria y única con la que culminar su venganza.
Una obra especial
La novela corta nació en 2005, en extrañas circunstancias, gracias a la editorial holandesa De Bezige Bij que publicó las primeras dos ediciones en tiradas de apenas 1000 ejemplares. No sería hasta 2012, con Mark Z. Danielewsky ya consolidado con su Casa de Hojas y Only Revolutions en el mercado editorial, cuando podríamos encontrar una versión comercial en inglés que llegaría de la mano de Alpha Decay y Pálido Fuego a España en 2014. Sin embargo, por el medio de todo este camino se pudo disfrutar de una representación teatral — disponible online— donde cada actor lee las palabras de los cinco oradores de la novela mientras otro hace sombras. Danielewski es uno de los máximos exponentes en eso que conocemos como literatura ergódica y que el académico Espen Aarset define, para que os hagáis una idea, como aquella donde se requiere un esfuerzo no trivial para permitir al lector atravesar el texto. Si eres uno de esos a los que Casa de hojas de intimide, La espada de los cincuenta años es un punto mucho más accesible tanto a la obra de Danielewski como a la literatura ergódica, dado que su tipografía coloreada y ortografía no estándar tienen un esquema narrativo sencillo y bastante similar al de un cuento de hadas.
Las voces múltiples
Afirma el propio Daniel Z. Danielewski al inicio de La espada de los cincuenta años, que en calidad de autor, no ha hecho más que tomar prestados todos estos fragmentos recopilados y cosidos que provienen de entrevistas realizadas de forma independiente a cinco narradores anónimos. Las voces superpuestas, representadas cada una por comillas de un color otoñal, se presentan en la página como una especie de poema en prosa que recombina cada uno de estos fragmentos. El espacio en la página se rodea de dibujos abstractos, cercanos a los fractales, que juegan con la imaginación y el color para crear un espacio liminal donde texto e imagen se complementan para el lector. Un collage de medios (realizado por el Atelier Z compuesto por Regina Gonzales, Claire Kohne y Michele Reyerte) que proponen un juego metatextual anclado en la narración y provocan en el lector la sensación de moverse a ritmo de cuento oral.
El plus Danielewski
Cuando abres La espada de los cincuenta años, al contrario que con Casa de Hojas, sientes que todo parece muy vacío. Es más, la mayoría de los anversos de las páginas del libro están en blanco. Aquí la imagen parece prevalecer al texto. Sin embargo, todo está ingeniosamente compuesto para que esos cinco hablantes nos engatusen, complementen y lleven todo el rato a pensar: ¿son estos narradores los cinco huérfanos (Tarff, Ezade, Iniedia, Sithiss y Micit) o está Danielewski proponiendo algo más de lo que parece? Acostumbrado a los juegos del autor, donde busca esa ilusión de realidad, uno tiende a pensar en códigos como los que puedan dejar las palabras mal pronunciadas por algunos narradores o a buscar anagramas entre los nombres que aparecen. Todo se puede leer como un simple cuento de venganza y redención muy bien decorado e ilustrado, pero siendo Danielewski, tiendo a dar una vuelta más. Por que la novela corta, a parte de parecer destinada a ser leída en voz alta dejando multitud de detalles silábicos y juegos con el lenguaje, puede quedarse como un cuento macabro. Un cuento sobre la violencia, pero también sobre el trauma y el poder de reconectar o reparar. Al final, La espada de los cincuenta años es una historia de fantasmas posmoderna, ilustrada a través de la costura, en un historia de venganza que propone mucho más que fúnebres puntadas.
Reseña extensa en el blog: https://boywithletters.blogspot.com/2...
Una noche de Halloween diferente
Chintana, una costurera del Este de Texas, acude la noche de Halloween a una fiesta organizada por Mose Dettledown — de 112 años— en honor de Belinda Kite. Por desgracia, a Chintana no le cae muy bien Belinda dado que ha tenido una aventura bastante reciente con su marido. En la fiesta, Chintana se encuentra, además de algo perdida, con cinco huérfanos a los que acompaña cuando un sombrío narrador se presenta en la puerta cargando con una caja de dos metros marcada como T50YS. Y así nos sumergimos en la narración, en una especie de fantasía gótica con tintes heroicos, en un viaje de venganza digno de Kill Bill que comienza con una búsqueda por el Valle de la Sal, pasando por el Bosque de las Notas que Caen y finalizando en la Montaña de Muchos Caminos. La búsqueda de una espada. Una espada extraordinaria y única con la que culminar su venganza.
Una obra especial
La novela corta nació en 2005, en extrañas circunstancias, gracias a la editorial holandesa De Bezige Bij que publicó las primeras dos ediciones en tiradas de apenas 1000 ejemplares. No sería hasta 2012, con Mark Z. Danielewsky ya consolidado con su Casa de Hojas y Only Revolutions en el mercado editorial, cuando podríamos encontrar una versión comercial en inglés que llegaría de la mano de Alpha Decay y Pálido Fuego a España en 2014. Sin embargo, por el medio de todo este camino se pudo disfrutar de una representación teatral — disponible online— donde cada actor lee las palabras de los cinco oradores de la novela mientras otro hace sombras. Danielewski es uno de los máximos exponentes en eso que conocemos como literatura ergódica y que el académico Espen Aarset define, para que os hagáis una idea, como aquella donde se requiere un esfuerzo no trivial para permitir al lector atravesar el texto. Si eres uno de esos a los que Casa de hojas de intimide, La espada de los cincuenta años es un punto mucho más accesible tanto a la obra de Danielewski como a la literatura ergódica, dado que su tipografía coloreada y ortografía no estándar tienen un esquema narrativo sencillo y bastante similar al de un cuento de hadas.
Las voces múltiples
Afirma el propio Daniel Z. Danielewski al inicio de La espada de los cincuenta años, que en calidad de autor, no ha hecho más que tomar prestados todos estos fragmentos recopilados y cosidos que provienen de entrevistas realizadas de forma independiente a cinco narradores anónimos. Las voces superpuestas, representadas cada una por comillas de un color otoñal, se presentan en la página como una especie de poema en prosa que recombina cada uno de estos fragmentos. El espacio en la página se rodea de dibujos abstractos, cercanos a los fractales, que juegan con la imaginación y el color para crear un espacio liminal donde texto e imagen se complementan para el lector. Un collage de medios (realizado por el Atelier Z compuesto por Regina Gonzales, Claire Kohne y Michele Reyerte) que proponen un juego metatextual anclado en la narración y provocan en el lector la sensación de moverse a ritmo de cuento oral.
El plus Danielewski
Cuando abres La espada de los cincuenta años, al contrario que con Casa de Hojas, sientes que todo parece muy vacío. Es más, la mayoría de los anversos de las páginas del libro están en blanco. Aquí la imagen parece prevalecer al texto. Sin embargo, todo está ingeniosamente compuesto para que esos cinco hablantes nos engatusen, complementen y lleven todo el rato a pensar: ¿son estos narradores los cinco huérfanos (Tarff, Ezade, Iniedia, Sithiss y Micit) o está Danielewski proponiendo algo más de lo que parece? Acostumbrado a los juegos del autor, donde busca esa ilusión de realidad, uno tiende a pensar en códigos como los que puedan dejar las palabras mal pronunciadas por algunos narradores o a buscar anagramas entre los nombres que aparecen. Todo se puede leer como un simple cuento de venganza y redención muy bien decorado e ilustrado, pero siendo Danielewski, tiendo a dar una vuelta más. Por que la novela corta, a parte de parecer destinada a ser leída en voz alta dejando multitud de detalles silábicos y juegos con el lenguaje, puede quedarse como un cuento macabro. Un cuento sobre la violencia, pero también sobre el trauma y el poder de reconectar o reparar. Al final, La espada de los cincuenta años es una historia de fantasmas posmoderna, ilustrada a través de la costura, en un historia de venganza que propone mucho más que fúnebres puntadas.
Reseña extensa en el blog: https://boywithletters.blogspot.com/2...
January 10, 2022
I received this book as a Christmas gift from my son because he knows that I really enjoyed “House of Leaves” and all 5 volumes of “The Familiar”. I haven’t read any others of Danielewski’s books (yet).
Of course, what Danielewski is best known for is his creative formatting of the text on the pages in his books. Words are scattered across the pages in patterns (or not) and often mixed with images. In this book the text is only ever on the verso pages and all the recto pages are either blank or have (part of) an image on them. One of the consequences of all this is that even though the book is almost 300 pages long it only takes about an hour to read it.
The other thing notable about the text in this story is that it is spoken by 5 different narrators who continually interrupt one another and finish off each other’s sentences. And which narrator is speaking is indicated by the colour of the quotation marks around their words (and some of the colours are hard to distinguish from others making it tricky to keep track of which narrator is speaking, something I have to confess I really didn't try to do).
This mix of narrators immediately suggests that the book might also be performed. And indeed it has been and you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/f2YHNvXFY9k. In this video you, of course, don’t get all the fancy typesetting, but you do get Danielewski with a conductor’s baton conducting five actors while behind them a shadow play is performed to accompany the story.
The story itself is a kind of ghost/horror story (although it’s not very scary, really). Or perhaps a modern day fairy tale because of course those were far darker when originally conceived than the often saccharine versions we read today. Chintana finds herself responsible for 5 orphans at a party and sits with them when a storyteller arrives to entertain them. He tells them a strange tale which is the heart of the book so I won’t give any details here. Except to say, because it’s probably clear from the book’s title, that a sword is involved. Also at the party is Belinda Kite, the “baddie” in this book (because she slept with Chintana’s husband).
If truth be told, it’s the typesetting (or the performance) that provides the interest here because the story is just OK. Knowing Danielewski’s work a bit I imagine there are multiple layers and hidden clues in the book and multiple layers and clues that will be created by readers of the book in their search for the ones Danielewski actually put there. But then that’s half the fun of Danielewski’s books and you either like that kind of thing or you don’t. I thought the book was a fun way to spend an hour. Well, in my case two hours because I read it and then watched the performance. But it’s not a book I want to spend an age dissecting and analysing (something I would happily do with House of Leaves).
Of course, what Danielewski is best known for is his creative formatting of the text on the pages in his books. Words are scattered across the pages in patterns (or not) and often mixed with images. In this book the text is only ever on the verso pages and all the recto pages are either blank or have (part of) an image on them. One of the consequences of all this is that even though the book is almost 300 pages long it only takes about an hour to read it.
The other thing notable about the text in this story is that it is spoken by 5 different narrators who continually interrupt one another and finish off each other’s sentences. And which narrator is speaking is indicated by the colour of the quotation marks around their words (and some of the colours are hard to distinguish from others making it tricky to keep track of which narrator is speaking, something I have to confess I really didn't try to do).
This mix of narrators immediately suggests that the book might also be performed. And indeed it has been and you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/f2YHNvXFY9k. In this video you, of course, don’t get all the fancy typesetting, but you do get Danielewski with a conductor’s baton conducting five actors while behind them a shadow play is performed to accompany the story.
The story itself is a kind of ghost/horror story (although it’s not very scary, really). Or perhaps a modern day fairy tale because of course those were far darker when originally conceived than the often saccharine versions we read today. Chintana finds herself responsible for 5 orphans at a party and sits with them when a storyteller arrives to entertain them. He tells them a strange tale which is the heart of the book so I won’t give any details here. Except to say, because it’s probably clear from the book’s title, that a sword is involved. Also at the party is Belinda Kite, the “baddie” in this book (because she slept with Chintana’s husband).
If truth be told, it’s the typesetting (or the performance) that provides the interest here because the story is just OK. Knowing Danielewski’s work a bit I imagine there are multiple layers and hidden clues in the book and multiple layers and clues that will be created by readers of the book in their search for the ones Danielewski actually put there. But then that’s half the fun of Danielewski’s books and you either like that kind of thing or you don’t. I thought the book was a fun way to spend an hour. Well, in my case two hours because I read it and then watched the performance. But it’s not a book I want to spend an age dissecting and analysing (something I would happily do with House of Leaves).
April 24, 2013
Danielewski's ability to innovate and play with the form and the construction of the novel constantly amazes me. This fantasy/ghost story reminded me of a Neil Gaimanesque novella that has been cut, sewn, and interpreted by e.e. cummings. While not perfect, it is hard to not give Danielewski big props for pushing boundaries, taking risks, and putting himself out there with every single writing project. In an era of e-books and audiobooks, it will be writers/artists like Danielewski who will cut and sew the limp vellum of the past to the hypertext bits and clouds of the future.
October 21, 2018
I just, like...I love Danielewski. I do. But something happened after House of Leaves. Instead of shifting towards the genius creepiness and complexity of his narrative, he focused on the weird design elements of the physical book. I know a lot of people beg to differ, but I'm of the opinion that this makes his work more art project than literature. That's not bad, obviously, but paired with the 'treasure hunting' intellect of the pomo target audience and Danielewski himself, it's clever. Excessively clever. And I liked clever when I was 22, but I now find it pretty eyerollingly grating. And while I enjoyed some aspects of the cleverness of Only Revolutions, there's not much to like in The Fifty Year Sword.
Of course: it's supposed to be performed. Danielewski loves that multimodal shit; taking one narrative kind and blending it into a text. But that's not an excuse, just like cool graphic design isn't an excuse, for the flatout boring story. This is a very quick read, a campfire story, but it barely kept my interest even for the short amount of time I was reading it.
Re: the five narrators, my yardstick of experimental shit -- if it's gratuitous, don't do it. Don't be weird or clever for the sake of being weird or clever. That five narrator schtick might work in performance, but there's just no fucking reason for it in print (except different coloured quotation marks -- but come on). I'm sure with immense digging and uncovering there might be some interesting notes about who says what, but because the narrators themselves are so undeveloped, who cares? Just like...this whole book (cough, short story) was unnecessary. A good short story needs heft and meat, pared down; this was rambling and sparse.
I guess in the end, as with all too many Danielewski books: it's pretty, but not much else.
Of course: it's supposed to be performed. Danielewski loves that multimodal shit; taking one narrative kind and blending it into a text. But that's not an excuse, just like cool graphic design isn't an excuse, for the flatout boring story. This is a very quick read, a campfire story, but it barely kept my interest even for the short amount of time I was reading it.
Re: the five narrators, my yardstick of experimental shit -- if it's gratuitous, don't do it. Don't be weird or clever for the sake of being weird or clever. That five narrator schtick might work in performance, but there's just no fucking reason for it in print (except different coloured quotation marks -- but come on). I'm sure with immense digging and uncovering there might be some interesting notes about who says what, but because the narrators themselves are so undeveloped, who cares? Just like...this whole book (cough, short story) was unnecessary. A good short story needs heft and meat, pared down; this was rambling and sparse.
I guess in the end, as with all too many Danielewski books: it's pretty, but not much else.
November 23, 2012
Ghost story, a version of "a live shadow show performed only on halloween night," sets you up for something less experimental than it it. We are required to recall five different sets of quotation marks that correspond to five different characters in this "play" but I am not sure the distinctions between the "characters" matter all that much. House of Leaves was a big hit and this will not be, I suspect, though it is "illustrated" with stitched designs done by three different artists working together. Pretty. Pretty hard to follow. Experimental. Meant to be a rethinking of the fundamentals of storytelling and even particularly ghost stories, but I dunno. Help me out here, but I felt like it was more pretentious than profound.
August 11, 2019
This is not a book for story, although that is compelling as well, it is a book for experience. As often with Mark Z. Danielewski's books, it's about how the story is told and presented on paper more than the actual events happening. The design adds to the experience of the story.
Even though I loved it I can see people not enjoying it at all.
On a reread I discovered so many more things and understood what didn't make sense on a first read as I concentrated much more on the story and word play. Love it!
Even though I loved it I can see people not enjoying it at all.
On a reread I discovered so many more things and understood what didn't make sense on a first read as I concentrated much more on the story and word play. Love it!
August 11, 2008
This was written to be a kid's story of sorts. It is short. The art is great. The story is well told. It really picks up about halfway through. You should be able to easily read this book in one sitting. The main idea, without giving anything away, is that there is this sword with an invisible blade. If it slices someone it is razor sharp, but the cut will not appear for 50 years. It is about actions and consequences. About things changing over time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 6, 2018
Ну и здесь наш автор как-то увлекся. Сделана книжка очень красиво, спору нет, но она неинтересна — ни сюжетом, ни раскладкой по пяти голосам, которые ничем не отличаются друг от дружки, ни, в общем, смыслом, которого как бы не очень есть. (Сигару тому, кто мне расскажет, в чем он.) В общем, похоже, «Дом листьев» остается его недосягаемым шедевром (ок, 27-томник в 5 томах мне еще предстоит, но многого я не жду, чесгря).
November 2, 2012
http://wineandabook.com/2012/10/23/re...
The Fifty Year Sword was originally published in 2005 as a limited edition, and is usually only performed on Halloween night as a live shadow show. This month, however, it was re-released by Pantheon Books and I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a copy.
Like Danielewski's previous work, the story being told is as important as how it's being told, which is as important as how it looks as it's being told. As in House of Leaves, which used multiple fonts, colors and text layouts to delineate the different parts of the story, The Fifty Year Sword uses five different color quotation marks and illustrations that resemble embroidery to tell the tale.
And what a tale it is: the plot follows the local seamstress, Chintana, as she attends a local Halloween party where she watches a mysterious storyteller tell a tale to five rambunctious orphans.
Haunting and lyrical with strong characterization, this story written in verse is a quick read (I finished it while doing laundry), but still leaves quite an impression. Definitely recommended.
Rubric rating: 8.
The Fifty Year Sword was originally published in 2005 as a limited edition, and is usually only performed on Halloween night as a live shadow show. This month, however, it was re-released by Pantheon Books and I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a copy.
Like Danielewski's previous work, the story being told is as important as how it's being told, which is as important as how it looks as it's being told. As in House of Leaves, which used multiple fonts, colors and text layouts to delineate the different parts of the story, The Fifty Year Sword uses five different color quotation marks and illustrations that resemble embroidery to tell the tale.
And what a tale it is: the plot follows the local seamstress, Chintana, as she attends a local Halloween party where she watches a mysterious storyteller tell a tale to five rambunctious orphans.
Haunting and lyrical with strong characterization, this story written in verse is a quick read (I finished it while doing laundry), but still leaves quite an impression. Definitely recommended.
Rubric rating: 8.
June 28, 2012
"Nesting quotation
"upon quotation
"upon quotation.
"Such weird stylishness seems to come from
"no other than
"Danielewski.
"Yes,
"yes, indeed,
"another turn is taken: more colours—
"less form.
"Yet even more vagishness, as a stepping stone
"to Only Revolutions.
"Really short, this one is,
"which suits its setting of a ghost story.
"Albeit an inventive, subtle one.
"It takes a while to become interesting,
"but delivers in an anti-climactic way of sorts.
"Subtle,
"yes, subtle!
"I can live with that.
"The format is nice, the experience is okay,
"but apart from the concept and one
"or two
"or three
"story elements, I did not feel quite
"partial
"to it.
"You might call it a nice
"in-between
"sort of novel—that is to say,
"House of Leaves and Only Revolutions
"much more suited my palette.
"upon quotation
"upon quotation.
"Such weird stylishness seems to come from
"no other than
"Danielewski.
"Yes,
"yes, indeed,
"another turn is taken: more colours—
"less form.
"Yet even more vagishness, as a stepping stone
"to Only Revolutions.
"Really short, this one is,
"which suits its setting of a ghost story.
"Albeit an inventive, subtle one.
"It takes a while to become interesting,
"but delivers in an anti-climactic way of sorts.
"Subtle,
"yes, subtle!
"I can live with that.
"The format is nice, the experience is okay,
"but apart from the concept and one
"or two
"or three
"story elements, I did not feel quite
"partial
"to it.
"You might call it a nice
"in-between
"sort of novel—that is to say,
"House of Leaves and Only Revolutions
"much more suited my palette.
May 11, 2015
I have only myself and where I've been and what I found and what I now bring. And it will frighten you.
This a fascinating/frustrating endeavor.
The book is beautiful -- as an object.
Au Contraire
The slippery meanings of the words within this book are elusive and possibly overwrought. There is a gleaming poetry in MZD, there's just a poverty of such in The Fifty Year Sword.
This a fascinating/frustrating endeavor.
The book is beautiful -- as an object.
Au Contraire
The slippery meanings of the words within this book are elusive and possibly overwrought. There is a gleaming poetry in MZD, there's just a poverty of such in The Fifty Year Sword.
December 6, 2012
1) Objective description, 2) my review, 3) recapitulation of format.
1) Every other page is blank, the reason for this is not readily apparent (even after reading the book). The pages with text comprise at most 1/5th of a full page, and at minimum a single word "me." The margins (in all four edges) are generous. In total, the book comprises ~30 full pages of text, and that approximation is generous. The artwork is very fine, and the pages are printed on thick paper. The physical quality of the book is great.
2) Gimmick. That's the word that best describes Danielewski's short story cum novel(la?). This work is less literate and more artistic. Since there was little text I would flip a page and instantly feel for the next one, but often I couldn't single out one page before I was done reading the prior one. The absolute dearth of text in this "book" is exemplified when a total of ~25 words spanned the length of 10 consecutive pages. That's 2.5 words per page. The multicolored quotations marks which are supposed to represent the five orphans' recount of the incident seem to not have anything to do with the narrative other than convolute the reader who attempts to form a coherent representation of the story. If the reader is better off ignoring the multicolored quotations, what is the use of including them? I've read House of Leaves, I loved it, but this feels like the product of a lazy author attempting (apparently successfully) to ride on the coattails of his prior achievements and exploit the cult following surrounding HoL for monetary profits. I may have bought this for ~$10 (too much already), but the inside says it sold in the US for ~$30.
3) " 'I,
"can
"write
"like this too."
1) Every other page is blank, the reason for this is not readily apparent (even after reading the book). The pages with text comprise at most 1/5th of a full page, and at minimum a single word "me." The margins (in all four edges) are generous. In total, the book comprises ~30 full pages of text, and that approximation is generous. The artwork is very fine, and the pages are printed on thick paper. The physical quality of the book is great.
2) Gimmick. That's the word that best describes Danielewski's short story cum novel(la?). This work is less literate and more artistic. Since there was little text I would flip a page and instantly feel for the next one, but often I couldn't single out one page before I was done reading the prior one. The absolute dearth of text in this "book" is exemplified when a total of ~25 words spanned the length of 10 consecutive pages. That's 2.5 words per page. The multicolored quotations marks which are supposed to represent the five orphans' recount of the incident seem to not have anything to do with the narrative other than convolute the reader who attempts to form a coherent representation of the story. If the reader is better off ignoring the multicolored quotations, what is the use of including them? I've read House of Leaves, I loved it, but this feels like the product of a lazy author attempting (apparently successfully) to ride on the coattails of his prior achievements and exploit the cult following surrounding HoL for monetary profits. I may have bought this for ~$10 (too much already), but the inside says it sold in the US for ~$30.
3) " 'I,
"can
"write
"like this too."
October 1, 2025
This was great!! Kind of serves as a potential primer for Danielewski, as it can be read in about an hour yet still manages to include just about everything that defines his artistic trademarks - playful physical structure, nested stories, a hybrid writing style combining prose and poetry (Danielewski often seems to me more of a poet than a prose stylist), and an obsession with spatial symmetry. The story itself is abstract, psychedelic, and unsettling, concerning a tale told to orphans by a mysterious stranger at a remote Texas ranch, said orphans of who seem to be telling the story years later in an interview or perhaps in a therapeutic environment; the result is a series of color-coded voices (some with quirks such as misspellings and half-real words) structured like a tower upon each page, layering into each other and becoming singular as the tale of the houseguest is told. Adding to the disorienting psychedelia are the gorgeous and abstract pieces of minimalist art throughout the tale, proving further that Danielewski is interested in books not only as literature but as multilayered works of visual art. I thoroughly enjoyed this!
December 30, 2014
After House of Leaves, I will give any MZD book a try. 50YS didn't disappoint. Like a gothic E.E. Cummings, Danielewski spins the yarn of a spooky visitor on Halloween night. Like HOL, the intertwining tales spiral deeper and deeper, replicating each other and jumping from the page with marvelous inventiveness.
I enjoyed reading the story as a poem, and the physical syncopation and the strange illustrations (or "sewings") really brought me into the world. Before I was really sure what was going on I was filled with that cozy, excited feeling you get while sitting around a camp fire listening to a ghost story. The frills are definitely no gimmick. This book comes through.
I enjoyed reading the story as a poem, and the physical syncopation and the strange illustrations (or "sewings") really brought me into the world. Before I was really sure what was going on I was filled with that cozy, excited feeling you get while sitting around a camp fire listening to a ghost story. The frills are definitely no gimmick. This book comes through.
August 25, 2013
Someone needs to remind me that either Danielewski is just a terrible author or he's just so amazing I don't get it.
October 27, 2012
A beautiful, breath-taking color edition. The embroidery illustrations alone are worth a look. The detail is awe inspiring - the pin holes in the book sleeve, the illustrations that surround the text, the blood-red binding thread inside. Gorgeous. There is artistry in this novel. I wish I owned my own copy - and I'll be sure to add this to my wish-to-own list. I'll going to attempt to read it one more time before I have to return it to the library. I'll be sure to include my later thoughts as well.
Halloween in Texas. A recently devastated seamstress attends a local party where she meets five orphans who captivate her attention. Chintana has recently been shamed by her husband, a Thai boatman who cheated on her with a detestable woman, Belinda Kite, who is celebrating her 50th birthday that same night. A storyteller has been hired to entertain the young orphans, and Chintana finds herself roped into listening to his strange tale of revenge - a story that hardly seems suitable for children. The storyteller has brought along a mysterious box with five latches that is the subject of the story. The box is opened, and the Fifty Year Sword it contains holds the power to unleash a birthday present suitable for the awful Belinda Kite.
Even though it is extremely short and interspersed with illustrations and blank pages, the reader has to work hard to create meaning from the text. In an author's note, Danielewski insinuates that the ghost story that is told has been collected from five persons. These voices are denoted by five different colored leading quotation marks, and they have a vocabulary and manner of speaking that is unique and indicative of personality. At times, the characters speak in unison, and this is reflected by nested quotation marks. Reading it with these different voices in mind, it becomes easy to hear the spoken word and performance of the work (Danielewski performed a midnight shadow-puppet show with this work on Halloween *envy* I would have loved to see it!) The embroidered illustrations become part of the process of understanding and experiencing the text. When it comes to opening the latches on the box, the reader turns the pages to witness the suspense of the opening of the box. It was fabulously interactive and experimental; reader who loved House of Leaves will get a certain thrill from this approach - however, don't expect something as layered and complex. Though, it gave readers to something to think about - the journey the storyteller describes the horror of experiencing a heart-break that results from losing a lover from infidelity. The blind rage and hate, the hurt, the question of what might have been and what really was - all these things are well known to Chintana.
The butterfly that Belinda created for Chintana's husband appears repeatedly throughout the text - as does language associated with sewing. Chintana destroyed this keepsake, and the unraveled butterfly flutters through the text. Strangely enough, the memory of this butterfly is the very thing that the storyteller sacrifices to the man with no arms, the forger of the fifty year sword. It is later revealed that he was not hired to perform; a local elementary school teacher arrives late at the end. I am looking forward to my second reading - is this storyteller Chintana's husband, offering her the means to destroy their (now) mutual enemy? Are the five voices that tell the story the orphans who heard it that night - now grown? Did Belinda die from her wounds, or was Chintana's forgiveness and pity enough to save her? All things to think about.
Honestly, more than anything, this book made me want to run and grab House of Leaves off of it's shelf of honor at my house, and start rereading. Danielewski is genius. House of Leaves is his masterpiece. This, while delightfully spooky, beautifully poetic, and carefully made, is a lesser work. I'll leave room for further understanding and appreciation for my second read - because I'm sure I'll read it again.
Halloween in Texas. A recently devastated seamstress attends a local party where she meets five orphans who captivate her attention. Chintana has recently been shamed by her husband, a Thai boatman who cheated on her with a detestable woman, Belinda Kite, who is celebrating her 50th birthday that same night. A storyteller has been hired to entertain the young orphans, and Chintana finds herself roped into listening to his strange tale of revenge - a story that hardly seems suitable for children. The storyteller has brought along a mysterious box with five latches that is the subject of the story. The box is opened, and the Fifty Year Sword it contains holds the power to unleash a birthday present suitable for the awful Belinda Kite.
Even though it is extremely short and interspersed with illustrations and blank pages, the reader has to work hard to create meaning from the text. In an author's note, Danielewski insinuates that the ghost story that is told has been collected from five persons. These voices are denoted by five different colored leading quotation marks, and they have a vocabulary and manner of speaking that is unique and indicative of personality. At times, the characters speak in unison, and this is reflected by nested quotation marks. Reading it with these different voices in mind, it becomes easy to hear the spoken word and performance of the work (Danielewski performed a midnight shadow-puppet show with this work on Halloween *envy* I would have loved to see it!) The embroidered illustrations become part of the process of understanding and experiencing the text. When it comes to opening the latches on the box, the reader turns the pages to witness the suspense of the opening of the box. It was fabulously interactive and experimental; reader who loved House of Leaves will get a certain thrill from this approach - however, don't expect something as layered and complex. Though, it gave readers to something to think about - the journey the storyteller describes the horror of experiencing a heart-break that results from losing a lover from infidelity. The blind rage and hate, the hurt, the question of what might have been and what really was - all these things are well known to Chintana.
The butterfly that Belinda created for Chintana's husband appears repeatedly throughout the text - as does language associated with sewing. Chintana destroyed this keepsake, and the unraveled butterfly flutters through the text. Strangely enough, the memory of this butterfly is the very thing that the storyteller sacrifices to the man with no arms, the forger of the fifty year sword. It is later revealed that he was not hired to perform; a local elementary school teacher arrives late at the end. I am looking forward to my second reading - is this storyteller Chintana's husband, offering her the means to destroy their (now) mutual enemy? Are the five voices that tell the story the orphans who heard it that night - now grown? Did Belinda die from her wounds, or was Chintana's forgiveness and pity enough to save her? All things to think about.
Honestly, more than anything, this book made me want to run and grab House of Leaves off of it's shelf of honor at my house, and start rereading. Danielewski is genius. House of Leaves is his masterpiece. This, while delightfully spooky, beautifully poetic, and carefully made, is a lesser work. I'll leave room for further understanding and appreciation for my second read - because I'm sure I'll read it again.
April 14, 2016
I'm a big Danielewski fan, but I was always frustrated by the scarcity of this book. Only two thousand copies printed, and they were printed for the Netherlands market. But, finally, after years of lusting, I received a near-mint copy of the second printing as a birthday gift. I do not exaggerate when I say that this is perhaps one of the greatest gifts of all time.
But enough about my personal story. You want to know about the book and whether or not it's worth your time and/or money.
The Fifty Year Sword is closer to the Danielewski of Only Revolutions than the Danielewski of House of Leaves. It's structure is poetic, and the narrative voice is displaced and spread out among a variety of etherial narrators - in this case five unnamed partygoers, identified only by the different color quotation marks they use. For me, it was impossible to keep track of individual narrators throughout the text - I knew who was speaking at any given moment, whether it was lavender or orange, but I was never able to hold them straight in my head for any length of time - however, I found that it didn't matter so much. What the color coding lacked in terms of creating a character that was easy to latch onto, it made up for by creating a deeply pleasing cacophony of voices. The story is told simultaneously by these five narrators, and Danielewski uses the colored quotation marks to really illustrate these people speaking over each other. I got the sense that I was in the same room as them, darting my eyes from one speaker to the next as the story played out.
There's more to it than typographical tricks, though (frankly, that kind of thing is old hat for Danielewski at this point). At it's heart, this is a disturbing ghost tale of sorts. I won't give away any surprises, but suffice it to say that the author hasn't lost his touch for the terrifying. He sure knows how to spin a story that is simultaneously dramatic, atmospheric and formally inventive. Overall, I highly recommend it. Danielewski fans should definitely consider picking up a copy. For those unwilling or unable to fork over the cash, fear not; Random House is bringing out an American edition later this year.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
But enough about my personal story. You want to know about the book and whether or not it's worth your time and/or money.
The Fifty Year Sword is closer to the Danielewski of Only Revolutions than the Danielewski of House of Leaves. It's structure is poetic, and the narrative voice is displaced and spread out among a variety of etherial narrators - in this case five unnamed partygoers, identified only by the different color quotation marks they use. For me, it was impossible to keep track of individual narrators throughout the text - I knew who was speaking at any given moment, whether it was lavender or orange, but I was never able to hold them straight in my head for any length of time - however, I found that it didn't matter so much. What the color coding lacked in terms of creating a character that was easy to latch onto, it made up for by creating a deeply pleasing cacophony of voices. The story is told simultaneously by these five narrators, and Danielewski uses the colored quotation marks to really illustrate these people speaking over each other. I got the sense that I was in the same room as them, darting my eyes from one speaker to the next as the story played out.
There's more to it than typographical tricks, though (frankly, that kind of thing is old hat for Danielewski at this point). At it's heart, this is a disturbing ghost tale of sorts. I won't give away any surprises, but suffice it to say that the author hasn't lost his touch for the terrifying. He sure knows how to spin a story that is simultaneously dramatic, atmospheric and formally inventive. Overall, I highly recommend it. Danielewski fans should definitely consider picking up a copy. For those unwilling or unable to fork over the cash, fear not; Random House is bringing out an American edition later this year.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
July 24, 2018
I was delighted. A story in prose poetry, and the fact that children always have to grow up in moral circumstances way beyond even insightful adults' capacity to deal with maturely.
Totally agree with Gaddis' evaluation: a work of art novel.
Also, our protagonist forgives. And forgiveness is always more beautiful than revenge.
Totally agree with Gaddis' evaluation: a work of art novel.
Also, our protagonist forgives. And forgiveness is always more beautiful than revenge.
November 2, 2020
Una fumada de Danielewski. Mira que me gusto la casa de hojas, un pedazo de novela.
Pero aquí lo que pintaba bien con esa historia de ese personaje oscuro buscando la espada se va diluyendo y al final poco entendí.
Pero aquí lo que pintaba bien con esa historia de ese personaje oscuro buscando la espada se va diluyendo y al final poco entendí.
June 8, 2021
I'm not sure what just happened...
June 9, 2026
I’m a fan of ergodic literature and author Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves blew me away when I first read it. But after his other experimental novel Only Revolutions, I just kept finding myself unable to relate to his future works. I was hoping that since The Fifty Year Sword was one of his earlier works that maybe I’d find that original magic permeating throughout it. Unfortunately, The Fifty Year Sword had the same feeling of disconnection for me.
This is a relatively short story about a mysterious storyteller who arrives at a party where five orphans become captivated by the long black box he has brought with him. The formatting of the book at first appears to be interesting: the book uses multicolored quotation marks to distinguish between the different speakers (presumably the five orphans), but because the sentences are scattered throughout the page and disjointed constantly to the different speakers, I found the device more distracting than meaningful. I eventually just ignored the quotation marks and read straight through, but that didn’t help much to make the story easier to follow.
The words were written in what feels like a stream-of-consciousness style where the words (including a lot of made up words) were sort of strung together in a way that felt like they were trying to be poetic, but instead just made things convoluted and confusing. There is even a line late in the book where the children, “with exchanged glances…with a yawn, revealed then that they too were lost and their attention scattering.” That pretty much summed up my experience. I felt lost too.
Also, every right-hand page is blank except for page numbers and occasional artwork, which seemed pointless and wasn’t explained. Speaking of the artwork, each image probably took a lot of time and care, they were stitched together after all, but they unfortunately didn’t make me feel anything. I felt they added nothing narratively to the story telling and also didn’t pull any sort of emotion out of me in general. It’s totally possible I just misunderstood the symbolism, etc.
The Fifty Year Sword has been performed as a live performance and I’m sure it is better translated in that medium than in print. Unfortunately, this work as a whole felt flat to me and I didn’t get much out of it, which is a shame as I am a fan of Mark Z. Danielewski.
This is a relatively short story about a mysterious storyteller who arrives at a party where five orphans become captivated by the long black box he has brought with him. The formatting of the book at first appears to be interesting: the book uses multicolored quotation marks to distinguish between the different speakers (presumably the five orphans), but because the sentences are scattered throughout the page and disjointed constantly to the different speakers, I found the device more distracting than meaningful. I eventually just ignored the quotation marks and read straight through, but that didn’t help much to make the story easier to follow.
The words were written in what feels like a stream-of-consciousness style where the words (including a lot of made up words) were sort of strung together in a way that felt like they were trying to be poetic, but instead just made things convoluted and confusing. There is even a line late in the book where the children, “with exchanged glances…with a yawn, revealed then that they too were lost and their attention scattering.” That pretty much summed up my experience. I felt lost too.
Also, every right-hand page is blank except for page numbers and occasional artwork, which seemed pointless and wasn’t explained. Speaking of the artwork, each image probably took a lot of time and care, they were stitched together after all, but they unfortunately didn’t make me feel anything. I felt they added nothing narratively to the story telling and also didn’t pull any sort of emotion out of me in general. It’s totally possible I just misunderstood the symbolism, etc.
The Fifty Year Sword has been performed as a live performance and I’m sure it is better translated in that medium than in print. Unfortunately, this work as a whole felt flat to me and I didn’t get much out of it, which is a shame as I am a fan of Mark Z. Danielewski.
May 5, 2020
Pleasant but somewhat confounding. Mark decides to prioritize form over story again and while that probably makes for a very interesting story when it’s told/heard I’m not sure it’s so great to just read.
The story is fine. The book is fast. If you can get your hands on a copy (apparently they’re tough to come by) it might be worth your time. You may also consider just stumbling upon a YouTube performance of it.
The story is fine. The book is fast. If you can get your hands on a copy (apparently they’re tough to come by) it might be worth your time. You may also consider just stumbling upon a YouTube performance of it.
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