In Reply to: Is the house alive? posted by Matt on November 13, 2003 at 19:46:32:
How about this. If the house is entirely shaped by the minds of the people in it, then:
1. How was the door created in the first place? (like Mary beth asked)
2. Why was the stairway a consistent part of the descriptions of all of the inhabitants of the house? (It may be later in the book than we're supposed to have read by now, but at some point there is mention of settlers coming across a stairway in the middle of what is now Virginia and building a house on top of it. p.414, and once again somewhere else)
And on the other hand, if the house IS alive:
What determines something being "alive"? Must it be made of flesh? (The house is made of rock - chapter XVI) Must it think? (would you call someone in a coma "alive"?) Must it have a heart, or a brain?
Just a little more fun.