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In the middle of Appendix E of House of Leaves, "The Three Attic Whalestoe Letters", a mysterious blue "X" appears through the middle of an "e" on the page.

Click to view the whole of page 625 in context:

blue x close up

I've never actually figured this part of House of Leaves out. The Whalestoe Letters still remain something of a mystery to me. It's wholly possible that this is just a part of her insanity, but I'm inclined to think there's something internally metatextual about this, given the fact similar metatextual indicators appear elsewhere in the book, such as the airway indicators.

It also happens to be printed in the same shade of blue that "house" is, but I'm not really sure what to make of that.

Does anyone know what this blue X is supposed to connect with elsewhere in the book? Is it just a random stray mark that seems to have mysteriously placed itself dead smack in the middle of the page? What are leading theories on what I should make of this?

Mithical
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  • A printers mark, probably, especially given the wholly pointless LaTeX formatting all over the page. – Valorum Jan 24 '17 at 15:14
  • I don't know the answer, but a similar blue X appears over the word "deserve" in Navy's letter to Karen on page 389. There it seems to be a strike-through with a ball-point pen by Navy after writing the letter (but planned right after writing the word, since the very next word is the corrected word "expect" which doesn't make sense without the X). – tobiasvl Jan 31 '17 at 21:44
  • Not sure but perhaps it's struck through the word "new" because it's later revealed that there is no new director. So maybe she had a moment of clarity and crossed out the word before losing it again and writing out the same thing over and over again. – jheindel Mar 10 '17 at 00:52
  • @jheindel That actually makes a lot of sense. Especially given that it's written in House-color blue. –  Mar 10 '17 at 01:36

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