The Irony of Lude's Advice
Lude used to live with Zampano. He knows the man's suspicious relationship to sanity, making his recommendation that Johnny rent Zampano's old apartment ironic. Lude couldn't stand the man, but he willingly subjects his similarly unreliable friend to Zampano's crazy inheritance.
The Irony of Johnny's Narration
Johnny is the reader's touchstone throughout the book. He is the protagonist and narrator, but his account remains dubious. He doesn't demonstrate a keen tie with sanity in his personal habits, even losing touch with reality entirely after finding Zampano's manuscript. Add to this his mom's status at a mental institution and the reader is forced to doubt the validity of the text. Although Johnny is the narrator of this story, his words are untrustworthy and therefore ironically worthless. By the end of the book, the reader has yet to learn anything demonstrably factual.
The Irony of the Editorial Notes
The nameless faceless editors of Navidson's work are the sole voices of reason in the book. They comment upon the logic or presentation of Navidson's evidence, providing a framework through which the reader may identify the disturbing anomalies of the witnesses' accounts; however, these editors themselves remain illusive. Without presenting themselves to the reader, their own authority is invalid because the identities of the other characters have disproved their trustworthiness, not necessarily their words. In the same way the validity of these editor's comments remains questionable because, in this identity driven text, their identities remain void.
The Irony of Horror
In the telling of this horrific tale, Danielewski latches onto the irony of horror. Although each of the characters who encounter the story of this house are disturbed by the potential of its animation, they cannot resist the investigation. They simultaneously hate the truth and crave it because they need to know if its real or not. Thus the object of horror becomes itself irresistible in its horror, compelling the characters to devote all their attention to its understanding.
