Seasoning the Novel: Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar

Abstract

The present article examines Mark Z. Danielewski’s book series The Familiar (2015- ) by drawing upon the affordances of TV series and the practices of multimodal literature that the author has adopted in the creation of his novels. The scale of the project and the breadth of experimentation with verbal and non-verbal elements on the surface of the pages leads to a reconsideration of literary production not only in terms of the final outcome, but also in terms of the process employed. The launching of Danielewski’s ambitious 27-volume enterprise coincides with a moment in TV production that features a turn towards fewer episodes per season, signaling an alteration in TV practices that, together with other factors such as the pursuance of audience engagement and the literacy skills that the terrain of the novels requires, have led The Familiar to a pause.