Wait, what are you considering the side story? The story of the guy and the stripper? If so I’d argue that more than anything was the point of the book. In fact, there’s a quote floating around there somewhere about how somebody said they found the book at its heart to be more of a love story than a horror one and Danielewski’s response was along the lines of “that’s actually a very astute observation, and it’s funny how labels and branding can affect the perception of a work.”
They’re trying too hard, but I think the implication is that nonergodic literature would fall into one of two patterns: the reader “periodically” turns the page when they’ve finished reading it (see: most books) or “abitrarily,” which you might get in a collection of trivia or quotations or even short fiction. In both cases, the author isn’t really guiding a relationship between the reader and the physical text.
What other ways of turning a page are there, besides periodically and arbitrarily?
As has been mentioned in this thread, House of Leaves requires the reader to move in different directions and at different places throughout the text. You frequently need to, say, read a different page before finishing the first one, or may need to consult multiple appendices. There’s points where it may become necessary to have two or more bookmarks at the same time to avoid losing your place.
So, nonergodic literature follows one of two paths:
Periodic: Read one page, then turn to the next. Repeat.
Arbitrary: Read whatever, whenever, in any order.
Ergodic literature basically means the text requires a more complicated, involved, or active path through the text.
That would be great if I wanted a love story written like a confused college freshman on a year long bender. I’m sure there are people who do but I’m not one. If you want to parallel the stripper story with the main one and say the protagonists rescue at the end was his wish fulfillment for the relationship he couldn’t save then fine, super clever, book of the year, a tour deforce, whatever. I like horror.
Read halfway through it and gave up. It’s a put-on. Complete waste of time.