While perusing the Only Revolutions forums I ran into a post that suggested that the double parallel lines that are displayed on the binding and other places in the front of the book are connected to Java Boolean Logical Operators.
I don't know if any of you are computer science majors or know anything about Logical Operators but, I know very little. Still, I was fascinated by this idea because it connects the book more closely to code and the idea it is trying to emulate the digital in some way.
In Java Boolean Logical Operators the || symbol is the short-circuit OR (as in "a OR b") operator there is also a | symbol that is the regular OR operator. From the site I linked to above, "if you use the || operator instead of the | operator and if A is true then java will not evaluate B(assuming it is a expression)." So if A is already true in the expression then java decides there is no need to look at the second variable, B. The reason having a function like || is helpful in coding is if you run into a situation when B depends on A being true or false to function properly.
If we apply this idea to the novel we see that the stories are not OR (|) in the way you can read just Sam OR Hailey. In a | situation it doesn't matter if one is true and one is false. When we subject their stories to a short-circuit OR (||) then one story, if it is true, automatically pulls in the other story with it as true. If we start on Hailey's side and determine it is true then Sam's must all be true following the logic of the function through. The same goes if we switch around the order (Hailey's true-ness being contingent on Sam's story being true). The value of the second story is contingent on the first story. Even more crazy is the fact that if the first variable is true there is no need to evaluate (read?) the second variable.
I don't know if Danielewski intended us to go into the story reading it as an expression or if by the end of reading we are supposed to see this interconnectedness. In fact I think even in trying to explain that I've missed the mark in some way I can't explain. I am eager to see if anybody else can pull at some of these threads better than I did and comment on this idea. Is it crazy? Is there something to it?