Piranesi - Blog Posts
If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading
It began to snow. The low clouds made a grey ceiling for the city; the snow muffled the noise of the cars until it became almost rhythmical; a steady, shushing noise, like the sound of tides beating endlessly on marble walls.
marks reintegration in s2ep3 is really reminding me of piranesi by susanne clarke. two selves born from the same body but with fundamentally different life experiences. the memories of the experiences merge, both become aware of each other, of each others traumas and relationships and how they created and informed their separate selves. but they are unable to truly become any of their old selves anymore because they now coexist in the same body at the same time. they are a shell of who they previously were. they are simultaneously both and neither of their original selves. they are someone completely new.
still struggling but I really needed to draw Piranesi talking with the birds
At some point the labyrinth becomes home.
hey don’t cry. the Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite ok?
loving a book isn’t enough I need to merge with it on an atomic level
kindness infinite, piranesi
Working on this gave me a lot of time to think about Piranesi, and why it resonated with me. In the end, I think it’s because the protagonist himself is such a rare type in fiction: empathetic and curious, kind to others but perfectly happy alone. That ability to be by himself, to be content experiencing his world without loneliness is so important to me.
The statues are the stars of Piranesi, but the image that stuck in my mind were those moments when he paused to look through the windows. Maybe it’s because I’ve done a lot of traveling alone; there’s a certain feeling when you turn from the fancy rooms or the statues in a grand old palace, and notice how the sunlight falls through the windows. There’s an aching melancholy to it – the sense of gentle decay, the awareness that you might never return to this place – but also a loveliness. And that’s the House to me. Beauty immeasurable. Kindness infinite.
THE BEAUTY OF THE HOUSE — the beauty of the house is immeasurable; its kindness infinite (listen)
oh, i miss the comfort of this house where we are, where we are where we are, where we are the floor under our feet whispers out “come on in, come on in, where it all begins”
i loved the part of the book where piranesi resolves to take better care of himself while he's rediscovering his own history. he just has so much compassion for himself! the journal upsets him so he takes a week off and does things he enjoys and then he settles into a safe place when he wants to tackle the subject again. and he doesn't believe The Other when he's told about his amnesia! he values his own insights and his own knowledge of the House even when fucking ketterley is actively trying to undermine his sense of self. piranesi's gentle treatment of himself and the person he used to be is genuinely so moving.
Alternative book cover for "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke. Part of my series of alternative book covers for the books we read in our bookclub.
>looking for a new House
>ask the narrator if their House is creepy or wet
>they don’t understand |pull out diagram explaining what is creepy and what is wet
>they laugh and say “The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite”
>move in
>its wet
since I've been doing a lot of writing talk lately, here are my twelve favourite books! each one of these has changed my brain chemistry.
PIRANESI by SUSANNA CLARKE (REVIEW)
quickly: a lonely but good-hearted soul discovers his only friend is not who he thought (marble walls and endless hallways / scientist magicians / kidnapping, lies, deceit / ancient forgotten wisdom / creative divinity / finding lost things / ornithomancy (divination by birds) / enemies kept close / reverence for the dead and their bones / the writing on the wall / the ocean and its tides / the wind and the clouds it carries / the forgotten sadness of the world).
A refreshing, delightful, and unique read that took me to a place far away from this world. This story is told through the journal entries of the beloved Piranesi, who spends his time fishing, collecting seaweed, and calculating the sea’s tides. You will come to know him for his effusive spiritual bond to the workings of the strange world he inhabits. He refers to himself as “the Beloved Child of the House”. In his 30’s, he has no wife, and knows of only one other person living in this world with him, who he refers to as “The Other”. There are thirteen more, deceased, but his kind offerings of food and conversation for them at their open-air resting places create life in their absence. He talks to the towering statues that line the walls of this World, and he talks to the birds who communicate things to him that he believes the House wants him to know.
The writing is uncomplicated, well-paced, and well-structured. Combined with the story’s setting, a surreal earth-locked landscape, I found it to be a meditative and mysterious read. I kept thinking of the video game “Pandora’s Box (1999)”… a quietly unfolding puzzle of Hellenistic proportions. For a story that is so surreal and involves so many elements (fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and a teaspoon of crime), it was incredibly realistic and recognizable. Fantasy realism? This story has a mythic, fable-like quality that I can’t fully explain. It begins with a prophecy told to Piranesi by a flock of birds, and like any true prophecy, it immediately initiates changes in Piranesi’s world. Masterfully and subtly, there are contrasts between a real world full of sorrows and tragedies, and a quiet world where life’s forgotten ideas have become immortalized in statues… there’s the forgetting of oneself for another self as a consequence of being submersed in this ‘other’ world for too long… and also the processes of fate and prophecy playing out through hidden truths and sudden revelations from the subconscious. Like a forgotten fable, I hope to revisit this book sometime far in the future.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
