The genius of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
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- čas přidán 28. 11. 2020
- I hugely enjoyed the new novel by Susanna Clarke, prompted to read it in part because I knew of her interest in Owen Barfield.
It did not disappoint and I wanted to share why by talking about it in relation to four levels of meaning: the literal, moral, tropological and anagogic.
I'd go so far as to say it's an important book for our times, in its modest way - that attitude being key. It doesn't try to change anything, preach anything, worry about anything, but says instead, look, love, link. There is nowhere to go, nothing to escape, everything to perceive.
This is by far the best review of this book I've seen. Nothing felt quite right until I got here. Thank you!
I’ve finished this book today. I can’t get it out of my head. It totally draws you in.
I would also like to say the audiobook is excellent. I read the book and listened to the audiobook; the audiobook elevated it for me.
Spoiler alert!!! This book is genius only if you read it on a literal level. All you say is perfectly true but who is Paranesi? He is a person suffering from schizophrenia and most likely multiple personality disorder. In a quest to learn about himself he pursues a cult leader and is held captive by a deranged cult member. Deprived of all human interaction, he lives solely in his head in a made up world or ‘the house’, during his captivity. Time is transient in the novel. The ‘Other’ is perhaps his captor from the past or his psychiatrist in the present. The policewoman who rescues him from captivity might also be the seer or 16. Whatever, whenever or whoever, the author has dropped the reader squarely into the delusional mind of a madman with amazingly beautiful prose.
I think Piranesi is a jumbled dreamscape with no point or merit. I am mystified as to how anyone could feel positive about it. There is no meaning and there are no insights.
I didn’t really like the dissonance between the spoken beauty of the house and it’s objective description in the book where it’s not being praised. The house is infinite and varied, yes, however it seems that anyone would be pretty bored with it within a couple hours as it’s just a sequence of repeating rooms and halls with marble statues that often repeat in subject. It’s kind if hard not to relate to the other’s disinterest in exploring it outside of what’s necessary for his objective. I personally attribute Piranesi’s aesthetic admiration for the house to insanity.
Fantastic analysis! I too had the idea that the reverse was true about the house being a "prison," but I feel like your analysis took this insight to a whole new level in exploring the essence of things and asking the reader to question perspectives of the mundane world. Beautiful exploration on what Piranesi represents and the wisdom in presence. Thank you for sharing!
A book like no other. It is genius.
The best Piranesi review! It captures all the deep and simple meanings behind each page, each paragraph, each line of this masterpiece... Thanks for sharing your beautiful point of view with us!
A wonderful contemplation and analysis, Mark. Thanks a lot. It has helped me straighten out a few quirks in my own writing. "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven".
There be spoilers in this comment! Now then, I can't speak to this with the same academic eloquence as you (I'm a rather more intuitive and abstract person to be great at precise analysis), but nevertheless I shall try! This book enchanted me from the start. The setting called up a mind palace, that memory tool people use. Especially the way Piranesi navigated the House, and remembered all of it; it struck me early on that this was, in some way, an internal world made external. I'm not sure how well that held up in the text itself, but I could never quite shake it.
Thanks for talking us through this with insight and grace.
Brilliant!
Glad I found this. Keep up the great work. Amazing analysis. :)
A great interpretation of a great book. Thank you so much.
Thanks for your insights Mark. Looking forward to reading this. Best. Paul.
I have just finished reading it, your video was really good, as it made my reading feel like a second reading where I get to know the book better while not giving away the actual plot. This was the first book I have read in quite a while that was a real page turner for me, it deeply engaged me, it was something of an extension of the work of the Inklings, I found that very reassuring as sometimes it feels like art and culture have stopped or reached a cul de sac but this was seriously good in both being imaginatively rich and philosophically strong. It obviously helps that I like Barfield and the Inklings. A work of contemplation a call for us to make our psyches whole, to realise that the works of the past are not trying to speak in a strange code but that they are expressing how they experienced the world and it is different from how we do now.
This is a very good review, Mark, and has given me a lot to think about now having finished the book. Thank you for taking the time to do this. Though it's rare for me to pick up books a second time, this one may get me to do it (and your review encourages that).
Thank you so much Mark. I knew this book was brilliant but wasn't sure how. You are brilliant at literary criticism. Bless you.
Such a beautiful review. Thank you.