Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (2020)

Finished: 9/12/24

I abandoned the book I was originally reading for Piranesi instead. I think the next couple of books I'm
going to read will be fantasy books like this one, instead of realistic fiction. Fantasy books help me take my mind off things which I need right now. I also read this book because I heard it's similar to one of my favorites: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (which, I'll be abbreviating as HoL for the rest of this report). For the most part, I did really enjoy Piranesi, but there's a glaring plot hole that I didn't realize existed until I was in the shower the night after I finished it. -I come to some great conclusions in the shower.

I want to do a little bit of house-keeping here first: I recently turned 24 (yay for me) and in this new year of my life I want to make some changes to how I go about doing reports. These reports have been taking me longer and longer because I keep having to force myself to do them instead of wanting to do them, and that's because of the stupid summaries! These summaries I write take up half of the report and it's just not worth while to do them anyways. -I need to write about my thoughts and opinions, not rehash what's already in the book. So from now on: unless it's necessary, no summaries. Anyways, let's get into it.

I found this book by googling "books similar to HoL" and this is what came up. The similarities that I can see are that the book is written in journal entry style, the main part of the book focuses on a labyrinth in a house, and there's imagery and symbolism of minotaurs. -That's about it. I think if I could read this book over, I would try to go into it judging it on its own merits instead of comparing Piranesi to one of my favorite books; which, as you can probably tell by my tone, made me dislike parts of Piranesi in a way I don't think I otherwise would've.

Even though it's my bad I went into this with a heavy bias, I still have some critiques about Piranesi that relate to HoL. One of the big reasons why I love HoL is because reading it was such a unique experience. HoL had so much to do with feeling instead of seeing; it's hard to describe how but it wouldn't translate into a movie or tv show, it has to be read! I think that there are some books that translate really well into movies and tv shows, those books tend to be really popular because taking part in a huge franchise like that is easy; Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are great examples of this. The general consensus from the audience of both those series is "yeah, those movies are great but the books are better," because the books go more in depth with backstory and feelings. Possibly a hot take, but I think Piranesi is in a different category from either of the types of books, -it would almost be better as a tv show. The way it was written was really hard to imagine/feel out. Piranesi knows the House like the back of his hand, so the way he writes about making his way around the halls and vestibules is confusing to readers who like coming up with a mental image of what they're reading. I think the descriptions of the statues and how Piranesi saw the beauty of the house was really well done, but I was always getting turned around, and then eventually tuned out, the directions and names of halls and vestibules.

On to the glaring plot hole: why couldn't Piranesi return to the real world when everyone else could? Getting into the House is the hard part, it either needs extreme mental focus or a ritual, and to get out you just need to walk through the corner of the minotaur room, right? That's how James Ritter escaped and how Piranesi left at the very end. I just don't understand how he was trapped in there. Even back when he was Matthew Rose Sorenson, would he not think to just turn around to try and walk back from where he came? This unexplained part of the story puts the entire plot of the book into question.

To add on to that, "the Great and Secret Knowledge," never seemed to be important after the first part of the book. Piranesi and the Other have been looking for this thing for years and it's strange how it just stops being important so suddenly. It sort of seems like that part of the book was written first, and then when the story went in another direction, the first part wasn't edited in a coherent way.

All that being said, I'll move on to what I liked about Piranesi. I really liked the character of Piranesi, how he cared about things and saw the world, even after he went back to his old life at the end. I think there's three stages of Piranesi as a person, first, of course, he's Matthew Rose Sorenson. After spending some time in the House he becomes Piranesi, and then at the end, he becomes someone new. I think I'll just refer to this "new someone" as "the main character," since he's different from Piranesi and Matthew.

I really like how meticulous Piranesi was and how he constantly had a caring nature. Him being caring is so engrained into who he is, it reminded me a lot of a Studio Ghibli movie. In those movies, no one is "the bad guy" or beyond saving. There's always second chances to give and the protagonist always tries their best to help everyone. Having that kindness drive the narrative, instead of something like revenge, justice, or the want to gain something, is always really refreshing. I think that Piranesi being portrayed as a genuinely kind and wholesome man was done really well.

To delve more into the conspiracy aspect of the book: is the House even real, or is it some sort of representation? I think that for both Piranesi and HoL, inside the universe of the book, the House/labyrinth is real, but outside as the reader, it can just be an allegory. I can explain this more with a short story I read all the way back in high school called The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story is scary on the surface, but gets more disturbing if you know the context. To quickly summarize the conclusion: there were no people watching the woman from the woods or from behind her yellow wall paper, she was just going through a mental break. So, inside the universe of the book, the threat of shadow-people aren't even real,  The Yellow Wall Paper is written to show the experience of mentally ill women in the early 20th century. Piranesi and HoL are different from this in that the representation of the experience of the characters is more up to the reader's interpretation.

That being said, I do think that Piranesi could be a representation of dealing with trauma by dissociating. How Laurance first gained access to the house was by remembering a happy childhood memory so vividly he was almost transported back to it, I think that losing yourself in your memories of "the good ol' days" is a trauma response. Another example trauma in this book is when Piranesi escapes, he doesn't go back to Matthew Rose Sorenson, but he doesn't stay Piranesi either, he becomes a new person. When experiencing some major shift in your life, like trauma or grief, it's not something that you can "recover" from, instead you grow around it. The main character has grown around his two past selves, he is parts of both of them but also his own person. All that being said, I'm not super well versed in trauma responses, I think Piranesi would be a good book for a psychologist to read and analyze, they'd probably come up with lots of conclusions I can't. 

One thing I picked up on that I felt very comforting, and knew existed but never really thought about it, was this sort of ancient idea of "seeing signs" or foretelling in your surroundings. Piranesi goes around to different statues to try and understand his feelings, or to gain some knowledge from them. When he's first figuring out his past, he goes and sits my the statue of the Gorilla "for strength." I think this is really similar to ancient people looking at cloud shapes for emotional direction, or reading tea leaves. More modern day stuff would be like tarot cards and zodiac signs. These things can all be really comforting and help give direction and purpose, but I think in the modern day the average person is either super skeptical or outright doesn't believe any of this. -Which I understand. 

At the end of my last report I was saying how I haven't been very happy lately, this is still true and I have found myself looking around for "signs" of when happiness or luck will come back to me. I think that taking a "I need a sign" viewpoint could cause me to spiral and become more dangerous to my mental health. However, it's really needed sometimes to feel like the universe, or some divine being, is telling me to keep hoping.

But back to Piranesi, at the end of the book, as the main character walks to meet Raphael at a coffee shop, he looks around and recognizes the people passing him as statues in the House. This being put as the last part of the book made me question the reality of the House. I've concluded that the House is real, but it's just this alternate world that's behind this very thin veil of the real world. Piranesi repeatedly thanked the House for giving him knowledge and preparing him for things to come, I think the House knew Piranesi was about to be rescued and escape, so the statues were altered to familiar sights that would comfort him in the real world.

To end this report, I want to talk about the power of solitude. This book was really unique in that solitude was always so abundant for Piranesi, and he really enjoyed it. In books where solitude is similarly abundant, like The Yellow Wall Paper, you just see the protagonist get more upset and spiral into their own delusions. I think that seeing solitude as having this peaceful, healing power is really refreshing.

Like I said earlier, it was recently my birthday and, as always, I got a bunch of books as presents which is exciting! Because the holidays are coming up, I'll have more excuses just just sit around and read all day. Anyways, that's all, thank you for reading!