Watching this three days after finishing Piranesi, in an attempt to process all the darker ideas present in the novel. Unfortunately, I’m still trying to work out how to cope with the revelations of Piranesi, but one advantage of this struggle is that I found this channel! Excellent video, and I look forward to future unclinging thoughts here on your channel. 😉
I loved it. I had a dream that my father who doesn't speak to me anymore (my mum doesn't allow him) could meet me in the great south western halls. He listened to me and we talked, and then he had to go back. I want to go back there in my dreams.
Yes! Finally someone else who was unsettled by the ending. So many RUclips reviews of the book talk about the happy ending, but I thought it was very ambiguous and off-kilter. (Spoiler-y explanation below). Also I like what you said about reading this in 2020. I read this for a class in my undergrad when we were taking class over Zoom, and something about the description of the House felt reminiscent of the first quarantine, particularly this quote on page 59: "For a moment I had an inkling of what it might be like if instead of two people in the World there were thousands." Just that feeling of isolation, it was...ugh just perfect and resonant; it hit like a gut punch-especially with Piranesi's scale maxing out at "thousands" when we have literal "billions". It shows the vastness of the world on a scale that we cannot visualize or comprehend (before numbers become more abstractions than visualizations). (Spoilers for Piranesi's ending) I would argue the book is not tied up in a neat bow at the end. Is it happy or sad? Is our narrator Piranesi or Matthew? He is now in the "real world" and knows his name is Matthew, but he does not remember his loved ones, and his rhetoric is Piranesi's. Even though he made it out of the House, will he ever truly leave the House, or is he trapped forever? Is this a hopeless feeling or a hopeful one? Does he reconcile the House with the "real world" or is he stuck in the labyrinthine House? Which would he prefer? Which would we prefer? And which perspective is the "best" one?
I love your take on it. Clearly, I felt a similar way. To me, the echo of trauma is an important topic not to storytale away, and I'm glad she ended things the way she did.
I think the person who left the house was neither Piranesi nor Matthew. It just shows that some unscrupulous events leaves scar that no normal tenderness can fully heal
He was in the house because someone tricked him and warped his mind into thinking he needed to be there. He is out and working on real life; if he continues down that path, he will win and the other will lose. If he can't let go, the other will always have a hold over him. I believe the book ended on the path to a happy ending.
I think it was pretty clear that Mathew is fast asleep by the end. And I am pretty sure it was made clear that the one outside was not Piranesi as well. Like the one outside says that Piranesi would have loved the huge number of suits that Mathew possesses, but "I find I do not care greatly about clothes". Part 7 always mentioned Piranesi and Mathew as 3rd person so we can be sure that the one outside is not "only piranesi". As for what would he prefer, I think that was also made clear when the one outside took James Ritter to the House again. In the end he says, " if I ever decide to come back for good, I promise I will bring you with me", which suggests that he may be considering to come back.
So I might have a slightly unique perspective to offer that could slightly reframe the ending to seem less “unsettling”. I am very socially inept and always have been. As a Swedish, Afrikaans lad born in Texas I’ve always been “the foreign kid” regardless of the fact that these are all my culture by birth (technically). Coincidentally I’m also a high functioning schizophrenic. I identified so much with the character of Piranesi as well as his slumbering inner Matthew that I found myself thinking, “did Susanna Clarke user use likeness without my knowledge?” I like to journal in much the same ways as our protagonist as a coping mechanism to feel like there is at least something in life that I can control. I might not have any instincts, social or otherwise, but at least I can learn and document the world around me. The Hose plays out much like how I dream and is a blend of nightmare and familiarity. In my own head are also characters like The Other who is charming but scheming and ultimately harmful/dangerous to the rest of my psyche. The “real world” that the book ends in is how I see waking life. Beautiful in its own right. Perfectly serviceable with a many great commodities, but I don’t ultimately feel I belong here. I play the part and carry on but awake and sleep are both laden with their fair share of negatives and positives. Ultimately though, I have one final point to make. It doesn’t matter where I am because I have the potential to remember and revisit the best, most vast parts of the walking and dream worlds. And I feel comfortable in knowing this because I will always have my notes and journal entries. Wherever people like me and Piranesi are will always be a new set of obstacles to overcome, understand, and then record for posterity. And therein lies the potential to be content. Hope this helps to relieve some of the discomfort the ending brought some readers.
listen to her interviews, she one of the most boring people who ever breathed, but her imagination wanders away on weird tangents, if she wrote about herself drying paint would be more interesting
Yours is my favorite video I’ve seen about this book, which I just finished yesterday. This is in no small part because you are the only one who pronounces Piranesi correctly. Your Italian is excellent! The book was awesome.
Grazie! I lived in Italy for a couple of years, so if anything, I'm always worried about coming off as pretentious in the way I default to pronouncing words like bruschetta... This book was so fun. I'm glad to find someone else who enjoyed it. That ending though!
@@InsteadofWriting I once ordered bruschetta in a restaurant here in the US and the conversation went like this: Me: I’ll have the brus-kett-ah Server: Actually it’s pronounced bru-shet-ah Me: No, actually it’s pronounced brus-kett-ah I’m still reeling from finishing the book last night and I’m also feeling a longing for more of it to read. I wish I could erase my memory of it and go back and read it again, just to have more of it in my life. There’s two ways to tell a story that leaves questions unanswered, the wrong way which leaves me, the reader, frustrated and infuriated, and the right way which leaves me puzzled and perfectly okay with that. This was done the right way.
I enjoyed the book, but it didn't affect me the way it seems to have affected other people. I mostly just liked it for the charm, writing style, and mystery. Even with the mystery, though, I found it to be a little too predictable after a while to be compelling in and of itself. I'll probably read it again at some point just because of how short and easy to read it is.
I started this book yesterday on audible and I’m about 1 hr 30 mins in and im already gonna restart it. I found it kind of confusing at first just because I’m not awesome at picturing landscapes in my head(terrible quality for a reader, I know) but it’s so good and enjoyable to listen to and I’m sooo excited to hear where it goes.
I'm Italian and I listen to this video because I have read Piranesi and I want to improve my English Listening. Your Italian pronunciation is pretty good 👍
Watching this in 2024. I’ve started the book and kept feeling like I needed a little more context to really get into it. I normally like to avoid knowing much about a book because so many times there’s giant spoilers. (Here’s looking at the jacket of seveneves spoiling 2/3 of the book) but with this one I needed something. This video was it. Thank you!
Your Italian tho. I wasn't expecting that. The Halls (in my Mind) were some giant version of Villa Borghese, plus the Italian sculpture section at the Louvre.
Oh my gosh. You're so right about the Italian sculpture section of the Louvre! Man, I was in a crazy dream state walking through that myself. Which way is up? Which way is down? Which way is Bernini?
Lol I’m the OP and it’s years later. I tried to read Piranesi last year and couldn’t make it past page 17. Now I’m trying again and I’m 40% through. I snorted when you suggested it’s novella-like because, well, a 245 page book is not a novella, and these are some very long and tedious 245 pages. Not sure I’ll bother finishing. It’s a slog of a book
If I am being honest I didn't like the book. The first 150 pages where beautifully written, all the ideas and concepts seemed really promising to an awesome ending but sadly I got disappointed. As soon as [SPOILER!!!!] Piranesi found the old entries of his journal it was just left to the reader to read his journals inside his journals. Like having to consume the same medium as the medium you are currently consuming. That way it is not Piranesi that discovered this revelation but us the reader and somewhat we didn't get the full story of how Piranesi felt during that. Also the setup that was built the first half of the book with the whole story of an alternated world and the flow of energy and the hidden knowledge which had its climax during the meeting with the prophet did not get used in the end of the book. You could argue that it was intentionally that the reader is not given an explanation of the events and everything that happened in relation to the world and to the knowledge, because Piranesi also does not understand these things, but an argument against that is the poorly written ending and the appearance of 16. The character of 16 is so poorly written I just wanted the book to finish. The whole mystery of 16 comes down to oh well it is just a police officer and Piranesi just believes her. In the first half of the book Piranesi has a lot of principles even with interacting with the other, but it seems that he looses them as soon as he finds out about the other not being his friends, which to me makes no sense since he didn't trust the other from the beginning of the book. Now you could say he lost his mind reading his old journal entry, but then again he made precautions to not go mad, which worked. Then just trusting this police officer is completely against his principles and makes no sense at all. Also the idea that different personalities live inside of the person that is in the other world Piranesi is really good but not well executed. I think that if the book would have been longer more ideas could have been formulated better and the change of writing style makes it seem that the author kinda hurried to get the book to an end. Platos cave story but the main character sufferes from a drug induced psychosis and is found by a police officer.
I stopped reading after page 35 and just gave it another go tonight and finished it 10 minutes ago. “Unsettling” is the perfect word to describe the ending. It picks up further in the book and is only 245 pages. I’m curious how you end up feeling.
Liiked 60% of this novel even though it made look up the definition of "vestibule" in the first paragraph.... But yes, it's basically a dreamscape of someone who is fascinated with something she saw once in her life and can't forget. Amazing opening... Fart-inducing end.
@@InsteadofWriting The funniest thing that since I learned that word, I'm hearing it constantly... In my reality, we only had corridors, alcoves and annexes but no vestibules :(
This is ....HOOTTT🤤❤! I sooo wanna objectify him but the video content makes me wanna be more respectful. Love the fashion sense tho 👌👏🙌 I'm...In...Love! Give me one reading(reason) to not subscribe, I'm already obsessed!!!😘🤗👍 He looks like one of those professors that you wanna fantasize about but that in your fantasy he is just looking at you!! It's weird...not proud but this boy is very very attractive...sorry but I just wanna date an author someday !!!
Watching this three days after finishing Piranesi, in an attempt to process all the darker ideas present in the novel. Unfortunately, I’m still trying to work out how to cope with the revelations of Piranesi, but one advantage of this struggle is that I found this channel! Excellent video, and I look forward to future unclinging thoughts here on your channel. 😉
I loved it. I had a dream that my father who doesn't speak to me anymore (my mum doesn't allow him) could meet me in the great south western halls. He listened to me and we talked, and then he had to go back. I want to go back there in my dreams.
Yes! Finally someone else who was unsettled by the ending. So many RUclips reviews of the book talk about the happy ending, but I thought it was very ambiguous and off-kilter. (Spoiler-y explanation below). Also I like what you said about reading this in 2020. I read this for a class in my undergrad when we were taking class over Zoom, and something about the description of the House felt reminiscent of the first quarantine, particularly this quote on page 59: "For a moment I had an inkling of what it might be like if instead of two people in the World there were thousands." Just that feeling of isolation, it was...ugh just perfect and resonant; it hit like a gut punch-especially with Piranesi's scale maxing out at "thousands" when we have literal "billions". It shows the vastness of the world on a scale that we cannot visualize or comprehend (before numbers become more abstractions than visualizations).
(Spoilers for Piranesi's ending)
I would argue the book is not tied up in a neat bow at the end. Is it happy or sad? Is our narrator Piranesi or Matthew? He is now in the "real world" and knows his name is Matthew, but he does not remember his loved ones, and his rhetoric is Piranesi's. Even though he made it out of the House, will he ever truly leave the House, or is he trapped forever? Is this a hopeless feeling or a hopeful one? Does he reconcile the House with the "real world" or is he stuck in the labyrinthine House? Which would he prefer? Which would we prefer? And which perspective is the "best" one?
I love your take on it. Clearly, I felt a similar way. To me, the echo of trauma is an important topic not to storytale away, and I'm glad she ended things the way she did.
I think the person who left the house was neither Piranesi nor Matthew. It just shows that some unscrupulous events leaves scar that no normal tenderness can fully heal
He was in the house because someone tricked him and warped his mind into thinking he needed to be there. He is out and working on real life; if he continues down that path, he will win and the other will lose. If he can't let go, the other will always have a hold over him. I believe the book ended on the path to a happy ending.
I think it was pretty clear that Mathew is fast asleep by the end. And I am pretty sure it was made clear that the one outside was not Piranesi as well. Like the one outside says that Piranesi would have loved the huge number of suits that Mathew possesses, but "I find I do not care greatly about clothes". Part 7 always mentioned Piranesi and Mathew as 3rd person so we can be sure that the one outside is not "only piranesi". As for what would he prefer, I think that was also made clear when the one outside took James Ritter to the House again. In the end he says, " if I ever decide to come back for good, I promise I will bring you with me", which suggests that he may be considering to come back.
So I might have a slightly unique perspective to offer that could slightly reframe the ending to seem less “unsettling”. I am very socially inept and always have been. As a Swedish, Afrikaans lad born in Texas I’ve always been “the foreign kid” regardless of the fact that these are all my culture by birth (technically). Coincidentally I’m also a high functioning schizophrenic. I identified so much with the character of Piranesi as well as his slumbering inner Matthew that I found myself thinking, “did Susanna Clarke user use likeness without my knowledge?”
I like to journal in much the same ways as our protagonist as a coping mechanism to feel like there is at least something in life that I can control. I might not have any instincts, social or otherwise, but at least I can learn and document the world around me. The Hose plays out much like how I dream and is a blend of nightmare and familiarity. In my own head are also characters like The Other who is charming but scheming and ultimately harmful/dangerous to the rest of my psyche.
The “real world” that the book ends in is how I see waking life. Beautiful in its own right. Perfectly serviceable with a many great commodities, but I don’t ultimately feel I belong here. I play the part and carry on but awake and sleep are both laden with their fair share of negatives and positives.
Ultimately though, I have one final point to make. It doesn’t matter where I am because I have the potential to remember and revisit the best, most vast parts of the walking and dream worlds. And I feel comfortable in knowing this because I will always have my notes and journal entries. Wherever people like me and Piranesi are will always be a new set of obstacles to overcome, understand, and then record for posterity. And therein lies the potential to be content.
Hope this helps to relieve some of the discomfort the ending brought some readers.
Yes 100% what I thought after reading it... I compared the book to One flew over the cuckoo´s nest in terms of "understanding" psychic diseases....
Wonderful insight! Thank you for sharing!
listen to her interviews, she one of the most boring people who ever breathed, but her imagination wanders away on weird tangents, if she wrote about herself drying paint would be more interesting
Yours is my favorite video I’ve seen about this book, which I just finished yesterday. This is in no small part because you are the only one who pronounces Piranesi correctly. Your Italian is excellent!
The book was awesome.
Grazie! I lived in Italy for a couple of years, so if anything, I'm always worried about coming off as pretentious in the way I default to pronouncing words like bruschetta...
This book was so fun. I'm glad to find someone else who enjoyed it. That ending though!
@@InsteadofWriting I once ordered bruschetta in a restaurant here in the US and the conversation went like this:
Me: I’ll have the brus-kett-ah
Server: Actually it’s pronounced bru-shet-ah
Me: No, actually it’s pronounced brus-kett-ah
I’m still reeling from finishing the book last night and I’m also feeling a longing for more of it to read. I wish I could erase my memory of it and go back and read it again, just to have more of it in my life. There’s two ways to tell a story that leaves questions unanswered, the wrong way which leaves me, the reader, frustrated and infuriated, and the right way which leaves me puzzled and perfectly okay with that. This was done the right way.
I just finished reading this book and I too feel unsettled. Definitely chilling and worth the read! Great video 😊
I enjoyed the book, but it didn't affect me the way it seems to have affected other people. I mostly just liked it for the charm, writing style, and mystery. Even with the mystery, though, I found it to be a little too predictable after a while to be compelling in and of itself. I'll probably read it again at some point just because of how short and easy to read it is.
There were definitely some stretches that felt a little drawn out, which took away from some of the power of the reveals. I agree with you there.
Finally someone who feels the same way I do! I had such high expectations that I think I ended up being quite disappointed
I started this book yesterday on audible and I’m about 1 hr 30 mins in and im already gonna restart it. I found it kind of confusing at first just because I’m not awesome at picturing landscapes in my head(terrible quality for a reader, I know) but it’s so good and enjoyable to listen to and I’m sooo excited to hear where it goes.
I'm Italian and I listen to this video because I have read Piranesi and I want to improve my English Listening. Your Italian pronunciation is pretty good 👍
thank you! My pronunciation is not as good now as it was when I lived in Italy, but I'm always happy for an occasion to practice.
@@InsteadofWriting aaah ok, you was in Italy, that's why your Italian pronunciation is good
Watching this in 2024. I’ve started the book and kept feeling like I needed a little more context to really get into it. I normally like to avoid knowing much about a book because so many times there’s giant spoilers. (Here’s looking at the jacket of seveneves spoiling 2/3 of the book) but with this one I needed something. This video was it.
Thank you!
Thanks! Let me know how the rest goes!
Your Italian tho. I wasn't expecting that.
The Halls (in my Mind) were some giant version of Villa Borghese, plus the Italian sculpture section at the Louvre.
Oh my gosh. You're so right about the Italian sculpture section of the Louvre! Man, I was in a crazy dream state walking through that myself. Which way is up? Which way is down? Which way is Bernini?
Great description and portrayal of the book! Going to listen to the audiobook👍🏼
Oh you'll have to let me know how the audiobook performance is!
i really enjoyed the way you talked about this book, thank you for your insight
I was smelling lasagna and breadsticks all eight minutes and forty seven seconds of this video.
In the back of my nose, at all times, there is a little lasagna smell hanging out.
This was on my wish list but now you moved it to the must read immediately list
Lol I’m the OP and it’s years later. I tried to read Piranesi last year and couldn’t make it past page 17. Now I’m trying again and I’m 40% through. I snorted when you suggested it’s novella-like because, well, a 245 page book is not a novella, and these are some very long and tedious 245 pages. Not sure I’ll bother finishing. It’s a slog of a book
About to start this for book club and found your video!
You had me at "novella length" 😍 But seriously it sounds cool, I'll have to add it to my very long list of books to read.
It’s quick and spooky and delightful
You are obviously proud of how good you are at pronouncing Piranesi the sort of proper way )
This book seems very interesting. i’ll need to check it out
Okay. You convinced me to read it.
The thing to know about this book before you read it is… absolutely nothing! Go in blind and you won’t regret it 👌
This will be ironic coming from a guy who has a channel talking about books, but I think the best way to enjoy a book is to go in blind.
This book just didn't do it for me, I read it because of the hype but was left very disappointed
If I am being honest I didn't like the book. The first 150 pages where beautifully written, all the ideas and concepts seemed really promising to an awesome ending but sadly I got disappointed. As soon as [SPOILER!!!!]
Piranesi found the old entries of his journal it was just left to the reader to read his journals inside his journals. Like having to consume the same medium as the medium you are currently consuming. That way it is not Piranesi that discovered this revelation but us the reader and somewhat we didn't get the full story of how Piranesi felt during that.
Also the setup that was built the first half of the book with the whole story of an alternated world and the flow of energy and the hidden knowledge which had its climax during the meeting with the prophet did not get used in the end of the book. You could argue that it was intentionally that the reader is not given an explanation of the events and everything that happened in relation to the world and to the knowledge, because Piranesi also does not understand these things, but an argument against that is the poorly written ending and the appearance of 16.
The character of 16 is so poorly written I just wanted the book to finish. The whole mystery of 16 comes down to oh well it is just a police officer and Piranesi just believes her. In the first half of the book Piranesi has a lot of principles even with interacting with the other, but it seems that he looses them as soon as he finds out about the other not being his friends, which to me makes no sense since he didn't trust the other from the beginning of the book.
Now you could say he lost his mind reading his old journal entry, but then again he made precautions to not go mad, which worked. Then just trusting this police officer is completely against his principles and makes no sense at all. Also the idea that different personalities live inside of the person that is in the other world Piranesi is really good but not well executed. I think that if the book would have been longer more ideas could have been formulated better and the change of writing style makes it seem that the author kinda hurried to get the book to an end.
Platos cave story but the main character sufferes from a drug induced psychosis and is found by a police officer.
That's all very well,but what is the significance of the cheese and ham sandwich!!??
You have to go into the labyrinth to find out...
I like the book and I like your video ad=nd your way to pronouns Piranesi :)
Try The Soul Gene.
Watching this at the tail end of 2023 and wondering if I should reconsider the dnf.
I stopped reading after page 35 and just gave it another go tonight and finished it 10 minutes ago. “Unsettling” is the perfect word to describe the ending. It picks up further in the book and is only 245 pages. I’m curious how you end up feeling.
Liiked 60% of this novel even though it made look up the definition of "vestibule" in the first paragraph....
But yes, it's basically a dreamscape of someone who is fascinated with something she saw once in her life and can't forget.
Amazing opening... Fart-inducing end.
Yes! Vestibule was like the word of the book! I also noticed that.
@@InsteadofWriting The funniest thing that since I learned that word, I'm hearing it constantly... In my reality, we only had corridors, alcoves and annexes but no vestibules :(
if you enjoy prose its a feast, if you like a story...forget it
No
This is ....HOOTTT🤤❤! I sooo wanna objectify him but the video content makes me wanna be more respectful. Love the fashion sense tho 👌👏🙌 I'm...In...Love! Give me one reading(reason) to not subscribe, I'm already obsessed!!!😘🤗👍
He looks like one of those professors that you wanna fantasize about but that in your fantasy he is just looking at you!! It's weird...not proud but this boy is very very attractive...sorry but I just wanna date an author someday !!!