Piranesi again!

[regshoe]

I decided to read Piranesi again, and it turns out this was an excellent idea—I enjoyed it way more than the first time through! I think a lot of things about the early parts of the book benefit from reading them while knowing what's coming later on, and I really enjoyed getting to know the whole thing better, paying more attention to the details in the way you can on a second read.

Some more specific thoughts below the cut...

Having been ambivalent about Laurence Arne-Sayles before, he's my fave now. I think part of it is that he reminds me a little bit of John Uskglass, both in character and in how they stand in relation to the story—now, obviously they're not the same, and I think ultimately Arne-Sayles is not nearly as important, narratively or symbolically, as Uskglass, and also not nearly as good a person, but... a lifelong outsider, incredibly brilliant in ways that enable them to understand the true nature of magic but always cut off from other people, a sense that conventional questions of right and wrong are just kind of irrelevant as far as they're concerned, does bad things (compare poor James Ritter to Henry Barbatus, I think) but there's a sense in which good and bad really aren't the point, taking a position more or less outside the story as we readers experience it, most of what we learn is through references and in-universe backstory notes, etc. etc. Well, it's my kind of character type, apparently.

I was particularly intrigued by the 'Prophet' scene, as a kind of backwards version of 'The hawthorn tree' from JSMN. In both cases, we meet this 'outsider' character from the perspective of another character who doesn't fully understand who they are or what the significance of the meeting is; he himself has turned up out of a sort of fascinated interest in the story that other people have made of his creation; and then he disappears back into a mystery. But with Uskglass that scene is so good because the reader has already heard all the backstory information about him and understands exactly what's going on, whereas with LA-S we only learn the rest later on—which makes the scene an even better one for a re-read...

I want all the backstory fic about LA-S. How did he first become interested in magic and other worlds, how did he first develop this idea of the ancients having and then losing magical knowledge? How did his personality develop (I can imagine some very interesting stuff with how his sexuality might have, growing up in the ~50s, informed his view of himself as an outsider and his contempt for other people and their opinions of him, which could certainly interact with his magical ideas). What really happened at basically any point in the backstory we hear about through Matthew's notes?

As for the narrator's view of LA-S as the statue of a 'heretical pope' who 'revels in the thought that he is somehow shocking'... yeah, fair. But that's such an interesting character...!

As for characters who are actually somewhat nice people: I loved both the narrator and Sarah Raphael even more this time round. Raphael—wow, to imagine her as this ordinary police detective living in the normal world with no idea about magic, investigating Matthew's disappearance and gradually learning the truth about the House. It must have been so much for her to take in, and the fact that she not only takes it in her stride but ends up with the sympathetic, positive view of the House that she does, going there to escape when the world gets too loud and crowded... I love her. <3

The conversations between Raphael and the narrator, after the flood and later on towards the end, are written with this sort of beautiful simplicity. There's so much they could have to talk about, but instead you get the sense that they just... get each other. They understand each other without having to work through all the details, and it means so much to both of them. I love the way Raphael says 'OK', and I love their relationship. You know, for someone whose last novel was over a thousand pages long, Susanna Clarke is really very good at not saying things sometimes.

Also, the fact that Raphael was (apparently) so easily able to find the way to the House without fancy rituals as soon as LA-S told her how, when we're repeatedly told that's something hardly anyone can do.

Speaking of which, the other person who could do it—Sylvia D'Agostino. Definitely my fave of the backstory characters! Is it significant that the only other characters besides LA-S who can get to the House that easily at first are both women?

I can't quite put into words why I love the narrator (i.e. the character who's narrating by the end of the book, who says he's neither Piranesi nor Matthew Rose Sorensen—though, of course, both those characters are very good and interesting in their ways...) so much, but once again the final section of the book was my absolute favourite part and so, so beautiful. I think it's that there's this weird dissonance, between how horrible what has actually happened is when you think about it from an outside perspective for more than a few moments, and how gently the narrator deals with it. The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.

There's definitely a Point being made here, in a way that's definitely related to JSMN while not being exactly the same thing, about the sort of people who are able to understand the speaking, living world. I love how softly and gently Clarke conveys this sort of thing. I was particularly struck by Piranesi calmly and methodically interpreting what the birds tell him, in contrast to the mysterious significant birds the exact meaning of which no one can ever interpret in JSMN. And also by this:

One sentence puzzles me: The world was constantly speaking to Ancient Man. I do not understand why this sentence is in the past tense. The World still speaks to me every day.

vs.:

Bright yellow leaves flowed swiftly upon the dark, almost-black water, making patterns as they went. To Mr Segundus the patterns looked a little like magical writing. ‘But then,’ he thought, ‘so many things do.’

There's something very profound in Clarke's view of wisdom, I think.

At the end the narrator returns to Matthew's ambition of writing a book about Laurence Arne-Sayles. What on earth is he going to say in it??? (and what will LA-S make of the whole thing?)

I love the suggestions that there are many other worlds besides the House. I can just see LA-S going off exploring into the great magical unknown and finding out more things he contemptuously thinks are beyond everyone else, and meeting John Uskglass there and being very amused. Laurence Arne-Sayles/John Uskglass, new OTP.

I'm sorry, I can't get over this: the ending is so, so mysteriously, understatedly, heartbreakingly beautiful. I love it. What an incredible book. <333