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[Drags soapbox out and stands on it.] Ahem. With respect, I think this approach to the novel is unhelpful and reductivist. Certainly everyone's entitled to their opinion, but this is about more than different interpretations -it's about whether it makes you a better or worse reader. Reductivism leads us to overemphasize parts of the book that reinforce our narrow read and to dismiss or deliberately misread parts that don't fit into our interpretative schema. We see this towards the end of the video when you say you don't know what to make of info in the text that suggests that the House is real and not just a result of brainwashing and schizophrenia. One of the great joys of fantasy is that it speaks to us chiefly through metaphor; it has to, because magical beings, places and situations have no direct correlation in the real world. In the book, the character called Piranesi lives alone in an infinitely large House made of stone and sea, statues and stairs. At least sixteen people have been there, and several could leave and return at will. Characters have written and given interviews about it. You can't deny its reality without engaging in elaborate interpretive acrobatics-and to what end? To dismiss this incredible creation as a hallucination. But the House is a potent metaphor that shouldn't be explained away. It's a way of talking about isolation, memory, resilience, myth, and many other things, including how we read and understand stories themselves. That network of meanings is rich, even when it's contradictory. It fuels our ongoing delight and engagement with this incredible little novel. In the novel, the narrator often talks about how important it is to nourish oneself. Susanna Clarke's enchanted House, offers a feast of metaphorical interpretations -don't reduce it to thin gruel by explaining it all away.

I'm grateful for this video because I just finished listening to this book on audio and had a lot of questions as I was reading. I also thought it seemed like there should have been stronger security and cameras everywhere. One question I had- at a couple of points in the book, it was implied that the reason people develop psychological problems as adults is because of mistreatment during their childhood. At one point, there was a comment that a certain therapist had never treated an adult who had been convicted of sexual abuse of children who had not been sexually abused as a child themselves. At another point, there was a quote, "No one is born evil. As Winnicott put it, “A baby cannot hate the mother, without the mother first hating the baby." Which... I thought was a pretty extraordinary quote. I am no expert, but this struck me as being... perhaps an overstatement? I can certainly see childhood abuse as dramatically increasing the risk of ongoing problems into adulthood. But this seemed to imply a direct correlation, and that the parents were always to blame. Could I ask for your perspective? Thank you!

Honestly, and with all due respect, I feel psychologically assessing this work is too reductive. It’s a story of the disenchantment of our world… the idea that the magic and meaning drained out of our modern world… which came about from our new religion of science, namely, that if a phenomena could not be measured, quantified or reduced to a number or even a psychological label… then that phenomenon doesnt make sense, it’s nonsense. Clarke plays it straight… she really wants us to ponder that even though there appears to be very little magic in our reality, it still might exit… asking us to question whether we’re the ones who are blind. Piranesi is the one who has the eyes to see… as well as 16… and b/c some characters pervert the knowledge of the ‘other world’ doesn’t undermine the reality of the transcendent… it’s just a reminder that there’s more to reality that can be perceived by our senses and the machines that amplify them.

Going back could mean going back to isolation. I think taking some time to yourself can be healthy. So when he mentions Raphael also visit that place it could mean that she takes a break and spend time with herself. But then he warns her that you may lose yourself cos isolating in small doses can be relaxing but spending too much time alone can make you lose your mind

The name “Piranesi” carries significant symbolic weight as well. It references Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an 18th-century Italian artist known for his intricate and imaginative etchings of labyrinthine prisons and vast architectural spaces. He intended to highlight themes of confinement, isolation, and the struggle for freedom through his work. The vast and beautiful, oppressive spaces evoke a sense of entrapment and the endless quest for escape.

the lack of agency in the main protagonist bothered me a lot. her decisions and all her choices were also very dumb and ignorant. I can take someone being tunnel visioned to believe their young niece that they feel responsible for like a parent often does with heir child. what I could not stand was how some of the character flaws seemed intentional while others just seemed like bad writing for the character. she lacked boundaries as a therapist, she constantly made herself a social doormat for men to step over and ignore. she constantly put herself into dumb dangerous situations which was just baffling to me I hated it. in someways those same character flaws were good. I loved how she could be blind to someone close to her being the person that made this entire mess because she had rose colored glasses on and romanticized dangerously. I loved that she was ignorant to what could have been going on at home because often time people are! sometimes you are caught off guard so bad because it's something that you might have thought of but your brain hated the idea so much you shoved down any hints towards the outcomes you so desperately do not want to be a reality and you ignore any red flags. I thought there was realistic points and unrealistic points to the story. but I hated how the men were written it was terrible. and it almost seemed like the authors own hangups and projection of young women being taken advantage of by older men was just littered throughout the book. and I can't tell if it's because he's disturbed by these situations or if it's secretly something he admires or struggles with in his own psyche.

I enjoyed this very much. I made a few notes because I just reread it, and thought of a few things I didn’t think of the first time around. According to masters of the far East, we all suffer from amnesia. It’s likely that the entire planet is a labyrinth meant to cause us to remember our true nature, and abandon the game we agreed to play. Maybe we relate to Piranesi so deeply because we all suffer from amnesia. Who are we then? Pick a master. Mine is Sri Ramana. He states that we are the ocean of consciousness that resides beneath all we see, hear, feel. Raphael is a guide, like a Bodhisatva - who helps us return to the path that leads us home. I believe there is more to the story than we realize.

Samee lol

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I am no psychologist but I know a bit about psychedelics and as soon as I read huxleian psychedelic experience I thought that maybe Piranesi is suffering from a psychosis and that the endless halls are just a hallucination and part of a loop that piranesi is stuck in mentally. Such loops are also often described by people who had a psychedelic drug induced bad trip. They say that they are stuck in a time loop for a long duration of the trip with no end in sight. Also not understanding technology just like phones and stuff is common. This resulting in a psychosis could explain the altered state of mind in which Piranesi is in and your theory that 16 the police officer is in fact a therapist that kinda wants to get through to piranesi would also hold true. I must say I was a bit disappointed by the ending all the ideas that get introduced in the first part of the book have no explanation in the second half and the ending seemed a bit rushed. I think if the book was a bit longer the ideas could have been better explained.

Another easter egg you didn't mention is the allusion to Narnia, when Piranesi recalls his dream of the faun talking to a female child in a snowy forest x)

I love your last theory!!!! This fits perfectly!

I'm reading Piranesi now and from the beginning I see that The Other is continuously gaslighting Piranesi.

thank you for that excellent analysis and interesting perspective! I just finished reading the book for the first time and will definitely throw myself into it soon again. what I wanted to say is that I saw a lot of parallels to Plato's allegory of the cave. did anyone else?

I just finished the book and came to YT to understand it better. I just want to add that throughout I thought that Piranesi is a very sweet character and the 'house' he's in represents either a bad physical or mental state he's trapped in, so he invents all these exciting rooms, which would appear quite monotonous and boring to a normal person. I thought it was really sweet how he constantly had some work to do, and kept himself occupied, it felt like some trauma response.

Hi ! (I'm french so forgive me if some of my sentences are weird haha) I don't know if you read her other novel "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell", but when I read "Piranesi", it reminded me of a scene in the first book in which one of the characters has to "use madness" to enter another place/realm (I read it a long time ago but as I remember it, one character has to meet with a "crazy old woman" who lives alone in a old and poor flat in Venice, she doesn't really speak to him or anything, but just being at her side makes him get some of this necessary madness to enter - in this case - a kind of a "feary realm". And this real is full of bridges and doors and you can get lost in it, so kind of a maze). For me it's one of the only things that links both books, but it's a very strong link. At the end of Piranesi I thought like "aaaaah ok I see what she did there", it's this kind of "opening the doors of perception" as Huxley says, using drugs or using "madness" as we used to call mental illness. And in "Piranesi", my theory was that the Guru entered some other world using drugs, but maybe his experience didn't last long enough. So he tried this experience of "using" young and mentally ill people to recreate and study this "realm". However, is this world real or is it just in ones head ? I don't really have an opinion on that, but as you said : keeping someone who's mentally ill emprisonned, badly treated in the dark can make them hallucinate a world that some psycho guru would consider as "another realm", and maybe these young people have also been brainwashed by this guru and the doctor in believing in an other realm too. Well that was just my thoughts about "Piranesi". I think that's the power of this book = it's very short but has so many layers that we could just talk about it for hours !

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What a great list! Made me add a lot of books to my TBR list 🙂

I really enjoyed your book analysis. Throughout my reading of the book, I kept going back and forth between the idea of the Other being a cult leader that had brainwashed Piranesi or the house and the Other representing mental health (schizophrenia or something of that nature came to mind) and the police officer being a psychologist trying to bring Matthew back from the illusions he was creating in his mind. I was more inclined towards the second theory, but still felt there were holes in both of them based on different elements mentioned in the book. I do like you adding the element of multiple personalities and PTSD to the mental health theory.

I don't agree with your theory of him having DID. Because he has been brainwashed and led to believe he is Piranesi, somewhere in his subconscious he knows this not to be true

Jim Morrison from the group The Doors, named his group after the quote The Doors of Perception....

Hi. I think there is 13 skeletons. Piranesi and the 'Other' makes 15 so that's why they talk about 16.

🙏👇👇📖 What Must I Do To Be Saved? This is the most important question in human existence and one whose answer is clearly outlined in scripture. In order to be saved we must first realize our true state of sinfulness before God and know that He alone can save us, cleanse us, and give us eternal life. Scripture tells us that Jesus is the only way and we can not have access to God through any other means. In fact, in John 14:6, Jesus plainly stated..."I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." God Loves You! God loves you so much that he made a way for you, through the shed blood of his son so that you might be able to spend eternity with Him. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life” ( Jn. 3:16 ). Man is a Sinner, and Sin has Separated him from God! You may think you are a good person but being good is not enough! Every man has sinned and there is none that is righteous before God! “For there is not a just man upon Earth, that doeth good and sinneth not” ( Eccl. 7:20 ). “For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Jesus Christ is the Only Remedy for Sin! Jesus Christ is the only remedy for sin. We can not be good enough to get into heaven, nor can our good works get us there. There was no other way for God to erase the effect of sin except by blood. The shedding of Christ's blood indicated that the penalty for sin had been paid; a perfect sinless life had been sacrificed for the lives of all who have sinned. “. . .Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins” ( Hebrews 9:22 ) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God...” ( I Pet. 3:18 ). “Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” ( Acts 4:12 ). You Must Receive Jesus Christ as Your Lord and Savior To be saved, a man must confess that Jesus is Lord, while acknowledging in his heart that Christ must have full rule over his life. This confession of Christ as Lord assumes that it is Christ who will work and fulfill His own righteousness within man, as man is unable to attain righteousness of his own accord. Jesus calls this experience the “new birth.” He told Nicodemus: “. . . Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” ( Jn. 3:3 ).
We invite you now to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name” ( Jn. 1:12 ). Pray this Prayer and Mean it with all Your Heart Dear Lord Jesus, I realize that I am a sinner and have broken your laws. I understand that my sin has separated me from you. I am sorry and I ask you to forgive me. I accept the fact that your son Jesus Christ died for me, was resurrected, and is alive today and hears my prayers. I now open my heart’s door and invite Jesus in to become my Lord and my Saviour. I give Him control and ask that He would rule and reign in my heart so that His perfect will would be accomplished in my life. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Congratulations! If you prayed this prayer in all sincerity, you are now a Child of God. However there are a few things that you need to do to follow up on your commitment. * Get baptized ( full immersion) in water as commanded by Christ * Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ. * Spend time with God each day through prayer and Bible reading * Seek fellowship with other followers of Jesus

I loved this book. I read it while a very close friend of mine was (and is still) battling with mental health issues so while the story unfolds, Piranesi suffering from mental health issues was the first thing that came to my mind. I'd love to give this book to my friend to read but I don't know what she would make of it...

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I had the same thought while reading this book the first time. A couple of years ago I worked with a young person who was diagnosed with DID and it felt so familiar to how she talked about her experiences with her alters. I thought maybe I was reaching or was reading too much into this especially since we don't have any information about his childhood. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and making me not feel crazy for seeing this in the story.

Thank you for your analysis. I think you're the only TH-camr that had a similar line of thought. Please if you didn't read the book, ignore my comment. I devoured this book in two days. Simply couldn't put it down. When I was through part 3 I started to have hints The World was a manifestation of his consciousness. As the book goes on, I was convinced Piranesi had some sort of multiple personality that he was suppressing and that perhaps The world was his safe place, he created to protect himself from something. In the end, I understood the story as being an allegory to a mental disorder manifested (or maybe preexistent and just nurtured in the cult) because of the captivity. There is just so much to talk about the book and the character... utterly brilliant!

I loved the review. I think that the mental health reading of the book is a must yet there is no need to settle to one diagnosis but rather to focus on the essence of Trauma. The reason why the characters don't remember their families (the brainwashed woman also did not remember her past) is probably more metaphorical because Trauma creates a Before and After. This is why multiple conditions can be associated with the events of the story. PTSD is another possibility. The memory loss, I believe, is more metaphorical. The association with Pan - panic led me to think that Trauma is the center of the story. Unlike Shutter Islan where a realistic crime story unveils a mental breakdown, Piranesi stays in the realm of magical realism where there is no one concrete answer ruthed in reality.

Love this viewpoint, it's so interesting to hear everyone's theories. I wondered if there was a subtle reference to the cult of Dionysus within the book. This is referenced within the novel The Secret History by Donna Tart ( which I also recommend) and some parts of Piranesi read similarly. Especially at the house when Huxley is mentioned, and psychedelic states (there are also rituals in the cult of Dionysus that use skulls). I wondered if the doctors were trying to reach the euphoric god-like state of nothingness - essentially to become nature itself. The aim of the rituals surrounding the cult of Dionysus was to remove inhibitions and social constraints, therefore liberating the individual to return to a natural state at one with nature, and devoid of social constructs aka in my mind Piranesi. The cult of Dionysus is strongly associated with the form of a Saytr (half man half goat) which also, interestingly adorns the front cover. You can find out a little more about the cult of Dionysus here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Dionysus I'd love to know what you think!

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The crossover was needless. And Alex kind of messed up the writing in this one. But I do hope The Fury would come out a good read.

This is a more sensible review. I saw a review of another TH-camr say it was, effectively, a celebration of life! Weird.

Susana Clarke, the author, has written a bit about her thinking behind this book. It wasn't begun as a metopher for any one thing (though it is certainly a layered story that contained many metaphors about many things), it began with her longtime interest in the Piranesi drawings and the images of the house of and Piranesi house that came into her mind, and evolved from there. But Clarke realized part-way through writing that it was a metaphor for her experience of isolation from the world through ten years or so chronic fatigue syndrome so severe that she was frequently bed-bound and could no longer write. (My understanding is that she still has chronic fatigue syndrome, but that she had some significant improvement in symptoms, and started writing Piranesi once she was well enough to write again). I also have chronic fatigue syndrome, and this book was incredibly relatable to me on this level. This illness and the limitations and isolation it imposes, are a surreal existance, and one that feels almost completely cut off from who you were before you became ill. There's a very real way in which you lose your *self*, and can even forget the fullness and vibrancy with which you used to live life. And it feels like the world forgets you too. And certainly it feels like a prison. I can't remember if she said this or not, but I think that Raphael, the police detective who finds Piranesi, is meant to be her husband: the one person who could break through the veil of illness and see her for who she really was. And I'm pretty sure the researcher who studies Piranesi represents, at least somewhat, doctors, who are extremely unhelpful with chronic fatigue syndrome. I don't think every single thing in the book is meant to symbolize some aspect of living with chronic fatigue syndrome, I don't think she meant it to be read as such a direct allegory, it is also simply a story that she wanted to tell, and through which she explored many ideas. I would be very surprised if certain that mental illness and cults were on her mind to some degree as she wrote. And, of course, everything I wrote above about chronic fatigue syndrome is true for many people who experience mental illnesses too. I was very interested to hear your review of one of my all time favorite books (her first book, Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrel is also one of my all time favorites even though it's sooooooo different!). But I'd recommend looking up what Susanna Clark has written and said in interviews about this book, I think you'll find it interesting!

Just finished it! I get the impression that it is purposefully ambiguous to promote discussion and intrigue. Multiple personalities is an interesting one I hadn’t considered. There’s also mentions at some point in it about psychedelics. Some of these can appear to create alternate worlds that some people believe might be real places or planes of existence

I just read the book and one detail that it is so important are the multavitaminics that the other gives to piranesi that really make me imagine piranesi being kidnaping and remaining alive trough this , also makes me think the other world it was more an escape of reality another state of mind but not whit drougs but only perception ?

Great Review

Hello, may I ask, does the book have any LGBTQ characters or themes or any hints of those? Is it an appropriate book to read in general?!

Brilliant take on this book! I had a tough time with this book as the beginning was so overly descriptive, but am glad I stuck with it. I found the last couple of pages very touching when Matthew said to the old man he was actually a king!

I feel that Piranesi is more of an analogy for a lot of the mental health experiences you talked about, without literally being the case in the book. From the text it seems that it is very apparent that the House is real. It is a physical place where people's actual bodies enter. 16 goes back there even after Piranesi leaves because she likes the quiet. Piranesi even brought his decorations back from it in the "real" world. It is also apparent that the dissociative personality is a result of the House itself, and it is known by both the Other and the Prophet that spending time within the House causes this dissociation. All that being said, the book does seem to clearly approach mental illness from this perspective; that it is a bittersweet place that is Real and is experienced not just a state of mind. That there is a quiet beauty to the solitude and peace of dissociation, that may be a positive experience after too long being scraped raw by the noise of the "real" world. That's why the other captive cries when they return, and it's why 16 goes there on her own after discovering it's existence. The books also implies that there is a clarity to this state, in the last chapter when Piranesi can see the truth of people from their statues rather than the appearance they show the world. Very good book, lots of food for thought.

I enjoyed how the house is given a universal spirit that the character confides in and seeks care and comfort from as a way to anchor his heart to something with purpose 🌹

As someone who hasn't read the Silent Patient, I was wondering who tf Theo Faber was. He literally was thrown in for 2 chapters and then at the end but there was no real reason for him being there except for the connection of him working with Zoe at the end of the book. I had no idea it was supposed to be a little nugget for readers who were familiar with the author's previous work. As a stand alone novel I would've expected a better introduction to the character and a better connection between him and Mariana besides sharing Ruth???? At least. And I completely agree with everything you said omg you put all my feelings into words. Why does every male character want to get with her??? She's the dullest, WORST therapist I've ever read. What therapist has such a lack of boundaries that it puts herself in direct danger??? What therapist would tolerate a patient blatantly stalking them for a prolonged period of time?????I was also upset that while as a reader, we got little hints at Zoe's double life and true nature we had absolutely no sprinkled hints on Sebastian's true nature. Sure you could argue it's because the book was written in Mariana's point of view and subsequently her extremely rose tinted view on her husband but little hints of the truth will always shine through. We could've heard little comments from at least the characters surrounding Mariana like we did for Zoe. Something to not completely blindside us in the last 10 pages of a book. And the weird repetition with all the males going for young women, and the over sexualization of said women was very loud indeed. It makes me seriously wonder why the author kept repeating it too...

I've heard some people with the dissociative condition you mentionned talk about this inner world they have in their head. Supposedly it can be anything, a room, a forest whatever, where their other personnalities are staying until they actually get triggered and start to front and be the one talking for the body. Is it possible that piranesi is a new personnality (because we know those people create new ones, or discover new ones from time to time) and that this labyrinth is the place he stays ? And then, somehow Matthew who would be the host of this system i can imagine, is the one that fronts again when the police officer find him ? And we know some traumatic events, like an abduction, can create fusions on certain personnalities, so maybe the fact that by the end he is not really Matthew nor piranesi, would be a sign of that ? (I'm sorry i hope it makes sense, english isn't my first langage)

The problem is we are given two major wild cards: 1) a very unreliable narrator, 2) a fantastical world or environment in which he lives. That is enough to conclude that all bets are off regarding what anything really is, means, or is caused by. This book begins with a very long, and to me dull, laundry list of fantasy items or elements, the narrator's inventory of his world; overall I think it should have been a short story. What stands out most prominently for me is that it reminded me of two other writings: 1) Plato's cave allegory, and 2) Kafka's The Burrow. The first, of course, deals with peoples' contentment living in a world of mere representations because they lack awareness and understanding of the world of objects. The second deals with a character who has a pre-occupation with maintaining and improving his dwelling with its many many rooms and passages.

I'd like to preface this by saying that I found this video to be very insightful and wonderful to watch. As I read the book, I found Matthew/Piranesi to be a very endearing and relatable character, and through this video, I may have learned something about myself! To that I say, thank you I'm not sure what this says about me, and it might just be because of my preferences in writing, but I'm a bigger fan of the belief that the House, at least in the story, was an actual place. For one, its quite improbable that multiple people can all hallucinate the exact same area with the exact same dimensions and features. And though it is true that Piranesi/Matthew was stuck in there and had to be rescued eventually, the House itself was never malevolent, in fact the protagonist really liked it there. Even after he was rescued, it is implied that he can and does go back to there whenever he pleases, and he still holds it with reverence, adhering to the thought that it had immeasurable beauty and infinite kindness. He clearly needed to be rescued, not from the house itself, but from someone keeping him and taking advantage of his connection to the house. To me, his reverence and admiration for the house is a sign of his sense of wonder to the world around him, that though the house was infinite and he could never in his lifetime chronicle every hall, vestibule, and statue, the sheer space of the house was enough for him, and that he could witness its beauty. Even at the end of all the conflict, and learning the truth, he believes that he is still "The Beloved Child of the House". When his identity as Matthew was gone, the House provided him with another one, still full of meaning. There is even a conversation that he has with Raphael that the House is in no way inferior to the "Other" world even if it does have "real" mountains rather than statues of them. Even though Piranesi/Matthew is a native of the "other" world, and it would be best to stay there, the house is and always have a place in his heart and will always be a thing worth witnessing to him, even if it is for a little bit every now and then. It would be a great shame if none of that was real. Of course, this is all fiction, and everything can be a metaphor to something. Whether if it was real or not, it clearly served as an avenue of self-discovery for Piranesi/Matthew. No matter if the House was real or not in a narrative sense, its clear that the impact it had on our dear Protagonist, and us, is very much so.

267. Points. Julie 😊🎉❤

I'm not a mental health professional, but I was definitely questioning whether the House/Labyrinth was real or if it was all just in the main character's head. He's an unreliable narrator as explained in the book itself, so we know he's not trustworthy. They found Ritter in Arne-Sayers house, rather than in the Labyrinth. I also found it strange that the protagonist starts out (timeline-wise) as just Matthew Rose Sorensen, then becomes Piranesi, then after leaving, he describes himself as yet a third unnamed person including both Sorensen and Piranesi, so I can absolutely buy the multiple personalities diagnosis. Overall I think it's the author's intent to leave us questioning and not to grant us the answers, as it's way more interesting to consider the possibilities rather than to be hit over the head with the answer. Masterfully done by Susanna Clarke.

this video deserves more vues! U should make a tiktok about it :)

That white item that says “Once Upon ATime” is a band to hold your hair back when you’re washing your face or doing your makeup! It’s so cute! Definitely not a belt! 😂