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. Two parts of the story in particular gave me absolute chills. The first was when Piranesi was on the moon-quest from the Other, and he came to the windowless hall that was blacker than black. And so it stayed until night fell and the moon rose and then he realized that this darkness was populated with statues all crafted to marvel at the moon, to forever wait for the fleeting glimpse of its beauty. That straight-up blew me away. It was such a wonderful image of absolute awe, coupled with this prior assumption of the hall's emptiness and inherent terror. Then go have Piranesi remark that for the first time, he felt a part of a crowd! Chills. The second was quite in the end, when the whole theory of the House is being proposed as ideas and knowledge that have sunk down into the earth and essentially stalagmited their way into the House; they're described as water, and instantly, I thought of the Tides booming in the depths, and how they must be steadily eroding further and further down, that the Hall's depths are not filled with external water but rather very artistic water that has trickled down and carven out an entire world, and will continue to expand up that world with the endlessness of knowledge. Oof, so many chills. I also quite enjoyed the way the House was not viewed as Something Bad, in the end. 16 (whose real name escapes me) eventually comes around to Piranesi not wanting to leave this place, in viewing it as beautiful, and that it is a place of comfort and peace that he does return to, accompanied by the other victim of the cult, who also was desperate to return. I felt like there was something to the anticipation of madness in staying there, and the converse contentment that Piranesi received, but I couldn't really parse the idea more than that. An interesting vibe, though. Anyway, this book is just wonderful. I'm glad I found someone who's talking about it! Thanks for the video; it definitely provided perspectives I would never be able to consider ✌️

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.

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!

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".

A book like no other. It is genius.

Thanks for talking us through this with insight and grace.

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.

A great interpretation of a great book. Thank you so much.

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. Thanks, this was a great impetus to plunge into the book and it was deeply satisfying.

Brilliant! I did also think of plato's cave when i read the book!

Glad I found this. Keep up the great work. Amazing analysis. :)

Thanks for your insights Mark. Looking forward to reading this. Best. Paul.

Such a beautiful review. Thank you.

What a great analysis. Thank you.

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 for your wonderful video!

Wonderful! Thank you !!

Thank you so much Mark. I knew this book was brilliant but wasn't sure how. You are brilliant at literary criticism. Bless you.

Your review, like the book, was a meditative experience. Thank you.

Great analysis! Thank you for sharing!

Wonderful insight

I was thinking of reading Piranesi, your recommendation seals the deal!

SPOILERS You articulated your analysis very well. I was definitely intuiting something similar but was having trouble solidifying the thoughts. When piranesi is talking to the other I think it becomes more and more apparent the nothingness or wholeness that piranesi represents against the single pointed knowing and seekingness of the other. At one point the other comments on how the world is dead, and piranezi comments that although the tide isn’t alive in the traditional sense, it is certainly alive in another. The other had already written the tide and world off as known and thus was blinded to it. He was blind to piranesi waving to him in the beginning of the book just like he was blind to the remarkable world around him. I think that it’s ironic the other sought an ancient power to become invisible or turn into an eagle yet he had already found out a way to shift into a different dimension. He said that it wasn’t enough and continued seeking something more. The prophet realized the error in that thinking and essentially accepted that this was all there was like piranesi did, but the prophet was a narcissist and so his acceptance manifested differently. I guess the main difference in how the house effected pirenesi vs the prophet is that the person piranesi was died. the prophet saw it clearly but did not die. I think that this book ultimately illustrates how we are surrounded by “god” as you say, but some of us are blind to it, some of us seem glimpse it but it does not “kill” us, and some of us it annihilates. Idk it’s very interesting book.

Great review

Great video

Loved this. New sub! Hey 👐

your beard is kinda heart shaped, that's so cool

Thank you for a wonderful review. I think my starting place for the book centered more around the character of the other. You did not mention his name, which might have been a spoiler. He is the grandson of the magician in the CS Lewis book The magician's nephew. I think there's a closer connection to Lewis's understanding of the wood between the worlds and the notion that there are many different places and ways as you say, to understand God. I would be curious if you were familiar with the Lewis book the magician's nephew, and his dialogues that Lewis had with Owen Barfield and Charles Williams?

Try The Soul Gene.

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.

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.