still thinking about piranesi... so many angles to look at his character, his story, his relationship with the House.
like, obviously he's asterion, not theseus. he's the minotaur in daedalus's labyrinth. the labyrinth doesn't hate him, and minos can't let him die. if piranesi is the minotaur, then raphael must be theseus, but not theseus alone. she's theseus and ariadne wrapped into one, ariadne who needs someone to rescue, theseus who needs a monster to destroy.
of course, piranesi is also adam in God's garden. the House provides, it always does, it responds to his needs and expectations: he sees a great stiff-winged white bird, and he names it, transforming a airplane into an albatross. he is tempted, mocked, led astray, but eve saves him and joins up with him against the serpent and his gun. and piranesi is rewarded with open access to eden, the freedom to step in and out and always be welcome, rewarded so much so that the House sends gifts to him in the form of his statues visiting him in the Old World, in the park.
he is eleanor in hill house. i am home. the House wants him, it needs him, who ever has loved and known and listened and belonged to the house as truly as nell? who is worth the price of blood and death, who has died and been reborn permanently in the House? who sees into the soul and the divine abyss and loves something that is so open, begging, yearning to love and be loved, except eleanor? who is the perfect victim?
the common element, of course, is that he is the Beloved Child of the House. he is loved and redeemed in a way the minotaur could not have been, because he is shown mercy and patience not only by the Eternal House, but by the people It sends to him. his needs are taken care of, always. the House even rescues him from immortality, from any possible vast powers he has no need nor want of. he is allowed to leave eden, he is allowed to survive hill house, because the Eternal House is not in another realm. it is in his mind, he is in the labyrinth always, and even when he is not at home, he is home. when the House has finished molding him, he can step into it as easily as breathing from anywhere, and it visits him as the labyrinth cannot, as eden cannot, as hill house cannot. he changes but remains the same, attuned, beloved. and, most important of all—
he loves the House back.
