행복을 빌게요, 이젠 안녕

i’m going to be really honest with you guys i think the tendency to read the absolute worst possible intentions into every action you don’t agree with is getting too automatic and it’s eating you from the inside out

Ogtha the cockroach wife

I've had enough of your nonsense. fuck you. go into the labyrinth and lose yourself. what? what do you mean you see beauty everywhere now? jesus christ.

I finished piranesi a little bit ago and loved it—also appreciated that mc is explicitly a biracial Ghanaian man bc it added another layer to the horrors of what happened to him (kidnapped, taken to a strange world, stripped of his identity, has to perform labor for his captor). ketterley is an imperialist; he sees the world as something to be conquered and its resources to be extracted. piranesi/matthew, beloved child of the house, views it as something with inherent value and not just a means to an end. he studies it with love and admiration and is deeply acquainted with it and the creatures who live there. the world cradles him, it drowns ketterley. rly good

the thing is, piranesi found the Great and Secret Knowledge. arne-sayles says that the Knowledge is what humanity lost over time to "progress" (which he imagines as the ability fly or to control the minds of others), but what was really lost is the appreciation of the natural beauty of the world, a devotion and loving kindness to others (including the dead, animals and your enemies) and respect for and reliance on the natural world. we lost that in our modern world due in part to ambition and the relentless pursuit of "progress" no matter what the cost. which is precisely why the Other cant access the Great and Secret Knowledge - because he is so focused on finding it he would take a man slave and barely spend any time in it. you can only have the Great and Secret Knowledge if you fully appreciate the House. you have to be its child. the Beauty of the House is immeasurable and its Kindness is infinite

What if underneath it all it’s all beauty??? What if underneath it all is just kindness??? What if you were tossed and beaten by the dark gray waves but you were saved every time??? What if you were not after all all alone????

My favorite part about Piranesi (the book) is that it's honestly told from the wrong perspective. The main character should be Raphael, the maverick cop who overcomes public doubt to solve a cold case and take down a cult. But Susanna Clarke was like hmmm actually what if we watched the missing guy talk to birds for 300 pages as the plot takes place offstage. and it was fire