Part Six: The Wave (with Leah Libresco Sargeant and Caitrin Keiper)

“Under the Wave off Kanagawa,” Katsushika Hokusai , 1830-1832

“He is dead. My only friend. My only enemy.”

— Susanna Clarke, PiranesiDear Friends,

Shaken to his core by learning the true nature of his situation, the man called Piranesi finds himself full of fury, rage, and a desire for revenge. Piranesi makes up his mind to confront the Other and protect 16 from the flood. Will what follows lead to healing or profound disillusionment?

I discussed Part Six with two of my co-conspirators from Plough: Leah Libresco Sargeant and Caitrin Keiper. We explored the parallels between Piranesi and Miranda from the Tempest, the innate pull toward friendship and community, the bittersweet resolution of Piranesi’s fraught relationship with the other, and whether it is possible to find peace in the complications of forgiveness. Caitrin was the editor of the review I wrote on Piranesi last November, which, in a way was where this whole book club began. Full circle!

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And now, some thoughts and themes to explore in this week’s chapter…

Anger makes me resourceful…

In this section we see something in Piranesi that we have never seen before, something that breaks our hearts to see: a desire for revenge. “Anger makes me resourceful” he says as he describes all the many ways in which he intends to kill the Other. In one sense, there is a justice in this response. We have been concerned for Piranesi so long. He has been vulnerable, and anger has arisen to protect him. Anger can be scary but it plays an important role. It jolts us into action. It breaks out of its cage to protect us from fear, injustice, sadness, helplessness.

And yet, unchecked anger will destroy a soul.

Seeming to echo Jesus’s words in the gospels that, “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” Piranesi feels as exhausted as if he has, in fact, murdered the other. It leaves him spent and confused. He is so pure hearted that he cannot sustain it very long. The remarkable thing about Piranesi is that he does not remain in a place of anger. Anger is the aberration, the interruption of what is more fundamental: love. 

“O brave new world, that has such people in it!”

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

The man called Piranesi’s journey is one from alienation to communion. Like many of our attempts at closeness, it is full of peril and hesitancy, and yet in this chapter we see Piranesi moving toward real friendship and companionship, something we as readers have found ourselves hoping for him. Caitrin illuminated this theme beautifully by observing the similarities between The Tempest and Piranesi. After being raised on a lonely Island all her life, when Miranda first sees other people she exclaims with delight “oh brave new world that has such people in it!” Of course, in Miranda’s case, we know that the people she is about to meet are the scum of the earth. But her earnest joy at connection shows how profoundly she longs for connection. Piranesi, too, is being drawn into the joy of closeness and community. 

For me, one of the most striking scenes in the book is when, after the flood is over, Piranesi guides Rafael (16) through the halls and she admires them as she should. He is like Adam with a newly found Eve. After the great tribulation they have endured, they find solace in each other and in the beauty of the House. After this experience together, Rafael invites Piranesi to return to the outside world, where his family and friends have been searching for him. This journey will require great bravery of Piranesi.

But we have faith in him.

Is the House good?

In this chapter, it seems very clear (to me!) that the House is real. But this leads us to the more fundamental question: is the beauty of the house really immeasurable? Its kindness infinite?

You may have noticed that each section of this book is named after a different character. I think the Wave is a manifestation of the House who is a character. It is an image of the sublime: the terrible and the beautiful. It is a manifestation of what Prophet and Other wished to achieve but thought they could control. As I read, I was reminded of the famous image of “The Great Wave” by Katsushika Hokusai. Art critic Edmond de Goncourt described it in the following way:

“The drawing of the wave is a deification of the sea made by a painter who lived with the religious terror of the overwhelming ocean completely surrounding his country; He is impressed by the sudden fury of the ocean’s leap toward the sky, by the deep blue of the inner side of the curve, by the splash of its claw-like crest as it sprays forth droplets.
”

— Edmond de Goncourt

Similarly, the wave gestures to wildness and mystery; just because the House is powerful doesn’t mean it is evil. It can be likened to a visual representation of God’s words to Job:

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

    Tell me, if you understand. 

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

    Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,

    or who laid its cornerstone—

while the morning stars sang together

    and all the angels[ a ] shouted for joy?

“Who shut up the sea behind doors

    when it burst forth from the womb,

when I made the clouds its garment

    and wrapped it in thick darkness,

when I fixed limits for it

    and set its doors and bars in place,

when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;

    here is where your proud waves halt’?
(Job 38:4-11)

This passage comes after Job’s anguished petitioning of God, asking how he can allow a good man to suffer. God’s answer to Job is such a puzzling one. He doesn’t justify sorrow, he gestures to a beauty that is grand and terrible, and somehow indisputable. In the jaws of the hippo and the rush of a wave that could swallow us alive, we glimpse a power and a beauty that speaks to us of God. If God is good, it is a goodness we cannot calculate or comprehend. Perhaps the same is true of the House.

And yet, like Job. Piranesi is not destroyed.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:Is the relationship between Piranesi and the Other a tragedy? Is there redemption in it?Should Piranesi leave the House? Does he need companionship? Why or why not?

Join in on the conversations over on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I can’t wait to hear all your thoughts!

Peace,
joy

P.S. In case you’ve forgotten, or this is your first week, this is how the book club works: We’ll read one chapter each week. I’ll post a podcast with a friend where we discuss the chapter (this week it’s with my brother Joel!). Then I’ll post discussion questions on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, where you can chime in with your ideas, opinions, thoughts and questions. That’s it! That’s all it involves! At least online. I always enjoy the discussions that take place in the comments, but I also strongly encourage you to start a real life bookclub! Really, it’s a lot of fun.

Today’s Guests… Caitrin KeiperCaitrin is a New Atlantis senior editor, and an editor-at-large of PloughQuarterly . She was previously editor of Philanthropy and managing editor of The New Atlantis. She tweets at @cnkeiper.

Caitrin was the editor on my review of Piranesi for Plough, so in a way she helped this whole thing get started. Thanks Caitrin! :)

Leah Libresco Sargeant

Leah is a freelance writer, covering religion, statistics, and as much theater as I can get tickets for. Her writing has appeared in First Things, America, The American Conservative, Commonweal, The American Interest, and others. She’s the author of Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers that Even I Can Offer.. She’s spoken on CNN, at Theology on Taps in multiple countries, at Chicago Ideas Week.