Meandering Through the Writings of Others as a Practice of Lament: Piranesi

“Heart of Flowers, Ambleside Pier” Artist unknown, photo by DS

Here are my explorations:

Clarke, Susanna. Piranesi. 2020.

946 words

*** The Ninth Vestibule is remarkable for the three great Staircases I contains. Its walls are lined with marble Statues, hundreds and hundreds of them, Tier upon Tier, rising into the distant heights. *** [I] felt the walls vibrating with the force of what was about to happen. *** First came the Tides from the Far Eastern Halls. *** Its waters were no more than ankle deep. *** I realized I had made a mistake in calculating the volumes . . . *** Then just as suddenly as it began, it was over. *** The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite. *** I am determined to explore as much of the World as I can in my lifetime. *** I have explored the Drowned Halls where the Dark Waters are carpeted with white water lilies. I have seen the Derelict Halls of the East where Ceiling, Floors – sometimes even Walls! – have collapsed and the dimness is split by shafts of grey Light. *** I have never seen any indication that the World is coming to an end . . . *** I have begun a Catalogue in which I intend to record the Position, Size and Subject of each Statue, and any other points of interest. *** The Windows of the House look out upon Great Courtyards; barren, empty places paved with stone. *** Outside the House there are only the Celestial Objects: Sun, Moon, and Stars. *** The Upper Halls are . . . the domain of the Clouds . . . *** The Lower Halls provide nourishment in the form of fish, crustaceans and sea vegetation. *** The Upper Halls have fresh water , which is shed in the Vestibules in the form of Rain and flows in Streams down Walls and Staircases. *** Between these two (largely uninhabitable) Levels are the Middle Halls, which are the Domain of birds and of men. *** The Beautiful Orderliness of the House is what gives us Life. *** On the other side of the Courtyard I saw the Other looking out of the Window. *** I waved to him. *** Of the fifteen people whose existence is verifiable, only Myself and the Other are now living. *** I am between thirty and thirty-five years of age . . . the Other’s age . . . between fifty and sixty. *** He is a scientist like me . . . I value his friendship highly. *** The Other believes there is a Great and Secret Knowledge hidden somewhere in the World that will grant enormous powers once we have discovered it . . . *** I write down what I observe in my notebooks. *** One of my notebooks is my Table of Tides. *** There are some Statues that I love more than the rest. The Woman carrying a Beehive is one of them. *** I have noticed something. I have used two systems to number the years. How could I not have noticed this before? *** I am guilty of bad practice. *** Is it disrespectful to the House to love some Statues more than others? *** It is my belief that the House itself loves and blesses equally everything that it has created. *** It is the nature of men to prefer one thing to another . . . *** Do trees exist . . . Many things are unknown . . . a leaf, very beautiful, with two sides curving to a point at each end . . . its surface repelled Water, like something meant to live in Air. *** You need to find out if I am telling the truth. *** “That is exactly what I am doing.” We both laughed. ***  There is no danger. *** I went to the Eighth Vestibule to fish. *** The Other suspended his work on the Great and Secret Knowledge and cancelled our meetings because he said it was too cold to stand about talking. *** I saw a vision! In the dim Air above the grey Waves hung a white, shining cross. *** I returned to my work of gathering seaweed. The albatross walked about the Hall. His greyish pinkish feet made loud slapping sounds on the Pavement. *** Perhaps the wisdom of birds resides not in the individual, but in the flock, the congregation. *** If we perform the Ritual at night, you can address the Invocation to a Star. A star is a source of power and energy. *** About a year ago. My shoes fell apart. *** A list of things the Other has given me *** The Other explains that he has said all this before *** The Other warns me about 16 *** I consider the words of the Prophet *** More people to kill *** Violet had been the dominant note, with hints of cloves, blackcurrent and rose. *** No one has ever written to me before. *** The Ancients have a different way of relating to the world, that they experienced it as something that interacted with them. *** The lights of the cars were pixilated by rain; the pavements collaged with wet black leaves. *** I explained that I was chiefly interested in transgressive ideas, in the people who formulate them, and how they are received by the various disciplines – religion, art, literature, science, mathematics and so forth. *** He began to laugh. *** I could see now that he was apprehensive in case one day I remembered. *** This is where I lost Myself. *** These imaginings left me ravaged. *** She tapped her shining little device. *** What is the Other World like? *** It’s such an astonishing place. ***

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