Episode 91: On Susanna Clarke's 'Piranesi'

In this episode, Phil and JF explore the vast palatial halls of Susanna Clarke's novel Piranesi. Set in an otherworld consisting of endless galleries filled with enigmatic statues, Piranesi is the story of a man who lives alone -- or nearly alone -- in a dream labyrinth. As usual, our discussion leads to unexpected places every bit as strange as Clarke's setting, from Borge's infinite library and Lovecraft's alien cities to Renaissance Europe, where the art of memory was synonymous with wisdom and magic.

SHOW NOTES

Susanna Clarke, Piranesi
Joshua Clover, 1989: Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About , The Matrix (BFI Modern Classics
John Crowley, Little, Big
Christopher Priest, The Prestige (+Christopher Nolan's screen adaptation)
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
JF Martel, "The Real as Sacrament" (forthcoming?)
Frances Yates, The Art of Memory
Mary Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture
Plato, Phaedrus
Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory
Jorge Luis Borges, "The Library of Babel"
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Carceri d'invenzione
Maurits Cornelis Escher, Duch artist
H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
Gyrus, North: The Rise and Fall of the Polar Cosmos
Emerald Tablet, foundational Hermetic text
Joshua Foer, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Weird Studies ep. 42 - On Pauline Oliveros, with Kerry O'Brien
Giovanni colleague?
Allen Ginsberg, "America"
Rodney Ascher, A Glitch in the Matrix
Walter J. Ong, American philosopher
Weird Studies ep. 71: The Medium is the Message
Thomas Ligotti, "The Night School"
Thomas Aquinas, Christian philosopher and theologian
Erasmus, Christian philosopher
Marsilio Ficino, Christian philosopher