What if the world as you knew it consisted of infinite rooms and staircases, each partially flooded and filled with strange statues, and it only had two living people in it? That would be nuts right?

Anyway, I read Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke, and that’s the world in which the titular character finds himself.

Notably, Clarke has only written two novels in her career, they were 16 years apart (“Jonathan Srange and Mr Norrell” in 2004 and “Piranesi” in 2020), and both were award-winning massive bestsellers, beloved by critics and readers alike.

Piranesi lives in a realm of infinite rooms and staircases, inhabited by birds and fish and shined on by the sun and moon and stars, and in which seawaters routinely rise and fall. He has a rather meager existence as he lives off fish and seaweed and catalogues the various rooms, and he is grateful that the world is generous enough to provide for him. For the most part he’s the only person around, except occasionally he runs into one more guy he calls “The Other.” He also knows of 15 human skeletons that he has names for.

Clarke did plenty of historical research and makes a lot of allusions in the work. It’s rather literary, and the whole thing is quite a surrealist artsy story and it’s much loved by people who enjoy sophisticated things.

I am, perhaps, not very sophisticated.

To me this felt like the kind of book I’d be assigned to read in high school. It was rather dry and boring to my unsophisticated palate, though short enough to breeze through in several sittings. I predicted most of the mystery in advance, and as things happened I’d be like, “alright.” When something occasionally did surprise me, it was always mildly to the downside. Like someone tells you lunch will be a mystery, and then come lunchtime it’s revealed to be a sandwich.

I know a lot of people who rave about this book, so it’s been on my to-read list for a while, and now I have that good feeling of finished homework. When people talk about Piranesi I can be like, “Ah, yes, Piranesi. Fine literature, that is.”

who’s first nostr:npub1rtlqca8r6auyaw5n5h3l5422dm4sry5dzfee4696fqe8s6qgudks7djtfs or nostr:npub1guh5grefa7vkay4ps6udxg8lrqxg2kgr3qh9n4gduxut64nfxq0q9y6hjy

GM #nostr.

Gym time. Proof of work. 🧡

Summers are for grilling.

Let's see your creativity

The Rule of St. Benedict laid the foundations of European monastic life, which transformed the continent by the fruits of a balanced life of prayer and work. A humble obedience to God's will is a natural promotion of low time preference.

Ora et labora.

Stay humble, stack sats.

Confession time. I wanted to see John McAfee eat his own dick. I thought he was the perfect combination of crazy and sincere enough to actually do it.

dinner #foodstr

cooking is very cool

I think it’s a very underrated skill these days. It’s like everyone “can” cook, but there are certain milestones that separate someone who can cook from someone who truly understands every step of the process

I don’t know how it is for everyone, but for me, it's very challenging.

I always feel doubt, fear making mistakes, and there are quite a lot of variables you can’t always control

my today’s meal:

- 550g of steak wet aged

- 100g of sausage

- 100g of halloumi cheese

- some garlic

Today is the, "Should I buy more?" and "Think it'll dip lower?" message day

homemade seed oil free airplane birthday cake

(my son’s idea 😂)