What Does It Mean?
People who love Piranesi often disagree about what it is really about. A strange book gives a group something real to argue over. How do you defend a reading without sounding certain, or giving it all away?
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- Think of a book, film or painting that people disagree about. What exactly do they disagree about?
- Do you prefer stories that explain everything or stories that leave questions open? Why?
- When you disagree with a friend about a book, what do you do?
The vocabulary of this story
Ten items. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
A · What do they mean here? Work it out from the context
Read the sentence, guess the meaning of the word in bold, then reveal.
B · Which term means…?
Three terms: read into · come down on one side · agree to disagree. Say the right one, then reveal.
C · Which word completes all three phrases?
One missing word fits every phrase in the group. Say it, then reveal.
Now use them — out loud
- What is a recurring theme in the books you like?
- Have you ever changed your interpretation of a book after talking to someone else?
- When do you agree to disagree, and when do you keep arguing?
The story, in three parts
Read each part. After it, answer the quick check from memory, then discuss one question.
Part 1 — A strange book from an unexpected author
Susanna Clarke was already well known for her first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a long, witty book about magic in nineteenth-century England. Piranesi, published in 2020, is much shorter and stranger. It won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2021 and found a large audience.
The title is the name that the narrator is given. It also points to a real person: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an eighteenth-century Italian artist who made large, dramatic etchings of imaginary buildings, among them an enormous series of prisons with endless stairs and chambers.
That reference is useful because it sets the book's mood. The pictures are beautiful and a little frightening, and it is not always clear whether you are looking at a palace or a prison.
1. Who is Susanna Clarke?
2. Where does the title come from?
3. What mood does the reference create?
1. A writer who was already famous for her first novel, a long book about magic in nineteenth-century England.
2. From the name the narrator is given, and from an eighteenth-century Italian artist who drew imaginary buildings.
3. Beautiful and a little frightening, with a palace that could also be a prison.
- Have you ever looked at a picture and been unable to decide whether it was beautiful or frightening? What decided it?
Part 2 — Some of the readings
Readers have offered many ways of understanding the House. Some see it as a kind of heaven or sacred place, where attention to beauty is a form of prayer. Others see it as a prison dressed up as a gift, a place built to keep a person quiet. Some read it as an image of the mind, with its halls of memory and its tides of feeling. Others read it as a story about recovering from something harmful, or about how we look after the natural world.
None of these readings is the official one. The author does not say. Part of the book's character is that all of them can be defended with evidence from the text, and that each reader will feel one reading more strongly.
That is why the book is such a good one for a club. You are not trying to find the right answer. You are trying to make a good case and to listen to someone else's.
1. Give two readings of the House.
2. Is there an official reading?
3. Why is the book good for a club?
1. Any two: a sacred place, a prison, the mind, a story about recovery, a comment on how we treat nature.
2. No. The author does not say.
3. Because each reading can be defended and the aim is a good argument, not the right answer.
- Which reading appeals to you most, and which would you find hardest to accept?
Part 3 — Arguing well
A good discussion of a book like this follows a simple order. First, say what the text says. Second, say what points to your reading, one quotation, an image, a pattern. Third, say what you think it means. If you jump straight to the third step, the others may feel that you are only giving an opinion.
It is also useful to say what would change your mind. A reading that nothing could challenge is not a reading but a belief. And when someone disagrees, the best response is often a question: What in the text makes you say that?
At the end of a good meeting you may not agree. But you should be able to say, in your own words, what the other person's reading is and why a sensible person might hold it.
1. What is the order of a good discussion?
2. What else is useful to say?
3. What should you be able to do at the end?
1. Say what the text says, say what points to your reading, then say what it means.
2. What would change your mind.
3. Say the other person's reading in your own words and explain why a sensible person might hold it.
- Have you ever changed your mind about a book because of a conversation? What did the other person say?
How the tool works
A reading is only as good as the evidence for it. The Reading Ladder has three rungs, from bottom to top: text (what the book says), clue (what points to your idea) and reading (what you think it means). You build from the bottom and say each rung aloud.
Using it, step by step
- Text: start with something concrete. The narrator says that the House is kind and that it provides for him.
- Clue: choose what points to your reading. But he also never asks how he came to be there, and he is not able to leave.
- Reading: now say what it means, with a hedge. I think this suggests that the House may be both a gift and a trap.
- Invite the other view: finish with a question. What do you see in the same passage?
Try it yourself
Each sentence is part of a discussion of the book. Which rung of the Reading Ladder is it?
1. Text — a fact from the book, with no interpretation.
2. Reading — it says what the details may mean.
3. Clue — it points to a pattern that supports a reading.
4. Text — a plain description of what the narrator does.
5. Reading — a personal interpretation.
6. Clue — a detail the reader could use as evidence.
7. Text — a fact from the story.
8. Reading — an interpretation with a hedge.
Where the tool breaks
Reading too much into it. If one detail is carrying the whole argument, look for a second.
Treating a reading as the answer. Say I read it as, not it is.
Spoilers. In a group, say I'd like to talk about the ending, is that all right? before you start.
- Which rung do you tend to skip, and what happens when you do?
- Can a reading be wrong? What would make it a weak one?
Its cousins
Language — Giving and defending an interpretation
When you give a reading, the grammar signals how strongly you hold it. A few expressions let you be confident without sounding as if you were stating a fact.
1. Which phrase?
Complete each sentence with a phrase from the box. Use each once: could be argued · would point to · see what you mean · not sure I would go.
1. It that the House is a form of protection.
2. I the way he never asks where he came from.
3. I , but I read the scene differently.
4. I am as far as saying he is a prisoner.
1. could be argued — a hedged claim
2. would point to — introduces evidence
3. see what you mean — acknowledges the other view
4. not sure I would go — a polite limit
2. Disagree politely
Write one word in each gap.
1. That is an interesting , but I read the scene differently. (a thing someone has said that is worth thinking about)
2. I am not I agree. What in the book makes you say that?
3. I see you mean, but I would read it another way.
4. One way of at it is that the House is a kind of prison.
1. point — an interesting point
2. sure — I am not sure I agree
3. what — I see what you mean
4. looking — one way of looking at it
Now give your own reading of the book in four sentences. Use a text, a clue and a hedged reading, and invite another view.
Speak
Choose a task, start the timer and talk. On your own it works as a talk; with a partner or a group, take turns and respond to each other.
Give your reading of the book in one minute. Climb the ladder: say what the book says, what points to your idea, and what you think it means.
Choose a reading that you do not hold. Present it as fairly as you can, with evidence. Then say what makes you prefer your own.
Your partner gives a reading that you find hard to accept. Respond politely, ask what in the book makes them say that, and say one thing you agree with.
To finish — the harder questions
- Does it matter what the author meant? Is there a right reading of a book?
- Are books that leave questions open better than books that answer them?
- What is the difference between disagreeing with a reading and disagreeing with a person?
- From memory: describe the Reading Ladder in five sentences, using interpretation, it could be argued and agree to disagree.