Piranesi

On the 30th, the narrator mentions a gap in a previous journal when the winter weather caused his handwriting to deteriorate. He fills in this gap with descriptions of survival techniques involving seaweed and listening to the wind-song in statues. Focusing on a specific past day, he recalls seeing a cross and an albatross landing in a hall, as well as the bird returning with another bird later. Piranesi makes them a gift of dried seaweed for their nest, and they are able to hatch a chick. He explicitly states this event is the calendar marker used in his entries for “The Year The Albatross Came To The South-Western Halls” (21).

In a short entry covering the last day (the 31st) of the 5th month, Piranesi describes a cold morning, breakfast of soup, cataloguing statues, and birds gathering in one spot after a cloud penetrated a hall.

The first entry in the next (6th) month isn’t made until the 8th day. The narrator describes sections of the House (in the aforementioned cloud level) that were high enough to keep out the seawater and fill with rainwater, which he uses as a source for freshwater to drink and fish to eat. Naturally, this includes detailed descriptions of the statues over the water.

On the 10th day of the same month, Piranesi describes previous times of shying away from waters (like Ketterley does), and how he had to eventually venture out for food, so he created the Table of Tides. Also, he describes his first journey to the Drowned Halls (his previously mentioned freshwater source) when hunger made him less cautious. In his weakened state, he fell, but a statue’s hands caught him, saving his life.

The next day, the narrator contemplates the birds’ role in his world, upon seeing birds that “circled and spiraled, creating a whirling dance” (39). He tries to create a system of divining meaning from where a flock lands; alighting on the statues of Gardener and Woman carrying a Beehive is a sign to be industrious while fishing. He uses this fortune-telling device with other birds.

On the 15th, Ketterley is working on “The Ritual,” which includes summoning a long dead king named “Addy.” When Ketterley struggles, Piranesi suggests invoking a star from a specific, special hall. However, he has lost his shoes and cannot trek to the distant hall without them. Ketterley offers to provide new shoes.

On the 16th day, Piranesi finds a shoebox that has an octopus on it, which recalls an octopus statue. He tells the crows how much he loves his new shoes.

On the 17th, Piranesi makes a list of mundane items like a sleeping bag, water-collecting bowls, office supplies, and food that came from Ketterley. His gratitude is misplaced, we later discover. Piranesi does not realize that Ketterley has imprisoned him. 

On the 18th, the narrator visits the dead he cares for and tries repeating the name he heard in Ketterley’s ritual over the bones, but there is no response.

The 19th day includes fishing, gathering seaweed, and walking to the 192nd Western Hall—the one he suggested to Ketterley for his ritual. This hall has no windows, but stars can be seen through the doorway.

In order to map the stars, Piranesi has to stay overnight until the twentieth day. He describes the dark, cold, and absence of birds. His initial fear is calmed by the sound of the sea and he naps. Upon waking in the middle of the night, he sees the moon and a previously unseen crowd of statues “bathed in the Moonlight” (59).

In the second entry for the 20th, the narrator notes constellations, walks home at dawn, loses faith in the “Great and Secret Knowledge” (8) that Ketterley seeks, and wants to explore other scientific avenues of inquiry. Along his path, in the titular hall, he finds scraps of paper that remind him of the minotaur statues and gathers as many scraps as he can (47 in total). However, some paper scraps are in the herring gulls’ nests where he can’t retrieve them.

On the 22nd, Piranesi shows Ketterley his star maps and then says he wishes to abandon their search for knowledge. Ketterley says they should look for knowledge “to get back something humanity has foolishly lost” (66). When this isn’t persuasive, he threatens to stop meeting with Piranesi if he doesn’t help him. Ketterley says Piranesi has forgotten that he has previously lost his faith in “The Ritual.” However, unknown to Piranesi, he has also forgotten his real name—Matthew Rose Sorensen—and his life outside of the labyrinth. Still not realizing he is Ketterley’s prisoner, Piranesi is upset at what he hears. 

On the 23rd, the narrator reasserts the identity he took on when he lost Matthew Rose Sorensen’s memory: the innocent “Child.” Currently busy with practical tasks, like gathering food, the narrator decides that he will read through his journals in the future to look for discrepancies.

On the 24th, Piranesi writes a letter to Ketterley saying he will help with the ritual despite having lost confidence in the hypothesis.

On day 26, Ketterley asks Piranesi if he’s seen someone new. Rather than speculate that there is life outside of the labyrinth, Piranesi wonders if there’s someone in “Far Distant Places” (73) inside. Ketterley asks Piranesi to hide if he sees anyone else. Later it is revealed that 16 is a police officer named Sarah Raphael who has been tracking down Ketterley regarding the disappearance of Matthew Rose Sorensen. In this moment, however, Ketterley just says he has seen his enemy and refuses to explain further.

On the 27th, Piranesi updates his journal entry for his list of persons to include what Ketterley has revealed.

On the 1st day of the 7th month, Piranesi wonders if he has forgotten the importance of this vestibule (why he assigned it the “first” designation) and describes the minotaur statues that reside there. He follows a smell between two of these statues, and hears footsteps and voices. Then he remembers he had found trash and a sleeping bag there in the past.

He finds a piece of paper with a note asking for directions to a statue and writes a reply.