160–225), Galileo famously said: “ is written in this grand book – I mean the universe – which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. As Lewis would say: “ It’s all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!”Įxpanding on a statement by Tertullian (c. I would argue that the Statue is superior to the thing itself, the Statue being perfect, eternal and not subject to decay.” (Part 6). ![]() I do not see that that is the case at all. The novel also references Plato and the importance of universals: “ You make it sound as if the Statue was somehow inferior to the thing itself. This problem is amplified for those who do not themselves experience the flower, but rely on descriptions by others. But something has been lost in so doing, and the resulting description does not exhaust everything that can be said about the flower. One may count the petals of a violet, for example, and grind it up to extract the ionones and anthocyanins responsible for odour and colour. He has picked up some of the fragments and stares at them intently in the hope that they will eventually bring him new knowledge.” (Part 7) This puzzles him, but at the same time part of him refuses to accept that the sphere is broken and worthless. The man has used his sword to shatter the sphere because he wanted to understand it, but now he finds that he has destroyed both sphere and sword. Roundabout lie other broken pieces, the remains of a sphere. More specifically, Susanna Clarke argues against Reductionist views of the world, and the need to approach the objects of study with Love: “ It is a statue of a man kneeling on his plinth a sword lies at his side, its blade broken in five pieces. ![]() Lewis wrote in The Abolition of Man: “ For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men …” Indeed, Susanna Clarke makes us ask “is Science truly our friend?” ![]() It is not the means to an end.” (Part 2). The House is valuable because it is the House. The sight of the One-Hundred-and-Ninety-Second Western Hall in the Moonlight made me see how ridiculous that is. I am reviewing the novel here on ScientificGems because it has a lot to say about Science, Knowledge, and how to relate to the World: “ I realised that the search for the Knowledge has encouraged us to think of the House as if it were a sort of riddle to be unravelled, a text to be interpreted, and that if ever we discover the Knowledge, then it will be as if the Value has been wrested from the House and all that remains will be mere scenery. Some fan art of mine, prompted by the novella Rain Through Her Fingers by Rabia Gale, which is set in a flooded city that Piranesi reminds me of
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