Reading Buddies (Erin Reads) discussion
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Cloud Atlas (Informal)
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Erin
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Jun 21, 2011 02:04PM
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Ewing's section I read because I was curious about the book, Frobisher's because the language was so delectable, and now this current section is like a great mystery. I couldn't put the book down last night! I'm also loving how each story is connected to the previous one by some single thread, one carry-over that binds the neighboring stories together. I keep getting these little jolts of realization as Mitchell nonchalantly drops hints and facts. I am very much enjoying watching as the puzzle is slowly assembled.
So, in short...so far, so good! How is Cloud Atlas going for you?
Embarrassingly, I'm only about 20 pages in since I took a break for a light, frivolous read. But I do like the writing so far & hope to catch up in the next few days!
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“Sometimes the fluffy bunny of incredulity zooms round the bend so rapidly that the greyhound of language is left, agog, in the starting cage.” (p. 168)
Have you come across any lines you've loved?
I'm still early in, but I like "Rain squalls blow up from nowhere & vanish with the same rapidity & the deck hisses itself dry in a minute." (p 38)One odd observation about the difference between the American & British copies: my copy arrived in the mail - it's the British version - and I still have my very fragile American copy from the library - the stories do not stop in the same place! In the British version, which I'm reading as it's less delicate, the Ewing story stops with the line "Reading my entry for the 15th October, when I first met Rafael" within the December 2nd entry. The American version has another full page & then some. Interesting, no?
I'm only in the third section, but I'm really enjoying the book so far. That's really interesting about the difference between the British and American versions. I wonder why? I wonder if there are other differences, as well?
I'm in the third section too & it's really hard not to shirk my work and read instead.
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I remember that quote as well -- My copy ends on page 39, actually. I don't have the library one with me but I'll check at home - I think it was 39 as well.
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Okay, I've just started the 'Sloosha's Crossin' section, and I'm really loving the book. The variety of tone and style is amazing! I thought the 'Ghastly Ordeal' section was hysterically funny, and the 'Sonmi' section was fascinating and scary. Can't wait to start back in the other direction and see how he ties it all up!
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Thanks for posting that link, Erin. Very interesting. I've heard of Riddley Walker, but I've never read it. I'll have to add it to my list!The language in 'Sloosha's Crossin' is slowing me down, too, but I'm finding the story really engaging, and the language is so original and, I think, so appropriate to the story, that ultimately I don't mind its oddness.
I like your mountain metaphor -- I was thinking something along the same lines, like I've almost reached the top of a roller coaster or something, and I'm about to start back down the other side.
I recently finished the 'Sloosha's Crossin' section (loved it, by the way!), and I have a question about a minor point. In reading Zachry's description of his encounter with the Kolekole girl (p. 288 in my edition), I was reminded of the famous last passage of James Joyce's Ulysses, with its 'yes I said yes I will Yes." ...then I was Crow's wings beatin' an' she was the flames lickin' an' when the Kolekole saplin' wrapped her willowy fingers around my neck, her eyes was quartzin' and she murmed in my ear, Yay, I will, again, an' yay, we will, again.It may be that I just have Joyce on the brain, because I've been trying and failing to get myself to finish reading Ulysses for most of this year. So I may be reading into this, and seeing something that isn't really there. On the other hand, maybe it's an intentional similarity, and Mitchell's trying to do something with it. (Hmmm...perhaps he's suggesting that reading Joyce will lead to the end of civilization... okay, maybe not, maybe that's just me thinking that.) Did anyone else notice the (admittedly slight) similarity? Any thoughts?
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I'm only 20-30 pages into Sloosha's Crossing, and woah is it slowing me down. I generally don't enjoy it when writers employ this kind of dialect-speak in their writing, but the story is so engaging that I'm ok overlooking that. I love the full-circle feel and can't wait to see how it all ultimately fits together (since we have only hints so far).
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The issue of language Sloosha's Crossing got me thinking. When I started out reading Ewing's journal, I had to use a dictionary every page, it seemed. By Luisa Rey, my dictionary use had dropped off. In Sonmi's section, I was starting to notice unfamiliar word use and odd spellings, but I still knew what was going on. The amazing thing was that, in Zachary's story, even though half of the words were ones I hadn't heard before, I still knew what was going on and could get their meaning without too much struggle, even if I did have to read slowly. It's so interesting to me that language built on the English I know and speak is intelligible to me, while going back a century (or more?) leaves me running to a dictionary. Did anyone else have this experience?
To be honest, I didn't really have a problem with the language in the Ewing section. It felt pretty familiar -- I think all the 19th-century lit I read in college is paying off! And while the language in Sloosha's Crossin' did slow me down at first, it was so internally consistent, and it had such grace and logic to it, that I felt like I got into a rhythm with it pretty quickly. (Although, I could not for the life of me figure out what "howzittin" was. I finally figured it out, I think, the very last time the word was used!)What was really hard for me was the sheer number of cultural references and allusions in the Frobisher and Cavendish sections. When I was reading the Cavendish sections, in particular, there were times when I felt like I wanted to be sitting at the computer with the browser open to Google, so I could look things up as I went along. There were just a lot of references, and, I'm sure, allusions, to things I didn't know. I caught several allusions to poetry (e.g., "afresh, afresh, afresh" on p. 173 and "not drowning but waving" on p. 380), so that suggests to me that there are at least as many that I didn't catch and had no idea were even there. It makes me wonder how much Mitchell put in there that I'm just not getting!
I did somehow race through Sloosha's Crossing & am well back into the Orison of Sonmi 451 (which, reference to Fahrenheit 451? I haven't read it, but that seems like such an obvious reference I'm almost embarrassed to point it out). Once I got further into the story in Sloosha's it went a little faster. I even began to enjoy the cleverness and "Smart" of the invented dialect. I found the Ewing section a little slow mostly because the style was slightly stilted & I had no idea what the story line was yet. I think it'll be much easier upon returning.
As far as poetic and cultural allusions, I don't tend to give them much weight or worry too much about them. I think they're fun if I notice them, but if you can't fully grasp the meaning without them, they weren't used properly.(Which is part of why I find works like Ulysses to be pompous and overrated. I've read it. It was not enjoyable, and it's time I will never get back.) I've noticed a few, too, (and completely failed to mark them because I was so engaged in the story) and always appreciate the cleverness when I do, but, I really don't think any we miss will take away from our experience because Mitchell seems so adept at cleverly incorporating them.
Have any of you heard/read anything about the movie they're making based on this book? I wonder how that will turn out (and how long it will be, and how it will be sequenced in such a way as to keep the audience engaged and not confused into boredom).
Catherine -- okay, if you're embarrassed to point out the possible reference to Fahrenheit 451, I'm doubly embarrassed, because I hadn't even noticed it! Thanks for bringing it up.I definitely agree with you about the allusions not being vital to the story -- I think in the Cavendish section they're mostly just there to add authenticity to that acerbic, hyper-literate voice of his -- but it still bugs me to think that I'm probably missing things that the author put in for us to find! (I really laughed at the part when Cavendish says "She was widely read enough to appreciate my literary wit but not so widely read that she knew my sources. I like that in a woman." (p.362) I thought, "Hey, that's me!" LOL.
Oh, and I really appreciate what you said about Ulysses. That's exactly why I'm having trouble finding the motivation to keep going with it -- it's just not enjoyable and doesn't really seem to repay my effort and time -- like you said, that's time I'll never get back.
I had no idea they were making a movie from Cloud Atlas. I can't imagine how they could pull it off!
Ha! I am not quite as far along as you, but yes, the Cavendish & Frobisher section are most likely dripping with allusions we'll miss - so it'll be great fun to reread in the future. I sort of like works that I can pick up again later and find something new! Also those two sections are by far the funniest.
Finally finished! What a month it's been. What did everyone think?
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What do you think it means that part of the line of stories was fiction? Obviously, the whole thing is a novel, but if Luisa Rey is a manuscript read by Cavendish, how many of the others are "fictitious" as well? The birthmark and the feeling of continuity carried through the whole of the book, I thought. And in Sloosha's Crossing, there's mention of a Swanneke tribe (which is a place in Luisa Rey). I've been pondering what Mitchell is implying with all that, if anything.
Also, I thought the final lines of the book were so very perfect!
I'm finished, and I loved it, too! (And yes, great ending!)To me, it seems like Mitchell is kind of trying to break down the distinctions between fiction and non-fiction by mixing it up and confusing us a little. I think it ties in to what Isaac Sachs in the Luisa Rey section writes when he's on the plane (pp. 392-393), the whole thing about the actual past versus the virtual past, and how the actual past is less and less accessible to us, and it's the virtual past that is really what we concern ourselves with.
I felt like every time I got to a new section and discovered that what I'd been reading and thought was "real" (if you know what I mean) was actually a manuscript, or a movie, or whatever, it re-arranged all my assumptions, made me stop and rethink what I had just read and whose story it was, and why it was being told the way it was. Does that make sense?
Sachs mentions "belief" too, and how what we believe the past and the future to be is constantly being fought over and changed. I loved that, and I think Mitchell tied it in really well at the end, when Ewing is talking about how if we can believe in a peaceful, benevolent world, we might be able to make it happen.
I also thought it was really interesting how the narrative of each section sort of got further and further away from its main character, and seemed like it was intended for a larger audience than the last. So first we had Ewing's journal (presumably meant only for himself to read), then Frobisher's letters addressed to one person, then a fictional manuscript, then a movie, then the orison which I think was meant to be part of an archive of stories for a formal history project, then to Zachry, who is telling his story directly to the community he lives in. It's almost like history progresses from being an individual thing which we think is simple and straightforward to more of a community undertaking, something we have to make together.
