Well it has been a long time between blogs and books. Not
between reading or writing as my job as a magazine editor keeps me immersed in
such activities. I cannot use this as an excuse as I love to read and it is a
great balance to the reading I must do. My darling +Daniel was starting to worry
I would never make the 100 books we have set ourselves and was being impacted
by my apparent lethargy. My big fear was that the 100 books would be a chore
and I would resent reading some of the tripe on our list.
I cannot use that as an excuse as the latest tome was the
magnificent Cloud Atlas by David
Mitchell, which is one of the most extraordinary books I have read in a long
time. The more likely reason was the start of summer and the increased activity
when able and the greater need to rest when possible. The English winter was so
long and the summer so slow to start we have both found our biorhythms out of
whack and have been restless and tired men.
Luckily Cloud Atlas
is completely not the reason and such a clever and layered book requires time
to think in between reads. There is so much to this book that it is hard to
know where to begin. So I choose to start with the film.
For the first time in my life I am completely happy I saw
the movie before I read the book. They are different beasts but are also remarkable
for the structural foundations and the layers of knowledge and emotions they
encompass. I think I am pleased I saw the movie first as I imagine many people
being upset at some of the changes the Wachowski siblings made. Reading the book after the movie made me
realise what genius changes they made. Every difference made perfect sense after
reading the book. Their ability to reduce vast sections to minimal imagery is
amazing. When characters are left out it is not because they are superfluous
but rather they are part of a different form of story telling.
In the book Mitchell needs the extra characters, setting and
scenarios to reveal the emotional background. Something that can be done in a
picture let alone a moving one. The best example is the early 1900s composer and
the removal of a young lady he has a love interest in. In one of the letters in
the book he points out who his true love is. That one line explains the
Wachowski’s decision. There are other
situations when situations or locations are changed but they all made sense to
me as I read the book.
So what is the book about?
In many ways it is the early 1900 composer Frobisher’s story
that reveals what we are reading as he is the composer of the Cloud Atlas Sextet. The music plays a bigger role in the movie as
expected but the crux of the piece is that it is six solo pieces that move in
progression by interrupting each other and then do the same in reverse order.
This is exactly what the book does. Instead of six instruments we have six
situations and individuals that we follow. The first is on a sailing boat in
the 1800s and the last is in the remnants of humanity in the Hawaiian isles 100s
of years after the present time. The Wachowski’s chose to move between all six
and again this makes sense for filmic tension.
Each character is on a journey that is unique and Mitchell
is extraordinary in the language, cadence and story telling method he chooses
for each one. They are completely different languages and his achievement in showing
the progression of language is extraordinary. The fact it is not a pretentious
read is remarkable in its own right.
I am sure many will
have a go at some of the syntax and his choices of future movements of language.
To do so would miss that he maintains readability despite his dextrous use of
the language. This allows a broader range of readership than such literary
experiments normally allow. I do not know many people that actually finished A Clockwork Orange despite its
brilliance. The readability is one of
the key criticisms the book faced and if that is the worst that pseudo
intellectuals can throw at you then I am sure Mitchell sleeps well at night.
Each story leaks into the one next to it in the tiniest of
ways. It may be a book that one person wrote that another finds or a music
score or a movie made of a character later after their death. It may be the
words of a salve inspire the future as a god. Or a recurring tattoo that is as
meaningful as the reader cares to make it.
There are hints of reincarnation and an on going journey
that souls take despite the body they inhabit. This is the whimsical part of
the book that can just as easily be read that humans make the same mistakes
again and again. The human aspect of the book is that man’s arrogance and greed
drives us; especially the white man’s history. This drive both invigorates our
innovation but dooms us at the same time. Our propensity to wish for power
rather than growth means we will invent technologies that will deplete our
resources and kill us.
The book is also about the range of human emotions and how
they are expressed differently at different ages of human existence. This is
not simply about emotions like love but more how such emotions change depending
on our wisdom, age, experience or situation.
The same goes for avarice, greed and hate. Mitchell is sublime in
showing the cause and effect across history and demonstrates the difference
between real history and virtual history of those that record it.
The message of hope he posits is the species ability to wish
for a better future. He demonstrates that the early explorers and inventors who
happened to be white men of Europe shaped the world we have now. Such progression
came with the idea that white man was better than all others, including the
white woman. It also came with the European concept (conceit) of a God who
looked down on others as fodder for Christian growth. Mitchell suggests we have
the world we do because we wished for it and were too blind to see that such
philosophies would lead to dissent and destruction. The hope is that we can
wish for a better future but none of these messages are shoved down your
throat.
The above is mainly my impressions of the book and its
messages. I believe I could write a book on this book and continue for years on
what it might mean and does mean. The same could be said for the movie and it
is my belief that both the book and movie will be studied for many years to
come. I am convinced they will be studied together as a master class of
adaption as the resulting visual feast is that. Neither is perfect and I would
suggest Mitchell did better in maintaining coherence while breaking boundaries
in story telling.
For me this is a book that inspires me with its technical
brilliance and story telling capacity. It thrilled me with its content and left
me contented with the arrows I drew from the quiver of possibilities that
Mitchell created. Note that I have said very little about the actual stories or
the plots involved. Suffice to say a number of genres are superbly covered and
the range of ideas, language and stories is breath taking in one book. It is a
book to read and discover for yourself.
To achieve a better future we need to take honest stock of
our past and should not assume we have explored all the possibilities of human
potential. I have a saying that I like to repeat about humans and it simply
that we can do better. Mitchell provides the proof that our past is not as
glorious as the myopic view of the victor’s historical view would have us
believe. We all have a cloud atlas inside of us and its moral code is obvious.
It does not need prescriptive determination.
I had best get on with the next book and get back on track.
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