Movie Review, Last Thoughts

Movie Review:
          Since I ran out of ideas large enough to devote a post to, I decided to check out the 2012 movie version from the library.  My overall opinion of it: not the worst, but definitely not something I would recommend.  The story switching annoyed me in the book, and the fast cuts in the movie, which were far more frequent than in the book, led to it feeling disjointed.  While I understand that it's not really possible to space out the stories in a movie the same way it was done in the book, the movie's structure did not work for me.  The quick five second scenes going from story to story may have emphasized how they are all connected, but in the end I felt like the movie was a mush of all the stories instead of six distinct ones.  Also, that feeling of confusion would be multiplied for someone thrown into David Mitchell's worlds without the same context I have after reading the book.  The downside of having read the book so recently is that I'm extra sensitive and opposed to any deviations in plot or even dialog.  I agree with cuts like excluding Eva (I don't want the movie to be seventeen hours long, after all), but "An Orison of Sonmi-451" was destroyed (the storyline overhaul completely fails to illustrate the depth of corruption and inhumanity in the government and Sonmi's true sacrifice) and "Half Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery" badly hurt by oversimplification.  Grudgingly, though,  I admit the major themes, interconnectivity/reincarnation, corruption, and slavery, are all visited and explained in some degree.  While I don't agree with all the director's stylistic choices (inevitable when an already dense 500 page book is condensed into a movie format) the basic idea and concept behind the book remains intact, a fair accomplishment with a book as multi-faceted as Cloud Atlas.  In short, I would compare the movie to a SparkNotes summary: it has the key characters and ideas, but is prone to misinterpretations and lacks the beauty and complexity of the original work.

Last Thoughts:
          I know that in my last post I said the cycle and continuity of time was the meaning of the work as a whole.  But I can't help second guessing myself.  The blurb headlining the back cover says "EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED,"  and this seems just as likely a meaning.  The whole book is trying to show how six stories, set in different times and locations, all make sense together.  Timothy Cavendish said "You would think a place the size of England could easily hold all the happenings in one humble lifetime without much overlap- I mean, it's not ruddy Luxembourg we live in- but no, we cross, crisscross, and recross our old tracks like figure skaters"(Mitchell 163).  Then Luisa Rey says "It's a small world. It keeps recrossing itself" (Mitchell 418).  If two characters say such similar lines about their own lives, imagine how often souls recross over time.  Both theories, connectivity and the time cycle, are supportable, so my new theory is a double meaning as a whole.
          One of the key stylistic/structural elements of Cloud Atlas is that each story is cut short and its document reviewed in the next story in the first half of the book, and each story in ends by beginning the second half of the next story.  For the most part this works well, but the structure prevents characters  from commenting on the document from the previous story.  Even in the first half of the book, where each character is shown reading or seeing the document from the past, the extent of the commentary is Frobisher saying Dr. Goose is poisoning Adam Ewing and Luisa Rey relating Frobisher's letters to memories.  I think leaving out what characters think of each other across time is a missed opportunity; it would offer insight into the different character's perspectives and better show connections over time.  Maybe David Mitchell consciously sacrificed this for the book's overall structure, but I still find it odd that characters have no real reactions to the actual content of the surviving documents.
          In watching the movie, I realized that Sonmi-451's very name could be an important allusion I had skipped over.  Sonmi, minus the "i" on the end, sounds a lot like Psalm.  Psalms chapter 45 verse one reads, depending on the version, something like "My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer."  Clearly Sonmi is motivated by "noble theme[s]" like freedom for fabricants, and her Declarations, though mostly undescribed, are a work of higher thinking.  As for the king, I think he might be society or individual people that she is trying to reach with her message of freedom.  Then again, maybe I'm wrong with this allusion in the first place.  But if I'm right, it stands to reason that Yonna-939's name could have a hidden meaning as well.  The Book of Jonah sounds the most like Yoona of all the biblical books (Psalms and Jonah are both in the Old Testament, and I don't know if that's important, but it shows that they are somehow connected).  The Book of Jonah is only a few pages long, and there is no chapter 9.  But looking at the book as a whole, Jonah is a minor prophet who initially resists God's calling, repents and carries out his mission, and later regrets it and is punished by God.   Yoona is like a minor prophet in her partially-ascended status and the example she set for Sonmi, and she does end up dying.   Yoona's "God" is really Papa Song.  Fabricants obey their Catechisms for behavior, like the Ten Commandments, they sing songs about him (like hymns), he is referred to as "our beloved Logoman," and they attend his Sermons, which collectively turn Papa Song into a God-like figure, at least to the fabricants (Mitchell 185).  After recognizing this, you can see that Yoona's story mirrors Jonah's in how she is a loyal servant of God, but begins to question him, and after being looked at by a corp medic she "performed as genomed" (comparable to Jonah's repentance) (Mitchell 190).  She continues to work, yet Yoona-939 still does not buy into Papa Song's Catechims and her assigned role in life, so she attempts to escape but is killed by Unanimity.  As for the purpose of the allusion, I think it highlights how Sonmi is humble, elevates Yoona to someone who questions a god, and reinforces the idea that Unanimity and social structures are omnipotent.

Meaning of the Work as a Whole, AP-Worthiness

Meaning of the Work as a Whole: 

         Now at the end of Cloud Atlas, I have found what I consider a plausible meaning of the work as a whole.  Looking back, everything points to an idea of continuity and interconnectedness.  Looking at the six stories, they suggest a cycle of time (I picture as a sin wave, but considering the comet-shaped birthmark an orbit works, too).  What really exemplifies this is the cross over between "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing" and "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After."  In The Pacific Journal, the cannibalistic Moriori traveled to a neighboring island and massacred and enslaved the peaceful Maori.  White sailors with considerably better technology visit the island.  Autua, a slave, is described as the last of the Maori and escapes by ship with the help of Adam Ewing.  In "Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After," the Valleymen live on a Hawaiian island in peace.  The "Prescients," who have darker skin and more "Smart," occasionally visit the Valleymen in their giant ship.   But then the Kona, a vicious tribe of savages, cannibals, and slaveholders, invade the Valleymen's land and kill and capture them.  Zachry is captured, but rescued by the Prescient Meronym, and the two escape by kayak.  The two stories are direct parallels.  After centuries, civilization rose to the level in "An Orison of Sonmi-451" only to fall back to where it began.  The persistence of the themes in the last post, the book structure of interlocking stories, and the reincarnation motif all suggest a cycle of time. 

          But while the reader can see the circle of stories, the characters are unaware.  As Isaac Sachs said, "[an event] as it actually occurred descends into obscurity as its eyewitnesses die off, documents perish [...] Yet a virtual [event] created from reworked memories, papers, hearsay, fiction- in short, belief- grows ever 'truer'" (Mitchell 392).  The phrase "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" comes to mind.  Characters in the book only have a weak connection to the past through the documents, and they (especially Zachry and the Valleymen) have a poor knowledge of it.  Thus, the past of Moriori and Maori repeats itself with the Kona and Valleymen.  But while this endless loop with no net gain might seem demoralizing, Mitchell's tone is undeniably hopeful.  Zachry lived through the Kona invasion and escaped to start a family.  Sonmi-451 is content in her execution because she knows her Declarations of Fabricant freedom "[...] have been reproduced a billionfold" and will outlast her to create revolution another day (Mitchell 349).  Timothy Cavendish defies age expectations and returns to his now successful publishing company.  Swannekke is shut down after Luisa Rey successfully goes public with Seaboard Corporation's corruption, from the murders to the dangerous reactor.  Frobisher dies satisfied that his life's work, the Cloud Atlas Sextet, is complete, preferring to live a short life that burned brightly instead of something more dull and drawn out, like Ayrs.  Adam Ewing survives and decides to devote his life to abolition in an attempt to better the world. 
          This passage, on the second to last page of Ewing's journal, summarizes it all: "[...] one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. [...] Is this doom written within our nature?  If we believe that humanity may transcend tooth & claw [...] such a world will come to pass.  I am not deceived.  It is the hardest of worlds to make real.  Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword" (Mitchell 508).  Humanity continuously struggles to overcome social injustice, but the characters in Cloud Atlas only manage to keep it from worsening in their small individual fights.  Yet there is always hope for progress, and as long as some people work against corruption, like Adam Ewing, Luisa Rey, and Sonmi-451, the world is not quite purely predatory, and its doom is postponed.  So even if David Mitchell's book portrays a cycle, he suggests the possibility of social advancement, if only enough people believe in it and fight for it.

 AP-Worthiness:
          There is no doubt in my mind that Cloud Atlas meets AP English standards.  Reading it has the typical side effects of headaches and confusion, and even when I'm not reading it I can't help thinking about it and wondering what a particular passage or motif meant.  Each of the condensed, 80ish page stories have the potential for individual analysis, and put together I think they present a significant challenge to any AP English student.  The symbols, motifs, and complex themes that define AP standards are all there.  However, it takes some time to start finding connections and gather enough information for the book to be analyzed, limiting its potential to be taught in a classroom.  Also, I'm afraid the sheer number of characters and events will make it hard to recall specific information for the essay question, and the book's unusual structure would have to be explained, wasting valuable time.  In short, I'm confident in Cloud Atlas' literary merit, but I'm not so sure about its usefulness in the curriculum.