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.

An Orison of Sonmi-451, The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (themes)

          Now having read to page 387 (only 122 pages left!), I feel like I have a decent sense of Cloud Atlas.  While each story is distinct, there are undeniable themes that stretch across the entire novel.  So far the major ones I've noticed are slavery (occasionally with regards to race), perception of death, and corruption (especially in relation to corporations).

          David Mitchell's discussion of slavery begins with the very first chapter.  The Pacific islands Adam Ewing is staying at have a terrible history of Maori massacring and enslaving their peaceful neighbors, the Moriori.  Autua, a slave who joins Ewing on the Prophetess, is introduced to the story being whipped in punishment for his escape attempts.  In An Orison of Sonmi-451, the issue of slavery is not one race enslaving another, but one creating artificially creating another, the fabricants, and keeping them docile and ignorant of their status.  Upon her ascension, Sonmi-451 realizes that even if the word slavery is banned in Nea So Copros, fabricants are slaves, complete with collars.  In response, she wrote her "Declarations" in protest of the social structure and became a martyr.  Again in Sloosha's Crossin', a group of barbarians known as the Kona invade Zachry's homeland in an attempt to round up slaves.  Zachry and Meronym are forced to run and try to escape, unable to help the captured by themselves.  In a reversal of roles, Meronym, a Prescient from a more advanced civilization, is characterized as having darker skin.  While Meronym indicates that slavery is not limited to race, it is a persistent social system that characters are constantly struggling against.

          Across the six stories, characters perceive death in vastly different ways.  Luisa Rey does not look forward to death, yet she considers her pursuit of the truth of the danger of Swannekke worth the risk to her life.  Similarly, Sonmi-451 accepts her death sentence because her publicity caused her Declarations of freedom to become common knowledge.  They both are willing to die for a cause.  On the other hand, Zachry and Meronym decide not to sacrifice themselves.  As the only people not yet captured by the Kona, they are the only ones in a position to rescue the enslaved Valleymen.  But they are severely outnumbered, failure is guaranteed, and they chose to run for it and preserve their own lives in the hopes of helping in the future.  Cavendish, along with his friends, Ernie, Veronica, and Mr. Meeks, are also unwilling to accept death.  They launch a daring escape from Aurora House so that the can continue living life on their own terms.  As Cavendish said in conclusion, "[...] it is attitude, not years, that condemns one to the ranks of the Undead", the "Undead" being those who do not live life to the fullest and simply await death (Mitchell 387).  As important as the perception of death is the idea of what comes after it.  While Cavendish and Meronym scoff at reincarnation, Cavendish even editing it out of the Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery manuscript, other elements in Cloud Atlas clearly support it.  The comet-shaped birthmark is the first indication, but also Luisa Rey's description of the extreme déjà vu she felt reading Frobisher's letters and Zachry's following passage: "Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor size don't stay the same, it's still a cloud an' so is a soul"(Mitchell 308).  Over all I would say that life is important (hence Cavendish, Zachry, and Meronym's defense of it), but sometimes the sacrifice of one is necessary for the good of many, for ideals like freedom and truth (hence Luisa Rey and Sonmi-451's acceptance of death).

          Like slavery, corruption is a persistent evil encountered in the book.  From the start in the Pacific Journal, the ship's captain doesn't keep Adam Ewing's room as private as what he paid for.  Dr. Goose is potentially poisoning Ewing for money, according to Frobisher.  In Letters From Zedelghem Ayrs creates a joint piece with Frobisher but passes it of as his own.  Frobisher himself has an affair with Ayrs' wife and sells some of Zedelghem's old books to make money on the side.  As Luisa Rey puts it, "Seaboard [Corporation] would assassinate a man of Sixsmith's stature [a Nobel laureate, veteran of the Manhattan Project], just to avoid negative publicity"(Mitchell 125).  And then Seaboard Corporation goes on to put the nearby city of Buenas Yerbas at danger with their faulty reactor and try to kill Luisa Rey.  In the Ghastly Ordeal Nurse Nokes and her associates abuse there power and turn Aurora House into a prison instead of an elderly home.  Nea So Copros, the corpocracy in An Orison of Sonmi-451, is completely corrupt and creates fabricant slaves.  It even forms an artificial resistance effort because "it attracts social malcontents like Xi-Li and keeps them where Unanimity [the police force] can watch them.  Secondly, it provides Neo So Copros with the enemy required by any hierarchical state for social cohesion"(Mitchell 348).  The over-corporatization side of corruption is emphasized in the juxtaposition of Neo So Copros and the back-to-basics Colony Sonmi-451 encounters.  In Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After, the primary act of corruption is Lyons betraying his fellow Valleymen  in favor of the barbaric Kona.  The list goes on; corruption is omnipresent.  Thus characters throughout the stories must struggle against it, facing the enduring conflict of good vs. evil.

          There are a couple smaller themes, too.  While I think they deserve a mention, they have a less important role.  Women's equality, for example, plays a huge role in the Luisa Rey Mystery, but it doesn't really expand to the other five stories.  Ideas about old age and the unwanted elderly surface primarily in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish, but also in An Orison of Sonmi-451 where the old fabricants who outlived their usefulness are killed and butchered for meat and people get facescaping, an advanced form of plastic surgery, to hide their age.  Lastly, religion and faith are represented in multiple forms, from Christianity to idolism to the God-like representation of Papa Song with his Catechisms to the worship of Sonmi-451 to the use of judas as a an independent word and "augurin's" that tell the future.