Just finished reading Cloud Atlas. Excellent read, not nearly as challenging or difficult as I has expected. Alot of people are making a big deal out of the structure of the book and I don't understand why.
***** I read the book before seeing the movie and .....I hated the movie. The movie's structure of jumbling the stories makes the story feel much more intimidating than it actually is. Have you read The Bone Clocks, yet? Love it!
Really late but: 1)The first part is challenging for some since it's harder to engage with a journal that just stops mid-sentence, some are turned off by that. 2)On pirate websites (like thepiratebay.org ) there is the ''Cloud Atlas - Everything is Connected'' fan-edit. It's slightly shorter, but it removes some movie scenes and adds others that were deleted. Plus, after the introduction scene, the stories are pretty much presented in the same way as the novel. Much better experience if you can find it.
Its not that its hard to understand. Its hard to make yourself read after reading 10 pages of nothing and unless you drag on and steel yourself to read it youre never going to be rewarded. Unlike some books which has good stories but not uneccessarily convoluted.
What I love about this book is that I discuss this book with others who have read it - link the smallest characters between all the stories. The language took a while to get into, but eventually I got into the stories so much! I sensed a theme of rebellion or rejection from within each story, as well as each character going on a life changing journey, whether it was emotional or phyiscal. It was great finding all the links, such as simple things mentioned, like Luisa's fear of guns.
Haha, I read it because I was enraptured by the wonderful and riveting movie trailer with the beautiful music. The novel and movie are amazing by themselves, but trying to piece the movie and the book together, finding where they divert and compromise on some specific themes, and the beauty that the author created and how the directors translated it into cinematic form, is just frickin amazing.
I thought the same thing. But did you notice how 'Soylent Green' was actually mentioned in the movie by Timothy Cavendish? And perhaps Sonmi 451 is a reference to Fahrenheit 451 - another dystopia.
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First encountered "Cloud Atlas" as an (gasp) audiobook. I then read the book. Listened to the audiobook again. Then re-read the book. That's how dense I am. Anyone who had difficulty with the book, should definitely listen to the audiobook which is one of the best in that format I've ever heard. Also, the film should have been a TV mini-series, not a crammed into one long movie.
***** I have the book. And your right!! It's the hardest read for me since Voltair! I will read the whole thing though, there is alot more detail than in the movie.
but it's worth every minute of it Just imagine a painful climbing up the cliff , You almost decide to give up several times before reaching the top but you hear music, gospel like music, a bird song,and ancient drums.... and...on the top a view, oh my God what the VIEW !
Post Apocalyptic was about overcoming your flaws and inner demons, and learning to coexist and trust another person, this being a different race that Meronym came with, which were basically aliens. The protagonist of that story played by Tom Hanks learned to overcome his demons and let another species help correct his sense of morality, and let alone salvage what was left of the human race for a better future. Not to mention he fell in love with Meronym XD
Respectfully disagree. Book was phenomenal but the movie is a solid adaptation for a movie (would have been better as a TV series, more time for the stories and characterization). Reusing many actors between the times rather than just the one with the birthmark. Also allowed for more diversity -- Halle Berry as Jocasta, Doona Bae as Ewing's wife.
I absolutely love the film. So read the novel! And it was so fascinating seeing what they had to do to make it into a film. Both hold on their own and are brilliant!
brilliant book. nietzsche at 6:30 should have been mentioned because the WHOLE premise revolves around his ETERNAL Recurrence. it is mentioned 4 times in the novel.
"Recycling of fabricants inside a ship docked in of flooded Seoul " scene is similar to how Nazi Germany recycled prisoners into soap, potassium phosphate fertilizer. etc..
Beacon cold plasma aerial motorways of "Neo Seoul 2144 A.D." were patented by Marshall J Corbett of Grumman. Bradford T. Sorensen has patented flying utility step van service work vehicle used by "Plumber Hae Joo Chang". Plumbing fixtures and laser tools of "Neo Seoul 2144 A.D." were patented in North East Asia by Keitaro Yoshihara of Riken's Toyota Labs.
I noticed how they changed "Fabricant waitresses of Papa Song's of Neo Seoul 2144 A.D.s such as Sonmi 451 from Marylyn Monroe Aryan blondes to East Asians since even East Asians like my own father often have a Eurocentric preferences of how western civilization is so dynamic. My own father died when such a film debuted to remember how reincarnation was how of barbarian times how they described genetics of heredity when people believed in religious malarky since living tissue is only nanotechnology of gelatinous ooze that was sealed from atmospheric dust in porous minerals according to Vail III's patent.
the post apocalyptic story the shoosha one i was struggling so hard with that one..i just couldn't get through it so i left it and watched the movie instead to figure out how those stories individually intended and connected with each other
Watching this, pleasantly surprised to see Veronica on this panel! She didn't get enough talk time! Intriguing as it all seems, I'll watch the movie before I read the book...the layers of back story that predicates the "now" story has been done well before, as noted in this vid - and to read half a thick book before the A-HAH moment.. I find it very distracting...the teeth, the impossibly white teeth, and I seem to focus on that instead of what they are saying...I'll just watch the movie first.
I don't think this is a particularly "difficult" book tbh. The themes are very much in the foreground, the only thing really unusual about it is the whole story within a story within a story gimmick, and, really, isn't that just The Arabian Nights? That said, it's one hell of a fun read.
Well, I only saw the film (Athens). Kept me watching with interest throughout but it bothered me that some of the ideas were not that original (Soylent Green, anyone?). After watching this discussion I realize that (and that too is not at all original, I know) the book must be way better and richer that the movie.
Soylent green was mentioned because the entire book and film is about predacity, people manipulating people, groups manipulating groups, nations manipulating nations, tribes manipulating tribes. Cannibalism is mentioned also not just in the 2010s, but also 1840s with the Maori, in the 2140s with Sonmi-451, and in the 24th century post-apocalyptic fantasy, and in the film version the year Luisa Rey is set 1973 was the same year the Soylent Green film was made.
Do you think there is an ounce of possibility he and Sixsmith ever meet again? I have a strong feeling that because he committed suicide there's definitely very little chance they ever do.
It's a really good read. It gets a bit monotonous from time to time but it definitely gets better and better. From the second half and up to the end the stories get connected in a stronger way.
in the novel there are nods towards some dystopian classics like "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell which was set in a post-apocalyptic surveillance state, from which we get the term "Orwellian", there's also a rebel group called "The Brotherhood" which is an inspiration for the rebel group Union in Sonmi-451's story. There's also a novel where an underclass of clones exist before DNA and cloning was actually scientifically possible in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", which also has a consumerist culture in a totalitarian state. The name Sonmi-451 is a call back to the novel Farenheit-451 by Ray Bradbury where television has replaced book reading, which is why in the novel the Sonmi-451 is written as a transcript of a visual-audio recording suggesting a post-literate future like in Bradbury's novel. The idea of a fabricated underclass, police trying to track them down and kill them, off-world colonies, genetically-engineered animals, a post-apocalyptic environment and corporations ruling everything, was written in Philip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" which was adapted into a film known as "Blade Runner". In 1984 William Gibson published a novel called "Neuromancer" which was about a post-apocalyptic world where the natural has been replaced by technological, with corporations ruling everything, there being space-colonies, cybernetic enhancements, clones and AIs, hackers and Asian-influenced society, called the first 'cyberpunk' novel. The term Soylent Green comes from the whole "Soylent Green" film which is based on a book called "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry Harrison, which is about an overpopulated and polluted world involving a detective and the then event of the new Millennium, the book was set in 1999 while the film version was set in 2022. I hope this list of books helps.
Agree. They did not demystify or analyze anything, it was all how impressive David Mitchell is. Yes, he is impressive but there was no sort critical engagement with the text whatsoever except at the end but even that seemed so superficial.
