Cloud Atlas

I first watched the Cloud Atlas movie while studying abroad in Taiwan as a way for our professor to introduce basic Buddhist concepts, like Samsara. I didn't understand all of it at the time, but I knew the story was conveying, or at least attempting to convey, big ideas.

So, the Cloud Atlas book always loomed over my "To Read List" as a Big Idea Book for Smart People Who Think Good™. But, in listening to it (which I'm not sure I totally recommend except for one section), it fell flat.

The book itself feels more like an experiment in form rather than a profound tome of wisdom. As he explains in his afterword, Mitchell used a A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F, E2, D2, C2, B2, A2 structure for Cloud Atlas.

And he writes each story in a different mode: a diary, a pulpy thriller, an interrogation, a story around a campfire. It's entertaining, but a LOT to hold in your head.

So, when Mitchell tries to drive a philosophical point home, there is no subtlety. There's simply no room for nuance.

Helping others is the same as helping yourself. Just because you can't conceive of a world beyond the present doesn't mean it can't exist. The drop of water in an ocean line at the end, while profound, is a riff on an idea I've read and heard from Alan Watts many times.

These ideas are worthwhile, just conveyed in an uninteresting way. It felt almost like a pause in the middle of the show to turn and say to the audience something like, "It's important to learn to forgive yourself."

Each story is NOT created equal. Sonmi's story drags (the E sections) while Zachry's story (the F section), which is an oral history, grips you from sentence one and doesn't let you go.

Parts of Cloud Atlas I'll never forget. Others I already have. Weird book overall, but worth a read. Make time to listen to Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After (i.e., Zachry's story). I feel like that section, at least, is meant to be heard, not read.

Anyways, I'm off to watch the movie again!