We did a fair aount of hating on Mitchell and Cloud Atlas on Tuesday so this blog post is devoted to the positive aspects of Mitchell and his novel.
That being said, I believe the amount of attention and critical research Mitchell must have had to do in order to write Cloud Atlas is daunting. I don’t think I’d have it in me to do so much research for the sake of fiction. For that reason, I am a hater in the best possible way because Mitchell clearly bows down to the finer, more complex points of fiction. As a writer, he’s a master. As a researcher and a crafter of stories, he’s a genius.
Look at the freaking outline I found on Wikipedia for the book he’s currently writing:
‘Mitchell’s next book, currently known as “NAGASAKI”, will be an historical novel about Dejima, the man-made island in the middle of Nagasaki Harbour that was built to house Dutch traders in the 17th century. Having just finished five months of research in the Netherlands, Mitchell says that the biggest challenge will be what to omit from this complex story. “For over two centuries”, he said, “the Dutch were the only white people allowed to see inside Japan”. No one was allowed on or off the island except for tradesmen, translators and prostitutes. “Except”, he said, “every four years when the head of the trading post made the trek to Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to pay his respects to the Shogun.” Mitchell plans to contrast Shogunate Japan with the Napoleonic era in Europe, he said. Of particular interest is the fact that while the Netherlands ceased to exist for a while after Napoleon annexed it, the Dutch flag still flew in Dejima.’
All I can say is: What?
I think the structure of this novel is really where it’s brilliance is, if we’re going to use that term to describe Cloud Atlas. Being a person who is more drawn to character based, or should I say people based narratives, Cloud Atlas doesn’t overly thrill me. For example, today I wrote an essay about body hair. I’m slowly accepting that that is the type of writer/reader I am. CA and its intricacies are thrilling but they don’t sing for me. I regret saying that I categorically didn’t like the Pacific Journal because that’s not really what I meant. What I meant to say was, I didn’t feel as if I was bettering myself or my relationship with the novel while reading Cloud Atlas.
