Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Posted on 1 Feb 2010 4:31 UTC

“...and that the wealthmakers — us — are rewarded. When a man aspires to power, I ask one simple question: ‘Does he think like a businessman?’ ”
Luisa rolls her napkin into a compact ball. “I ask three simple questions. How did he get that power? How is he using it? And how can it be taken off the sonofabitch?”

Cloud Atlas is a far better novel than the Wikipedia page makes it sound. Perhaps it sounds postmodernly gimmicky, or postpostmodernly gimmicky; instead it is a wide-open novel of interconnection and resistance. Mitchell casts a critical eye at us, the readers, and on our culture and where we are taking it. He is achingly pessimistic — it is a dystopian fantasy (literally) at its core — and yet still offers a ray of light.

Belief is both prize and battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being [...] What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our gunships, our heritage & our legacy? Why fight the “natural” (oh, weaselly word!) order of things?
Why? Because of this: — one fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself. Yes, the Devil shall take the hindmost until the foremost is the hindmost.

Let this beautiful story radicalize you. It is not the what but the how.

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