Whether it’s good or not, Cloud Atlas, created by the endearing outsiders—Tom Tywker, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski—who directed the Matrix Series and Run Lola Run, is going to be the fantasy movie of the fall. It comes out at the end of October.
(By the way, Lana Wachowski used to be Larry, but recently underwent a transgender transformation.)
I read the book the first year I was in Brooklyn. At the time, I was making my way through my roommate’s bookshelf, and came upon it. At first, it didn’t seem very interesting—and the opening chapter is a bit laborious—but it completely blossomed when I realized it was a fantasy novel.
I’m not sure how I’d feel about it today, eight years later, especially given that I just flipped through it, and found the paragraph from whence the title derived:
“I watched clouds awobbly from the floor o’ that kayak. Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an’ to’ a cloud’s shape nor hue nor size don’t stay the same, it’s still a cloud an’ so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud’s blowed from or who the soul’ll be ‘morrow? Only Sonmi the east an’ the west an’ the compass an’ the atlas, yay, only the atlas o’ clouds.”
This is spoken by a character in a post-apocalyptic world, and I’m not sure I agree with the choice of Mitchell’s cockney accent to represent him. Or the whole soul thing. But I bet I’d still enjoy it if I read it today, and if you haven’t, you should read it as well.
