Stranger on Earth

If the future is indeed “a nest of presents to be,” we can count on familiarity. What has been still is, and what is, will be. The concept of reincarnation is intrinsic in the system of “eternal recurrence,” being the basis of Indian and Buddhist philosophies, which Schopenhauer (and later on Nietzsche) heavily borrowed from. Both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche deal with this concept only in its corporeal sense, never in its spiritual, preternatural sense. The philosophers injected it with realism and logic, and the outcome can be observed in some sections of Cloud Atlas . The impression of recurrence is presented for the first time in “Letters from Zedelghem,” where Robert Frobisher is found reading a “curious dismembered volume” he has come across in the guest bedroom. The volume in question is Adam Ewing’s Pacific journal. While reading through it, Frobisher picks up on hints that Adam never did, for example, Dr Goose’s less than honourable intent. He then questions the journal...

The mirror chapter “Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After” paints an utmost pessimistic future for mankind: warfare has decimated most of the world’s population, but destruction will not simply end there. If history is anything to go by, the cycle of bloodshed and butchery will continue turning for as long as the earth is still orbiting the sun. Meronym claims that “fleas ain’t so easy to rid,” referring to humans’ thirst for blood. This claim is proved to be true as we reach the end of the chapter and travel back in time via the second halves of each of the five story-lines. The impression the reader gets while doing so is one of a never-ending cycle. There are instances of déjà vu, of faintly familiar recollections. The reader has been there before. Another aspect of Nietzsche’s philosophy, one related to the will to power, now comes into play: eternal recurrence. This concept is not unknown to those well-versed in Hindu or Buddhist teachings. Time is, c...

The theme of the will to power is perhaps most succinctly expressed in “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery,” a crime thriller situated in 1970’s California involving Luisa Rey, a strong-headed journalist, and her attempt to expose a dodgy nuclear power plant. Seaboard Corporation is in itself a miniature version of the dominance hierarchy witnessed in humankind, where the strong and the crafty dispatch the weak to secure their future. The henchmen of Seaboard Corporation double-cross one another to keep the secret of the power plant safe. One of them, Alberto Grimaldi, ponders on the meaning of power: “Power.” What do we mean? “The ability to determine another man’s luck” … the will to power. This is the enigma at the core of the various destinies of men. What drives some to accrue power where the majority of their compatriots lose, mishandle, or eschew power? Is it addiction? Wealth? Survival? Natural selection? I propose these are all pretexts and results, not the root ca...

David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004) sets out to achieve two noble goals: to engage the reader in a discourse about human nature and historical continuity, and to entice him to reflect on his relation to the past, the present, and the future. This is no small feat for the Ghostwritten author, and for the reader it is both an incredible intellectual challenge and an irresistible invitation to view life from a perspective not altogether conventional. The new reader is instantly struck by the technically intricate structure of the work: six interlocking storylines, with five of them divided down the middle, separated halfway through the book by a “mirror” – the sixth story inventively entitled “Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After.” The novel begins with the Mutiny on the Bounty -inspired “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing,” proceeds at a breakneck pace to “Letters from Zedelghem” to “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery” to “The Ghastly Ordeal ...