Style

By Anonymous -
As I expressed in m previous post, the first section of this book was very hard for me to sit through, but as the language becomes more and more contemporary (and since reading more carefully), I have become very invested in the plot. At first, I was sort of put off by how incredibly different most of these sections are from each other, stylistically.

In The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing, or the first portion, is told through daily diary entries by a man named Adam Ewing.  As customary, for diaries, he heads them with the date and no location. This section takes place around the 1850s, the era of the gold rush, so he writes as one of that time period would. Often short concise sentences, but with a few long, intricate explanations of specific happenings.  Personally, this was somewhat difficult to read because of the word choice. 

Letters from Zedelghem is the absolute antithesis of the previous section. One of the very few things they have in common is that it is written similarly to a diary entry, including date and location. Robert Frobisher, the narrator, is writing to his lover, Sixsmith often complaining about his life. Sometimes, however, he passionately talks about his music, which he clearly loves so much. After reading this section for the second time, I did recognize the mention of Adam Ewing and Frobisher's question of authenticity. I must have been skimming (sorry Mrs. LaClair!).

 Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery has a sort of mystery novelesque. This is very different from the past two sections, both diary entries. One of the two narrators in this section is Rufus Sixsmith(!!!), and the other is Luisa Rey. The structure of this section is almost as if the author put a portion of another book inside this one, as there are what appear to be page numbers posted periodically throughout this section. The language of this particular section suggests this is very contemporary, maybe not quite the present day, but close. This is consistent with Luisa's use of a typewriter and the vague mentioning of 1975. 

As Cloud Atlas continues to develop, I am becoming more and more invested. I am very excited to see what happens with Timothy in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish. Thanks for reading!

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2019 at 6:58 AM

    This seems really interesting! I am interested to hear about how they are formatted like diary entries. That is really cool and probably shows a lot about him stylistically. Nice Job!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2019 at 8:58 AM

    Macayla,
    Besides the fact the we practically did the same post on style (I know it wasn't intentional, but it's funny) I totally understand what your saying. The varying styles and narrators in this book is rather interesting, but it also causes a lot of confusion, especially with the old language used in the first sections. I 100% understand your increasing understanding as the language becomes more contemporary. Great job! And have fun with the continuing sections! I know I will!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ms. LaClairFebruary 12, 2019 at 2:40 PM

    Macayla, you've described the varying styles well, but incorporating specific details and quotes from the sections could make your points even more clear. You might also consider why the styles are so different. What do they reflect about the narrators? the topics of the novel?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meaning of Cloud Atlas

By Anonymous -
Hey guys, welcome to my very last post. It's been, in my opinion, kind of difficult to write posts about this (509 pages!) book. I almost feel like I need to read it again, just to get some of the smaller details I may have missed. If I'm being honest, as I was reading, I felt like my thoughts and theories were a little too scattered to put into words. I felt like all my ideas were sort of half baked. Now that I have finished the book, I have had time to think things through and further develop those ideas. As I mentioned in the previous post, one of the main themes (from what I can tell) is human nature. This can be seen in the basic summaries of each of the stories, but it also goes deeper than the surface level. Characters can be quoted saying things about how its only human nature to be destructive. For example, on page 129 of Half -Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery   Alberto Grimaldi says something very interesting. "The only answer can be 'There is no...
Read more

The Ghastly Ordeal of Tomothy Cavendish

By Anonymous -
I found this section to be the most interesting yet, for a couple of reasons. Timothy as a character is funny just in his actions, but then the consequences are incredible.  He appears to be our oldest narrator, but also the most childish (and kind of a jerk). He starts off his little story by telling us that he was mugged by a bunch of prepubescent girls he called "Prostitute Barbie,"  (Mitchell 145) with lollipops, which, really, shouldn't be a problem for a grown man around 60.  The next morning he embellishes his story to Madame X, saying he had been mugged by "five louts with swastikas shaved into their skulls." (Mitchell 146) in an effort to not seem weak. He also is the editor of a man who killed a critic and took all the profit. He then was confronted by the writer's brothers who demanded 50 thousand pounds by the next day. He goes through a couple of contacts and asks for money, but no one has any, so he turns to his brother.  Hi...
Read more

Why AP?

By Anonymous -
Sifi novels are not usually considered to have any literary merit, but Cloud Atlas  is a different story altogether. The author switches between tenses, presentation of the story, and time periods skillfully. Somehow, he manages to make what should have been a mess, a coherent story. In the first story, its written in the first person past tense, as a journal entry. He uses lingo that is consistent with the time mid-1800s period. In the second story, is also in the first person past tense in the form of letters. This takes place around the 1930s., also with consistent style In the third story, the author uses 3rd person present tense, presented as a novel set in the 1970s. The fourth story is the first person past tense, also presented as the novel, but in the 1990s. The fifth story is an interview, set in the somewhat near future. The final story is "spoken history" from the very far future. The skill at which the author writes all of these stories, I think...
Read more