I would be willing to bet that Mitchell originally intended Zach'ry to be part of the soul but changed it to Meronym in later revisions. Why else would he have that moment of possible throat-cutting/murder recur throughout multiple lives?

Where I really disagree with Tasha is where she says that Hawaii and New Zealand are the same islands. ("Zachry, living on the same islands…")

Nice catch, Scrawler! I did not get that while I was reading it.

I really think it's just a result of the author wanting to use different forms for every section, and he chose detective noir for a detective story. It's a detective story based on real-within-the-book characters and events. I don't see the evidence for otherwise.

I was so bothered by that hackneyed twist that I can't bring myself to care about the details of the conspiracy.

Natty said it's "more of an engaging mish-mash for me than a real masterpiece," and this sums up my experience with the book as well. There are a lot of interesting things going on in CLOUD ATLAS—but they never quite coalesce into a satisfying whole.

And well-supported with that quote.

Interesting idea, Jeereg—that adds something to the book, for me, that thought that it's a commentary on the archetypes in storytelling. Very nice.

Awesome.
Anything from this guy is exciting to me.

Famous M—I didn't say Sloosha read like bad fan fiction, I said it read like decent fan fiction. I enjoyed it. I'm glad you recommended it, and that I voted for it. And how was my review generally negative? I liked the book—I just think it was pretty flawed. I gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars, and I almost never give 5.

Also I'm convinced that there are lesser characters being reincarnated in the story as well. As I said in yesterday's thread, I think Frobisher's dad becomes the record store owner in Luisa Rey's section. And I bet there are others.

Excellent post, Miller. While I'm tempted to sympathize with Mitchell's desire not to give greed any more credit and nuance than it receives already, it does make for a less compelling story not to have a better-defined antagonist.

I like this interpretation. Thanks for this.

Wait, Wikipedia says that guy is only writing it.

Well, then, this book is a mess.

Meronym?! Really? Wow, I missed that.

I think they're all the soul. Why would one of them NOT be? And Cavendish fits, because his story is in the future as well.

It's happened on the Facebook page.

Excellent. That has the potential to be great.

I also think it suggests that these futures are not that fixed in time. Free will does play a role in this world, I think, and if people become less selfish and think of more than just simple greed and gain, some of the futures we read about might be avoided or significantly different.