Gee, that's an excellent analysis, Jeereg. You've explained the book's novelistic properties far more deftly than I could have ever hoped to. Thank you.

Yeah, Frobisher wasn't as enjoyable for me because I found him to be such a selfish, larcenous douchebag. Doesn't make that section "bad" in any way, I just enjoyed it less than the others, comparatively.

I find it odd that for all our discussion on this page about Mitchell's employment of suspense, he would deliberately deprive himself of a pretty easy source of it: the reader's ignorance as to the characters' fates. Frobisher's early death, Goose's betrayal, Sonmi's martyrdom, these stories trade away mysterious…

For what it's worth, I absolutely felt a strong cohesion to the book, which was part and parcel of how it was so effective and effecting for me as a reader. I'm just going to piggyback on Jeereg's beautifully written post about merely some of the connecting themes and recurring motifs in the book; there are multiple…

See also: Rufus SIXsmith [emphasis added]. There are lots of little textual shout-outs to the book's structural playfulness.

@Rowan and KaiserTia:

I don't think that the Oversoul in this book necessarily MUST enter a new incarnation immediately upon the death of the last one. I have no problem accepting gaps in time between, say, Ewing's death and Frobisher's birth. And how does Meronym carrying the Comet Soul and not Zach'ry mess up the book's logic? She…

Cavendish
Ewing
Sonmi
Zach'ry
Luisa Rey
Frobisher

Miller, spot on man about Luisa Rey. Spot fucking on. The unnecessary sex scene, or at least incredibly awkward sexual situations (see: The Da Vinci Code) was the crucial link in Mitchell's Dan Brown parody.

I found Mitchell's Dystopia recalled Huxley more than it did Orwell. The populace is controlled through targeted abundance and pleasure, rather than deprivation in pain. Even the linguistic assimilation of "ford" struck me as a shout-out to Brave New World.

I must confess that I am disheartened at the mixed reactions the Timothy Cavendish section seems to be getting. I was absolutely enthralled by his bitchy, bitchy witticisms. While that was my personal favorite, there was no section that was arduous or unpleasant for me as a reader. In fact, I simply friggin' loved the…

I'll be the first to say that it's definitely a good thing that you didn't start when we were doing Riddley Walker, or Master and Commander…

I'd be more inclined to characterize the Sloosha's Crossing segment as heavily (repeat, heavily) influenced by Riddley Walker, rather than being an imitation of it; David Mitchell is using degenerative-post-apocolyptic English to further very different narrative and authorial goals than Russell Hoban was (IMHO), so I…

Lashes for you!

MikeStrange, that's a good idea, but I must confess that I have a tolerate/hate relationship with Facebook and Social Networking sites in general. I can be a bit reclusive in some ways…

Well, I respect your opinion, dude, and I shall never the dispute the fact that all three of those movies were indeed cash cows, and did have very welcome insertions of tits that were undeniably rockin' in every which, way and shape.

Careful now. I will stand witness for Minority Report's near-greatness. One of the few really successful Tom Cruise vehicles since it does so much to prevent him from attempting "charm." Also, awesome shot action sequences and one of several overlooked gems from Spielberg's early '00s hot streak.

I found the rotoscoping an interesting, mostly effective choice for depicting A Scanner Darkly. While it didn't do a disservice to the material, I still did not feel like it was the best or only way to film this material. Waking Life, in comparison, is inconceivable to me without the animation component. This just…

I dunno. I'm having a hard time envisioning Paul Giamatti, as capable an actor as he is.
I think Tim Roth could have made for a good choice, but then, it's easier to believe a movie project being built around Giamatti in the mid-2000s than one centered on Tim Roth, due to their respective career momentums at the time.

I don't think the Goethe stuff was such a terrible omission. It's meant in the book to illustrate the cognitive dissonance going on in Arctor's crumbling mind, as well as resonate on some of the book's themes. Those are both objectives that can be very easily achieved visually without repeating the Goethe insertions.