Cloud Atlas (Film) -----> Never Let Me Go (Novel)

A. Cloud Atlas

Summary: This movie was based on a book by the same name, written by the author David Mitchell. It followed the progression of a soul as it grew and traveled through six time periods. The six time periods were 1849 (Pacific Islands), 1936 (Cambridge), 1973 (San Francisco), 2012 (London), 2144 (Neo Seoul), and 106 winters after the Fall (Big Isle). For a more involved description of the movie and the plot check the wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(film)

Connections: In the the 2012 time period, the story followed a character by the name of Timothy Cavendish. Timothy's brother was a guy by the name of Denholme Cavendish.

Denhomle Cavendish figured heavily in Timothy's story. He tricked him into a nursing home.

He also had a part in the first novel by David Mitchell called Ghostwritten. In this story, Denholme is the boss of Neal Brose.

1. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

Summary: It was a story that examined the unseen connections that exist between people from all over the world. The author followed nine characters: a terrorist in Okinawa, a record shop clerk in Tokyo, a British financier in Hong Kong, an old woman running a tea shop in China, an transmigrating entity in Mongolia, an art thief in Petersburg, a drummer in London, a female physicist in Ireland, and a radio deejay in New York.

Connections: The transmigrating entity in Mongolia was incorporeal and so needed a host body. When we were introduced to it, it was in the mind of a Danish backpacker by the name of Caspar. The entity didn't know where it came from and it moved around trying to find its origin. It is hinted that one of the bodies it inhabited was Jorge Luis Borges.

Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentinian short story author who had written numerous books. The link was not a book he had written, but one in which he was a character. This book was called Kafka's Soup.

2. Kafka's Soup by Mark Crick

Summary: Kafka's Soup was a literary pastiche that was written as cookbook. This means the author wrote the recipes in the style that he imagined the author writing it in. There are 14 different recipes and authors. These recipes and authors are:

sole a la dieppoise a la Jorge Luis Borges, lamb with dill sauce a la Raymond Chandler, tarragon eggs a la Jane Austen, quick miso soup a la Kafka, rich chocolate cake a la Irvine Welsh, tiramisu a la Proust, coq au vin a la Gabriel Garcia Marquez,

mushroom risotto a al Steinbeck, clafoutis grandmere a la Virginia Woolf, fenkata a la Homer, vietnamese chicken a la Graham Greene, cheese on toast a la Harold Pinter,

onion tart a la Chaucer, and boned stuffed pouissons a la Marquis de Sade.

Connections: For the linking character I chose the Marquis de Sade.

He was a French aristocrat best known for his very risque sexual proclivities and erotic works. These proclivities and works focused on violence, criminality, and blasphemy. And it is these that made him both a fascinating and repulsive character. Many works of fiction have included him as character. One of these is a movie called Waxwork. In this movie, he was shown living up to his name, acting in a very sadistic manner.

3. Waxwork (1988)

Summary: This movie was about a group of either high school or college students visiting a Waxworks museum. The displays were of characters from various horror stories. These characters were supposed to be the eighteen most evil beings: the Marquis de Sade, the werewolf, Count Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, the Mummy, Romero Zombies, Frankenstein's monster, Jack the Ripper, the Invisible Man, a voodoo priest, a witch, a snakeman, pod people, a mutant baby, an axe murderer, a multi-eyed alien, a golem, a giant talking venus fly trap, and Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was determined that if a person passed the exhibit rope of one the displays, they were transported into a pocket universe containing that villain. And if they died, they became apart of the exhibit.

Connections: As I stated above, one of the exhibits was of Jack the Ripper, a serial killer whose identity was unknown.

S/he brutally murdered prostitutes, mutilating them and even removing some of their organs. The mysterious and brutal nature of Jack's acts have made him/her a popular character in many stories. One of the stories that included him/her as a character is light novel called Fate/Apocrypha.

4. Fate/Apocrypha by Yuichiro Higashide and illustrated by Ototsugu Konoe

Summary: It took place in a parallel world, after the third war or I think the third battle for the Grail. In this story the Grail was removed from Fuyuki City making it so that the events in Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero never happened. This story followed the conflict between the Red and Black factions. They each got to summon seven servants (who seem to be important historical and/or fictional characters). The Black servants were Siegfried, Chiron, Vlad the Impaler, Astolfo the 12^th paladin of Charlemagne, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Frankenstein's Monster, and Jack the Ripper. The Red faction summoned Mordred, Atalanta the chaste huntress, Karna, Achilles, Shakespeare, Spartacus, and Semiramis. The Grail even summoned its own servant who acted as a mediator or referee in this Grail war. This servant was called the ruler, epitomized by Joan of Arc.

Connections: Joan of Arc is a French heroine.

She supposedly received visions from God that instructed her to support Charles VII against English domination. She was captured at Compiegne and handed over to the English. She was later convicted and burned at the stake. Another real life person who captured the imagination of authors and artists, Joan of Arc has been used as the inspirations and as the character in many stories. One of the the stories was a comedy sketch by Playhouse Presents called “Psychobitches.”

5. Playhouse Presents: “Psychobitches”

Summary: This was a comedy sketch show where famous women of history were psychoanalyzed. Some of the patients include Beatrix Potter, Joan of Arc, Sylvia Plath, the Bronte Sisters, Margot Fontaine, Eva Braun, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Mary Whitehouse and more. For a more in-depth look at the show- check out this link: http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/psychobitches/.

Connections: One of the patients, as stated above, was Mary Whitehouse.

Mary Whitehouse was an English social activist who had a strong opposition to what she saw as social liberalism. She also combated filth on Tv. A movie was made that documented her struggle. It was called Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story.

6. Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story

Summary: Mary Whitehouse was middle aged school teacher. During the 60s she became fired up and began campaigning against filth on TV and radio. This movie documented this activism which she continued until her death in 2001.

Connections: One of the characters in the movie was Quintin Hogg (Alistair Findlay).

Quinton Hogg was the Lord Hailsham of St. Marylebone and a Lord Chancellor.

He was known for his legal and ethical opinions about cloning. He struggled to reconcile his beliefs with the law and often spoke on the integrity of the person. This was a good match for Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go because a school in this novel may have been named after Lord Hailsham. Hailsham Academy, which housed and taught clones, was about the ethical and moral treatments of their pupils.

B. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Summary: Society had learned how to extend human life. The way they have accomplished this was by raising clones in order to harvest their organs as the original needed them. And so, the clones were raised, kept fit, and fed until they were about twenty. At that point, the clones just waited until their original needed parts. They were allowed the freedom to move around, but not have to avoid their fate. There was no revolution or underground movement to free them. This story was more of meditation on not wasting what little time we have in the world.

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