Cloud Atlas and Canopus

[Bekah]

This book felt like a series of loosely connected stories  and I'm 
not complaining about that although  I wish they had been *just a wee 
tad* more connected.  Oh well,  are the clouds connected?  Only when 
there's rain.


Someone asked about Doris Lessing's Canopus series recently and I 
replied about those works but I see more of a connection to Cloud 
Atlas  now.

Lessing wrote,  "Canopus in Argos: Archives,"  back in the 70s,  I 
think.   It was a science fiction series in which each book was 
completely different tale,  but the same overarching galactic 
situation was in force in all of them.  Some of the books were better 
connected to this main idea (the archives of Canopus) than others. 
Most books were comprised of the reports from an agent of Canopus, 
made in relation to his journey to check on the remote and backward 
planet,  Earth.   One book was like a fable within this 5-book series 
and seemed not to be connected at all.   Cloud Atlas has 6 parts,  I 
believe,  each part divided into two sections.  The books only loosly 
related.

he more I think about it,  the more Cloud Atlas is like Lessing's 
work.  Each book was written in a somewhat different style,  the 
first was an allegory of sorts.  The second was a myth/fable.  the 
third was pretty much sci-fi plot,  the fourth was myth/fable again 
and the fifth was mostly allegory.  (I guess.)

I loved these books and awaited each one with anticipation.   I doubt 
I can find any other connections between the works but just thought 
I'd mention it.

Bekah
-- 
"In epistemological terms, we cannot be sure that Americans landed on
the moon (whereas we are sure that Flash Gordon reached the planet
Mongo.) "    U.  Eco  "Six Walks in a Fictional Woods"