Cloud Atlas - epic film about karmic relationships and reincarnation spanning many lives

See the trailer of this promising new film made by the same directors as The Matrix which already had some Buddhist themes in it:

Cloud Atlas 'Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies ...' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/

An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. It's a fantastic book. It tells six stories from six separate time-lines however, each story is mentioned in the story that follows it. Each story ends suddenly and then the author revisits each story to give us each it's closing.

http://cloudatlas.warnerbros.com http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/jul/27/cloudatlasnextinception http://www.youtube.com/user/cloudatlasmovie

MitchellhavingexpressedaninterestinBuddhism,andhavingstatedthattheprotagonistsofCloudAtlaswere intendedtobethesamesoulreincarnated,assignifiedby'themotifofthecometshapedbirthmark'. Mitchell has said of the book: "All of the [leading] characters are reincarnations of the same soul ... identified by a birthmark. ... The "cloud" refers to the ever-changing manifestations of the "atlas", which is the fixed human nature. ... The book's theme is predacity ... individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_(novel)

Onitssimplestlevel,CloudAtlasisasetofsixsharply contrastingstories,eachonecapableofstandingalone asacompletetale,butonlyrevealingitsfullresonance whenviewedinthecontextofthetotalwork.... Yettheconceptofa cloudatlasappearselsewhereforexample,asa symbolicrepresentationofthetransmigrationofsouls orinararerecordingofFrobisherscompositionthat figuresasaplotelementsinaseparatestory.The multivalentmeaningofthisoneelementisanexample ofthemanyprefiguringsandreverberationsthatgive depthandsuchnesstothisambitiousnovel.

Asaresult,thelinkagesbetweenthesixnarrativesare difficult,perhapsimpossible,tosummarize.Butletme proposea(PhilipK.)Dicksianwayofapproachingthis interconnectivity.Imaginethatthedefiningstoriesof ourlivesarenotrootedinreality,asmanycritics assume,butinotherstories.... Ontopofthisintriguingstructure,Mitchell superimposesechoesofNietzschestheoryofeternal recurrence.Youmayrecallthatthisoddandseemingly implausiblephilosophicalconceptproposesauniverse thatdoesnotadvancechronologically,butmerely repeatsitself,overandoveragain.Thiscyclicalconcept ofhistorydoesnotpresupposeanytheisticdoctrines, butcanbemadecongruentwithabeliefin reincarnation.Mitchellclearlydrawsonthis metaphysicalangle,andsetsinmotionstoryelements thatimplythatthecharactersinhissixtalesmaybe reincarnationsofeachother. Ofcourse,noneofthisispresentedintheblunt,point bypointwaythatIhavejustoutlinedit.Mitchell workshischangessubtly,andevenathismost philosophical,hecloudshispointsinafogof ambiguity.Heis,afterall,astorytellerandnota theoretician,andthenarrativeisneverdislodgedby thehigherordermeanings.Theymerelyfloatabove theaction. http://www.conceptualfiction.com/cloud_atlas.html

Whatyoucanseewhenareaderislookingaheadlikethisistheappetiteforanarrativestructure:aplan.Whatthe readergetsinCloudAtlasareintimationsofsomelargeschemeofthings.Fromcometshapedbirthmarksthat distinguishcharactersinthedifferentstories,toaccidentsofrecurringnamesanddates,connectionskeepbeing sensedevenmoreonasecondreading.Butdotheconnectionsbelongtothenarrativestructure?Byhisown account,Mitchell'smethodinvolvedimmersinghimselfinthedifferentnarrativesoneatatime,evenkeepingthemin different"folders".Hethendovetailedthemtogetheratalatestageinthenovel'scomposition.Heisnottheonly novelisttohaveworkedlikethis.Mostfamously,FranzKafka'sTheTrialisanovelputtogether,afterthenovelist's death,fromchaptersorepisodesthatwerecomposeddiscretelyandwhosesequenceisnotselfevident. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/apr/09/fiction.davidmitchell

Dropsintheocean:BuddhistreflectionsonDavidMitchellsCloudAtlas Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, is a ripping good read with plenty of action and suspense. Its also a cautionary tale of karma-vipka(how our actions set up complex results, short- and long-term) and how failing to choose is itself a choice just as much as a conscious decision is. ... Though Cloud Atlasis not a Buddhist book, I found certain Dharmic themes reflected in the prose. The strongest of these is the Three Characteristics of Conditioned Existence (impermanence, nonsubstantiality and unsatisfactoriness), which seem woven throughout the narratives. Or maybe, like when I first fell in love with old Volvos, I just see them everywhere. In one brief scene, from a time maybe 200 years from now, a humanoid fabricant being, somni-451, is being shuttled from safe-house to safe-house, avoiding the corporate/government authorities. She is being hunted down as the (reluctant) figure-head in an emerging revolution of the have-nots against their beloved masters. She is taken to what had been, centuries before, a monastic complex with many temples and shrines somewhere in Korea, perhaps. Visible across the river gorge is a carved, serene, seated, cross-legged figure, the worse for wear and tear, in huge bas-relief. Somni-451 comes out just before dawn, and sees the elderly headwoman who is sitting, contemplating this figure. She is the abbess, who, as a young girl, had trained briefly as a nun and is the only survivor from the time of rehabilitation (or death) of those who practiced the old, now-banned, religions. She tells somni-451 about this Siddhartha and how he taught freedom from suffering. But she cant really tell her the stories, because they have all been lost. Nonetheless, she abides, and helps those who come to this place seeking freedom. http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/bookreviews/dropsintheocean