An Orison of Somni-451

1. Plot Summary:

This section of the text is formatted in the form of an interview between Somni-451 and an Unanimityman(comparable to the FBI?) seeking to archive the experiences of Somni from the point she is as fabricant server at Papa Song’s up through her ascension and aquisition of knowledge when she is residing as an experiment in Boom-Sook Kim’s dorm at a University.  At the University she is discovered through her use of downloads onto the “sony” and is placed in other quarters to be investigated/researched/interviewed by the highest bidder. 

2. How does this section characterize/position reader’s/writer’s/writing?

This section is an interview-interviewee format of writing where the information that is exposed is dependent upon the questions asked and the participants willingness to answer truthfully and fully.  There is a mix between casual and interrogative questions and prompts to get the participant to reveal her story (very much like a therapist).

3. Characterization of “civilization”

This section is representative of dystopian fiction in that it centers around a negative image of the world’s future.  Clones, class system, lack of individualism (people have become just numbers), use of brainwashing, curfews, memory-removing drugs, and slavery (12-year star system) are among many of realities in this future world.  Also technology and common consumer items of today have new names labeled for their brands, i.e. “sonys,” “nikes”  Food (and pretty much everything) is genetically engineered.  There is a cure for all deadly diseases from cancer to diabetes, and companies bid for the opportunity to project their ads on the surface of the moon.  The ultimate goal is to become the consumer and once you reach that class you have to spend your allotted quota.  Fascaping (plastic surgery) is commonly done among cerain classes and evidently it’s chic to have facial features of the Somni-451.  To look like other classes defeat the purpose of being genetically predetermined in the first place.  Consumerism and corpocracy are satirized to the fullest.

4. Other questions, themes, leit motifs that are interesting.

Is there any death?  How do you die in this world?   Is Neo So Corpros a country or the world?

Clouds, II

For this next reading of the Cloud Atlas, I enjoyed the Luisa Rey Mystery.  Sixsmith returns from the previous section, but instead of being an anonymous receiver of letters, he’s a central character avoiding being murdered (and doesn’t succeed).  I like how the plot thickens with this section and there is some suspense and mystery.  Luisa acts as our little detective and she does a good job until the end of the section–which frustrated me as much as it did some of you.  I couldn’t believe after all that, it could just end with her car going over the bridge!  (Although, I should have known it would be something like that…a “to be continued” segue). 

The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish was slightly less memorable or interesting to me.  It was like one of those movies with a twist ending you never saw coming even though all the information was there to tell you what was going to happen all along.  I didn’t get it though–was it really a sick joke on his brother’s part, or was Timothy such an unreliable narrator that we don’t know that he really needed to be in the nursing home?  Or is that the point–to make us wonder?  All I know is I would be freaked out if I was trapped in there too.  He would have been better off going to visit his old girlfriend instead of being a peeping tom.  *sigh* There’s no telling what’s in store for us next…