The Sinking of the HMS Bounty

I've been trying to absorb the heartbreaking tragedy of Hurricane Sandy and the devastation wrought by fire, wind, and water.  The scale of misery and loss is hard to comprehend.

What is uplifting are the stories of the dedicated emergency responders who risked their lives to help others.

What is amazing is the resilience of everyday people who will pick up the pieces and move forward with their lives.

I take hope in their resilience because their capacity for endurance has been demonstrated in the aftermath of too many recent tragedies in our country.  People come together to help each other get through the unthinkable.  And they do.

An early casualty from the super storm was the HMS Bounty.

Sinking of the HMS Bounty
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:121029-G-ZZ999-002_-_Coast_Guard_rescues_crewmembers_aboard_HMS.jpg

A ship is a just a thing.
Its loss does not match the worth of a single life that has been taken.
More tragic is the loss of the Bounty's crew member Claudene Christian,
and the possible loss of its captain Robin Walbridge.

But a ship of sails is a thing of beauty,
and its loss is a tragedy to seafaring hearts.

HMS Bounty
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMS_Bounty_leaving_Albert_Dock_-_geograph.org.uk_-_545527.jpg

Ships of all ilk often chose to ride out dangerous storms at sea.
At anchor, they can be badly battered or destroyed.
That was the calculation the Bounty's captain made,
but this time the ocean won.

The Bounty lost engine power and began taking on water in strong winds and high seas on Sunday afternoon, October 28th.  The wild, chaotic seas entered the Bounty too quickly to permit pumps to be dropped by helicopter to rescue it.

Captain Robin Walbridge gave the order to abandon ship.

At 4:00 a.m. on the 29th,
the crew launched two life rafts into the tulmultuous, predawn waters.
With the ship sinking beneath them, the sailors swam for the rafts and boarded them.
Some, including Claudene Christian and Robin Walbridge didn't.
(as reported in examiner.com on October 29, 2012)

The HMS Bounty sank early on the morning of October 29, 2012 about 90 miles SE of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

The first of two U.S. Coast Guard helicopters dispatched from Elizabeth City plucked a survivor from the raging waters and pulled up four others from one of the rafts.

Thirty minutes later a second helicopter arrived to haul survivors from the second raft.  A rescue swimmer dropped into the waves to help the sailors enter the rescue basket that would winch them to safety.

The rescue swimmer Dan Todd swam up to the second raft in rough seas and said,
"Hey, I'm Dan and I hear you guys need a ride."
(as reported in the charlotteobserver.com, on October 30, 2012)
Typical American serviceman aplomb think I.  
Just the sort I'd want to snatch me from hellish waters.

Guzzling fuel and running low, the second helicopter had to abandon its search for the missing captain and sailor.

A third U.S. Coast Guard helicopter searched the waters and plucked the unresponsive Claudene Christian from the seas.
By now the Bounty struggled abeam.
Darkness forced the abandonment of the air search for Robin Walbridge,
but U.S. Coast Guard cutters continued hunting throughout the night.

These U.S. Coast Guard crews are perfect example of the courageous members of our forces who serve our country at home and around the world every day.

U.S. Coast Guard video of the Rescue of the HMS Bounty Crew (11 min., 31sec./2012) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coast_Guard_Rescues_14,_Searches_for_2_from_HMS_Bounty.ogv

Details continue to emerge, some conflicting; but time will sort out those details.

This HMS Bounty was a replica of the fabled first HMS Bounty.
The tale of the Mutiny on the Bounty has echoed through time for over two hundred years,
since the crew on the first Bounty mutinied in Tahiti in 1789.

The First HMS Bounty
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMS_Bounty.jpg

This HMS Bounty was constructed in 1960-1961 for the 1962 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring Marlon Brando.  For fifty years this daughter of the British transport Bounty has sailed the waters of the world preserving the memories of tall ships on the seas.  It has taken part in many other movies and documentaries and has served as a living lesson in maritime history.

In an ironic twist of fate, as reported in torontosun.com, Claudene Christian, the sailor who died when the replica of the original bounty sank, said on her Facebook account that she was descended from Fletcher Christian.  Marlon Brando played the lead mutineer in the mutiny against Captain William Bligh in the 1962 movie.

For some, this HMS Bounty will be forever associated with Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow; but if this is what keeps alive the beauty of tall ships, so be it.

You Tube Video:  Where's Johnny Depp? ( 41 seconds/2010)

This HMS Bounty died in American waters, but it was born in Canadian.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer commissioned the replica from Smith and Ruhland shipwrights in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lunenburg_Nova_Scotia_1.jpg

She was christened on August 28, 1961 with 10,000 square feet of wind-capturing sail.
She died on October 29, 2012 in stormy seas.
Perhaps she can be salvaged to sail once again.

As I mourn her loss,
I think of her unnamed sailor rescued from North Carolina waters in an orange neoprene survival suit.
I think of the sailor who died alone in the surging waves,
and her captain who met an unknown fate.
What were they thinking?

I think of the families and their loss,
and I remember a song "Atlantic Blue" that may personify such heartache.

You Tube video:  Atlantic Blue, The Once & Atlantic String Quartet
 (3 min. 22 sec./2012)

One story, among thousands, of the heartbreaking tragedy of Hurricane Sandy.
One story, among countless others, of ships and lives lost at sea.


References:

charlotteobserver.com
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/10/29/3631737/bountys-crew-plucked-from-the.html)

examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/article/storm-sinks-historic-hms-bounty-capt-missing-crew-says-ship-sank-beneath-us

tallshipbounty.org
http://www.tallshipbounty.org/

torontosun.com
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/10/30/hms-bounty-victim-claudene-christian-wrote-of-pride-on-facebook-page

You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/

Wikimedia Commons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Cloud Atlas and LOTR

The following photo is rated NC-17. 

That means that no one under 18 can look at it.

It is not a pretty sight.

It is an image of a maniac.  
You can see the craziness in the eyes!

Out.  Of.  Control.

What follows is the maniac’s review of the movie Cloud Atlas.

If you want the really short version, just scan the red bits and glance at the images.
If you want the short version of the review, scroll down to Short Version.
If you want the Real Time version, read on.


Real Time Version

It's late in the morning.

The maniac is on her computer.

She is in creative flow.

She was in the same position last night until 1:48 a.m.

Her ever-patient husband has had to fend for himself this morning.

She was too tired to get out of bed.

He pours her a cup of coffee and asks, “Have you checked to see what time Cloud Atlas starts?"

OMG!  Cloud Atlas! 

She hits the bookmark for movie times:  11:00 a.m.

“Oh, no!  It’s 11:01.  We could catch the 3:00 p.m. showing.  I better get busy!”

The maniac frantically runs around tidying the house. 

The house is a disaster!

The maniac has been lost in the flow.

Some minutes later he looks up from his iPad and says calmly,
“It starts at 11:40 at the Chinese. We can make it.”

She thinks:  8.6 miles. 20 minutes to drive.  It’s 11:17 a.m. No way!

He says: “They always have so many previews.  We can do it.”

She says:  “I can finish the house after the movie!”

The race is on!

Flying down Arapahoe Road he says, 
“We’re going to make it. 
I told you we could.
I can change fast and get out the door fast.”
He never speaks with exclamation marks.

“Well, so can I,” she says. 

She is used to quick changes. 

She was a military brat. 

When her dad said, “Jump!” she asked, “How high, sir?” on the way up.

“Thank God I’m not a fashionista.”

“I love you no matter what,” he says.  “Did I brush my teeth?”

Did I? she thinks.

No matter! 

They’re pulling into the Chinese lot with minutes to spare.

 “Two tickets for Cloud Atlas,” he says.

“That will be $10, sir.  Do you have a STUBS card?”

“You’re an AMC theater now?” she says scrabbling through her purse for the STUBS.
Swipe.

“It’s expired.  Do you want to renew it?”

“Yes!” she says.

“How much?” says the husband.

“Twelve bucks.”

“Just do it!  The movie’s about to start!  
I need to hit the snack counter!”
 She almost always speaks in exclamation marks.

“You can get a discount on snacks now that your card is renewed,”
 says the helpful kid behind the glass as he swipes the credit card.

“Wait!” the husband says.  “How did $10 movie tickets just turn into $22 movie tickets?”

“Don’t worry!” the wife says.  “We’ll get a discount on snacks!”

She hands the tickets to the ticket lady saying, “Have we missed the beginning?”

“You have lots of time,” the  ticket lady smiles.
“Theater 16 on the right.  Snacks are right ahead of you.”

The wife starts dashing around the snack area that’s as big, bright, and confusing as Somni-451’s Neo So Copros.
But she’s looking at the walls.

“What are you doing?” asks her ever-patient husband.

“Looking for a Cloud Atlas poster!”

“I thought you wanted snacks and a seat in the theater.”

“I need a photo for my blog!”

“There is no Cloud Atlas poster.
I’ll go to the bathroom while you get the popcorn.
I’ll take your picture in the theater.”

“But…!”

“We.  Have.  Lots.  Of.  Time." 
The EP-H heads for the bathroom.

“Do you want a hotdog?” she calls.

“No, popcorn.”

“But...!”

“Popcorn!”  Into the john he disappears.

“How much is a small popcorn?” she asks the young kid behind the counter.

“Six bucks!”

“Six bucks!  Six bucks for a small popcorn! Are you kidding me?”
 She obviously hasn’t been to a theater in a while.

“If you have a STUBS card, I can upsize you to a medium for the same price.”

“Medium is good.  I'm hungry.  Wait!”
 She has spotted the manager’s special among the neon confusion.  “What’s that?”

“Two hotdogs and a large diet coke.”

Hotdiggitydog!  “How much?”

“Sixteen bucks.”

“Sixteen bucks!  Sixteen bucks for two hotdogs!  Are you kidding me?"
She is under a lot of stress.

“They’re very good hotdogs,” says the helpful young kid behind the counter.
 “You get a large coke too.  Discount with your STUBS card.”

“How much with the discount?”

“$14.75.”

“How much for two small popcorns and a small diet coke?
Upsized to medium with my STUBS card.”

“$14.00.”

“That’s almost as much as the hotdog special for just two small popcorns and a small coke!”

“Upsized to medium for free.”

“Just give me the dogs."

“You have rewards on your STUBS card,”
 says the helpful young kid behind the counter.
 “Do you want to use them?”

“How much with…?”

“$6.00.”

“Oh thank God!”

The EP-H walks up. 
The wife hands him a dog and the coke saying,

“I got you a hotdog. We need mustard!"

“Mustard's over there, Mam.”

They run for the mustard.
Squirt. Squirt.

They dash into the theater.

Race up the stairs.

Dump their coats and snacks.

The wife scrabbles through her purse and pulls out her camera.

“Quick! Before the lights go down.  For my blog!”

“I would like popcorn,” the husband says.

“But…!

“They’re still showing the previews.”

“All right!  All right! I’ll get you popcorn. 
Just.   Take.  The.   Picture.”

The EP-H takes the photo.
She races down the stairs. 

She is attracting a lot of attention in the theater.

She does not notice.

She is on a mission.

Bathroom.  Popcorn. 
A photo of the theater sign documenting she was at Cloud Atlas.
For her blog.
Before the movie starts.

“You’re back,” says the  helpful young kid behind the counter.

“He wanted popcorn.”

“Small, upsized to medium, with your STUBS card?”

“Six bucks, right?”

“Yup.”

“$22 + $6 + $6 + my $ 10 STUBS rewards!  That’s $44 bucks!
 This movie is costing more than Friday Night Date Night with dinner and drinks.”

“Do you want the popcorn?”

Mission accomplished. 
She dashes back into the darkened theater and races up the stairs.

The music is playing.

There is a bearded man on the screen.

“Oh no!" She tosses her husband the popcorn.

“Relax, they’re still showing the previews for Les Mis.”

“That’s not Dr. Goose?”

“I told you we had lots of time.”

Cloud Atlas, the movie unfolds.

She can barely breathe.
Time passes.
The cinematography is gorgeous.

The characters are compelling.
She cries at the end.

SHORT VERSION

Out in the bright, cold air she asks, “What did you think?”

He gives her The Look.  “What did you think?” he asks.

“I loved it!  Couldn’t you tell?  I could hardly breathe.
 And the Timothy Cavendish section was so funny.  
It made me proud to a Scot - well, of Scottish descent. 
I laughed ‘til I cried.”

“I know,” he says.
He had been elbowing her in the theater because she was laughing too loudly and too long.

“I didn’t know WTF was going on!” he said getting into the car. 
“I don’t see how anyone could go to that movie without reading the book first."

"It was quite different in places from the book," she says.

“It was an adaptation," he says, starting the car. "Like The Lord of the Rings movies."
Did you like the movie as much as the book?  Cloud Atlas, that is.”  

“Oh yes,” she said.  “The movie adaptations worked for both LOTR and Atlas."
Less and more.”

“How so?”

“So much from the books was left out of the movies,
but the changes in the stories made the movies work.
I didn't think the Wachowskis could make a movie of Cloud Atlas any more than I thought Peter Jackson could make movies out of LOTR.  
I was worried they would really screw up my favorite books. Wrong!
They succeeded beyond what I had dared hope.
The movies can stand alone, different and separate from the books.
And my LOTR and my Atlas are still mine.”

“You weren’t confused?” he asks, pulling unto Arapahoe.

“No.”

“Are you glad you went, even if you were confused?” she asks.

“I thought the Korean lady was interesting.  The rest was okay.  
I did it for you, you know.  
The movie.  The photos. The hotdog.”

“You’ve taken me to a lot of movies that weren’t really your thing.

But, then, you’re not really into sci-fi or fantasy.”

“But, here’s what I really don’t get," he says.  
"What was Bilbo Baggins doing in Cloud Atlas?”

“Bilbo Baggins?”

“Yeah, he was that old composer and Cavendish.”

He’s confusing Jim Broadbent with Ian Holm, she thinks.

“Except Bilbo was taller in this movie.”

He’s really confused.

Suddenly she starts to laugh.

“You’re right,” she says.  “Elrond was all over Cloud Atlas.”

“Elrond?”

“You know the half-elf in LOTR, Lord of Rivendell, Arwen’s father.”
She laughs harder.

“What’s so funny?” he asks.

“The Konamen did kind of remind me of orcs," she says. 

Well, actually more like Saruman’s Uruk-hai.
A touch of frisson at all that bad dentition."

She laughs even harder.

“Oh my God, you’re brilliant!” she says, tears running down her face.
"Ayrs and Cavendish did have a striking resemblance to Bilbo!
Bilbo, Elrond, Uruk-hai!
Everyone and everything is connected!
Mitchell and Tolkien just didn’t realize how connected.
They’re connected!
Tolkien stopped too soon.  Mitchell began too late.
And, rumor has it that Ian McKellen was offered a role in Cloud Atlas.”    

“Who?”

“Gandalf. The actor who played Gandalf.  
Maybe Gandalf was in the film, along with Bilbo and Elrond. 
With all those characters reincarnating together through time, maybe we just missed him.
And the kid Javier, Luisa’s friend, maybe he’s Frodo!”

"That was a joke.  About Bilbo.  
You couldn't breathe during The Hobbit preview either.

By the way, you owe me Argo.  And maybe 007."

"My stomach hurts!"

"Speaking of stomach.  Maybe next time you could stuff a hotdog in that purse.

Instead of that camera.

It would be cheaper. 

A better deal than that managers special."

She scrabbles for paper in the purse and scratches quotes on it.

“You need an intervention," he says.
“You better go on-line and tell people you’re going to be absent for a while.  
This whole Cloud Atlas /blog thing is out of control.”

“OMG!  FRODO LIVES!” she says.
And she laughed like a maniac all the way home.

Graffiti in a Public Bathroom
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frodo_lives.jpg

The Barnes & Noble Reference Shelves

Every other Friday I go to my local B&N bookstore to treat myself to a cup of coffee, an apple tart, and a pile of interesting books.  I pick up the current copy of People Magazine, so I can catch up on the latest Stewart/Pattinson gossip (a guilty Twilight pleasure).  Then I'm off to look for interesting books to peruse while I enjoy my treats.

This morning I was searching through the writing section in the reference area looking for something on memoirs or blogging.

And right there,
on the B&N reference shelves,
underneath a selection of books on quotations,
was something I had never expected to find!

I had to take a photograph.
Can you spot what I discovered?

Fifty Shades of Grey!  The whole trilogy!

How helpful! I thought.

So,
if the lights are low,
and you're trying to spice things up with something nouveau,
and you can't think of some salacious sweet nothing to whisper,
as you're trying to attach handcuffs to your partner and the bedpost,
you can sneak a peak
at your strategically placed reference book on your nightstand,
and find an appropriate quote!
Because, B&N has thoughtfully put the large print editions on its reference shelf!

Now, I know that the hardworking staff at my local B&N goes out of its way to help customers,
but this strikes me as truly going above and beyond the call of duty.

So, I dispatched the tart and the magazine and the books, and I was sitting there thinking,
Why stop with the reference shelf?

B&N could up its customer service a notch and add a display in the game section.
Nothing ostentatious and over the top,
like American Horror Story's Sister Jude with her closet of disciplinary tools.
No!  Something more subtle, like a discretely and tastefully packaged set of handcuffs or two.

I know just the spot!
Slip them between these two games in the games and puzzle section.
There should be just enough room.

Chasing Icebergs in St. Anthony, Errr...Kicking the Bucket!

What do you want to do before you “kick the bucket?”

I want to cross as many things as possible off my very long Bucket List.

Everybody is talking bucket lists these days.  It’s understood that these are things you want to do before you die or “kick the bucket.”  Now I’ve heard the phrase “kick the bucket” all my life, but I’ve never really thought about its origin. 

Until now.

I googled “kick the bucket” in curiosity.

It’s an English idiom that means to die.  Well, I knew that!

Dating back to at least 1785.  Okay.

Its origin is unclear, but there are several theories about how the idiom came to be.

One theory comes from a method of execution used during the Middle Ages.
The condemned stands on a bucket. 
The executioner fits a noose around the condemned’s neck, kicks the bucket out from under his feet, and the condemned hangs. 

Just thinking about this makes me extremely uncomfortable. 

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I gut-know I’ve been hanged.






http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Visconti-sforza-12-traitor.jpg

Another theory comes from the slaughtering of pigs.  The bucket is a yoke or beam that slaughtered pigs were hung from where they struggled. 

I can't help thinking: If a pig has been slaughtered, how can it struggle?  Trying to expunge the image is worse than trying to erase the song "MacArthur Park" from your head.

Bucket, in this instance, is derived from the French word “trébuchet” or “buque.”

Don’t even think of trying to get rid of that embedded link, Louise!
Because then you’d have the bigger problem of how to type that French e with that slanty thing on top! 

A troisième theory… 

On no!  There’s a French e with a slanty thing going the other way! 

I did not do well studying French. 

I do not speak French, in spite of the fact that I am a Canadian.

Everybody knows all Canadians speak French, eh? 

Not! 

Actually, I am a Canadian American.

Or is it an American Canadian? 

At least I have a flag just for me!

Spotted in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

 

Anyway, the troisième theory has to do with dead bodies, holy-water buckets, and sprinkling holy-water on the feet of corpses. 

I cannot make this stuff up! 

If you don’t believe me, go to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia online. 

Check out this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_the_bucket

 

And I thought "kick the bucket" was a euphemism for dying.

I had no idea when I turned on my trusty Mac that this was where my post Chasing Icebergs in St. Anthony was going!  I had promised my niece Heather pictures of icebergs, not pans, tomorrow, and that was several days ago.   I have some shortcomings in the aunt department.

So for you, Heather:

Small Humpy Iceberg (Left)
A Very Big Flat Pan (Right)
Some would argue that it's an iceberg too!

In the very near future, I will get to The Great American Road Trip of 2011 where we chased icebergs in St. Anthony.  That was just one of a number of Bucket List Items on my list for the road trip. 

My sisters Bert and Barb had other BLIs on that trip.

Bertie definitely did not have icebergs on her BL.  She hates the cold! 

My ever-patient husband had no BLIs to scratch off. 

Terry went on that 16-day road trip with his wife and two sisters-in-law in an overloaded SUV through Newfoundland and Labrador.

And four ferry crossings.  Two of which sailed over the spot where the storied William Carson went down.  

So I could scratch off Bucket List Items.

Now that is a great husband!

I can't believe it!  

There's another meaning for “trébuchet” - but without that slanty thing.  

It's a Font you can use on Blogger!  I just found it! 

Just Because

It's a chilly, gray day in landlocked Colorado.
Clouds have shuttered blue sky, and winds have stripped  golden leaves.
Rain and snow are on their way.

Gray Day in Colorado

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20110930-FS-UNK-0006_-_Flickr_-_USDAgov.jpg

It's a perfect day to sit down by the fireplace with a hot cup of coffee and a favorite book.
I'm closing in on the end of Cloud Atlas, my final reread before the movie mutates my images of Mitchell's world irrevocably.

So, even though life is good, sometimes it's beneficial to take your spirits a little higher!  At such times, when I'm missing the ocean and I'm longing for the feel of Nova Scotia, I play again a video that never fails to make me smile.  That makes me remember the essential goodness of ordinary people and their capacity for fun!

Sometimes I play it just because.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport

Breast Cancer FUNdraiser Flash Mob

September 16, 2010

My cup of coffee is craving some Timbits from that HSIA Tim Hortons!

Cloud Atlas and the Corpocracy

Three days until Cloud Atlas, the movie, opens!

Have you read the book?

Are you planning to see the movie?

I have and I am!

Several years ago David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, dressed up in colorful paper and bow, landed under our Christmas tree.  I can nearly always spot a book in the Christmas pile, and I did.  I reached for it, and the tag said, "Merry Christmas, Aunt Louise!"  It was from my niece Heather (who must have decided it was payback time for Aunt Louise for the decade or more of Christmas and birthday books A.L. had sent her way).

There was a note from Heather that started something like, "This is my all-time favourite book!"  I say "something like" because the note vanished into the Christmas litter never to be seen again.  I can't wait to read this! I thought.  I put it on my nightstand.

Some nights later I picked it up and began to read, "Beyond the Indian hamlet . . .   ."  I'm too tired! I thought.  Tomorrow night.

Some nights later I picked it up and began to read, "Beyond the Indian hamlet . . .   ."  I'm too tired! I thought.  Tomorrow night.

Some nights later I picked it up and began to read, "Beyond the Indian hamlet . . .   ."  I'm too tired! I thought.  Tomorrow night.
You get the picture.

After a while the guilt got to me.  I hid the book in a drawer in my nightstand, and every time I opened that drawer that book said to me, "What kind of an aunt are you?  Your wonderful niece Heather sent you this book!  She's your wonderful brother Roy's only daughter.  How can you not have read me?  It's her all-time favourite book!"  Yes, favourite - Heather's Canadian.  I'd shut that drawer to silence that book's voice.

Open.  "What kind of aunt are you?"  Close.
Open.  "What kind of aunt..."  Slam.
Open,  "What kind..." Slam!

One night I was not too tired.  I took out the book and started, "Beyond the Indian hamlet. . ."
I couldn't stop!  Forget that I had to get up and face a classroom full of huggy, needy third graders who needed to be taught in an inspiring, motivating way in a few hours.  You know those high stakes CSAPs are coming up soon, Louise!  I couldn't stop reading.

"Will you please turn out the light, Louise?  Some of us have to work in the morning!" said my disgruntled husband from under his pillow.

So I tromped out to the livingroom, sighing heavily, and curled up in my second most favorite spot to read.  Yes, favorite - I now spell in American because I've tried to turn too many American kiddos into super American spellers.  I read more and more and more.  OMG!  Cloud Atlas was turning out to be one of my favorite books ever!

So a half a dozen weeks ago, I was organizing, again, my overflowing bookcases, picked up Cloud Atlas, and began rereading it.  Right in the middle of the awful mess I had made of my study, again.


I read it front to back.  This time I knew when The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing ended in mid-sentence, the book wasn't misprinted.  That's what David Mitchell had intended when he structured the book like Russian Malyutin/Zvyozdochkin dolls.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Russian-Matroshka_no_bg.jpg


I started reading it doll by doll, onion layer by onion layer, time shell by time shell.

I became fascinated with the theme of corporate power morphing into corpocracy - as in Luisa Rey's time when the successful held forth on the need to let businesses run the country, to establish a meritocracy that rewards wealthmakers, and to venerate the powerful.
Was Mitchell channeling Kernan, Kudlow, and Trump?  Or RomneyRyan?  

And language - as in Sonmi - 451's time when purebloods walked on snow in nikes, drove in fords on fordways, and drank their starbucks.
As in Zachry's time when, in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After dialog, well you just have to immerse yourself in that because I can't even begin to describe it!
As in Adam Ewing's time when Doctor Goose follows the"enameled grails" of "human gnashers."  Such delicious fun in the South Pacific!  

So, last night I sat down in my second most favorite spot to read,
so my SomeofUsHavetoWorkintheMorning husband could remove his head from under his pillow,
so I could find some clever quotes on the evolution of the corprocrat and the corpocracy,
when Cloud Atlas fell open at the beginning of The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish,
and I started to read and couldn't stop laughing.

I laughed until my eyes watered and I had to cross my legs.
And I kept reading and laughing in TGOOTC because the irascible, curmudgeonly Timothy Cavendish was too much fun to abandon for the chilling world of the corpocrat and the corpocracy.

I can't wait for the movie.
I hope they don't screw up the book translating it to the screen.
After all, it's one of my all-time favorite books.
With love and thanks to my wonderful niece, Heather!

I like taking pictures of clouds.

Fundy Blue