Reincarnation,Eternal Recurrence,

Cloud Atlas

Alicia AcevedoBritteny PartenWendy Rubio-Abad

Reincarnation

By Alicia Acevedo

• “Reincarnation is the rebirth of the soul after the body’s death into a new physical body, which may be human or animal as well as divine, angelic, demonic, vegetative, or celestial.” (Lewis, 303

Reincarnation is found in the religions of various cultures all around the world.

Included among these are:

• Religions of India

• The Yoruba of West Africa

• Australian Aboriginal people

• Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders

Hinduism

• For Hindus, the goal is to escape rebirth by suppressing all desires except the desire for perfect unification with the universal self or with the divine.” (Lewis, 303-304)

“This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned

nor dried. He is everlasting, present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable

and eternally the same.”

—Bhagavad Gita 2.24

The Yoruba

• Four important beliefs:

• I. God—“No one teaches a child God.”

• II. Karma—“When Mr. Lizard eats pepper, it is he who perspires and not Mrs. Lizard.”

• III. Reincarnation—The Yoruba give their children names like Babatunde, “Father has returned.”

• IV. Death—Death is not looked on as something to feared, but rather a chance to live again.

Australian Aboriginal people

• “In every tribe without exception, there exists a firm belief in the reincarnation of ancestors.” —Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen

(Cranston, 166-167)

Hawaii and the Pacific Islands

• Many people in the Pacific Islands believe in reincarnation, including the Maori, the Tasmanians, Tahitians, Fijians, Trobriands, Solomon Islanders, Marquesans, the tribes of New Caledonia, and the Melanesians. (Cranston, 168)

• For the Hawaiians, in the religious philosophy known as Huna, there were “three departments of the human being, a low, and middle, and a higher self.” The low involved the emotions and the body; the middle is a being of reason; and the High Self was the “source of spiritual wisdom and power.” (Cranston, 169)

In many traditions concerning reincarnation, it is believed that birthmarks are imprinted onto a baby from

their soul being reborn and are a result of scars or wounds from a previous life. (Edwards, 135-138)

By Britteny Parten

Freidrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

German Philosopher whose writings were based on

• truth • morality • language• cultural theory• history• power• consciousness• the meaning of existence

He states:

“God has already died at our hands and in

truth there is only one Christian, and he

died on the cross.”

He believes that faith in God devalues life.

He asserts that humanity must learn to live

without seeking comfort in supernatural

power.

Nietzsche and ChristianityNietzsche has a strong objection to Christianity which stems from his views on morality

Nietzsche was not the first to encounter this

theory of Eternal Recurrence. Heinrich Heine

wrote “For time is infinite…All configurations

that have previously existed on this earth

must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and

corrupt each other again…and thus it will

happen one day that a man will be born

again” (McDonald).

Nietzsche was mesmerized by Heine’s theory and

decided to adopt the theory and continue with his ideas.

The Start of Freidrich Nietzsche’s Theory

“What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into

your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now

live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and

innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but

every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and

everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to

return to you, all in the same succession and sequence -- even

this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this

moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is

turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of

dust!" Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth

and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once

experienced a tremendous moment when you would have

answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything

more divine"? If this thought gained possession of you, it would

change you as you are, or perhaps crush you”

Nietzsche’s proposes this theory

(McDonald)

Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence theory asks

• How differently would one live if one did, in fact, face each day as though one would have to live it over innumerable times?

• What different choices would one make?

• Would one really agree to sentence oneself to an eternal life of drudgery and boredom, by making other choices, one could life of real mean and excitement and vitality?

• What is the meaning of MY life?

(Mark)

Nietzsche believes that man has only one task in life which is to live life passionately. The

term Eternal Recurrence was adopted as a thought experiment to test one’s willpower,

causing people to be able to endure the thought of reliving his/her entire life’s experience

over and over, with neither bitterness nor regret.

With also realizing that the pleasant elements and unpleasant elements in life occur again too because

the two are entangled (Kebede). The good comes with the bad.

Translating the message of his theory

(Saunders)

“The meaning of life then becomes living

life itself to the fullest, experience all it has

to offer; whether one then gets to live it

over again eternally isn’t really the point—

the point is to live it now.” (Mark)

Cloud Atlas Reincarnation and Eternal Recurrence

By Wendy Rubio-Abad

Within the Novel we find that the protagonists of each story are born with a distinct birthmark.A birthmark that ties them to their past life and actions.

Mitchell utilizes the recurring 'comet birthmark' to symbolize the reincarnation of the protagonists.Robert Frobisher, “She plays with that birthmark in the hollow of my shoulder, the one you said resembles a comet- can't

abide the woman dabbling with my skin (Mitchell 85).”Luisa Rey, “ Robert Frobisher mentions a comet shaped birthmark between his shoulder blade and collarbone. I just don't

believe in this crap. I just don't believe it. I don't (Miller 120).” “Luisa's birthmark throbs. She grasps for the ends of this elastic moment, but they disappear into the past and the future (Mitchrell 430)

Timothy Cavendish, “(I, too, have a birthmark, below my left armpit, but no lover ever compared it to a comet. Georgette nicknamed it Timbo's Turd (Mitchell 357).”

Sonmi-451, “I was fritened of incriminating myself, but only my birthmark provoked any passing comment. Xtraordinary. It looks like a comet, don't you think? Hae-Joo Im made xactly the same remark, curiously (Mitchell 198).”

“Luisa stands, entranced, as if living in a stream of time. 'I know this music'...'Where have I heard it before? (Mitchell 408-409).”

Luisa Rey remembers Zedelghem and all its inhabitants further demonstrating that she is Robert Frobisher's reincarnation.

“Rome'll decline and fall again, Cortes'll lay Tenochtitlan to waste again, and later, Ewing will sail again, Adrian'll be blown to pieces again, you and I'll sleep under Corsican stars again, I'll come to Bruges again, fall in and out of love with Eva again, you'll read this letter again, the sun'll grow cold again. Nietzsche's gramophone record.

When it ends, the Old One plays it again, for an eternity of eternities (Mitchell 471).”

Cloud Atlas is organized in a circular structure demonstrating the continuum of time, showing the limited amount of events that occur throughout history before they repeat themselves.

Eternal Recurrence“Mr. D'Arnoq's preferred theorum, that the Moriori were once Maori whose canoes were wrecked upon these remotest of isles... after centuries or millennia of living in isolation, the Moriori lived as primitive a life as their woebegone cousins of Can Diemen's Land...Art's of boatbuilding ( beyond crude woven rafts used to crossthe channels betwixt islands) & navigation fell into disuse (Mitchell 11).”In this telling of the forgotten knowledge that the Moriori once possessed Mitchell explains the fate of Zachry and his people in Sloosha's Crossin' An' Ev'rythin'.

Because these cycles repeat themselves you are bound to live these events over and over again unless you act contrary to your intuition. Fundamental changes in the cycle of events can only occur when an individual focuses on living life instead of trying to predict the future.

“If you could see the future, like you can see the end of Sixteenth Street from the top of Kilroy's department store, that means it's already there. If it's already there, you can't change it. Yes, but what's at the end of Sixteenth street isn't made by what you do. It's pretty much fixed, by planners, architects, designers, unless you go and blow a building up or something. What happens in a minute's time is made by what you do (Mitchell 401).”

David Mitchell ensures to include a comet shaped birthmark on each protagonist with the exception of Zachry.In contrast, the film gives all of the protagonists a birthmark, which varies in location. The film utilizes the birthmark as a visual symbol to connect the main characters through out the film. For this reason in the film Zachry is given a birthmark. Another visual symbol utilized in the film is the use of repetition. The cast is utilized several times as different character within the movie. This repetition helps the viewer connect the previous story to the following one. Yet, this was not intended to signify that each character was a reincarnation of itself.

Cloud Atlas Sextet' theme is played repeatedly, which helps unify the main character of each story to it's reincarnated soul in the next story. One prime example is the use of the Cloud Atlas theme song during Zachry and the chief Abbess' conversation before his journey with Meronym. The theme song starts during the mentioning of Sonmi's name and continues when the Sonmi's story begins (Thorpe).

Reincarnation and eternal recurrence are major themes that factor heavily in how Cloud Atlas is structure both as a story and as a statement. Protagonist, actions, and events all intertwine to make the story of a whole world who's lives are destined to relive life over and over again.

Works CitedBhagavad Gita. Web. 9 April 2015. http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/

Cloud Atlas. Dir. Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Perf. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent.

Warner Bros. Pictures, 26 Oct. 2012. DVD.

Cranston, Sylvia, and Carey Williams. Reincarnation: A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society. New York,

N.Y: Julian Press, 1984. Print.

Edwards, Paul. Reincarnation: A Critical Examination. Amherst, N.Y: Prometheus Books, 1996. Print.

Kebede, Admassu. The Doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence. April 2010. Web. April 12, 2015.

<htttps://suite.io/admassu-kebede/2ew020w>

Lewis, James R. “Reincarnation.” Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena. Detroit: Gale Research Inc.,

1994. 303-304. Print.

Lomax, Harvey. Nietzsche and the Eternal Recurrence. PhilosophyNow.org. 2000. Web. April 12, 2015.

<https://philosophynow.org/issues/29/Nietzsche_and_the_Eternal_Recurrence

Works Cited Cont.Mark, Joshua. Nietzsche’s Theory of Eternal Recurrence. April 2009. Web. April 12, 2015.

<https;//suite.io/Joshua-mark/1cs32t8>

McDonald, Matt. Eternal Recurrence. Lmu.edu. Web April 12, 2015.

<https://myweb.lmu.edu/tshanahan/Nietzsche-Eternal_Recurrence.html>

Mitchell, David. Cloud Atlas. New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 2004. Print.

Saunders, Emily. Eternal Recurrence. Tvtropes.org. Web. April 12, 2015.

<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EternalRecurrence>

Thorpe, Craig Ryan. “Cloud Atlas and the Music that Transcends Time.” Academia, May 2014.

Web. 11 Apr. 2015

Wilkerson, Dale. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900). Web. April 12, 2015. <http://iep.utm.edu/nietzsch/>