Talk:Ghostwritten
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[edit] Underground
It is not obvious that in this chapter Quasar is on the london underground - admittedly there is a bag with those words on it present, but the presence of attendants with white gloves does not fit with the London underground and rather points to Quasar being on the Japanese system. Furthermore, the Zookeeper only manages to stop missiles firing at a particular point - that this ushers in a new era of hope and prosperity is not stated and so has been removed. --Phl3djo 20:02, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Revert to revision of 17 August
The version of 17 August was a far better article than the current one - providing context, being in a more appropriate style for an encyclopedia entry, and being clearer to read. I therefore reverted.
However, since this change removed a lot of text, I include below what was removed. --David Edgar 07:56, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Thematic and Stylistic Elements
According to Marco, David Mitchell’s London narrator in Ghostwritten, ghostwriting is a “drag” because “you never get to write anything that beautiful, and even if you did, nobody would ever believe you” (283).
Tim Cavendish, Marco’s publisher in the London chapter, explains, “the act of memory is an act of ghostwriting” (286), and further suggests that ghostwriting extends to hold an even greater influence in our lives, saying that, “we all think we’re in control of our own lives, but really they’re pre-ghostwritten by forces around us” (286). This question of what ghostwriting is, is explored throughout David Mitchell’s first novel, Ghostwritten.
Ghostwritten is an intricate work of writing that travels throughout the lives of nine very different narrators residing in different countries from Japan all the way to the United States. Among Mitchell’s various narrators are a cult activist, a radio host, an art thief, a scientist, and a noncorpum, a soul without a body who travels in and out of people’s minds, much like a ghostwriter who enters another individual’s identity in order to narrate their experiences for them. By subtly intertwining his various narrators, Mitchell suggests that there is no such thing as an inconsequential or unimportant event, and at the same time reveals the complex intermingling of people and events that lead us to the realization of the social world we live in, where strangers lives do touch one another, with or without consequence, whether or not they are aware of it.
The opening and closing chapters of Ghostwritten both feature the same cult terrorist, Quasar, after and during an act of ‘cleansing’ that he performs, killing a train full of people. The first chapter is entitled Okinawa, the place where he goes to following one of these incidents. Rather than simply labeling Quasar as a lunatic, Mitchell reveals in this first chapter the motivations and mentality of such an individual, revealing Mitchell’s creativity and insightfulness as an author. Quasar remembers “that day when the bullies had got everyone in the class to pretend that I was dead” and says that “before His Serendipity lit my life I was defenseless,” and that his family “never loved me anyway,” explaining characteristics of an individual that would be likely to fall into submission under a perceived higher power (5).
Throughout these and the other chapters, all named for the city that they take place in, Ghostwritten becomes an in depth study of human nature, personality and social interactions. All have ultimate linkages which reveal the profound but subtle interconnectedness of all individuals, making a larger observation about cause and effect in a global perspective.
For example, in the movement from Okinawa to Tokyo, we move from the inside of Quasar’s mind to the inside of Satoru’s, but the Tokyo chapter is still linked to Okinawa because Satoru’s friend Koji’s sister is in Okinawa on a school trip (40). Satoru also answers what he thinks is a “crank call” from Quasar needing money: “It’s Quasar. The dog needs to be fed!” (53). This subtle linking from Okinawa to Tokyo does not seem to have a large effect on the next character’s life but it does remind readers that both Satoru and Quasar are living their different lives in different places at the same time, a general commonness held by all of the characters in the novel.
Similarly, Tokyo ends with Satoru falling in love with Tomoyo and flying to Hong Kong to be with her. The next chapter takes place in Hong Kong, featuring a new narrator, Neal, who does not know the young couple, but who does observe them together in a restaurant. He sees that “they are so happy” and senses that “sex twitched in the air between them, which made me think that they hadn’t done it yet,” (76), which we know because of Satoru’s thoughts at the end of Tokyo (62).
By taking on a range of character perspectives Mitchell is able to enter the lives of a diverse cross-section of individuals, from an old woman in Holy Mountain to a Russian art thief in Petersburg, to a musician/writer who realizes he is in love in London. In performing this movement between characters, Mitchell ‘transmigrates’ from one mind to another throughout the novel, performing his own act of ghostwriting between characters.
This act of transmigration is personified in his noncorpum character in Mongolia who is trying to discover his own identity by traveling through the minds of different people: “I live in my hosts’ minds, and sift through their memories to understand the world” (153). This notion is representative of the novel as a whole. Not only does it emphasize the act of ghostwriting but it also emphasizes its importance by suggesting that we cannot understand the world or ourselves without understanding and making sense of the experiences of the people around us.
Just how complicated it is to understand the world as a whole is shown through the Zookeeper, who resorts to a phone-in radio station in the chapter called Night Train to help him cope with his ‘principles,’ while attempting to watch over the world, as a god, to the best of his ability. Through his frustrations we see just how difficult it is to maintain global balances as we are allowed a view of the world from outside of it.
The subtle religiousness in determining the meaning of existence is documented by Quasar in his recollections of His Serendipity’s vision for the future: “within three short years His Serendipity is going to enter Jerusalem. In the same year Mecca is going to bow down, and the Pope and the Dalai Lama will seek conversion. The presidents of Russia and the U.S. petition for His Serendipity’s patronage” (16). In this vision of ‘the New Earth,’ the ‘unclean,’ non-followers of His Serendipity will die, the process that Quasar is helping along. As each other character is drawn out, each with his or her own values and beliefs, the idea of one single governing power seems all the more difficult to comprehend.
Mitchell achieves a deep cultural significance by pulling us into the lives of each person through his effective and changing narrative voice that allows us to travel the world through different perspectives, just like the noncorpum in Mongolia, or the ghostwriter, Marco, in London. Some of the major themes covered in Ghostwritten are interconnectedness, coincidence and consequence, the notion of media ‘mind-rotting,’ an element associated with the ‘unclean,’ and the significance of travel and global perspectives as we move from one character to the next. As a result both personal and social identity become increasingly important themes in the novel as well.
[edit] References to other works
There are also hints and references to other works, most prominently from Isaac Asimov and the Three Laws of Robotics towards the end of the book, as well as Wild Swans by Jung Chang and The Music of Chance by Paul Auster.
It could easily be that I'm just dense and ill-read, but I'd like to see these refernces spelled out plainly if they are to remain in the article (not that I doubt the editor who added them, but I think they should be more specific in terms of specific passages).--thither 08:17, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
About the referernce to Asimov's three laws, the Zookeeper acts following four laws that resemble Asimov's. However, the laws are not stated explicitely but only hinted at, and do not exactly correspond to the three laws of robotics. I am trying to reconstruct them: the first is "accountability": the Zookeeper must take responsibility for her actions; that's why she calls the radio show to reveal what she is doing. The second says something about the "visitors" not being aware of the nature and origin of the Zookeeper, that's why she destroy the research centre where she was developed. I couldn't figure out exactly what laws 3 and 4 are, they are generically about protecting and not arming human lives. I would like if someone else could clarify them. Eubulide 20:50, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
