91136eaf   
   XPost: alt.society.liberalism, rec.arts.movies.current-films, al   
   .dreams.castaneda   
   From: cbell97@bellsouth.net   
      
   On Nov 11, 11:24 pm, Dänk 42Ø  wrote:   
   > I just watched the indie film "Cloud Atlas," and found it to be beautiful   
   > and inspiring, well worth sitting through the 2:45 hour running time.   
   >   
   > The story is very complex,   
      
      
   My opinion is based on the book, and I doubt I will see the movie,   
   having the awful Tom Hanks in it.   
      
   I like and actively seek non-formulaic novels, but I know pretentious   
   trash hiding behind "being different".   
      
   The stories are just a string of six apparently unfinished short   
   stories then wound backwards to finish them to the effect of,   
   allegedly . . .   
      
      
      
   > Though they are not consciously aware of it, the lives of   
   > six people (and all of humanity) are connected through time and space.   
   > Each one dies only to be reborn in another life, encountering and   
   > impacting the reborn lives of the others.   
      
      
   A good fantasy/sci-fi (rather than just fantasy such as a monster or   
   sorcery) tale depends on a believable premise -- namely one that never   
   contradicts causality.  There is no such thing, and there is plausibly   
   no such thing, as "connected through space and time, dying and being   
   reborn to encounter and impacting the other reborn lives." It is not   
   so just because the author says it is so and feebily (in this case) or   
   well-enough, like Cataneda, crafts those "facts" into a novel.  Good   
   sci-fi fantasy requires a willing suspension of disbelief over many   
   things, but not a moron's acceptance of the impossible.   
      
   Cloud Atlas reminds me of an adolescent's short story: At Sometime You   
   Must Be Old   
      
   Get it?   A SYMBOL   
      
   > There are also numerological references, most of which I have   
   > yet to discover, including one character living in Apartment #42, which was   
   > Agent Mulder's apartment number, and also the answer to Life, the Universe,   
   > and Everything   
      
      
   Wow! That's amazing stuff of mystical, meaningless gibberish, except   
   to the teenager who can make A SYMBOL from a story's title.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)