Cloud Atlas

Content Warning: This section depicts slavery and discusses racism.

Vyvyan Ayrs titles his last major symphonic work Eternal Recurrence, “in honor of his beloved Nietzsche” (84). In Nietzsche’s conception (explored in The Gay Science and later in Thus Spoke Zarathustra), eternal recurrence is the hypothetical idea that time repeats in an infinite loop by which events occur in exactly the same way, over and over, for the rest of time. In Nietzsche’s version of eternal recurrence, the idea is first horrifying and then liberating. In Cloud Atlas, the idea of eternal recurrence is evident in the subtle repetition of ideas, images, and media over time. Characters are wildly different, but their similarities echo through the ages in an eternally recurring manner. Ayrs’s composition is an embodiment of this theme, in which the powerful authority figure attempts to subsume and manipulate another person and—in the process—is challenged. The aging composer builds his composition on Frobisher’s work, pilfering it without credit. This dynamic echoes across generations, as Ewing is poisoned by Goose, Cavendish is extorted by gangsters, Luisa battles powerful corporations, Sonmi and the other fabricants are exploited and cannibalized, and Zachry watches his brother dragged away by enslavers.