Cloud Atlas

Chapter 58: Author David Mitchell on designing dizzily dazzling dreams

Author David Mitchell .jpg

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“Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers” Gustave Flaubert

I heard David Mitchell mention this quote while I was deep in the rabbit hole preparing to speak to him. It gave me pause. Was there any way he could possibly live up to the pedestal in the clouds I’d long placed him on?

My love affair with David Mitchell began years ago when I became completely transfixed by Cloud Atlas. I then began devouring his other books like a starving man — Ghost Written, number9dream, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, and his brand new masterpiece Utopia Avenue

Every book broke new genre territory while consistently offering vividly realistic characters, leaping plotlines, and hints towards a larger scale multiverse tying everything together. It’s no wonder five of his books have been long- or short-listed for the Booker Prize.

And it’s not just me or the Booker committee, either. The Boston Globe calls David Mitchell, “one of the most electric writers alive”, Esquire calls him, “a genre leaping, mind bending, world-traveling, puzzle-making, literary magician”, and the New York Times Book Review declared him “a genius who writes as though at the helm of a perpetual dream machine.” TIME even declared him one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People”.

I was indeed worried, but after spending two and a half hours talking to David (in what I think may be the longest feature-length interview with him anywhere and his first podcast interview in years) I am pleased to say no specks of gold came off in my fingers. If anything, his grace, humility, and wit only elevated the pedestal higher into the cosmos.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, prepare to go deep into one of the world’s deepest minds in the world. Get ready for a ramble across Middle Earth, Russia, Ireland, and Japan as we discuss things like:  

  • How can art be an anti-snobbery force?

  • How books can stop minds from scratching themselves raw?

  • How writers build trust with their readers?

  • How we can we harvest imagination?

  • What is it like raising a child who is non-verbal?

  • What is the power and meaning of the metaphysical?

  • How should writing be judged?

  • Which fantasy author trumps Tolkien and why?

These are just some of the topics we touch on with loving father, master craftsman, mentor to many, and endlessly erudite bibliophile David Mitchell.

Let’s go!

What You'll Learn:

  • Why shouldn’t genre matter in writing?

  • Why doesn’t snobbery belong in the world of books?

  • How do books change after they’re read?

  • How does the metaphor of a TV box set apply to books?

  • How do writers build trust with their readers?

  • How do we harvest imagination?

  • What’s the relationship between health care policy and good writing?

  • Who are The Russians and how does one properly wade into them?

  • Why are we all storytellers?

  • What are some myths surrounding autism?

  • How do you become a better writer?

  • And, of course, what are David Mitchell’s three most formative books?

notable quotes from David mitchell:

“A day doesn’t feel well spent without the writing in it.” – David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“The internet never forgets.” – David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“Art should be an anti-snobbery force.” – David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“Genre is analogous to a paintbox” - David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“It should raise no eyebrows if the writer wishes to treat genre as an organ of the novel” - David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“Trust the advice of your local independent bricks and mortar booksellers of the kind that actually pay tax and have a role in the community.” – David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“All books want to be used, if I was a book, I would want to be used.” - David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“The same way a cellist can play more than one string at the same time with one stroke of the bow, I try to make scenes do more than one thing and lines do more than one thing.” - David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

On writers and ageing: “I’ve got a metaphorical compost heap in my head.” - David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

On Emily Dickinson: “She did not travel and yet you can still find infinity and eternity in her poems.”- David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

On studying different languages: “It is the access to the treasure chest of wisdom and wit that is there in the etymology of words.” - David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“Booksellers are front line workers of the mind.” – David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“If there isn’t justice for everybody then there is no justice for anybody.”– David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

“Going wrong can be your ally; all you have to do is work out why you’ve gone wrong and that is a necessary step to going right, so don’t be discouraged.”– David Mitchell #3bookspodcast

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