David Mitchell

Tonight Nicole and I went to a reading by one of my favorite authors David Mitchell(best known for Cloud Atlas) followed by Mitchell in discussion with The Matrix co-creator Lana Wachowski. The event was at the Music Box and was packed with predominately Gen Y and Millennial nerds. I don't use that term as a pejorative, I consider myself a nerd being a die hard scifi/fantasy fan and a voracious reader, however there were lots of black frame glasses and socially stilted conversations going on, it was a little much.

Mitchell was charming and joyful, Lana, a personality in her own right, wasn't necessarily the best interviewer but watching the two friends and creative luminaries converse was incredibly cool.

With his last two books Bone Clocks and the newly released Slade House Mitchell has solidified the pattern he's been establishing namely that his oeuvre is all part of one collective universe with repeated characters and themes.  When asked by Lana why he's essentially writing one long protracted story he provided three reasons.

First, that it's cool, he likes the recognition you get when a character reappears and cited a couple examples. Second, when he was writing Black Swan Green he needed a more sophisticated older character to introduce the protagonist to poetry and music. Instead of creating a new character he used an existing character from Cloud Atlas and it worked really well so he decided to keep doing it. Third, he wants to write about everything, use everything, even though it isn't possible, to try to make one maximalist piece of work.

All in all a very fun and interesting evening. If you haven't read any David Mitchell I highly recommend him.