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“The Human World Is Made of Stories” Postmodernism and the Planetary in the Novels of David Mitchell

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“The Human World Is Made of Stories” Postmodernism and the Planetary in the Novels of David Mitchell “The Human World is Made of Stories” Postmodernism and the Planetary in the Novels of David Mitchell Kelly Frame A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy UNSW Canberra at ADFA School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences November 7, 2016 Originality I hereby declare that this submission is my work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in this thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that the assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation or linguistic expression is acknowledged. Signed Date Copyright I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after know, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to Doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portion of copyright material or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted, I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation. Signed Date Authenticity I certify that the library digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of conversion to digital format. Signed Date Acknowledgements I would like to express my most emphatic gratitude to David Mitchell, who took time out of his demanding schedule to meet with me, and who treated my work with the utmost sincerity, interest, and enthusiasm. I will remain an avid “uber-reader” of Mr Mitchell’s fiction, as three and a half years of intense study has not quelled my fascination with his writing. I would also like to acknowledge and give most humble thanks to my incomparable supervisor Heather, who has devoted the kind of energy, passion, and critical rigour to my work that PhD students only ever dream of and rarely experience. She has been a true mentor and friend. The HASS faculty has given me superlative support during my years at UNSW (Canberra). Particular thanks to Nicole Moore, Christina Spittel, David Lovell, Shirley Ramsey, Deane Peter-Baker and Bernadette McDermott, who were unfailingly kind and always made time for me above and beyond the call of duty. Special thanks to my co- supervisor Neil Ramsey – your feedback, earnest conversation and encouragement have been invaluable. Thanks to my friends Ben King and Rebekka Leary, my comrade and office mate Emily Robertson – the Cassowary to my Anteater – and to Umut Uzgut and my English partner-in-crime, BeiBei Chen. Love and thanks to my sister Megan and my nieces Lily and Imogen. I am eternally grateful to my partner Ned, who has weathered my tears and doubts with love, optimism and empathy. Finally, heartfelt thanks to my wonderful parents, Tom and Helen, without whom I would never have been able to embark on this journey. Your belief in me and the value of this project is a blessing I’ll always be grateful for. List of Publications Journal Articles: Frame, Kelly. “Cloud Atlas: Cosmopolitan Exemplar or Critique?” New Scholar 4, no.1 (2016): 25-36. Frame, Kelly. “The Last Place: The Uncanny Australia of David Mitchell”. Antipodes: A Global Review of Australian/New Zealand Literature. [Forthcoming – July 2017] Frame, Kelly. “‘The Strong Do Eat’: David Mitchell and Herman Melville – a Study in Intertextuality.” Australasian Journal of American Studies 34, no. 1 (2015): 17-29. Encyclopaedia Entries: Frame, Kelly Susan. "Black Swan Green". The Literary Encyclopedia. June 27, 2014. http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25301. Frame, Kelly Susan. "number9dream". The Literary Encyclopedia. June 5, 2014. http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25300. Frame, Kelly Susan. "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet". The Literary Encyclopedia. July 29, 2014. http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=29673. Table of Contents Introduction: Mitchell’s Multiverse and the Figuration of the Author ..... 7 1. Planetary Postmodernism and David Mitchell ................................... 17 I. Situating David Mitchell ............................................................ 17 II. Postmodernism and the “New Political Art” ........................... 28 II. Theorising the Planetary, the Anthropocene, and Cosmopolitanism ..................................................................................... 36 2. Ghostwritten: Modes of Being in a Postmodern World ..................... 49 3. Hyperrealism and Locating the “Real Eiji Miyake” in number9dream ................................................................................................................. 84 I. Postmodernism in number9dream ............................................. 86 II. The Planetary in number9dream ............................................ 103 4. “History Admits No Rules”: Metafiction and the Future of the Planet in Cloud Atlas ........................................................................................ 114 5.“A One You”: Expression and Identity in Black Swan Green .......... 142 6. Reclaiming History in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet ... 166 7. Invisible Wars and Planetary Saviours in The Bone Clocks ............. 188 Conclusion: Slade House and the Planetary Mandate for Mitchell’s “über-readers” ....................................................................................... 216 Bibliography .......................................................................................... 228 Introduction: Mitchell’s Multiverse and the Figuration of the Author “Souls cross the skies o’time, Abbess’d say, like clouds crossin’ skies o’the world.” - Zachry “What wouldn’t I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable. To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.” – Timothy Cavendish1 A “moon-grey” cat materialises at significant junctures in David Mitchell’s fiction, and gently lures the protagonists to safety or warns them of danger. The cat appears to be a timeless being. He visits an imprisoned midwife in eighteenth century Japan, rescues an English journalist from a bomb blast during the Gulf War, and is discovered lifeless in a London alleyway in the 1980s only to reappear alive and well in that same alleyway forty years later. The benign intrusions of the cat – some more successful than others – are meaningful moments of serendipity that often inspire Mitchell’s characters to be introspective amidst the chaos of events.2 The cat can be read as an avatar of Mitchell himself, a signifier of the author-function, and a symbol of the connections that bind Mitchell’s various narratives into a fictional multiverse – which has been collectively described by the author himself as a “macronovel” or an “Überbook”.3 If any one motif defines Mitchell’s novels, it is, I suggest, the interconnectivity between his characters and their tales, triumphs and traumas. When asked about the reasons for his characters’ reappearances in different worlds, Mitchell explained: I grow fond of these characters I bring into being. In my adult life I have spent more weeks in the company of people such as Timothy Cavendish or Jacob de Zoet than I have with my own flesh-and- blood parents or brother. Letting them dissolve into nothingness feels too much like abandoning an inconvenient cat by a reservoir. There’s a practical reason as well – the example I use is Falstaff, though it works just as well for a character like Captain Jack Sparrow: because Falstaff exists in the history plays, our perception of him in The Merry Wives of Windsor is different and enriched. 1 Both quotations from David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, (London: Sceptre, 2004), 318, 389. 2 The three examples occur, respectively, in The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, and Slade House. The feline corpse in an alleyway is a portent of the deadly presence residing in Slade House. This warning is not understood by Nathan, the small boy who finds the cat, and he meets his death after entering the house. 3 Cited in Wyatt Mason, “David Mitchell, the Experimentalist.” New York Times Magazine, June 25, 2010, accessed June 12, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27mitchell-t.html?_r=0. See also Mitchell, David. “On Reappearing Characters”. The Bone Clocks. Hodder & Stoughton General Division, (London, 2014), 620. We invested emotions in him during his time with young Hal, and these emotions are still there in Windsor. Belief in a character and his milieu is retentive and transferable. This is why sequels exist.4 This overtly sentimental justification for building a fictional world emphasises an author’s invitation to his or her reader to embark upon a relationship with a character. In the short essay “On Reappearing Characters”,
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