Previous
Zachry Bailey
The Archivist spends most of “An Orison of Sonmi~451” interviewing the protagonist, Sonmi~451. Although the Archivist is a major character, he reveals almost nothing about his own identity, preferring to focus the conversation on Sonmi. (Later, Zachry sees a recording of the interview and can’t see the Archivist but describes him as having a soft, masculine voice.) The Archivist takes on great personal risk by interviewing Sonmi, who is a notorious political prisoner. Despite this, the Archivist doesn’t necessarily agree with Sonmi’s radical political views. When Sonmi says that their society requires slavery from fabricants to function, the Archivist pushes back, defending the “corpocracy” they live in as the best form of government that has ever existed. The Archivist is fascinated by Sonmi’s story but expresses skepticism about parts of it that challenge his own beliefs, such as Sonmi’s description of slaughterhouses for “retired” fabricants. The Archivist’s lack of a personal identity reflects how corporate culture encourages people to give up their individuality and instead identify as interchangeable consumers. Nevertheless, the Archivist seems to become more sympathetic to Sonmi over the course of the interview, suggesting how people can change when exposed to new and unfamiliar ideas.
The Archivist Quotes in Cloud Atlas
The Cloud Atlas quotes below are all either spoken by The Archivist or refer to The Archivist. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
Truth is singular. Its “versions” are mistruths.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Catechism Three teaches that for servers to keep anything denies Papa Song’s love for us and cheats His Investment. I wondered, did Yoona~939 still observe any Catechism? But misgivings, though grave, were soon lost in the treasures Yoona showed me there: a box of unpaired earrings, beads, tiaras. The xquisite sensation of dressing in pureblood clothes overcame my fear of being discovered. Greatest of all, however, was a book, a picture book.
Chapter 6
Quotes
So hungrysome was my curio, I held it again, an’ the egg vibed warm till a ghost-girl flickered’n’appeared there! Yay, a ghost-girl, right ’bove the egg, as truesome as I’m sittin’ here, her head’n’neck was jus’ floatin’ there, like ’flection in moon-water, an’ she was talkin’! Now I got scared an’ took my hands off the sil’vry egg, but the ghost-girl stayed, yay.
Zachry my old pa was a wyrd buggah, I won’t naysay it now he’s died. Oh, most o’ Pa’s yarnin’s was jus’ musey duck fartin’ an’ in his loonsome old age he even b’liefed Meronym the Prescient was his presh b’loved Sonmi, yay, he ’sisted it, he said he knowed it all by birthmarks an’ comets’n’all.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7
Quotes
The economics of corpocracy. The genomics industry demands huge quantities of liquefied biomatter, for wombtanks, but most of all, for Soap. What cheaper way to supply this protein than by recycling fabricants who have reached the end of their working lives? Additionally, leftover “reclaimed proteins” are used to produce Papa Song food products, eaten by consumers in the corp’s dineries all over Nea So Copros. It is a perfect food cycle.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now.
Get the entire Cloud Atlas LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Archivist Quotes in Cloud Atlas
The Cloud Atlas quotes below are all either spoken by The Archivist or refer to The Archivist. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
Truth is singular. Its “versions” are mistruths.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Catechism Three teaches that for servers to keep anything denies Papa Song’s love for us and cheats His Investment. I wondered, did Yoona~939 still observe any Catechism? But misgivings, though grave, were soon lost in the treasures Yoona showed me there: a box of unpaired earrings, beads, tiaras. The xquisite sensation of dressing in pureblood clothes overcame my fear of being discovered. Greatest of all, however, was a book, a picture book.
Chapter 6
Quotes
So hungrysome was my curio, I held it again, an’ the egg vibed warm till a ghost-girl flickered’n’appeared there! Yay, a ghost-girl, right ’bove the egg, as truesome as I’m sittin’ here, her head’n’neck was jus’ floatin’ there, like ’flection in moon-water, an’ she was talkin’! Now I got scared an’ took my hands off the sil’vry egg, but the ghost-girl stayed, yay.
Zachry my old pa was a wyrd buggah, I won’t naysay it now he’s died. Oh, most o’ Pa’s yarnin’s was jus’ musey duck fartin’ an’ in his loonsome old age he even b’liefed Meronym the Prescient was his presh b’loved Sonmi, yay, he ’sisted it, he said he knowed it all by birthmarks an’ comets’n’all.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 7
Quotes
The economics of corpocracy. The genomics industry demands huge quantities of liquefied biomatter, for wombtanks, but most of all, for Soap. What cheaper way to supply this protein than by recycling fabricants who have reached the end of their working lives? Additionally, leftover “reclaimed proteins” are used to produce Papa Song food products, eaten by consumers in the corp’s dineries all over Nea So Copros. It is a perfect food cycle.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
We see a game beyond the endgame. I refer to my Declarations, Archivist. Media has flooded Nea So Copros with my Catechisms. Every schoolchild in corpocracy knows my twelve “blasphemies” now.
