Tag: david mitchell

What happens when you enter Slade House?
That question is central to David Mitchell’s newest book, asked through the very design of the book itself. Unlike most novels, Slade House is compact and almost square with a large window cut out of the front cover. Through the window, cubic lines spiral geometrically into a nothingness occupied only by the words “A Novel,” which lie limply staring up at the reader with seeming remorse. This is a book of scientific proportions, not your average horror/thriller. As the keys on either side of the window suggest, we the readers are invited to enter into a world less fictional than Mitchell would like us to assume.

We next open the yellow cover which is at once both welcoming and reminiscent of a traffic light’s warning to slow down. Bordering the “pit of despair” is a collection of rooms seemingly borrowed from a Clue board: “solarium”, “tea room”, “library”, “meditation room”, and the . . . “trophy room” ?? Suddenly we realize that the spiraling pit is, in fact, a staircase with doors leading off to different floors of a beautiful, old house. But no explanation is given for the scarlet runes inscribed over certain rooms in Slade House, written in the same hue as the words “A Novel.” We are left again with the opening question: what happens when you enter Slade House?

Of course I can’t tell you the answer to that question, but what I can tell you, is that despite the danger, it is well worth peeking through the little black iron gate that leads to Slade House. As with his prior acclaimed novels, The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas, Mitchell quickly submerges his readers in a world so similar to our own, but governed by slightly different, strange yet believable rules that fascinate the mind and challenge one’s assumptions. (For those of you who have read The Bone Clocks, consider Slade House a short excursion into that same universe.)

Like Slade House itself, this book will likely take a hold on you. But don’t be afraid; you’ll probably make it out on the other end.

I recently stumbled upon a fascinating story while catching up on the podcasts published while I was away. Apparently, the story is very old news . . everybody I mentioned it to had already heard of it months ago. But I am going to assume that there are others out there, like myself, who are completely oblivious to the creation of The Future Library.

The Future Library is an endeavor by Scottish artist Katie Paterson to curate a selection of one hundred books for a prospective audience, one hundred years from now. She was commissioned by Bjørvika Utvikling in Oslo, Norway as part of the Slow Space public art program. The project is not simply about the eventual library; it is also very much about the process of preparation. While most of us will likely never get to read these books or see the final outcome, we can interact with and observe what goes into the creation of a text. For instance, Paterson began by planting a forest of a thousand trees in Norway that will ultimately provide the paper for this library. People are encouraged to visit the forest and observe each tree’s slow growth. In the official 2014 press release, Paterson commented in reference to The Future Library‘s first author, “I imagine her words growing through the trees, an unseen energy, activated and materialized, the tree rings becoming chapters in a book.”

Future Library, Katie Paterson from Katie Paterson on Vimeo.

The project began last year, and already, the first text has been commissioned and written by Margaret Atwood, science fiction author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The MaddAddam Trilogy. If you haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale, you should – it’s a classic and masterful dystopian novel and very accessible even if scifi is not your thing. MaddAddam has been on my list for awhile, and now I’m even more inspired to read it . . . though bitterly disappointed that I will likely miss out on reading the new text: Scribbler Moon.

The latest addition to the lineup is David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks. Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books, so I am equally excited about this choice. It will be interesting to see the progression and trend of what kind of authors are chosen in future years. If they continue to choose some of my favorite authors, I anticipate I will be investing significant money in life-extending medicine to ensure I can get my hands on copies of all 100 books.

You can actually preorder your own set of original editions – for the small sum of $1,000. If you think about it, that’s $10 per book, which is really not a bad price, considering this is also a fine art project. (Yes, I am accepting donations towards the cause.)

If you’d like to learn more about the project, you can visit their website: http://www.futurelibrary.no/
I personally learned about Future Library from the podcast On the Media where host Brooke Gladstone interviewed Margaret Atwood. You can listen to that segment below.

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The featured image is a photo by Lars Tiede, published at https://flic.kr/p/a1PK4X. Used by permission of CC License: http://bit.ly/1jxQJMa