Cloud Cuckoo Land

Folio Z

Palaestra flees to get Aethon-as-a-donkey a rose to undo the spell. Before she returns, several bandits steal Aethon to haul their stolen goods, mistaking him for a real donkey. The bandits relentlessly prod Aethon along. They arrive at a cave full of stolen treasure, but the bandits leave Aethon in a dark room alone. Aethon hears the bandits having fun and fears he is cursed to live as a donkey forever.

Anna: Constantinople; Autumn 1452

Anna gives up on her reading lessons after Kalaphates injures Maria, who has long-term side effects from the incident. Widow Theordora tells them of a man who suffered from the same afflictions, and when he drank from the shrine of the Virgin Mary, he was healed. Desperate for money to take Maria to the shrine, Anna steals and sells chickens. Himerius, a fisherman’s son, discovers this. He blackmails her into helping him steal from an abandoned priory on a tall tower next to the sea that is said to contain treasure. They will sell the stolen goods to a group of Italian buyers and split the profit.

The two go to the priory in Himerius’s boat. Anna must climb the tower from the boat, fill a bag with treasure, and return. Inside, she finds a room full of books to take; there is no other treasure. They discover one valuable book: a work by Claudius Aelianus about animals. The buyers purchase this book and tell Anna about their mission to collect manuscripts for their lord who lives in Urbino, a small town in Italy. The lord wants to build a library with books accessible to anyone who can read. Because Constantinople is threatened by approaching Ottoman troops, the buyers want to take what they can before the city falls.

Anna takes Maria to the shrine several times with the money she earns. The nuns give Maria quicksilver, a drink of liquid mercury and water that is dangerous for human ingestion. Each time, Maria feels healed for a short period, but then becomes sicker than before.

Omeir: The road to Edirne, Turkey; Autumn 1452

Omeir travels with the Ottoman troops toward Edirne, the Ottoman capital of Turkey. They recruit more men and animals at each village. As they exit the mountains, the journey to Edirne is fraught with difficulties. The roads are muddy and difficult to navigate, and there are deep chasms to cross. The troops arrive outside of Edirne and set up camp. Omeir and his oxen are relegated to moving loads of charcoal to a massive tent because he is looked down upon for his cleft lip.

Engineers build “an apparatus” in the tent to take Constantinople. It is a giant primitive cannon known as a bombard. It takes many days to build and move to the sultan’s palace in the capital. When it arrives, there is a ceremony with a procession. Omeir is overwhelmed to be surrounded by all the goods in the bazaar and the impressive nature of the parade. Men load the bombard with gunpowder and a cannonball, the troops waiting in anticipation for hours as it is prepared. When the cannon is finally fired, the outcome shocks the crowd. Trees, earth, and rocks are obliterated in a second, and a man who was looking into the mouth of the cannon as it was fired is “vaporized.” Shocked by the destruction, Maher, another young recruit, says that “fear of the thing [...] will be more powerful than the thing itself” (167).

Folio H

With no use for donkey-Aethon anymore, the bandits consider pushing him over the edge of a cliff, stabbing him, or doing both. Instead, a miller and his son approach the bandits and offer to purchase Aethon. The miller and his son ride Aethon home, nearly breaking his back in the process. Aethon is still unhappy, but he is relieved that he is no longer in the care of the bandits.

Zeno: Near Pyongyang, Korea; 1951

During the Korean war, Zeno is deployed to Pyongyang in the winter. In the army, Zeno is relieved to be around other people of color for the first time he can remember and gains a greater connection to his sexuality. He and Private Blewitt, a young man from New Jersey, are driving a supply truck in a convoy to outposts when Chinese soldiers ambush them. Zeno and Blewitt are taken as prisoners of war to a camp further north called Camp Five. They have little to eat, no clean water, and no medical attention.

Zeno and Blewitt are sent to clean an isolation box used to punish prisoners. Inside the box there is a man who is in such poor condition he appears dead at first. This man is Lance Corporal Rex Browning, a teacher from London, and he has been in the isolation box for two weeks after attempting to escape. Rex has engraved several lines from The Odyssey inside the box during his imprisonment. Zeno develops a crush on Rex. They talk about the Odyssey: Rex was forced to memorize the section of the The Odyssey he inscribed on the inside of the isolation box when he was a child; the librarians in Lakeport read Zeno The Odyssey when he was a child. Rex discusses how “as long as the story lasts, you get to slip the trap” (191), by which he means that a good story allows for temporary escape from life’s difficulties, and The Odyssey functions in this way for both of them.

Seymour: Lakeport, ID; 2014

Eden’s Gate begins their housing development by paving Arcady Lane, the main street of the new neighborhood. Seymour finds the fresh asphalt covered with stranded earthworms, and although he attempts to rescue them there are simply too many. The changes continue: Surveyors arrive, followed by men with saws who take out the trees, and finally roads and housing plots are constructed. The destruction of the forest upsets Seymour, especially as it relates to Trustyfriend. When the workers remove the tree in which Trustyfriend often sat, Seymour is more devastated than he thought possible. Bunny and Marian try to comfort him.

Seymour misses the profound silence that the forest once provided and feels that the changes have violated him, taking away his sense of security. Most of all, he fears for Trustyfriend, who is nowhere to be found. He knows that Trustyfriend will have either fled the area to find hunting ground, or died from being unable to navigate the new terrain. Bunny promises Seymour that Trustyfriend will find a new, better forest further north with as many voles as he can eat.

Konstance: The Argos; Mission Year 61

Konstance may finally enter the Argos’s library on her tenth birthday, or her “Library Day.” Mrs. Flowers, the elderly Head Librarian, delivers her Perambulator and Vizer and takes Konstance into the library. The Library is beautiful, open under a virtual sky, and the books travel through the air as they are guided by Sybil to the recipients. Mrs. Flowers tasks Konstance with answering a series of questions to familiarize her with the Library and expose her to a painful truth. Konstance must determine how long it will take them to reach Beta Oph2, and when she finds the answer is 592 earth years, she realizes that she will never live to see the Argos reach its destination. Mrs. Flowers then takes Konstance into the Atlas. When Konstance opens it, the pages drop open into a void. They descend into a rendering of Istanbul. Konstance is shocked again because she thought Earth was ruined, but Istanbul looks like a lively city. They “walk” through the simulation, and Konstance wishes to touch this reality, but the only solid objects in the Atlas are the roads.

Folio Θ

Donkey-Aethon travels north with the miller and his son. Their destination is not the comfortable cottage he dreamed of, but rather a cold place where Aethon must pull the milling wheel nonstop. On the rare occasion that Aethon is let out in the pasture, the horses are reluctant to share their space with him. He wonders what he has done to deserve this fate, questioning if he will ever live another way or if he is destined to live and die as a working donkey.

Omeir: The road from Edirne to Constantinople; January-April 1453

Omeir travels with the Ottoman troops from Edirne to Constantinople, a journey that is extremely slow because of the transportation of the enormous bombard. Many of the men mistreat their cattle, causing unnecessary casualties. Omeir is disturbed by this mistreatment and treats Moonlight and Tree with great care, never ceasing to follow his grandfather’s advice to meet their needs. Despite his efforts, by the end of their journey, both oxen are wounded and struggling.

Omeir is both transfixed and disgusted by the diversity of the things he witnesses around him. As the troops get closer to Constantinople, Omeir is less certain of the validity of their mission. The troops grow weary under the difficult conditions, and they inevitably question their roles in the war. For Omeir, victory over Constantinople means nothing tangible: He cannot imagine what it will look like or what it will grant him. When they arrive in Constantinople, the city walls seem endless and impenetrable, and Omeir feels certain that they face defeat.

Anna: Constantinople; January-April 1453

Anna and Maria visit the Virgin Mary’s shrine again, and Maria drinks more quicksilver. Her health declines further. Anna worries about her, and her guilt grows. Widow Theodora “rewards” Maria with a special job to embroider 12 birds on a hood representing the 12 apostles. Maria continues to work diligently.

Anna and Himerius travel once more to the priory on a cold, foggy night. Himerius tells Anna that the Italian manuscript buyers offered to take him to Italy with them before the siege begins. In the priory, Anna finds a tiny codex that contains Aethon’s story, though she does not know this when she takes it. When they go to the buyer’s house, they find it deserted. Himerius is heartbroken because they did not keep their word to take him, and Anna is angry that they pillaged her city and fled. She steals a small, decorated snuffbox that they left behind.

Kalaphates flees the embroidery house first, followed by the seamstresses who have families. Only a few women remain. As the Ottomans grow nearer, Anna goes to the defense tower with the donkey fresco and peers at the Ottoman troops beyond the walls, wondering if so many men can be stopped. When Anna returns home, she starts reading the codex and realizes it is the same story as depicted in the fresco, finding hope in this connection.

Folio I

The fragments detailing how donkey-Aethon gets away from the miller are lost. Regardless, a group of “brutes” take Aethon to a place so far north, it appears to be the end of the earth. Aethon escapes his captors when the winter days are the darkest and there is no sunlight. He travels further north. He dreams of his home in Arkadia and stares out at the sea on a beach with black sand and icebergs.

Zeno: Camp Five, Korea; 1952-1953

During the winter, American and British prisoners are moved into the same lodging, causing even more disease outbreaks. Zeno becomes sick with dysentery and almost dies, but he is saved by Blewitt and Rex who care for him relentlessly. During his recovery, he resumes his duties and Rex teaches him ancient Greek words and their complex translations, like nostos which means both “the act of homecoming” and “a song about homecoming” (248, 249).

Rex hatches a dangerous escape plan: Two other soldiers will load Rex and Zeno onto a truck that transports empty gasoline drums. They will hide in two empty, identical-looking cooking oil drums. When Rex initiates the plan, Zeno cannot convince himself to go. Rex does not return. Zeno has no idea if Rex succeeded in escaping. Three weeks later, American troops arrive and liberate the prisoners.

Seymour: Lakeport, ID; 2014

Seymour finds Trustyfriend’s severed wing along Arcady Lane one day on his way home from the library. He takes the wing home and is inconsolable. He feels betrayed by Bunny who told him that Trustyfriend would find a better forest and live there, and he becomes desperate to get revenge on Eden’s Gate Realty. He digs through Pawpaw’s abandoned trunk of militia supplies in the shed, looking for something to aid him in his plot. He finds hand grenades and takes one to a model home but becomes paralyzed by uncertainty about causing real destruction. In sixth grade, Seymour feels “the roar” take over him when a confrontation with a classmate goes awry. He is sent to a doctor after his outburst. Bunny tries to convince him to take his newly prescribed medication, but Seymour refuses.

Konstance: The Argos; Mission Year 64

Konstance spends a great deal of time in the Atlas. She is obsessed with Earth to such an extent that it shows in her schoolwork and causes her parents’ concern. Her mother warns her of the story of “Crazy Elliot Fischenbacher” (262), who spent too much time in the Atlas. When the others took away his access to the Library, Elliot tried to cut a hole into the ship’s walls. Sequestered to his compartment, he saved his sleep medication and committed suicide. During this confrontation, Ezekiel Lee vomits everywhere, revealing that there is a disease onboard the Argos. Sybil places the ship in quarantine, and panic spreads. Ezekiel dies, and a quarter of the ship’s inhabitants show symptoms of the mysterious illness; nobody—not even Sybil—can figure out how it started or how it is spreading.

When Konstance emerges from the Atlas one night, her father is sewing a biohazard suit. Her mother is not there. Father dresses her in the biohazard and grabs her and her Perambulator. Frantically, they go to Vault One. Father uses a stool to jamb the door open and makes several trips, leaving essential survival items. He calls himself a fool for signing up for the Argos’s mission. Konstance does not want to leave him but has no choice when he pulls the stool out of the door and the chamber seals itself.