Cloud Cuckoo Land

Zeno’s Translation. Zeno includes an editor’s note in his translation of Cloud Cuckoo Land to let his reader know that, from this point forward, much of the work is fragmented because the original text was significantly damaged. In the fragmented manuscript, it seems Aethon has finally reached Cloud Cuckoo Land. It is a place where suffering does not exist, and everything is beautiful.

Konstance. On Konstance’s 45th day inside Vault One, she begins searching for a copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land, the book she saw sitting in her father’s childhood home. Using the library, Konstance learns that scholars uncovered the manuscript in 2019. For some time, the manuscript was all the rage in classical scholarship. The library includes scholarly interpretations of the book. One claims that the book is “about death-anxiety” because Diogenes wrote it to comfort his dying niece. A different scholar suggests that Diogenes cared more about “notions of pseudo-documentarianism” and playing with the literary form.

None of these scholarly interpretations mean anything to Konstance. She looks through the library and finds a variety of translations of the novel, but none of them interest her. The translations are very fragmented and do not capture her imagination. Instead, she hopes to find the same copy of the book that her father had. However, when she describes the edition of the book to the library—which supposedly contains everything ever written—it says it cannot find the book she is looking for. Konstance returns to the Atlas and looks at the book again, hoping to gather more information about it. This time, she sees that someone named Zeno Ninis translated it.

Zeno. Moving back in time, Zeno is excitedly preparing for a trip to London to see Rex. Despite the mention of someone named “Hillary” in Rex’s letter, Zeno has hope that they can rekindle their relationship. His only difficulty is making arrangements for Mrs. Boydstun, who tries to guilt him into staying and taking care of her. However, Zeno ultimately decides to go on the trip.

In May of 1971, Zeno gets on a plane and flies to London. There, a flamboyantly dressed man who introduces himself as Hillary greets Zeno because Rex is still at work. Zeno is slightly taken aback and surprised that Hillary is able to dress the way he does out in public. Hillary takes Zeno back to Rex’s apartment, joking and making light conversation on the way.

Zeno and Rex see each other for the first time in many years back at Rex’s apartment. Rex gives Zeno a big hug, and Zeno relishes the embrace. Rex talks to Zeno about his recent scholarly pursuits, which include publishing a book on written works that have been lost to history. Lost works fascinate Rex because of how valuable they could potentially be to the present. He compares losing books to the many lives lost in the Korean War. Rex dreams about discovering a lost text himself, even if it is just a fragment of something.

After their initial reunion, Zeno is inseparable from Rex and Hillary, who take him wherever they go. Zeno wants to talk to Rex about what happened when he escaped from Korea, but the time never seems right. Additionally, Zeno still feels guilty for abandoning the plan and does not want to bring up a sore subject. As he is traveling around with Rex and Hillary, Zeno finds himself wishing they would get into a fight and break up. He is completely in love with Rex and wants to confess his feelings but cannot with Hillary in the way. For his part, Hillary is kind to Zeno. Although Hillary likes to tease, he tells Zeno that Zeno means a lot to Rex.

On the final day of Zeno’s trip, Rex has a large birthday party at a gay club. Zeno has never been in such an environment before and feels both surprised and uncomfortable. He stays at the party as long as he can stand it and then returns alone to Rex’s flat, where he is staying. The next morning, Hillary wakes Zeno up and then Rex drives him to the airport. As a parting gift, Rex gives Zeno a Greek dictionary. Zeno happily accepts the gift and then leaves without telling Rex how he feels about him. On the way home, he regrets not telling Rex the truth.

Seymour. Moving forward to February of 2019, Janet and Seymour are watching a video featuring a man named Bishop. Bishop is wielding an assault rifle and discussing the dangers of climate change. At the end of the video, a message flashes on the screen: “Join Us.” As the video ends, Janet asks Seymour to give back her phone because she needs to go to class.

Later in the day, Seymour goes to the library and watches more videos from Bishop. Bishop’s rhetoric is extreme; he is looking for “warriors” who will “rise up now, before the whole world is on fire.” As Seymour watches Bishop’s videos, he is careful to make sure that Marian, the librarian, does not see what he is watching when she walks by. Before he leaves the library, Marian tells Seymour to come by the library Saturday afternoon because she has a surprise for him. Seymour promises her he will come.

Seymour goes home, where Bunny is waiting for him. Bunny informs him that she just lost her job because the place she works for is shutting down. In the meantime, she has taken out a payday loan to hold them over. Seymour knows that his medicine alone costs over $100 per week and does not see how Bunny is going to manage. However, she promises him that everything will be okay. Bunny tries to cheer Seymour up by purchasing him a desktop computer. Seymour tells her that they will not be able to use it because they do not have Wi-Fi.

Saturday arrives, and Seymour forgets his promise to Marian. Several hours after he was supposed to arrive, Seymour shows up at the library and sees that there is a new library drop-box that looks like an owl. Marian acknowledges Seymour when he arrives but gives him the cold shoulder. After this moment, Seymour begins to lose interest in the library altogether. Instead, he spends all of his time watching Bishop’s videos. During this period, he also quits his medication.

One day, Seymour trespasses into an Eden’s Gate home and steals their Wi-Fi password, so his computer will work. Then, one week later, he throws a rock at an RV when he is on a date with Janet. The man who owned the RV left to walk his dog and left the RV running. Seymour throws the rock to punish him, despite Janet telling him not to. At this point, Seymour is fed up with being patient with people who disrespect the environment.

Konstance. In the future, it is Konstance’s 46th day inside Vault One. She asks the library to give her everything it can find on Zeno Ninis. The library shows her that Zeno fought in the Korean War and ended up in a prisoner of war camp. It also lists his occupation and has a description of his passport, which says he only left the country one time to visit London after his time in the war. Additionally, the file claims that Zeno died on February 20th, 2020 at a library when a terrorist attempted to harm children. Konstance does not find any of the information particularly useful for her purposes.

The following day, Konstance thinks more about Sybil’s nature. In addition to the factual information Sybil is lacking, it also does not understand human emotion. Every decision Sybil makes is calculated in a cold and straightforward manner. Konstance begins writing down everything she thinks Sybil does not know. Sybil tells Konstance to add her notes to the library, but Konstance refuses.

Over 200 days later, Konstance turns 14. As a birthday gift, Konstance tells Sybil she wants Sybil to let her out of Vault One. However, Sybil says it will not do so because it still is not sure whether the rest of the ship is safe. Instead, Konstance goes back to researching Zeno. She asks the library for a picture of the location where Zeno died. Outside of the Lakeport Library she sees the owl drop-box that Marian installed.

Then, Konstance uses the Atlas to visit the Lakeport Library virtually. However, the Lakeport Library no longer existed by the time Atlas did its imaging. Though the library is missing, the owl drop-box still sits outside where the library used to be. In the Atlas, Konstance pulls on the handle of the drop-box. Usually, everything in the Atlas is nothing more than a virtual illusion. However, when she grabs the handle of the drop-box, it feels solid, as if it actually exists in front of her.