Ghostwritten as a sort of Miniature Diorama of Globalization

David Mitchell’s Ghostwritten does many things that the traditional “realist” novel does not. The storyline is disconnected and the characters’ lives and actions are “hyperlinked” together as Barnard suggests in a way which gives the book an alternate meaning of a global/national novel rather than simply a narrative for entertainment value. Mitchell’s text is innovative in the way it presents human life in relation to the world in which it thrives. His characters do not simply exist within the pages and bindings of his novel, but represent characters of a global world. As discussed last week in class, the characters and plot points in Mitchell’s novel appear to be able to go beyond the parameters of the text to create meaning outside of it. Marco could be any, playboy, drummer, or ghostwriter, living in London, but he could also be living in Australia, Austria, or even Arkansas. Mitchell presents the idea that the characters themselves are not important, but what they do in relation to the other human beings around them is what matters. Whether a scientist invents a sure of breast cancer in Tokyo or Connecticut do to globalization everyone from Thailand to Tucson will be able to receive it. So in many ways this real life example of a “hyperlink” supports a reading of Ghostwritten as a text influence by the globalization of the world, in not a globalized text in and of itself.

Examples of globalization can be seen throughout the novel in every sections, character, and city. For example, in the “St. Petersburg” section, Margarita is a curator in a Russian museum that displays art from many famous artists from around the world instead of only displaying Russian artworks. Her museum is also visited by people of many nationalities. She is face to face with as young Asian girl who offers her a candy at one point which demonstrates the verity of visitors to the museum in which she works. These examples together show, how Margarita is in the center of a miniaturized diorama of Globalization of sorts in which multiple nations interact with multiple produce and provide both an experience for the consumer and a way of life for Margarita. This exemplifies global connections throughout Mitchell’s text and their analogous nature to globalistic nature of our current society.