The Biology of a Human

On Tuesday we talked about monsters and sort of inhuman creatures that humanity has conjured up over the years.  What I took away from Graham’s writing was that monsters are so terrifying because they represent a sort of breach in what are usually thought of as very specific boundaries between creatures. This carried in to our discussion about the clones in Never Let Me Go, who were seen as kind of monstrosities because they, though appearing human, are somehow just short of it. Their very existence terrifies ‘normals’ because they represent a kind of creature that has crossed that boundary between human and non-human.  However, because they are so close to us in appearance and behavior (really exactly like us except they can’t reproduce), the normals of the Never Let Me Go world tried to make themselves feel better by treating the clones well until they were sent off to their death. Continue reading

Humans who aren’t human

In the second chapter of her text, Graham speaks about society’s creation, throughout history, of monsters; that is, those with characteristics which the ruling culture deems non-human. These decisions, which shape the cultural perception of the beings involved, do not rely on a set of rigid empirical facts about humankind, but are instead grounded in self-interest. In Never Let Me Go, those in power have, at some point, approved the creation of cloned humans, whose sole purpose is to donate their organs to non-cloned people. Though it seems that there is nothing to distinguish them physically or mentally from ‘normal’ humans, they are treated as the ‘other’, and are ostracised from society. Continue reading