Tag Archives: Ishiguro

Who Are We?

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I really enjoyed and endorse many of the points Bynum made in the chapter Metamorphosis and Identity. My favorite part was the first point of her conclusion where she discusses how “these dichotomies of nature versus nurture, biology versus social construction… do not seem to me to give us the help we need to deal compassionately with ourselves or with others” (Bynum 187). This point is so insightful to me — these difficult questions that we agonize over and spend so much time thinking about are ultimately obsolete if we are not compassionate and loving to one another. Continue reading →

The soul and art in “Never Let Me Go”

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Ever since class on Tuesday, I have been thinking about Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and our discussion of how the students are raised at Hailsham. Specifically, we focused on the way students were taught creative trades and how they were encouraged to be artistic and to take pride in their work. At Hailsham, Kathy tells us, it was a big deal to have work chosen for the Gallery, even when they did not actually know the true intent of that gallery. It was not the revelation that art is an indicator of possessing a soul in this novel that stunned me, rather, it was the awareness that everyone seemed to agree on such a point in what I presume would be a rather scientifically-based community. Continue reading →

Stuck “Inside”

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“The ultimate horror for the individual is to remain trapped “inside” a world constructed by another being for the other’s own profit” (Hayles 162). This quote from chapter seven of Hayle’s book is a horror that many characters (thought in different ways have had to grapple with in the literature and movies we have examined thus far in class. In this post I will examine three selections that have characters who are stuck on the “inside.” Continue reading →

Humans who aren’t human

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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 →

A Condensed Life – Never Let Me Go

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Starting at birth, human life has a predictable end.  In the United States today, a male’s life expectancy is 75.6 years, a female’s is 80.8 years.  In the world Ishiguro has created, no donor is expected to live past 30 years.  As a result, the students of Hailsham age on a unique schedule.  What I have so far found most interesting in Never Let Me Go is this acceptance of life in such abbreviated terms.   Continue reading →

Hegemony in the Post-Human World

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Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, at first glance is fascinating because of the idea that, in the future, humans will actually be harvested for their organs (an apocalyptic warning I have been hearing from various places since my early childhood). To me, however, the more fascinating issue is how these children have been raised so as not to question their fate. Years ago, it seems (when I was still a communications major), we talked about hegemony – the idea that things are the way they are….simply because that’s the way they are. Continue reading →