Book Review
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
I've been meaning to mention this book, so here I am before I forget. I finished reading it a couple of weeks ago, during my massive fiction kick while I was sick. Last Thursday, Rich Holdeman from the Bloomington RPC spoke on stem cell research and cloning at Veritas. I found it ironically timely with this book still fresh in my thoughts.
You don't know that the main characters are clones until about halfway through the book. The narrative is a bit slow and it's written in almost memoir style from the perspective of one character. I got through it and didn't like it at first. It's grown on me since I've understood it better in retrospect.
The thesis is subtle; you have to look under the surface for the point the author is making. Turns out, it's a very interesting secular view of the ethics of cloning. When Rich Holdeman spoke, he focused, of course, on the Christian ethical view. The morality of cloning, the problems of choosing life, etc... But what do non-Christians think of cloning?
In his book, Ishiguro questions the soul. Can clones feel the same way regular humans do? Are clones regular humans? The characters are students kept in a private boarding school, their questions unanswered and their artwork is taken away. The children don't understand this until much later when they're told that the teachers needed to know if they had souls. They needed the art to see if they really existed. The teachers encourage sexual activity among these teens. At first I was astounded, but then it made sense. If a non-Christian was a clone and in a situation where life's sole purpose was to be an organ donor, wouldn't hedonism play a role? Enjoy life while you've got it kind of mentality.
For the author, cloning creates a dystopia. Not because it's immoral so to speak but because it's unfair. It's stealing. It takes away the chance for these unwanted children to really live and experience life.
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