3 ms·

I've read "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". Enjoyed the former. I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not

by shoo 9y ago

I've read "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go". Enjoyed the former. I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. That doesn't mean it is a bad book, or bad literature, but reading pages and pages of characters focusing on interpersonal drama when they are trapped in this hideous situation pissed me off!

wtflmaohnisdumb 9y ago
> That doesn't mean it is a bad book, or bad literature, but reading pages and pages of characters focusing on interpersonal drama when they are trapped in this hideous situation pissed me off! I haven't read anything of his work beyond a bit of The Buried Giant, but this sentence makes me want to read "Never Let Me Go". I think it's easy to focus on the immediate or even use it to distract yourself from big picture problems that might not even have solutions.
twoodfin 9y ago
One of the major themes of the book is how easy it is to accept gross injustice when it’s presented as foundational reality, as prosaic as the “who’s sleeping with whom” that the children do take so seriously.
dantillberg 9y ago
This is a major reason I so love Never Let Me Go. So much of our dystopian fiction chronicles characters that heroically resist the terrors thrust upon them. But Never Let Me Go tells a much more human story: these characters, like so many of us, are swept up helplessly in the torrents and terrors of their world. And it's not that they're _unable_ to change the tide -- they don't even know that it's an option. It is, for certain, quite frustrating -- just as it is in the world outside the book's covers.
Zanni 9y ago
Never Let Me Go is an excellent example of the maxim that an idea is worth 1% and execution is worth 99%. It is brilliant, haunting, beautiful and tragic--one of the best books I've ever read--yet it shares its central conceit with a truly awful Michael Bay movie.
JoshTriplett 9y ago
> I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. That is an incredibly useful and insightful anti-recommendation, thank you. That's consistently a property of stories that make me want to throw them away in disgust.
michaelchisari 9y ago
> No volition to change the status quo. I interpreted that as proof that they weren't fully human. There was a constant discussion about whether they had a soul, and fruitless efforts to prove it through art, expression, love. But in the end, they all lacked the will to survive. Most human beings, even those that are hardly extraordinary would have fought against those circumstances. But none of the Hailsham children did. They always, ultimately, accepted their fates, showing that they are more cattle than human. Maybe that is an even more dystopian reading of an already dystopian novel, but I've read the novel twice and watched the film, and I keep coming back to it.
andyjohnson0 9y ago
> yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. The DVD of the film adaptation of Never Let Me Go has an interesting interview with Ishiguro. In it, he mentions that he is often asked about why the Students were so passive and accepting of their fate. From memory, he says that the book is allegorical: the students are no more able the escape their kind of mortality than we are of our (different) outcome. Nobody can escape from their own life.

by shoo 9y ago

wtflmaohnisdumb 9y ago

> That doesn't mean it is a bad book, or bad literature, but reading pages and pages of characters focusing on interpersonal drama when they are trapped in this hideous situation pissed me off! I haven't read anything of his work beyond a bit of The Buried Giant, but this sentence makes me want to read "Never Let Me Go". I think it's easy to focus on the immediate or even use it to distract yourself from big picture problems that might not even have solutions.

twoodfin 9y ago

One of the major themes of the book is how easy it is to accept gross injustice when it’s presented as foundational reality, as prosaic as the “who’s sleeping with whom” that the children do take so seriously.

dantillberg 9y ago

This is a major reason I so love Never Let Me Go. So much of our dystopian fiction chronicles characters that heroically resist the terrors thrust upon them. But Never Let Me Go tells a much more human story: these characters, like so many of us, are swept up helplessly in the torrents and terrors of their world. And it's not that they're _unable_ to change the tide -- they don't even know that it's an option. It is, for certain, quite frustrating -- just as it is in the world outside the book's covers.

Zanni 9y ago

Never Let Me Go is an excellent example of the maxim that an idea is worth 1% and execution is worth 99%. It is brilliant, haunting, beautiful and tragic--one of the best books I've ever read--yet it shares its central conceit with a truly awful Michael Bay movie.

JoshTriplett 9y ago

> I found the latter irritating to read -- roughly, many of the characters are "not in a great situation" when it comes to the role society has assigned them -- yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. That is an incredibly useful and insightful anti-recommendation, thank you. That's consistently a property of stories that make me want to throw them away in disgust.

michaelchisari 9y ago

> No volition to change the status quo. I interpreted that as proof that they weren't fully human. There was a constant discussion about whether they had a soul, and fruitless efforts to prove it through art, expression, love. But in the end, they all lacked the will to survive. Most human beings, even those that are hardly extraordinary would have fought against those circumstances. But none of the Hailsham children did. They always, ultimately, accepted their fates, showing that they are more cattle than human. Maybe that is an even more dystopian reading of an already dystopian novel, but I've read the novel twice and watched the film, and I keep coming back to it.

andyjohnson0 9y ago

> yet they are all accepting (perhaps that is too strong) or passive. No volition to change the status quo. The DVD of the film adaptation of Never Let Me Go has an interesting interview with Ishiguro. In it, he mentions that he is often asked about why the Students were so passive and accepting of their fate. From memory, he says that the book is allegorical: the students are no more able the escape their kind of mortality than we are of our (different) outcome. Nobody can escape from their own life.