Speculation about the world created in Never Let Me Know by Kazuo Ishiguro

This book is masterfully written and there have been many great discussions about it that I’ve been looking at.

I do find myself still speculating about the actual world the book creates and logistical things. I know these things don’t matter so much thematically, but I’m still curious what other people think.

Who do you think they used as models for the clones? Ruth thinks they use homeless junkies from “the gutter”, but I don’t know if that makes a ton of sense. You’d think in a system like this people would make clones of themselves to later use the organs. There would be no worries about rejection of the clone was identical to the recipient.

Though if it were that, I would expect the people themselves would care to some degree how the clones were raised. It’s easier for society to accept this system if they are more removed from it and the donors are nameless faceless entities they don’t have to think much about. Maybe people volunteer to be cloned? Maybe they are paid? Maybe it happens all in secret and no one knows if they have a clone out there?

The characters wonder if their models are the same age or if there is a delay. Which do you think makes more sense? It depends on why exactly they need the organs. Does everyone in this society have organ failure problems? Is there something about the environment or what they do to themselves that make it so everyone would eventually need replacement organs? Or is it just a contingency plan if you happen to develop an illness?

This leads me to question how many clones are actually out there? One for each person? If there were that many, I would expect some kind of clone rebellion in this world. They’d have the numbers. So I think there are not enough for every person and they’re kept separate from each other and raised in such a way they’d not question their lives deeply at all.

I wonder if any clones anywhere, if not from Hailsham, from the worse facilities that are referenced at the end, ever tried to escape. What would that look like in your opinion? It’s not realistic that it would never happen somewhere. I assume they had a plan to deal with rogue clones like that and it probably involves keeping them in solitary confinement while their organs were harvested. Our characters would have no knowledge of this, but I have to believe bad things would happen to anyone who tried to escape.

Do you think England was the only country doing this or it was widespread?

They talk about the organ donation system curing cancer, but what organ replacements would cure cancer? Only certain types in the very early stages I would assume.

One of my persistent questions during the whole novel was wondering which organs they were donating and still remaining able to get around. Kidneys, liver, bone marrow? What are the three organs they’d be able to donate before the fourth donation that would mean “completion”? It sounded like the fourth one was the last one they would be cognizant of, but the rest of their organs would continue to be taken while they were on life support. Would the heart be the fourth, or maybe the last?

I hope my questions don’t sound like I didn’t “get” the book. I really did and it was a brutal read. Very thought provoking about humanity and these characters who felt so real. I just find myself thinking about the world itself and how realistic or unrealistic it is. How do you imagine the world they were living in?

This book will stay with me a long time. Every time Kathy would say “I don’t know how it was for you, but at Hailsham…” it was like she was talking directly to the reader and asking us to reflect on our own lives and society. Powerful stuff.

by Comprehensive-Fun47