Introductory stimulus for Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go. We might start this document by considering the genre of the writing. Is it Science-fiction? Or Dystopian literature in which a parallel world is developed which focuses on negative stereotyping and is the opposite of a Utopia (look them up -it's part of learning!). Or is it something else again? I argue that it is not science fiction despite subject matter. Cloning has been treated before - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley being the obvious example, but Sci-Fi is interested in the mechanics of the issue and the story usually involves rebellion. Consider all such texts, from popular sci fi to more literary works such as 1984 (Orwell). In most cases dystopia meets sci-fi and all of them hinge on rebellion and the need to make a moral judgement. They often utilise a first person narrative and we have same here, but we will need to look at Kathy H. carefully. She speaks to us as though to an equal - consider the technical lexis used in the opening page -carer, donation, donor, "agitated" and so on. We are clones and we understand her. Often the sense of dialogue is enhanced by use of 2nd person - "if you're one of them…" to reinforce this sense of a relationship between writer and reader. Right from the opening sentence which is short, " My name is Kathy H." questions arise. Why is there no surname? As we read on the questions multiply - since in actual fact we are not clones, much of the technical lexis is strange to us. We are engaged and probably begin to provide answers for our questions as we read. The more we read, the more we can assess the accuracy of our assumptions. There is also set up an "us and them" idea - "...not because they think I am fantastic" - who are they? In fact we never meet them - even Madame and the guardians are employees of them. Ishiguro does not dwell on this question. In "real Sci fi" this would be the conflict central to the narrative. We take it for granted and do not question it, just as Kathy and her friends do. Ishiguro has settled on this narrative device for a number of reasons, but the most obvious is that we are meant to engage with Kathy and her friends as characters and not become distracted by external events/descriptions. In this, setting is vital. As early as the second paragraph Kathy uses Hailsham as an identifier. We have no idea at this stage what Hailsham is, but we are sufficiently open to such places in a post-Harry Potter age, that we do not question the boarding school setting. Even when the narrative moves to "the cottages" we accept that this peculiar form of 6th form study centre is a natural progression. The characters are never allowed to wonder or reflect on a "normal" upbringing or education - it is utterly irrelevant to their consideration of the world they inhabit. This should not come as a surprise. Ishiguro does not dwell on the mechanics of baby storage and rearing, but it is evident that the world of Hailsham is totally closed from the outside world. Indeed, so thorough is this process that the mature students do not even know where it is! They have geography lessons that prepare them for the bleak emptiness of life as a carer - we see Kathy crossing the country in her car, but not engaging in any way with a real world- but are not required to put their own existence into any context. They have no parents, yet never comment on this lack of a family. The whole education process develops a sense of belonging to a group. These are not outsiders, but members of a group which itself stands outside society. Note alos, in this context, that real 1990s Britain is never alluded to - boom and bust recessions and the first Gulf War are nowhere to be found in these pages. Jonathan Peel SGS 2011 Hailsham seems to prepare them for a future that is destined to end early. They are not encouraged to have ambition and it is a central part of the dismissal of Miss Lucy that they are kept deliberately in the dark about their lives. Ishiguro never allows this to develop into real opposition. Indeed it is only Tommy who seems to rebel, but even he rebels on a personal level and then returns placidly to face his fourth donation. They have no real belongings - all they own are either pieces of work made by a colleague or a small range of material possessions provided on a strictly limited account by the outside world. Again the mechanisms by which this happens form no part of the story and the characters seem happy with what they have. Having no parents or parental role models has starved the clones of affection and love and prevented them from exploring their emotional development. Most of the characters can be seen craving some form of love or affection. We will need to trace this within the novel. Moreover, when Kathy is confused by the sexual feelings associated with normal pubertal development, she has no parent to ask for guidance. The responses from Ruth which we later see to be deliberately misleading simply increase her sense of worthlessness and either provoke or encourage her search for a "possible" in the pages of pornographic magazines. I have mentioned the lack of rebellion evident. Consider the title for a moment. Never let me go, regardless of the interpretation placed on the phrase by Kathy, with its emotional content, implies a wish to remain within the status quo. Whilst it might be the seen as representing the words of a lover wishing to remain in the arms of their beloved, it also can reflect the words of a prisoner who is opting to remain trapped. We should not overlook this idea as we read on. The clones are accepting of their lives. Indeed the response to news of Chrissie's "completion" is not grief per se, but sadness that she did not make four donations. In their world, the clones have become accepting of their brief lives and see fulfilment in their roles as donors. At the end of the novel, we notice how Kathy looks forward to a period when she can have time to write and reflect after being a carer. This is the present of the novel and we should be aware that if Kathy is not a carer, then by definition she must be being slowly butchered for the benefit of human society. There is much in the novel to enjoy. We will look at the usual aspects of narrative investigated for analysis at GCSE and beyond - narrative voice, literary style and effect, setting, character and so on. You ned to read the text before the start of the Autumn term in September. Hopefully this document will help to provoke some thoughts as you read. Mr Peel, 13/06/2011 Jonathan Peel SGS 2011 NOTES AND FOCI: Never let me go ch 1 I want to write about Kathy as a character – and the way in which Ishiguro presents her, before moving into a discussion of Chapter 1 as a whole. The opening is something like a confession or a police statement – is she about to give a witness statement? If so, how reliable is she? Few first person narrators are totally reliable, but Kathy is written in a way that moves away from the conventional unreliable narrator, since she obviously knows that she is unreliable: “ Okay, maybe I am boasting now” on 3.5 shows this clearly. It is the first of many instances of her acknowledging the reader and anticipating that the reader might not see her has reliable. Consequently, whilst we read her thoughts and ideas, we accept her as fallible. In a curious way we begin to trust her more because of this fallibility. Kathy sees us as her equal. There is no need to elaborate on her missing surname (a device used by several authors to give either a sense of anonymity or a lack of true individuality to their creations). She is, actually, a clone, certainly not an individual in any sense commonly understood. We do not know this in Chapter 1 and she has no need to explain. Instead, as the narrative moves from first to second person – “If you’re one of them…” we realise that the narrator assumes that the reader is part of the same group as she. This assumption leads to one of the features of the language of this book, the establishment of a technical lexis suited to the dystopian world inhabited by the characters. This lexis, or semantic field, sets up a pattern using common words to denote a slightly different meaning from that which is expected. “Carer, donor, agitated, donation, calm, completion, guardians” dominate the language of the opening, where the world of the novel is introduced to us. As we read there is an assumption that we understand the terms as they are used in Kathy’s world. At the same time we recognise a complex group of euphemisms being created: Carers have a job that is intended to make people healthy enough to be killed; donors give of their free will, but there really is no other option; guardians replace parents but the military sense of the word is more apt than the caring sense; agitated and calm are both put into inverted commas, presumably to show that they are technical terms, rather than simple suggestions of mood; completion is the most eerie – the clones never die, they complete the task they were meant to perform! Jonathan Peel SGS 2011 Ishiguro uses all these terms as a fundamental part of Kathy’s narration and we accept them and become familiar – carer appears several times in the first two paragraphs – and realise that they are a significant part of her character emerging.