liquidindian

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Posts posted by liquidindian

  1. Posted

    I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time last year, and for some reason I had thought that I was in for more of the same with Wuthering Heights - I've never seen an adaptation or read it before. I also, for some reason, thought that Heathcliffe was a romantic hero. It's been quite a shock.

     

    Not quite enough of a shock to send me to my chambers with a brain fever, though.

  3. Posted

    Film spoilers:



    It's interesting how the film adds a couple of details that relate to a couple of the points here.


    At each distinct stage in the story - Hailsham, The Cottages, carer - we see the characters 'checking in' with an watch-like device that presumably tracks where people are and who is missing. I don't think this is mentioned in the book. This might have been just a detail to show that this world is not the one we know, but it may have been added to answer the question of why there is no talk of escape - adding an overt method of control to the more subtle and insidious controls.


    We also see Ruth's death, and it's clear that the donation that kills her is one that will inevitably have that effect, even though it's the third. There are also shots that show scars and scenes where the effects of donation are made more obvious, which goes some way to answering hangdog's point above.


    I'm curious as to whether these added details are there to help fill in some of the gaps that might make the viewer less willing to buy in to the whole premise.



  4. Posted

    Regarding escape:

    I don't think North Korea and Nazi concentration camps make for a very accurate comparison, because the children of Hailsham did not live in squalor, hunger, discomfort, or ignorance. They were by all accounts privileged, educated, and comfortable. Of course that came at a steep cost. But the citizens of North Korea and the inhabitants of a Nazi concentration camp are and were treated contemptuously. It's easy to imagine that the less-privileged clone communities mentioned in the novel may have raised populations of children who had to be more forcibly contained, with more frequent escape attempts.

     

    This book reminded me of Brave New World, whereas I think North Korea is better compared to Nineteen Eighty-Four. People are accepting of their lot and where they "fit" and I feel like that's really the point of the book - you don't have to oppress people to control them, even if you're literally stealing bits of them away.

     

    The most shocking part of the book for me is very near the end, where Tommy suggests Kathy should ask to start donating, and it's in the same sort of tone as you would say that someone should maybe stop living with their parents or get a job. Even confronted with the full horror that you were raised simply to be stripped for parts, Tommy's reaction is to rage for a few minutes but then later encourage the person closest to him to get on with it. It's the opposite of the 'it's too late for me but save yourself' reaction you would expect.

  5. Posted

    I've read a little disappointment with the 'twist ending', but for me the twist wasn't there, but well before that point, in the revelation of the letter. Here we had the narrator, who had previously presented himself as genial and easy-going to a fault, reveal a completely different side. But it was a shock to himself, too, to recognise he was capable of - and I think this is the right word - evil.

    By coincidence, I was reading Bruce Hood's The Self Illusion just after I finished this, and at the point I went back to it he was discussing self-narratives and the "totalitarian ego", which seems to be a reference to a classic study:

    Psychologist Dan McAdams proposes that when it comes to making sense of our lives, we create narrative or personal myths to explain where we have come from, what we do and where we are going.16 This is the narrative arc of our lives – the background, the struggle, the climax and resolution that people readily attribute to the story of their lives. For example, some may see themselves as victims of circumstances beyond their control, reinterpreting events to fit with this perspective. Another could take the same set of circumstances and cast themselves as the resilient hero, triumphing over adversity to get where they are today...these accounts are myths because they are not grounded in reality but rather rather follow a well-worn narrative path of a protagonist character (our self) and what the world throws at them.

    I guess his point, and Barnes's point too, is that there is no such thing as a reliable narrator, ever. In this Guardian review there's a reference to his memoir:

    admits that he and his brother disagree about many details of their childhood. His brother, a philosopher, maintains that memories are so often false that they cannot be trusted without independent verification. "I am more trusting, or self-deluding," writes Barnes, "so shall continue as if all my memories are true."

    Regarding "Mary" - well, the most famous Mary of all is a virgin mother, which kinda fits, maybe?