Human cloning, surgery, organ transplantation, technology... When these keywords are combined, what do you think of? Is it the bloody rebellion launched by clones against the human world after awakening their consciousness, or is it the horrifying question when science breaks away from the constraints of humanities?
I recently finished reading "Don't Lose, Never Forget" by Kazuo Ishiguro, which is a dystopian science fiction novel: In an era before the Internet and mobile phones were born, the deep darkness of rural England On the Ersham campus, students have received careful education and care from their tutors since childhood, been influenced by Yangchun Baixue's poetry and art, engaged in artistic creations such as painting, read classics, and even written graduation thesis. This crystal ball-like campus is completely isolated from the outside world, and all real-world information enters the campus after being screened and filtered.
In this pure and peaceful little world, three good friends, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth, grew up leisurely. Like ordinary teenagers, they had dormitory talks, small gangs, and small groups. There are the warm conflicts of friendship, the budding conflicts of emotions... Everyone who has been through adolescence is familiar with these campus daily routines. If the word "donation" was not mentioned occasionally, you would even think that This is a pure youth campus novel. The author's writing style is very detailed, and there is not a single amazing sentence in the whole book, but the magic is that along with the noodles-like statements in clear soup, you will be involuntarily immersed in the paradise of the story, getting deeper and deeper.
The students are sensitive and delicate, and have a fascination and trust in their teachers. Their characteristics and personalities are the same as those of human teenagers. The only difference is that they will not give birth to children. Therefore, they can live in the ivory tower. Love more freely and purely. They understand their origins and know that once they reach adulthood they will start organ donation until the end of their lives, but this is a tacitly taboo topic in daily life on campus. The tutors on campus care about and care for their students, but they always hide their words, making them unpredictable.
A few years later, Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth left the campus at the same time. After living in the farmhouse for a period of time, they entered human society and Hailsham School also closed. Casey, who is good at introspection, has become an excellent caregiver (responsible for caring for and comforting clone donors). Tommy, who was bad-tempered and unsociable as a teenager, is proud of being a good donor, even if the self-righteous and domineering Ruth He also fulfilled the donor’s destiny with due diligence.
Every time they received a donation notification, they acted very calmly, and the donors’ chats in the hospital were nothing more than insignificant topics such as whether the towels were useful or not. This was a very disturbing and confusing place for me to read. Their freedom of movement seems to be unrestricted, but no one escapes, no couple elopes, no one rises up to resist, and no one even commits suicide. The melody of forbearance and resignation runs through the story.
At the end of the novel, the story reaches a small climax. After Kathy and Tommy heard the gossip that couples can apply for an extension of donation, after being fully prepared, they brought a message that could prove that they loved each other. With the paintings and all the courage, they went to the lady at the address that Ruth left for them before she died and applied for an extension (rather than exemption from donation) in order to gain two or three years of living together.
After reading this part, I am extremely looking forward to the miracle - the lovers will finally get married, even if it is just a short-term happiness. But the miracle did not happen after all. When the former principal, Miss Emily, slowly emerged from the darkness in a wheelchair, what she told the two children was just the realistic and cruel truth: people care about new organs, but they don’t care about these. How did the organs come from? Human society refuses to treat clones as ordinary humans; Hailsham gave the clones a sheltered childhood and proved to the world that clones can be thoughtful and intelligent, but it cannot change the requirements of clones. Due to the fate of donation, human cloning is just a marginalized group controlled by human society from birth to death, and it will not exist even if it is postponed.
Two weeks after Tommy finished, Cathy drove alone to Norfolk - Lost Corner, a place where Hailsham students believed they could find all their lost belongings. As she looked at the flat, empty fields and the vast gray sky, she imagined that this was the place where everything she had lost since her childhood would be washed ashore. Thirty-one-year-old Kathy lost Ruth and Tommy, but she never lost her memory of them.
Not questioning the deprived life, not resisting the fate of birth. I am not entirely sure of the author's intention, but I think this is the central idea of ??the story. The author once said in an interview: "No matter what kind of pain people endure, no matter what tragic experiences they encounter, no matter how unfree they are, they will survive in the cracks of fate and accept everything that fate gives. People will not work tirelessly and strive to survive in such a small place. Looking for dreams and hopes in the living space. Such people are always more interesting to me than those who destroy their bodies and carry out rebellion.”
Not everyone is willing to accept this view, but there will always be a way in life. To experience some helplessness and loss, the grand and ethereal external world will eventually become the distant shadow of life. Only the real, flesh-and-blood, mutually dependent emotions can roll in the memory forever.