Never Let Me Go
Background information Jean Baudibard: Simulation and simulacrum (1981)
•Stoicism: a very used tool by Ishiguro (Love Triangle). Kathy + Tom + Ruth.
Tommy doesn’t love Kathy he uses her as a toy that will mark Kathy’s life forever.
What is original?
We can’t know what the first one is because they all come from models. (Eiffel Tower
example) You never look at the original, is a restauration.
Western culture has a fetish about all things. Values are cultural ideas. What differentiate the
modern and post-modern representation is that in modernity they were looking for uniqueness
while the post-modern stage is marked by industrial reproducibility. There is no originality.
We reproduce so much that we have to say that it exists an original. It is an industrial scale.
•Uniqueness and Permanence: Post-Modernity portrays reality. Ability of
reproduction. Provide de value of uniqueness (Boom del diseño): cuando el diseño
aumenta es porque puede. Ahora lo que cuenta es la reproducción del diseño no la
autenticidad. Where do we find originality? MASTER NARRATIVES. Antes
podíamos vivir en el simulacro (podemos encontrar originalidad) en la simulación no
se puede acordar un original. Western culture pierde su capacidad de intercambio
simbólico.
Jean Baudibard claims that the occident loses its capacity of symbolic interchange and he
divides history in four phases:
1. Counterfeit: the symbols with which we represent reality have a significant in reality.
They didn’t think that significance is arbitrary. (Middle Ages) The Prime of Mrs. Jean
Brodie.
2. Hermeneutic: a continuous process of interpretation. We suspect that the symbol
interposes between us and reality. (Modernity / Post-Modernity) The Passion
3. Simulation (80’s): we construct a simulation of reality. It begins the standardization
and commodification. We simulate a reality so we can experience it. Capitalism.
Enduring Love / The Passion. HYPERREALITY. Se convierte en realidad la copia
del original. Hierarchical society.
4. Simulacrum: we can’t identify anymore the original.
Analysis
Chapter 2. Who is Kathy referring to? The novel assumes that the reader is one of those
clones. Normal comes from ‘norm’ a preconception. They represent hierarchical society.
1The teacher shows them pictures of all England with exception of Norfolk so they create their own
image of the town
2A tape is a simulacron because we copy it while a CD is a simulation because it’s a clone
