I'm going through a phase where I'm re-watching a lot of old
films. I've been tempted to throw out some of my DVD collection because they're
taking up too much space in my bedroom, but I'm glad I haven't. A few days ago
I watched Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind again for the first time in years, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/eternal-sunshine-of-spotless-mind.html,
and last night I watched a romantic tragedy called Never Let Me Go, a 2010 movie based on a book by Kazuo Ishiguro,
who is British by nationality, but I'm guessing by his name has Japanese roots.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXiRZhDEo8A.
It stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. At the start of
the film the three central characters are played by children because the
setting is a traditional English boarding school. There's a lot of intrigue
during this act because it quickly becomes clear that there is something highly
unusual about this school. The children have no parents. They have only
single-letter surnames like "Kathy H", "Ruth C" and "Tommy
D". They also have tags on their wrists which they have to scan against
electronic locks every time they pass through a door. It is soon revealed that
these children are all genetically modified clones. The setting is actually some
kind of parallel universe. Most things in it are the same as our world, but
there are a few important differences. Human cloning has been perfected and
this has led to massive medical breakthroughs. The downside is that the clones
at the school are necessary for those treatments and that it involves their
vital organs being used for transplantation. This eventually and inevitably leads
to their premature death after their third or fourth harvest, which is euphemistically
termed "completion". Some clones "complete" on their first
donation. Few of the clones survive beyond their early thirties. The school is an
experiment into the medical ethics of the practice; they want to know exactly
how close to natural humans the clones are, and the kids are made to draw
pictures and write poetry to see if they "have a soul". This is a
concept I'm familiar with because it is a part of the story in one of my favourite novels, Friday by Robert
Heinlein, see: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Friday.html?id=e_4wKQAACAAJ&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y.
This is about a female secret agent of the future who is also a clone and has a
very human side to her indeed, far more so than many of her natural born
fellows. In the movie the viewer is left in no doubt that the answer the
question is yes. The clones are portrayed exactly like normal humans,
physically and mentally. In fact the central storyline involves a tragic love-triangle
between the main characters. As their "completion" approaches the
lovers struggle for more time on this earth (or that alternative one) to be
together. What interests me is that it never occurs to the characters to refuse
to donate their organs. There appears to be no coercion in the process; the
clones are permitted to live normal lives in ordinary homes. Some even have
cars and they interact with natural humans as equals. They're not imprisoned in
camps and tied down to the operating tables, as is rumoured to happen in China
to political prisoners. So why do they never object? I suppose if they were all
locked up and forced to donate their organs it would make it a less interesting
story. The idea of parallel universes is a fascinating one and now even serious
scientists are considering it. Is there a real universe out there, in the distant
reaches of hyperspace, where the scenario in Never Let Me Go is really going on? Could the Illuminati be
planning to access it with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN? The film gave me
some strange dreams last night.
See here for more
information: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/cern-breaking-through-veil.html.
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