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Originally Posted by gmw
"imaginary science" - isn't that pretty much the definition for science fiction?  But this book barely qualifies for that distinction... |
Of course. I personally was able to accept it on that basis, barely. The author has done little more than slowly reveal the assumptions he made about his society and the science and has left readers to fill in virtually everything (or simply ignore it). Neither is particularly satisfying. I don't think it's laziness. Just a very narrow focus.
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Originally Posted by gmw
I still don't get why there is this suggestion that the sterility angle is an anomaly. Making the clones sterile isn't even science fiction, there are many ways it can be done (several involving no genetics at all). And there are many reasons why it might be done: in our world companies make GM crops infertile for commercial reasons. (One can easily envisage these clones as a sort of GM crop.)
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It is an anomaly which can be explained in any number of ways, which you and I have both done, but the author has not. To the author it simply does not matter.
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Originally Posted by gmw
There are also examples in our world of human body products used for treating disease, including cancer. eg: adult stem cells. ( In a society happy to grow clones, the use of embryonic stem cells would seem like a more obvious choice than adult stem cells, but maybe they know something we don't, or maybe the clones are genetically modified to make a difference.) |
But we don't need to kill people to obtain stem cells. Neither stem cells nor other human products cure all diseases. This is the scenario the author wanted to set up. The Clones had to die to provide the setting for the story and he didn't care how he did id. It is fantasy science in the true sense.
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Originally Posted by gmw
'm not claiming this is the answer in the story (I still consider it irrelevant), but the scientific stretch to what we see in Never Let Me Go seems very small indeed, certainly much less than a lot of other science fiction.
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This is the problem. It was so irrelevant to the author that he did little more than reveal it. But to some readers it was very relevant. Catlady for one.