Posting Assignment #9 (due Sunday 12/6, 11:59 P.M.)

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"I don't know how it is where you were, but..."

This phrase recurs several times, without variation, during the first sections of Never Let Me Go. It is, I'm pretty sure, the only series of words at this length to be repeated verbatim -- and it's also repeated other times with small but important variations (e.g., "I don't know if they had 'collections' where you were" (38)).

After our reading of Strauss, this repetition should make us prick up our ears: something important is going on here. In your posting this week, I'm asking you to think hard about what that something is. What role does this phrase play in the context of the rest of the book (written by Kazuo Ishiguro) and the story within the book (told by Kathy H.)? More specifically:

What does this phrase illuminate about Kathy H.'s story? What does it tell us about her intended audience -- who that audience is, and what assumptions she is making about him/her/them/us/it? About the ideas or messages or arguments she is trying to convey to that audience, and how she is trying to do it? About why it is so important for these things to be conveyed to this audience?

In answering these questions, please make reference to specific passages as needed. You'll also note that the questions I'm asking here are the same questions I'm encouraging you to ask about your own writing, in longer written text #3. This is not a coincidence!

***A WORD TO THE WISE: There is no one right answer to these questions; they are very much open for interpretation. However, to propose a plausible answer to them, you have to have read the whole book first, or at least most of it. It will be painfully obvious if you have not. Chapter 22 (pp. 256-275), in particular, will be crucial.***
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