Thursday, November 3, 2016
National Geographic/Lizard Connection!
While randomly flipping through the November issue of National Geographic, I found an article called "All Moms, No Dads" about reproduction that reminded me of Never Let Me Go. The article is about lizards of the genus Aspidoscelis. These lizards reproduce asexually, like many organisms. The interesting thing about them is that the female lizards' eggs do not need to be fertilized, but turn into embryos on their own -- and these eggs gain a full chromosome count without any input from a male lizard. Therefore, the female lizard provides all of the chromosomes for her babies, essentially cloning herself. I thought this was interesting because of the obvious connection with the cloning in NLMG, and also because of one particular line in the article: "Because the organisms are genetically identical, they're more vulnerable: A disease or an environmental shift that kills one could kill all." This line made me wonder if it's relevant to Never Let Me Go or not...if something physical or mental will debilitate the clones at some point. Either way, I found this connection with cloning fascinating.
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This is a very interesting connection as the isolation of the clones and Hailsham make more sense in this case. Whatever the reason for the clones' existence other than donations, they need to be kept away due to their vulnerability to things in the real world. I also believe this connection is fascinating, as it brings up many possibilities for the reason of Hailsham's isolation and maybe a bigger picture of the clones.
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ReplyDeleteComment from Katherine:
I find this interesting, "Because the organisms are genetically identical, they're more vulnerable: A disease or an environmental shift that kills one could kill all." This might be related to the reason why the clones are prevented from being able to have babies. It is also likely to be related to the students' passivity: none of them has ever really try to escape or find a job that does not involve donating vital organs. The clones are products of scientific study and they are created for scientific use as well. They are born the same way, raised the same way, and most likely are going to die in the same way as well. This makes them more vulnerable. It also might explain why Madame is afraid of the clones; Madame considers them as a different species different from human.