I had no idea what Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" was about when I decided to buy it. The usually informative synopsis at the back gave nothing away this time. And although I was a bit shaken up upon connecting the dots, and although I did hesitate to go on, I just knew it was a story I needed to read, an issue I needed to acknowledge.
I pride myself on being an open-minded person, but like any other erring human, I have my own sets of prejudice.
Ethics vs. Welfare. Objectively, it's easy to pick ethics, I know. I would have picked it myself. But this book made me realize that there are some things that cannot be looked at objectively. That not all things can be distinguished as either black or white. That what's right isn't always what's best.
I think every one of us had fought that battle at least once in our lives: that battle between doing what the society thinks is right and what we think is--if not right--best for us. It's easy to talk, really. It's easy to judge and put your two cents in. It's so easy to say, "That's just so wrong" or "What a horrible person he is" without considering what the offender was thinking, or what his reason was. And it's not fair. It's not fair to take sides without even acknowledging that there are two sides, or without realizing that maybe there is a middle ground. After all, gray is neither black nor white.
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