Ishiguro Anon

[Anonymous No.11345803]

A long while back I made a thread about The Buried Giant and a well-versed anon posted his thoughts and rankings on Ishiguro's oueuvre. I've finally picked up pic related and I'm really enjoying it so far. If that anon is still around, I'd like to speak with you again.

[Anonymous No.11345839]

This novel has shit to do with 1Q84 but they went and designed it as if they were part of the same literary locus merely because he's a somewhat popular author with a japanese name

[Anonymous No.11345883]

>Japanese meme

[Anonymous No.11345898]

>>11345839
Are you thinking of Murakami?

>>11345883
Ishiguro doesn't even identify as Japanese in nationality or writing style

[Anonymous No.11345907]

>>11345803
Pro-tip: it's not good

[Anonymous No.11346276]

>>11345803
Never Let Me Go is mid-tier Ishiguro. (I like it tho, it’s fun)

Artist of the Floating world is high-tier

The Unconsoled is virtuoso-tier and would be my best guess for the one work of his that will stand the test of time.

[Anonymous No.11348012]

>>11346276
>Artist of the Floating world is high-tier
I agree, very underrated.

[Anonymous No.11348156]

>>11346276
I found the execution of The Unconsoled to be mediocre, its a frustrating read by nature, and its also quite long and meandering.

You might be right about it standing the test of time though, since it seems to deal with a more timeless theme than Never Let Me Go or Remains of the Day.

[Anonymous No.11348292]

>>11345803
hello i am here. glad you're liking it, did you read any other ishiguro yet?

[Anonymous No.11348328]

Never Let Me Go is fucking garbage. It's just YA dystopian trash.

And the fucking narrator, "but that's not what I meant to talk about," "but anyway," "as I was saying"

so fucking annoying god damn i hated this book

[Anonymous No.11348343]

>>11348328
you sound like you dont enjoy reading very much anon.

[Anonymous No.11348347]

>>11346276
>>11348012

i think artist of the floating world is too much a pastiche of postwar japanese works to be fully convincing on its own.

[Anonymous No.11348492]

>>11345883
he is british retard

>>11346276
thank you will check out arist of the floating world
Also no one has mentioned Remains of the Day yet, it's really good.

[Anonymous No.11348493]

>>11345803

I'm nearly done with Never Let Me Go. I found the first couple parts really engaging but had to put it down after a while since it got really boring and I didn't care about the teenage drama bullshit. The backdrop and setting were far more interesting. I liked his prose though so I'm definitely going to read more of his works this one just seemed really weak.

[Anonymous No.11348642]

>>11345803
Not the original Ishiguro anon here, but probably his 2nd biggest fan on /lit/.

IMO, Remains of the Day and Artist of Floating World are his best overall works, though The Unconsoled is terrific and potentially better depending on the effort you put into it, but it's also much less approachable than anything else he's written.

Then you have Buried Giant (good, but hard to write a memorable book about collective amnesia; the final few pages are pretty full of feels though), Never Let Me Go (meh; it's a retread of Remains and Artist, but with characters that ultimately lack any real agency. It's really a YA version of Ishiguro's themes), and Pale View of the Hills (fine, but it's Ishiguro finding his footing after getting out of his MFA program). When We Were Orphans is something of a misfire (and Ishiguro admits as much), and Nocturnes is hit and miss.

His lyrics for Stacey Kent songs are playful, and his screenplay for The White Countess is quite good.

FWIW, Remains probably had a larger impact on my life than any other book I've read; it hit so close to home that I really realised reevaluated what I was doing with my life and consequently made some pretty significant changes (largely for the better), and I'll always be thankful to him as a result.

[Anonymous No.11348744]

It actually shocks and horrifies me that retards come to the conclusion that Never Let Me Go is YA or is about "teenage drama" as some of the morons in this thread have said.
You seriously have to be semi-literate to actually finish the book and think that.
It's such a surface-level, empty reading that one can only think they are very immature readers/ not aware of even the most slightly ulterior meanings.

[Anonymous No.11348756]

>>11348744
I mean, ultimately the life of the clones is basically a microcosm of life more generally - we all end up in the same place, whether either fight against it or go with it and make the best we can of it. But compared to the depth of his better works, Never Let Me Go is relatively shallow.

[Anonymous No.11348765]

>>11348642
>...that I really realised reevaluated...
...that I realized...

>>11348756
>...whether either fight against it or go with it...
...whether we fight against it or...

(making a number of typos due to drinking a little too much, sorry)

[Anonymous No.11348774]

>>11348744

I thought it was pretty interesting how the main characters tried to fight against fate and a lot of the free will basically all about how your life is planned out for you and rigged entirely the moment you're born and genetic factors do play a role into it but it was okay at best. Solid 6/10

[Anonymous No.11348816]

>>11348756
Sick collection, but don't you think it's pretty lame to view a work of fiction in simple terms of "the themes," as though the point of it is to just get one message across and then become worthless?
For me what makes Ishiguro a great writer and Never Let Me Go in my top 3 of his work isn't cos he's especially "deep" in the sense you're implying, but rather that there's a whole sense of memory and the way people can't look at their lives and see what's really going on.
It's actually amazing reading Ishiguro and noticing how he just can't seem to stay off this topic, but he delivers it in such wonderful, sparse prose that you don't even realise what's going on until it's too late, like the narrator.
This is more than a matter of being "deep" or "shallow" in an intellectual way, it's just an incredible emotional view of life and its failures.

[Anonymous No.11348850]

>>11348816
Oh sure, there's a ton more to Ishiguro than just the themes of memory and self-deception and etc. I love the subtlety of his language and characterization and imagery, and reading his books really is like occupying the mind of his characters.

For me, Never Let Me Go didn't work as well as many of his other works, largely (as I said before) because it's not clear the clones ever have any agency (of course, whether or not any of us do is an open question), whereas the narrators and characters of his other books were more clearly making their own decisions (I suppose with the exception of The Unconsoled).

That said, a lesser Ishiguro work is still better than 90%+ of what is published these days, and Never Let Me Go is also not his worst work.

[Anonymous No.11349032]

>>11348328
What would you replace it with?

[Anonymous No.11349972]

found and reposting the rankings per the old thread:

Definitive Ishiguro Power Ranking:

>Canonical masterpiece tier
The Unconsoled - S

>Beloved classic tier
The Remains of the Day - A+
The Buried Giant - A+

>Delightful intro tier
Cellists - A
Crooner - B

>Flawed but touching tier
Never Let Me Go - B+
>Novel experimentation tier
A Pale View of Hills - B
>Traditionally proficient tier
Artist of the Floating World - B-

>Flawed experimentation tier
When We Were Orphans - C
Nocturne - C
Come Rain or Come Shine - C-
Malvern Hills - C-

[Anonymous No.11350250]

>>11348292
>I want to believe
I've just started part three. Kathy's backwards and forwards style makes the narrative more interesting than it would be of told linearly. Ruth is annoying but sympathetic and Tommy seems like the one that got away.
Thinking of buying Remains next

[Anonymous No.11350262]

>>11349972
The Unconsoled seems like a pastiche of Ulysses. Is it so?

[Anonymous No.11350426]

>>11350262
Not at all. It is actually more reminiscent of Kafka than Joyce, but even then it's very much it's own thing. I've never read anything else quite like it desu senpai.

[Anonymous No.11350488]

>>11350250
Remains is a good place to go after NLMG. The movie wasn't half bad either.

[Anonymous No.11350797]

>>11345803
well, Never Let Me Go proves that a humanistic education doesn't make people human, because these fags know that they are going to be harvested to death. It's not like when the Nazis descended on the Jewish people and arrested a bunch and didn't let word of the camps out, these people know what's up and have some freedom to go on joy rides and see each other. The fact that no one decided to take someone out with them or to rage against the machine proves these things were never human. At least run over some people when you have the car if you can't get a gun.

[Anonymous No.11350804]

>>11348156
>deal with a more timeless theme than Never Let Me Go or Remains of the Day
Remains of the Day is admittedly the only book of his I've read, but how is being left behind by time and facing the opportunities you missed in your life/justifying your life to yourself not a timeless theme ?

[Anonymous No.11351597]

>>11350426
I'll have to read The Trial then, so I can fully appreciate how kafkaesque The Unconsoled it. You've sold me on it.

>>11350488
>The movie wasn't half bad either.
Maybe I'll check it out. That, and the Norwegian Wood adaptation.

[Anonymous No.11352018]

>>11350804
The Unconsoled is about the expectations placed on ourselves and others, which I think of as one level of abstraction higher than his other works.

I agree with your understanding of Remains of the Day, but still consider it less timeless than The Unconsoled. Remains is not nearly as unique as Unconsoled, and the story is centered around a lifelong employment- an idea which is no longer central to modern life.

I think Never Let Me Go has been underrated in this thread, its one of the rare books that presents a very simple facade but asks some very hard questions. Its also interesting to read Ishiguro's Nobel speech (minus the political pandering) since Never Let Me Go is very different from his other works, and he knows it.

[Anonymous No.11352061]

>>11350797
You've read the book completely backwards. I can't even tell if I'm getting trolled or not.

Everyone lives on a timer and is harvested by society. We all accept our realities and take small pleasures where we can.

It seems like 90% of people read Never Let Me Go and ask how the clones can be so stupid while completely missing the fact that the book is a metaphor for their own lives.

[Anonymous No.11352238]

>>11345898
>Are you thinking of Murakami?
I'm thinking of Ishiguro, whose book "Never Let me Go" got a new cover which looks exactly like 1Q84. What the fuck were you thinking i meant?

[Anonymous No.11352258]

>>11346276
>Artist of the Floating world is high-tier
I love this book, but it's a practice run for remains of the day

[Anonymous No.11352541]

>>11348642
How do you feel about his short stories? I read Village After Dark and understand its is pretty much The Unconsoled condensed in terms of style?

[Anonymous No.11353390]

>>11352238
post new cover

[Anonymous No.11353441]

>>11352238
i've read both and never knew how the covers look. stop this 'book covers have meaning' meme

[Anonymous No.11354576]

>>11352018
fair enough, I will check out the unconsoled

[Anonymous No.11354577]

>>11353390
It is the OP

[Anonymous No.11355914]

OP here, just finished NMLG and have some thoughts to share.
Up until they visit Madame, I expected Kathy's narration to be a love letter of sorts that, combined with Tommy's drawings, would secure their safety if only for a while. That seems to be Ishiguro's intention, to trick us into believing in the deferral dream, only to remind us and them of who they are and what they are for.
Significance of the beached boat - like the donors, it is falling apart and unable to move, ignored by the world at large.
Tommy's detailed paintings; the significance of them being overly detailed to the point of being confusing unless seen at a distance is one I can only interpret as how donors are seen by everyone else. Looking too closely makes them seem human but as that is inconvenient, they are seen from a distance when seen at all.
Miss Emily insists that Madame gave everything for the students, but what? She is definitely a mystery I'd like to hear more about.
I was surprised that even Miss Emily was revolted by the students.
Ruth's insincerity was frustrating but understandably so. Conforming is comfortable.
But anyway, I was genuinely moved by NMLG and hope that I enjoy his other works just as much.