"Never Let Me Go" and Taking Baby Steps

Never Let Me Go

On Friday night, I watched Never Let Me Go, the movie adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s eponymous novel. I bought the book a few weeks ago and had been reading it for a few days, but for the first 90 pages or so, I found the story moving too slowly. On top of that, it was written in narrative form by the protagonist—a schoolgirl named Kathy living in a boarding school in the south of England—in highly colloquial British English, adding to the difficulty I experienced reading through those pages. Quite frankly, I found the novel rather boring in the beginning few chapters.

However, as this novel was highly acclaimed—to the point of being named the best novel of 2005 by Time magazine—I didn’t want to just throw it away before getting to the interesting part. So, to facilitate my understanding of the story, I decided to cheat a little and asked ChatGPT to summarize the plot for me. Sure enough, it generated a short summary in a matter of a few seconds, telling me that it’s a dystopian novel surrounding human cloning technology. Despite the obvious spoilers, the summary definitely got me more interested in the story, so much so that I decided to watch the movie adaptation also.

So, I viewed the movie first before finishing the book. It turned out to be a very well-made film with exquisite acting by the three actors playing the central characters. It saddened me profoundly that some people who were born into an unfortunate existence cannot change their predestination no matter what they do or how hard they try—their fate was sealed at the beginning of their lives, as tragic as it may be.

Instead of taking away the joy of reading the original novel, the movie only increased my interest in it tremendously. Yesterday, I sat at a nearby café and read a sizable chunk of the novel with keen anticipation—the plot has indeed thickened—that I’m nearly halfway through now. I expect to finish it within a week.

If you start to read a highly acclaimed novel and yet find it too challenging to read, I believe it’s a good idea to read an abridged version in simple language or watch its movie adaptation before tackling the book itself. That’s how I approached the novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, often cited as the greatest work of fiction ever written.

As I was aware of its reputation as a long, difficult book, I first read two abridged versions written for young children, followed by two Japanese comic books, to grasp the general flow of the story. Then I watched the movie adaptation starring Yul Brynner to learn about its highlights. I even bought the CliffsNotes dedicated to the novel so as not to be confused by the convoluted storylines and numerous characters, adding up to around 75 people.

The strategy was a great success—I was able to follow the plot with little confusion and enjoy the various sub-plots without wearing myself out. Had I not made those thorough preparations, I’m sure I would have given up reading The Brothers Karamazov only a short way into the book. 

As I have argued multiple times in these blog posts, your knowledge needs to be built from the ground up, little by little, and new things can only be learned based on what you already know. There’s nothing shameful about not understanding something you’re not familiar with. Starting with baby steps and gradually progressing to more advanced content is the only way you can expand your knowledge in a meaningful manner.

Thoughts on Singapore Election and Critical Thinking

Yesterday was an election day in Singapore, where 97 parliamentary seats were contested among various political parties. The candidates were announced on April 23, and the electorate had exactly 10 days to decide who to vote for.

The polling station in my district was set up at a local library, open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Even though Singapore makes it mandatory for every citizen to vote and penalties are imposed on absentees, when I got to the polling station I was surprised that there was virtually no line of voters—I was able to cast my ballot pretty much immediately.

In my constituency, two political parties were running as groups instead of each candidate running individually, so all I had to do was choose one party over another, making my decision process relatively simple. I spent some time checking the two parties’ platforms on their respective websites and also watched a two-hour-long political debate on television before arriving at my final decision.

We are living in an era of political and economic uncertainties, and there are no straight answers to such thorny issues as rising costs of living, declining birth rates, and defending Singapore’s interests in the face of global superpowers. In the end, I cast my vote wishing for political stability, fiscal responsibility by the government, and a harmonious society. Like the previous presidential election, I’m delighted to have participated in this democratic process.

まんがでわかる　地頭力を鍛える

When I finished voting, I walked across the street and sat down at a cafe to read a Japanese comic book. The book, despite being presented in manga format, was about the serious topic of how we can apply critical thinking skills to the nitty-gritty of our various tasks in the corporate world. It touched upon the processes of induction and deduction, and how we can enhance our work efficiency through framework-based thinking.

One thing that really impressed me about this book was that it clearly illustrated the role of critical thinking skills in finding solutions to numerous issues at work. It drew an interesting analogy of cooking—having knowledge and information was likened to possessing the ingredients, while applying critical thinking represented the processes of cooking the food items, such as frying, baking, or steaming, to produce delicious dishes as the end results.

The book also made me think about the issue of whether studying to acquire knowledge—particularly through reading—is still necessary in this era dominated by the internet and artificial intelligence. The very meaning of my writing this journal entry to practice my English writing skills could be questioned, as tools like ChatGPT and DeepL can instantly translate my Japanese thoughts into English at a satisfactory level of accuracy.

To this question, my answer is still a definitive “yes”. Merely having access to a myriad pieces of factual information is useless unless you learn their meanings through studying. To demonstrate a concrete example, you can easily find the benchmark US interest rates and whether they’re on an upward or downward trend through a Google search. However, if you haven’t learned from a financial textbook that bond prices are inversely related to interest rates, you won’t be able to decide whether you should buy or sell bonds to make a profit.

Also, it’s important to know that the human brain is structured in such a way that new knowledge can only be effectively acquired through the framework of your existing knowledge. Bombarding your head with disparate pieces of information acquired through web searches in an uncontextualized manner can’t assimilate them into your knowledge. On the other hand, reading a book that’s suitable to your current level can help you incorporate new knowledge into your brain.

While modern technology can evolve at breakneck speed, the biological traits of our brains do not evolve nearly as fast as compared to our ancestors. Certain things are better done the old-fashioned way, and the importance of studying will never diminish even in a completely digitalized society.