Never Let Them Go

Abstract

This chapter draws upon the novels One of Us, by Craig DiLouie, and Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. It argues that biopolitical considerations of human life by governments end up enabling the disenfranchisement and commodification of some groups of children and adolescents for the benefit of adult populations. Both these texts understand grotesque children as in debt to the state for what limited and self-serving services it provides to such children. In such a situation, the state argues that children are ultimately only valuable if they can repay these debts. This reflects the current reality under neoliberal economic thinking.