WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 Welcome to the Deep Dive, the place where we 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.400 sift through the sources, extract the most important 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:06.519 insights, and deliver the knowledge straight 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:09.039 to you. We aim to make sure you're the most well 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:12.019 -informed person in the room, fast but thoroughly. 00:00:12.419 --> 00:00:15.599 Today we are immersing ourselves in the, um... 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:18.760 the unique mindscape of a contemporary literary 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:22.440 giant, a writer who just refuses to stay put 00:00:22.440 --> 00:00:25.940 in any single genre. He's a novelist whose settings 00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:29.820 range from Nagasaki in the 1950s all the way 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:32.840 to futuristic boarding schools and Arthurian 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:35.280 Britain, often with just breathtaking ease. We 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:37.420 are doing a deep dive into the singular career 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:40.060 of Sir Kazuo Ishiguro. And it's such a compelling 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:42.500 journey. It really is. We're talking about a 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:44.880 writer who is maybe the definition of a literary 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:47.240 c***. Chameleon. Chameleon, yeah. He's a Japanese 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:49.640 -born British novelist who is also an acclaimed 00:00:49.640 --> 00:00:52.380 screenwriter and, get this, a Grammy -nominated 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:55.079 jazz lyricist. It's incredible. And his success 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:57.179 isn't just in the awards, though there are plenty 00:00:57.179 --> 00:01:00.369 of those. It's his ability to shift the landscape 00:01:00.369 --> 00:01:02.810 of the novel while, you know, consistently exploring 00:01:02.810 --> 00:01:05.909 one core painful truth about the human condition. 00:01:06.170 --> 00:01:09.989 And that's our mission today. Exactly. To synthesize 00:01:09.989 --> 00:01:13.549 this incredible breadth of work, track his genre 00:01:13.549 --> 00:01:16.010 bending style that manages to feel both classic 00:01:16.010 --> 00:01:18.430 and radically modern at the same time. And to 00:01:18.430 --> 00:01:20.569 uncover the core emotional architecture that 00:01:20.569 --> 00:01:23.150 connects everything from his very first novel 00:01:23.150 --> 00:01:25.469 to his most recent. And the amazing thing is 00:01:25.469 --> 00:01:27.409 we don't have to guess what that architecture 00:01:27.409 --> 00:01:30.670 is. No, we don't. The Swedish Academy, when they 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:33.209 gave him the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, 00:01:33.329 --> 00:01:36.030 they gave us the perfect thesis statement for 00:01:36.030 --> 00:01:38.489 his entire body of work. OK, let's unpack this 00:01:38.489 --> 00:01:41.250 immediately, because that Nobel citation, I think, 00:01:41.250 --> 00:01:45.609 is one of the most powerful and precise ever 00:01:45.609 --> 00:01:47.670 written. It is a definitive statement. They called 00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:50.250 him a writer who, in novels of great emotional 00:01:50.250 --> 00:01:53.269 force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory 00:01:53.269 --> 00:01:55.819 sense of connection with the world. The abyss 00:01:55.819 --> 00:01:58.799 beneath our illusory sense of connection. That 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:01.480 phrase, it just sets the thematic tone for everything 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:03.760 that follows, doesn't it? It's about memory as 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:06.700 a trickster. It's about failed ideals and the 00:02:06.700 --> 00:02:09.139 elaborate, painful systems of self -deception 00:02:09.139 --> 00:02:12.500 we build just to survive. It is. And our source 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:14.939 material today provides a comprehensive chronological 00:02:14.939 --> 00:02:18.599 map of his life, his works, his influences, especially 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:21.080 the musical ones, which are key, and all the 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:23.659 extraordinary accolades he's earned. So we are 00:02:23.659 --> 00:02:26.900 going to trace the steps from Nagasaki in 1954 00:02:26.900 --> 00:02:31.599 all the way to the Nobel podium and beyond. Let's 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:33.120 start at the beginning because his background 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:36.060 is, I think, the most crucial element in understanding 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:38.919 the distinctive flavor of his early career. Absolutely. 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:44.539 Kazuo Ishiguro was born on November 8th. 1954 00:02:44.539 --> 00:02:47.680 in Nagasaki, Japan. And then at the age of five, 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:50.240 everything changed. That abrupt transition in 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:52.740 1960 is really the fault line that runs through 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:55.180 his whole identity. He moved to Britain, settling 00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:57.460 in Guilford, Surrey. And it wasn't a cultural 00:02:57.460 --> 00:02:59.979 choice, right? It was a professional one. Exactly. 00:03:00.139 --> 00:03:01.800 It was all driven by his father's scientific 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.939 career. Shizu Ishiguro was a physical oceanographer, 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:07.199 and he was invited to do research at the National 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:09.590 Institute of Oceanography. That's a fascinating 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:12.289 detail. A physical oceanographer, a scientist 00:03:12.289 --> 00:03:15.629 who studies vast, deep, constantly shifting bodies 00:03:15.629 --> 00:03:17.590 of water. The perfect metaphor, isn't it? It 00:03:17.590 --> 00:03:19.509 almost sounds like a metaphor for memory and 00:03:19.509 --> 00:03:21.449 identity in his own work. It certainly fits. 00:03:21.629 --> 00:03:23.830 You know, he was five, so he was old enough to 00:03:23.830 --> 00:03:26.810 have absorbed Japanese language and customs. 00:03:27.050 --> 00:03:29.750 But he wasn't old enough for that culture to 00:03:29.750 --> 00:03:32.050 define his formal education. That was all British. 00:03:32.539 --> 00:03:34.520 But here's the detail that just solidifies everything. 00:03:34.699 --> 00:03:37.120 The thing that really explains the dislocation. 00:03:37.219 --> 00:03:39.500 The fact that he did not return to visit Japan 00:03:39.500 --> 00:03:44.120 until 1989. 30 years. Nearly 30 years later. 00:03:44.419 --> 00:03:46.139 I mean, think about the significance of that 00:03:46.139 --> 00:03:48.340 gap. He grows up in England. He gets British 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:51.719 citizenship in 1983. Yet for the first three 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:54.539 decades of his life, his memory of Japan is just 00:03:54.539 --> 00:03:57.639 fixed. It can't be updated by reality. It's a 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:00.379 time capsule. Exactly. And this cultural insulation 00:04:00.379 --> 00:04:04.150 is what shaped him. as a writer. He spoke about 00:04:04.150 --> 00:04:05.969 it, saying that growing up in a Japanese family 00:04:05.969 --> 00:04:08.750 in the UK was crucial because it gave him this 00:04:08.750 --> 00:04:11.610 inevitable distance, a different perspective 00:04:11.610 --> 00:04:14.509 from his English peers. He was a British Asian 00:04:14.509 --> 00:04:17.410 author whose lens was fixed internally. He was 00:04:17.410 --> 00:04:19.649 constantly comparing the world he saw in Britain 00:04:19.649 --> 00:04:22.870 to this preserved Japanese world in his head. 00:04:22.990 --> 00:04:25.870 And this distance, this frozen memory, it leads 00:04:25.870 --> 00:04:28.290 to this incredible revelation. about his first 00:04:28.290 --> 00:04:31.889 two major novels, A Pale View of Hills and An 00:04:31.889 --> 00:04:33.889 Artist of the Floating World. Both of which are 00:04:33.889 --> 00:04:37.050 famously set in post -war Japan. Yes, and he 00:04:37.050 --> 00:04:39.389 confessed this to another Nobel laureate, the 00:04:39.389 --> 00:04:42.269 celebrated Japanese writer Kenzabu Trey. What 00:04:42.269 --> 00:04:44.550 did he say? He admitted that the Japanese settings 00:04:44.550 --> 00:04:47.970 he wrote about were entirely imaginary. What? 00:04:48.089 --> 00:04:50.269 He wasn't writing documentary history. He said 00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:53.389 he was building up this picture in his head in 00:04:53.389 --> 00:04:56.019 imaginary Japan. It was a literary construct 00:04:56.019 --> 00:04:59.120 built from intense emotional ties and childhood 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.920 memories, but completely divorced from contemporary 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:05.120 reality. That profoundly changes how you read 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.079 those early novels. It does. You're not reading 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:09.319 about Japan. You're reading about the idea of 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:11.939 Japan filtered through memory and guilt and distance. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.360 And that makes the themes instantly universal, 00:05:14.379 --> 00:05:17.660 even with the specific backdrop. It also underscores 00:05:17.660 --> 00:05:19.720 his statement that he has, and I quote, little 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:22.480 familiarity with Japanese writing and that his 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.040 works bear little resemblance to Japanese fiction. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:27.240 So his reference points were somewhere else. 00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:30.420 If not Japanese prose, what was the key influence 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:34.269 for those early works? Film. He was a serious 00:05:34.269 --> 00:05:37.490 cinephile from a young age, and he pointed specifically 00:05:37.490 --> 00:05:42.290 to Japanese films. Not novels. Not novels. Directors 00:05:42.290 --> 00:05:45.490 like Yasujiro Ozu, who was known for these masterful, 00:05:45.490 --> 00:05:48.730 restrained family dramas, and the Imiki Onaros, 00:05:48.889 --> 00:05:50.970 who focused so intensely on the inner lines of 00:05:50.970 --> 00:05:53.649 women, they provided the visual and atmospheric 00:05:53.649 --> 00:05:55.920 scaffolding. That makes perfect sense. If you're 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:57.839 writing about a place you can't physically revisit, 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:00.980 you have to prioritize emotional tone and atmosphere, 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:03.339 which is what film does so brilliantly. Right. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:06.120 You can't provide the gritty, current socioeconomic 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.620 details that a contemporary novelist living there 00:06:08.620 --> 00:06:11.939 might. So his early novels become these explorations 00:06:11.939 --> 00:06:14.939 of universal human states, guilt, denial, the 00:06:14.939 --> 00:06:17.920 failure of old ideals, all housed in the framework 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:20.040 of an isolated memory. It gave him the distance 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:22.180 he needed. He could write about this profound 00:06:22.180 --> 00:06:24.699 Japanese moral reckoning, but from a position 00:06:24.699 --> 00:06:29.019 of detached British inflected psychological observation. 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:31.439 It's a synthesis of memory and fiction into something 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:34.120 truly, truly unique. It's incredible how detached 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:37.199 he was from the Japan he wrote about. But that 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:39.800 ability to filter life through an internal emotional 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:43.720 lens, it connects perfectly to his very earliest 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:47.300 ambition, doesn't it? Music. Music. Before he 00:06:47.300 --> 00:06:49.800 was the critically lauded novelist with the corduroy 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:52.680 jacket, Ishiguro was aiming for the rock stage. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.339 He was intensely focused on it as a teenager. 00:06:55.540 --> 00:06:57.680 And his favorites, they weren't just the popular 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:01.199 hits. He gravitated toward these deeply literate 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:04.000 singer -songwriters. Bob Dylan. Leonard Cohen. 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:07.310 Joni Mitchell. Artists defined by their lyrical 00:07:07.310 --> 00:07:09.769 complexity and their intimate first -person narration. 00:07:10.209 --> 00:07:12.509 So he started learning guitar and writing songs 00:07:12.509 --> 00:07:15.750 with a really serious professional goal. And 00:07:15.750 --> 00:07:17.610 this wasn't just a teenage phase, right? He took 00:07:17.610 --> 00:07:19.889 it seriously. Oh, I bet. He took a gap year after 00:07:19.889 --> 00:07:22.889 school in 1973, which sounds like something straight 00:07:22.889 --> 00:07:24.930 out of one of his novels. What did he do? He 00:07:24.930 --> 00:07:26.649 traveled through the U .S. and Canada writing 00:07:26.649 --> 00:07:28.790 a journal, trying to find his artistic voice, 00:07:28.910 --> 00:07:31.839 and crucially... sending demo tapes to record 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:34.240 companies. And wasn't there another much stranger 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:37.300 job he had during that time? Yes. And if you 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:40.240 need a dose of historical absurdity, during that 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:42.879 same gap year, he worked as a grouse beater at 00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:46.819 Balmoral Castle. Wait, wait. A future Nobel laureate? 00:07:47.180 --> 00:07:50.120 The man whose prose is praised for its elegant 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:53.379 restraint was literally employed chasing birds 00:07:53.379 --> 00:07:56.040 for sport at the Queen's Scottish residence. 00:07:56.339 --> 00:07:58.399 That's right. That sounds like a scene from The 00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:01.180 Unconsoled where reality is just slightly too 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:04.019 bizarre to be true. It really does. And I think 00:08:04.019 --> 00:08:06.720 it suggests this genuine, maybe slightly desperate 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:10.000 search for direction. The contrast between trying 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.040 to be this cool, lyrical musician while getting 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:16.529 paid to flush grouse out of the heather. It perfectly 00:08:16.529 --> 00:08:19.110 encapsulates the tension between aspiration and 00:08:19.110 --> 00:08:21.470 reality that defines so many of his characters. 00:08:21.709 --> 00:08:24.129 Ultimately, though, the music path didn't materialize. 00:08:24.149 --> 00:08:27.250 He didn't become the musician type. No. He reflected 00:08:27.250 --> 00:08:30.050 on it later, and he realized, I used to see myself 00:08:30.050 --> 00:08:31.889 as some sort of musician type, but there came 00:08:31.889 --> 00:08:33.889 a point when I thought, actually, this isn't 00:08:33.889 --> 00:08:36.149 me at all. I'm much less glamorous. I'm one of 00:08:36.149 --> 00:08:38.090 these people with corduroy jackets with elbow 00:08:38.090 --> 00:08:41.929 patches. Exactly. He pivoted. But... The pivot 00:08:41.929 --> 00:08:45.490 wasn't a rejection of music. It was a transmutation 00:08:45.490 --> 00:08:48.830 of its principles into prose. And that is the 00:08:48.830 --> 00:08:51.269 truly fascinating part. He said there's a big 00:08:51.269 --> 00:08:53.870 overlap between fiction and song and that his 00:08:53.870 --> 00:08:56.669 novel style comes substantially from songwriting. 00:08:56.850 --> 00:08:59.149 He's been very explicit about it. So what exactly 00:08:59.149 --> 00:09:01.490 did he take from songwriting and bring into his 00:09:01.490 --> 00:09:04.809 literary craft? Two things, primarily. First, 00:09:04.990 --> 00:09:07.960 that intimate perspective. The intimate first 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.799 -person quality of a singer performing to an 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.259 audience. Which is why almost all his novels 00:09:13.259 --> 00:09:16.320 are narrated by a single internal voice speaking 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:18.600 directly to the reader. It creates this trust, 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:21.779 but it's a trust you're often placing in a deeply 00:09:21.779 --> 00:09:24.519 unreliable narrator. Right. Like a singer who 00:09:24.519 --> 00:09:26.559 sounds sincere, but when you really listen to 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:28.159 the lyrics, you realize they're being incredibly 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:30.360 defensive or evasive. Precisely. And that leads 00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:32.080 to the second, and I'd argue most important, 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:36.120 principle. The technique of obliqueness. He realized 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:39.679 that in a lyric or a novel, you have to approach 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:43.000 meaning subtly, sometimes by nudging it into 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:45.620 the spaces between the lines. The core emotional 00:09:45.620 --> 00:09:48.480 truth can't be stated directly. It has to be 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:52.210 implied or withheld. That explains so much. It's 00:09:52.210 --> 00:09:54.509 why his narrators, like Stevens the butler in 00:09:54.509 --> 00:09:57.129 The Remains of the Day, are masters of eloquent 00:09:57.129 --> 00:10:00.850 evasion. The real emotion, the love, the regret, 00:10:01.029 --> 00:10:03.330 the missed opportunity, it's all hidden in the 00:10:03.330 --> 00:10:06.809 gaps, in the things Stevens refuses to say. It's 00:10:06.809 --> 00:10:09.110 storytelling built around performance and omission. 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:13.179 And it forces you, the reader, into this active 00:10:13.179 --> 00:10:15.700 relationship with the text. You're not just consuming 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:17.620 a story. You're constantly trying to solve the 00:10:17.620 --> 00:10:19.519 mystery of what the narrator's hiding. Often 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:21.740 from themselves. Often from themselves. And this 00:10:21.740 --> 00:10:24.139 musical discipline is what made his prose so 00:10:24.139 --> 00:10:26.460 recognizable and so impactful. And while he was 00:10:26.460 --> 00:10:28.759 wrestling with all this, he was also cementing 00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:30.940 his literary foundation academically. He was. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.559 He got his B .A. in English and Philosophy from 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:35.710 the University of Kent. But the pivotal moment 00:10:35.710 --> 00:10:37.809 was attending the University of East Anglia's 00:10:37.809 --> 00:10:40.830 creative writing course for his MA in 1980. And 00:10:40.830 --> 00:10:42.830 he was studying under some real heavyweights 00:10:42.830 --> 00:10:45.970 there. Oh, yeah. Malcolm Bradbury, a key figure 00:10:45.970 --> 00:10:49.129 in British post -war fiction, and Angela Carter, 00:10:49.250 --> 00:10:52.129 who was famous for her, you know, fantastical 00:10:52.129 --> 00:10:54.409 and often subversive feminist fairy tales. What 00:10:54.409 --> 00:10:57.129 a combination. That mix of structural rigor and 00:10:57.129 --> 00:10:59.529 radical imagination clearly had an influence. 00:10:59.970 --> 00:11:03.529 And his MA thesis. the manuscript he worked on 00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:06.350 there, became his first published novel, A Pale 00:11:06.350 --> 00:11:08.850 View of Hills. So the transition was complete. 00:11:09.070 --> 00:11:12.690 From aspiring Bob Dylan to serious, structurally 00:11:12.690 --> 00:11:15.009 disciplined novelist, it was complete. So now 00:11:15.009 --> 00:11:17.350 we move into the first major phase of his career, 00:11:17.409 --> 00:11:19.750 where he just rapidly establishes the core themes 00:11:19.750 --> 00:11:21.710 that would eventually lead to the Nobel Prize. 00:11:21.970 --> 00:11:23.990 And this period saw him nominated for the Booker 00:11:23.990 --> 00:11:27.200 Prize four times. It was an incredible run. The 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:30.080 debut, A Pale View of Hills in 82, was followed 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:33.080 by An Artist of the Floating World in 1986. And 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:35.519 these two novels are such a powerful pair. They're 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:38.159 both set in his imaginary Japan, and they're 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:41.659 intensely focused on memory and moral reckoning 00:11:41.659 --> 00:11:44.240 in the aftermath of immense national failure. 00:11:44.500 --> 00:11:47.139 Let's talk about An Artist of the Floating World. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:50.519 It won the Whitbread Prize, and it's set in an 00:11:50.519 --> 00:11:52.980 unnamed Japanese city during the Allied occupation 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:56.960 after World War II. The narrator is Masuji Ono, 00:11:57.039 --> 00:11:59.299 a retired artist who had tremendous cultural 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:02.440 influence before the war. But now he's facing 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:04.899 the reality that the fiercely nationalistic, 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:07.580 militaristic ideals he promoted through his art 00:12:08.090 --> 00:12:10.950 are utterly discredited it's that shock of realizing 00:12:10.950 --> 00:12:13.269 your life's purpose was fundamentally flawed 00:12:13.269 --> 00:12:16.309 ono's entire identity was built on promoting 00:12:16.309 --> 00:12:19.049 an ideal that led to catastrophic defeat and 00:12:19.049 --> 00:12:21.309 the central conflict is just beautiful in its 00:12:21.309 --> 00:12:24.480 sadness and restraint The older generation, represented 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:28.139 by Ono, is forced into this painful, subtle reevaluation, 00:12:28.419 --> 00:12:30.840 constantly being criticized by the younger generation. 00:12:31.059 --> 00:12:33.000 And this is what Ishiguro found so compelling 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:35.259 about post -war settings, right? Not just in 00:12:35.259 --> 00:12:38.120 Japan, but later in England, too. Exactly. He 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:39.799 said he's interested in that moment when values 00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:42.259 and ideals are being tested, and people are compelled 00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:44.820 to face up to the notion that their ideals weren't 00:12:44.820 --> 00:12:46.539 quite what they thought they were. That's the 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:48.620 emotional force the Nobel Academy was talking 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:51.179 about, that shockwave of disillusioned realization. 00:12:51.620 --> 00:12:54.200 And the genius of it is how he manages this profound 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:56.980 critique through a voice that is so reserved 00:12:56.980 --> 00:13:01.019 and polite and often defensive. Ono is constantly 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:03.899 trying to smooth over his past, making excuses, 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:06.799 rearranging events in his mind. It's that songwriting 00:13:06.799 --> 00:13:08.879 obliqueness coming through again. Absolutely. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:11.559 The reader knows more than the narrator admits. 00:13:12.139 --> 00:13:14.519 We see the truth even as he avoids saying it, 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:17.440 and that creates this tremendous dramatic irony 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.960 and psychological tension. Then came the novel 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:22.279 that just completely shattered any perception 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:25.340 that Ishiguro was only a chronicler of Japanese 00:13:25.340 --> 00:13:28.720 cultural aftermath. The Remains of the Day, 1989. 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:31.500 He proved Salman Rushdie right, didn't he? He 00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:33.799 showed his sensibility wasn't rooted in any one 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:36.240 place. It was an audacious shift. He moved the 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:38.360 setting entirely to this quintessential English 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:40.899 lord's country house, Darlington Hall around 00:13:40.899 --> 00:13:43.850 World War II. But the core themes, they remain 00:13:43.850 --> 00:13:47.450 perfectly consistent. We have Stevens, the quintessentially 00:13:47.450 --> 00:13:50.649 repressed English muller. His whole life is a 00:13:50.649 --> 00:13:53.590 pursuit of professional dignity, which led him 00:13:53.590 --> 00:13:56.789 to serve a master who was, frankly, a moral fool 00:13:56.789 --> 00:13:59.330 and a Nazi sympathizer. It's the same emotional 00:13:59.330 --> 00:14:02.970 story, a life devoted to a magnificent but ultimately 00:14:02.970 --> 00:14:07.220 morally bankrupt ideal. where Ono the artist 00:14:07.220 --> 00:14:09.659 used his creative influence for the wrong cause, 00:14:09.940 --> 00:14:12.700 Stevens the butler used his professional rigor 00:14:13.149 --> 00:14:15.549 for the wrong master and his ability to capture 00:14:15.549 --> 00:14:18.129 the nuance and linguistic restraint of a culture 00:14:18.129 --> 00:14:20.830 the english servant class that he'd only absorbed 00:14:20.830 --> 00:14:23.570 through observation and fiction is just it's 00:14:23.570 --> 00:14:26.309 astonishing the restraint in the prose is a perfect 00:14:26.309 --> 00:14:28.750 mirror of stevens's own emotional repression 00:14:28.750 --> 00:14:30.529 there are all those moments where he's discussing 00:14:30.529 --> 00:14:33.110 how to properly polish silver when what he should 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:35.710 be discussing is his desperate love for miss 00:14:35.710 --> 00:14:37.929 kenton the housekeeper it's the ultimate expression 00:14:37.929 --> 00:14:41.029 of obliqueness Stevens narrates his life as a 00:14:41.029 --> 00:14:43.049 series of professional achievements, but what 00:14:43.049 --> 00:14:44.970 he's really narrating is a life of utter emotional 00:14:44.970 --> 00:14:48.149 failure. And that narrative mechanism is terrifyingly 00:14:48.149 --> 00:14:50.950 effective. It is. The novel won the Booker Prize 00:14:50.950 --> 00:14:54.830 for Fiction in 1989, solidifying his place globally. 00:14:55.070 --> 00:14:57.750 And its impact was magnified by that acclaimed 00:14:57.750 --> 00:15:01.330 1993 film adaptation. With Anthony Hopkins and 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:05.149 Emma Thompson. Yes. A critical and box office 00:15:05.149 --> 00:15:07.899 success. and the film brilliantly translated 00:15:07.899 --> 00:15:10.649 the novel's internal psychological drama. to 00:15:10.649 --> 00:15:13.129 the screen, which is notoriously difficult to 00:15:13.129 --> 00:15:15.389 do. So this whole early period, it's about him 00:15:15.389 --> 00:15:17.769 establishing his signature. That constrained, 00:15:18.009 --> 00:15:21.230 first -person retrospective narration focused 00:15:21.230 --> 00:15:23.730 on a protagonist performing this intricate act 00:15:23.730 --> 00:15:26.690 of self -delusion while reviewing a life of failure. 00:15:26.909 --> 00:15:29.450 It was the launching pad for his next, even more 00:15:29.450 --> 00:15:31.669 radical phase. Okay, so once he's established 00:15:31.669 --> 00:15:33.909 as a master of period and psychological drama, 00:15:34.389 --> 00:15:36.570 Ishiguro does the exact opposite of what most 00:15:36.570 --> 00:15:38.929 highly successful authors do. He refuses to stay 00:15:38.929 --> 00:15:41.159 comfortable. It takes massive structural and 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:43.860 generic risks. This next phase is just defined 00:15:43.860 --> 00:15:46.200 by that willingness to experiment. It starts 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:49.019 with his fourth novel, The Unconsoled, in 1995. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:52.759 And it's arguably his most radical work. He completely 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:55.320 abandoned the linear, historically grounded narrative 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:58.120 of his first three books. Completely. It's set 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:01.279 in an unnamed central European city, and it follows 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:04.279 this renowned concert pianist named Ryder, who 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.059 arrives to perform, but finds himself trapped 00:16:07.059 --> 00:16:09.759 in this confusing, frustrating, dreamlike landscape. 00:16:09.980 --> 00:16:12.679 Causalities are broken. Time is elastic. It sounds 00:16:12.679 --> 00:16:14.679 like the perfect definition of a book that divides 00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:17.559 critics. Right. It's one thing to shift settings, 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:19.909 but shifting reality itself. That's a massive 00:16:19.909 --> 00:16:22.789 risk. Did it alienate his core audience that 00:16:22.789 --> 00:16:25.149 loved the elegant restraint of the remains of 00:16:25.149 --> 00:16:27.750 the day? It absolutely divided critics. Some 00:16:27.750 --> 00:16:30.029 found the experiment baffling, overly long. Yeah. 00:16:30.210 --> 00:16:32.789 It defies any kind of logical summary. But it 00:16:32.789 --> 00:16:35.269 won the Cheltenham Prize. And its enduring power 00:16:35.269 --> 00:16:38.289 was confirmed when, in a 2006 poll of literary 00:16:38.289 --> 00:16:41.230 critics, the unconsoled was voted the third. 00:16:41.690 --> 00:16:44.649 best British, Irish, or Commonwealth novel from 00:16:44.649 --> 00:16:48.169 1980 to 2005. Wow. Tied with masterpieces like 00:16:48.169 --> 00:16:50.629 Midnight's Children and Atonement. Exactly. That 00:16:50.629 --> 00:16:53.070 speaks to its lasting influence, despite its 00:16:53.070 --> 00:16:55.669 difficulty. It proves the themes, the pressure 00:16:55.669 --> 00:16:58.070 of expectation, the failure to connect, were 00:16:58.070 --> 00:17:00.309 still intensely relatable even if the world felt 00:17:00.309 --> 00:17:02.870 absurd. He followed that with When We Were Orphans 00:17:02.870 --> 00:17:05.750 in 2000, which was a kind of detective story, 00:17:06.029 --> 00:17:08.670 also shortlisted for the Booker. But the major 00:17:08.670 --> 00:17:10.930 stylistic shift that brought him back to widespread 00:17:10.930 --> 00:17:14.190 commercial and critical consensus came in 2005. 00:17:14.630 --> 00:17:17.019 Never let me go. This is the one that proved 00:17:17.019 --> 00:17:18.839 he could take the constraints of science fiction 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:21.180 and infuse them with his trademark psychological 00:17:21.180 --> 00:17:24.500 depth. It's a genius piece of misdirection. It 00:17:24.500 --> 00:17:26.220 has what you'd call science fiction qualities, 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:29.640 but it's completely devoid of gadgets or space 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:32.720 travel or laser beams. Right. It creates a futuristic 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:35.619 dystopian tone, but it's set in the 1980s and 00:17:35.619 --> 00:17:38.359 90s in a sort of parallel world. Focused on the 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:40.619 lives of young clones being raised specifically. 00:17:41.849 --> 00:17:44.329 for organ donation. And the tragedy is just baked 00:17:44.329 --> 00:17:46.809 in from the start. These characters, especially 00:17:46.809 --> 00:17:49.549 the narrator, Kathy H., they understand their 00:17:49.549 --> 00:17:51.769 finite purpose, but they accept it with this 00:17:51.769 --> 00:17:55.029 quiet, heartbreaking dignity. And that's the 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:58.009 key. Ishiguro explores what it means to live 00:17:58.009 --> 00:18:01.089 a limited, predetermined life, but he tells it 00:18:01.089 --> 00:18:03.450 using the emotional language of an English boarding 00:18:03.450 --> 00:18:06.529 school drama. The focus is always on the small, 00:18:06.609 --> 00:18:08.970 quiet dramas of their friendships and loves, 00:18:09.150 --> 00:18:12.119 not the mechanics of the cloning. It's the ultimate 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:14.799 example of obliqueness applied to dystopia. The 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:17.160 horror isn't shouted, it's just accepted as the 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:19.460 background noise of life. The critical acclaim 00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:22.099 was massive. Time magazine named it the best 00:18:22.099 --> 00:18:24.700 novel of 2005 and put it on their list of the 00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:27.619 100 best English language novels. And it was 00:18:27.619 --> 00:18:29.460 at the center of a well -known Booker controversy 00:18:29.460 --> 00:18:31.660 that year, wasn't it? It was. It was shortlisted. 00:18:31.799 --> 00:18:33.599 And a leaked account from the judging committee 00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:36.180 revealed this really heated debate between Never 00:18:36.180 --> 00:18:39.140 Let Me Go and John Banville's The Sea. The fact 00:18:39.140 --> 00:18:41.180 that a genre -bending book caused such intense 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:43.799 division shows how much he was pushing boundaries. 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:46.640 And despite the loss, it was adapted into a major 00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:49.640 film in 2010, which really reinforced its cultural 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.349 status. And he continued this move into genre 00:18:52.349 --> 00:18:55.210 with his next novel, The Buried Giant, in 2015, 00:18:55.549 --> 00:18:58.490 diving headlong into modern Arthurian and mythic 00:18:58.490 --> 00:19:02.509 fiction. Ogres, dragons, a mysterious mist that 00:19:02.509 --> 00:19:05.009 causes communal amnesia. And this one stands 00:19:05.009 --> 00:19:07.470 out for a technical reason. One that shows his 00:19:07.470 --> 00:19:10.130 willingness to ditch his signature style when 00:19:10.130 --> 00:19:13.069 the story needs it. Right. Nearly all his major 00:19:13.069 --> 00:19:15.470 novels are written in that intimate first -person 00:19:15.470 --> 00:19:17.609 narrative style he got from songwriting. But 00:19:17.609 --> 00:19:20.470 The Buried Giant is the singular exception. It 00:19:20.470 --> 00:19:23.069 is not written in the first person. He just jettisoned 00:19:23.069 --> 00:19:25.029 the technique that made him famous to tell this 00:19:25.029 --> 00:19:28.190 story. And that willingness to take risks with 00:19:28.190 --> 00:19:31.829 narrative form, even late in his career, is precisely 00:19:31.829 --> 00:19:34.349 why the Swedish Academy would later call him 00:19:34.349 --> 00:19:37.609 a continuous innovator. So all of this structural 00:19:37.609 --> 00:19:41.210 risk -taking and thematic consistency, it eventually 00:19:41.210 --> 00:19:43.890 culminates in the monumental recognition, the 00:19:43.890 --> 00:19:47.150 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. It was considered 00:19:47.150 --> 00:19:49.529 a surprise choice by many observers at the time. 00:19:49.609 --> 00:19:51.250 But that citation we mentioned at the start, 00:19:51.309 --> 00:19:53.410 it just perfectly justifies the decision on a 00:19:53.410 --> 00:19:55.670 thematic level. It's the intellectual cornerstone 00:19:55.670 --> 00:19:58.750 of his legacy. Novels of great emotional force 00:19:58.750 --> 00:20:02.309 uncovering the abyss beneath our illusory sense 00:20:02.309 --> 00:20:04.789 of connection with the world. And the critics? 00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:08.319 they largely rallied around the decision. John 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:10.319 Mullen of The Guardian was quick to call him 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:13.859 a worthy winner because, he said, Ishiguro writes 00:20:13.859 --> 00:20:17.559 for all times. Writing for all times. That speaks 00:20:17.559 --> 00:20:21.480 to the universality of his subjects. Guilt, memory, 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:24.759 denial. Social conformity. And it was powerful 00:20:24.759 --> 00:20:27.980 to see the recognition from his peers, too. Salman 00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:30.880 Rushdie offered many congratulations to my old 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.339 friend Ish, whose work I've loved and admired. 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:35.619 Ishiguro's own response was characteristically 00:20:35.619 --> 00:20:38.359 humble but also very insightful. He called it 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:41.619 a magnificent honor, of course. But he also made 00:20:41.619 --> 00:20:43.720 this vital connection between literature and 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:46.079 the geopolitical climate at the time. He hoped 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:48.819 the Nobel Prizes would be a force for something 00:20:48.819 --> 00:20:51.039 positive in the world at a very uncertain time. 00:20:51.579 --> 00:20:53.759 Suggesting that art... and the human condition 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:56.279 it explores has to be separated from political 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:58.539 tribalism. To really understand the critical 00:20:58.539 --> 00:21:00.359 consensus, we have to look at how the Swedish 00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:02.319 Academy, specifically the permanent secretary, 00:21:02.539 --> 00:21:04.980 Sarah Danius, positioned him within the broader 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:07.220 literary tradition. This is where it gets really 00:21:07.220 --> 00:21:09.839 interesting. She presented this fascinating, 00:21:10.019 --> 00:21:14.339 almost paradoxical literary lineage. On one hand, 00:21:14.339 --> 00:21:16.779 she compared his meticulous, socially aware prose 00:21:16.779 --> 00:21:20.420 to 19th century giants. Shane Austin, Charles 00:21:20.420 --> 00:21:23.670 Dickens. Charlotte Bronte. George Eliot. Masters 00:21:23.670 --> 00:21:26.369 of social observation, moral inquiry, and this 00:21:26.369 --> 00:21:29.549 very controlled, formal narrative voice. That's 00:21:29.549 --> 00:21:31.329 a perfect connection for the world of Stevens 00:21:31.329 --> 00:21:33.710 in the remains of the day, a world where every 00:21:33.710 --> 00:21:36.369 detail is in its proper place, governed by social 00:21:36.369 --> 00:21:39.529 rules. Exactly. The focus on dignity, manners, 00:21:39.730 --> 00:21:42.029 the subtle workings of the class system. But 00:21:42.029 --> 00:21:45.029 Danius didn't stop there. No. She said that this 00:21:45.029 --> 00:21:48.069 classical 19th century tradition was mixed with 00:21:48.069 --> 00:21:50.980 influences from Franz Kafka. Which is a fascinating 00:21:50.980 --> 00:21:53.720 dichotomy. 19th century control applied to 20th 00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:55.660 century anxiety. That's a great way to put it. 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:58.460 Kafka is the master of modern alienation, existential 00:21:58.460 --> 00:22:01.880 anxiety, and this absurd, incomprehensible institutional 00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:04.619 power. And if you think about it, Ishiguro's 00:22:04.619 --> 00:22:06.740 characters are often meticulous, polite people 00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:08.819 trying desperately to conform within systems 00:22:08.819 --> 00:22:10.740 that are fundamentally meaningless or hostile. 00:22:10.940 --> 00:22:13.859 You see that tension everywhere. The extreme 00:22:13.859 --> 00:22:15.920 politeness of the clones in Never Let Me Go, 00:22:16.119 --> 00:22:18.279 trying to live normal lives in a system that 00:22:18.279 --> 00:22:20.910 has decided they're expendable. Or the utter 00:22:20.910 --> 00:22:23.430 narrative breakdown and surreal frustration of 00:22:23.430 --> 00:22:26.390 the main character in The Unconsoled. It is the 00:22:26.390 --> 00:22:30.329 ultimate literary fusion. The careful, restrained 00:22:30.329 --> 00:22:33.210 prose of Austen applied to the soul -crushing, 00:22:33.329 --> 00:22:36.309 bureaucratic absurdity of Kafka. So Danes called 00:22:36.309 --> 00:22:39.589 him an innovator, always taking risks. Noting 00:22:39.589 --> 00:22:41.829 how he mixed elements of detective stories, science 00:22:41.829 --> 00:22:44.690 fiction, and myth. Her conclusion was powerful. 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:47.539 While the window of the novel has always been 00:22:47.539 --> 00:22:50.700 wide, Ishiguro has widened it even more. He proved 00:22:50.700 --> 00:22:53.099 the novel can absorb any genre without sacrificing 00:22:53.099 --> 00:22:55.319 its high literary ambition. And following the 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:57.900 Nobel, Ishiguro just kept exploring new frontiers. 00:22:57.940 --> 00:23:00.599 His eighth novel, Clara and the Sun, published 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:03.519 in 2021. This shows him returning to those core 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:06.059 themes of technology, humanity, and connection, 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:09.500 but through a new, highly detached lens. The 00:23:09.500 --> 00:23:11.619 entire novel is narrated from the perspective 00:23:11.619 --> 00:23:14.990 of Clara, an artificial friend, or AF. It's a 00:23:14.990 --> 00:23:18.009 subtle but really effective mechanism. By choosing 00:23:18.009 --> 00:23:21.589 a non -human artificial entity to narrate, he's 00:23:21.589 --> 00:23:23.750 able to examine what it means to be human, the 00:23:23.750 --> 00:23:26.190 dangers of technological advancement, and how 00:23:26.190 --> 00:23:29.869 we view individual uniqueness or, you know, the 00:23:29.869 --> 00:23:32.910 soul. Clara's narrative voice is extremely clear, 00:23:33.069 --> 00:23:35.869 observant, but emotionally innocent. It's almost 00:23:35.869 --> 00:23:37.809 like a child's perspective, even though she's 00:23:37.809 --> 00:23:40.690 a highly advanced machine. And that forces the 00:23:40.690 --> 00:23:42.970 reader to filter these complex human emotions. 00:23:43.289 --> 00:23:46.819 Love. jealousy, fear of replacement through her 00:23:46.819 --> 00:23:49.599 non -judgmental, logical, but flawed understanding. 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:52.000 It's the highest expression of his obliqueness. 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:54.299 You're forced to interpret human foibles through 00:23:54.299 --> 00:23:57.059 this technological distance. The novel was long 00:23:57.059 --> 00:23:59.579 listed for the 2021 Booker Prize, showing he's 00:23:59.579 --> 00:24:01.759 still at the top of his game. But critics often 00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:04.400 described it as more simple than it seems, less 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:06.779 novel than parable. And that simplicity feels 00:24:06.779 --> 00:24:09.319 very deliberate, doesn't it? A parable aims for 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:12.329 a clear moral lesson. And by having Clara focus 00:24:12.329 --> 00:24:15.769 so purely on the welfare of her human, Josie, 00:24:15.809 --> 00:24:18.089 and the mysterious power of the sun as this kind 00:24:18.089 --> 00:24:20.509 of divine energy source, he delivers a moral 00:24:20.509 --> 00:24:22.829 lesson about the non -mechanical nature of the 00:24:22.829 --> 00:24:25.269 human spirit. While he was focusing on AI in 00:24:25.269 --> 00:24:27.509 his prose, he was also making this major professional 00:24:27.509 --> 00:24:29.970 turn towards screenwriting. Something that connects 00:24:29.970 --> 00:24:31.910 right back to his lifelong interest in film, 00:24:31.970 --> 00:24:33.849 which we noted was a major influence on his early 00:24:33.849 --> 00:24:37.029 work. And this resulted in the 2022 British film 00:24:37.029 --> 00:24:39.910 Living. directed by Oliver Hermanis and starring 00:24:39.910 --> 00:24:42.670 the phenomenal Bill Nighy. What's truly elegant 00:24:42.670 --> 00:24:44.769 about this project is his choice of source material. 00:24:45.089 --> 00:24:47.470 He didn't adapt one of his own novels. Yeah. 00:24:47.589 --> 00:24:51.930 He adapted a deeply revered classic, the 1952 00:24:51.930 --> 00:24:55.829 Japanese film Ikiru, directed by the master Akira 00:24:55.829 --> 00:24:58.220 Kurosawa. That is a full circle moment that is 00:24:58.220 --> 00:25:00.500 almost too perfect to be true. It really is. 00:25:00.660 --> 00:25:03.279 He goes from being influenced by Japanese cinema 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:06.319 Ozu, Neru's in his early novels, to adapting 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:09.000 Kurosawa's masterpiece into a British context 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:11.819 for the screen. The adaptation itself is a fascinating 00:25:11.819 --> 00:25:14.819 study in cultural translation. Ikiru is about 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:17.460 a Japanese bureaucrat who learns he's dying and 00:25:17.460 --> 00:25:19.420 dedicates his final months to overcoming bureaucracy 00:25:19.420 --> 00:25:22.710 to build a park. And Ishiguro took that story 00:25:22.710 --> 00:25:25.029 of bureaucratic stifling and moral awakening 00:25:25.029 --> 00:25:28.670 and transposed it perfectly to the stiff post 00:25:28.670 --> 00:25:32.230 -war English civil service of the 1950s. So the 00:25:32.230 --> 00:25:34.410 Japanese moral inquiry about a life wasted on 00:25:34.410 --> 00:25:36.990 paperwork becomes the English moral inquiry about 00:25:36.990 --> 00:25:39.829 a life wasted on stoicism and endless formalities. 00:25:39.970 --> 00:25:42.509 And this adaptation brought him significant multi 00:25:42.509 --> 00:25:45.470 -platform accolades. Living earned him a nomination 00:25:45.470 --> 00:25:48.769 for the 2023 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. 00:25:49.019 --> 00:25:51.400 Which is a monumental achievement for a Nobel 00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:53.960 laureate. It places him in an extremely elite 00:25:53.960 --> 00:25:56.539 group. Only six prior to him. And the list of 00:25:56.539 --> 00:25:58.339 people who have won both a Nobel and an Oscar 00:25:58.339 --> 00:26:00.960 is incredibly short. Just two. George Bernard 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:04.279 Shaw and Bob Dylan. Exactly. Iniguro's nomination 00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:06.500 places him shoulder to shoulder with these incredible, 00:26:06.740 --> 00:26:09.720 genre -defying cultural figures. He also earned 00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:12.480 two BAFTA nominations for the screenplay. And 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:14.559 the interest in adapting his own novels continues. 00:26:15.740 --> 00:26:18.759 A Pale View of Hills is slated for 2025, and 00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:21.299 Clara and the Sun is also upcoming. His work 00:26:21.299 --> 00:26:25.920 is just timeless. We started by discussing his 00:26:25.920 --> 00:26:28.039 failed ambition to become a performing songwriter 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:30.420 and how the lessons of lyricism became the technique 00:26:30.420 --> 00:26:33.000 of his prose. But the music never truly left 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:36.630 him. In fact, he found a second career as a successful, 00:26:36.829 --> 00:26:39.490 award -nominated lyricist. He found the perfect 00:26:39.490 --> 00:26:41.890 collaborative outlet in contemporary jazz. He 00:26:41.890 --> 00:26:43.970 has co -written several songs with the acclaimed 00:26:43.970 --> 00:26:46.430 American jazz singer Stacey Kent and her husband, 00:26:46.630 --> 00:26:49.549 the saxophonist and composer Jim Tomlinson. And 00:26:49.549 --> 00:26:51.609 this wasn't just a one -off thing. It's an extensive 00:26:51.609 --> 00:26:54.269 partnership that spanned decades. He became a 00:26:54.269 --> 00:26:56.869 serious lyrical contributor. He co -wrote titles 00:26:56.869 --> 00:26:59.369 like The Ice Hotel, I Wish I Could Go Traveling 00:26:59.369 --> 00:27:02.470 Again, and the title track for Kent's 2007 Grammy 00:27:02.470 --> 00:27:05.049 -nominated album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram. 00:27:05.089 --> 00:27:07.609 And later contributions like The Summer We Crossed 00:27:07.609 --> 00:27:10.390 Europe in the Rain. This partnership is the practical, 00:27:10.529 --> 00:27:12.869 physical manifestation of his lyrical philosophy. 00:27:13.490 --> 00:27:16.029 He reiterated that for an intimate first -person 00:27:16.029 --> 00:27:19.079 song, the meaning must be oblique. You have to 00:27:19.079 --> 00:27:21.440 read between the lines. It's the same process 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:23.920 as reading an Ishiguro novel. The meaning is 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:25.859 hiding just beneath the surface of the words. 00:27:26.019 --> 00:27:29.420 He explicitly credits this realization with having 00:27:29.420 --> 00:27:32.279 an enormous influence on his fiction. The nautilus 00:27:32.279 --> 00:27:34.880 and the lyricist are undeniably two sides of 00:27:34.880 --> 00:27:38.259 the same coin, both masters of subtext. And the 00:27:38.259 --> 00:27:40.700 themes of his lyrics often mirror his novels. 00:27:41.140 --> 00:27:44.859 Travel, regret. The quiet yearning for connection, 00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:48.039 the weight of memory, their introspective narratives 00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:50.819 sit to music. You know, I find his personal life 00:27:50.819 --> 00:27:53.160 details equally telling about his influences 00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:56.359 and the deep empathy in his novels. He married 00:27:56.359 --> 00:27:59.359 Lorna McDougall, a social worker, in 1986. And 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:02.160 where they met is particularly insightful. They 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:04.200 met while he was working as a residential resettlement 00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:06.140 worker at a homelessness charity in Notting Hill. 00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:08.539 This experience of direct engagement with the 00:28:08.539 --> 00:28:11.039 societal margins, with people who have lost their 00:28:11.039 --> 00:28:13.319 connection to the world, it must have informed 00:28:13.319 --> 00:28:15.960 the deep moral seriousness in his fiction. It's 00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:18.440 no wonder he's so concerned with dignity, social 00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:20.940 roles, and the ways people cope when they're 00:28:20.940 --> 00:28:23.880 seen as expendable. You see it from the remains 00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:26.700 of the day right through to Never Let Me Go. 00:28:26.839 --> 00:28:29.400 And it's a literary family, too. Their daughter, 00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:32.559 Naomi Ishiguro, is also an author. Reinforcing 00:28:32.559 --> 00:28:34.650 that creative environment. And finally, we can 00:28:34.650 --> 00:28:37.390 use his own stated influences to summarize the 00:28:37.390 --> 00:28:40.250 duality of his work, the modern storyteller and 00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:43.170 the classical giant. He describes himself as 00:28:43.170 --> 00:28:46.490 a serious cinephile and, going back to his teenage 00:28:46.490 --> 00:28:50.069 idol, a great admirer of Bob Dylan. When he was 00:28:50.069 --> 00:28:51.910 on the essential British radio program Desert 00:28:51.910 --> 00:28:54.990 Island Discs, his choices perfectly encapsulated 00:28:54.990 --> 00:28:57.009 his artistic range. What were those specific 00:28:57.009 --> 00:28:59.569 choices? He chose Dylan's Trying to Get to Heaven 00:28:59.569 --> 00:29:02.539 as his favorite song. That's the oblique, emotive 00:29:02.539 --> 00:29:05.160 musical modernism. And for his book? The Collected 00:29:05.160 --> 00:29:07.460 Short Stories of Anton Chekhov. The master of 00:29:07.460 --> 00:29:10.059 quiet, devastating psychological realism. So 00:29:10.059 --> 00:29:12.000 you have the musicality of Dylan alongside the 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:14.000 psychological truth of the Russian master. And 00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:15.980 he also settles the debate about his all -time 00:29:15.980 --> 00:29:18.400 favorite novelist. He says Charlotte Bronte has 00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:21.680 recently edged out Dostoevsky. Which is a powerful 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:24.079 preference. It's a preference for intense emotional 00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:27.980 intimacy over grand philosophical scope. He said 00:29:27.980 --> 00:29:30.140 he owes his career to Jane Eyre and Villette. 00:29:30.220 --> 00:29:32.900 So a focus on the internal psychological world, 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:35.579 which perfectly aligns with his own narrative 00:29:35.579 --> 00:29:38.579 preference for these deeply complex, often damaged 00:29:38.579 --> 00:29:41.079 first -person narrators. To conclude the story 00:29:41.079 --> 00:29:43.039 of this genre -defined career, we should just 00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:45.339 briefly summarize the immense formal recognition 00:29:45.339 --> 00:29:48.119 that cemented his status, both in the UK and 00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:50.660 internationally. Beyond the literary prizes, 00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:54.339 the Booker, the Nobel. The UK has continuously 00:29:54.339 --> 00:29:57.160 recognized his services to literature. He was 00:29:57.160 --> 00:30:00.420 appointed an OBE in 1995, and then after the 00:30:00.420 --> 00:30:02.900 Nobel, he was made a Knight Bachelor in 2018. 00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:05.519 And most recently, in 2024, he was appointed 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:07.440 to the prestigious Order of the Companions of 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.480 Honor, which is limited to just 65 living members. 00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:13.400 His birthplace, Japan, also recognized his immense 00:30:13.400 --> 00:30:15.500 cultural achievement, awarding him the Order 00:30:15.500 --> 00:30:18.700 of the Rising Sun in 2018. And France had acknowledged 00:30:18.700 --> 00:30:21.740 him even earlier, back in 1998. But what's perhaps 00:30:21.740 --> 00:30:24.220 most telling about his trajectory is how early 00:30:24.220 --> 00:30:26.279 the literary establishment spotted his talent. 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:28.680 He was featured in Granta's Best Young British 00:30:28.680 --> 00:30:33.000 Novelist's issues in both 1983 and 1993. A sign 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:35.359 that he was viewed as a foundational voice for 00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:37.700 two consecutive decades. The Times ranked him 00:30:37.700 --> 00:30:40.519 32nd on their list of the 50 greatest British 00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:44.569 writers since 1945. And yet... Despite all the 00:30:44.569 --> 00:30:48.029 comparisons to Henry James, to Austin, to Rushdie 00:30:48.029 --> 00:30:51.630 Ishiguro himself consistently rejects them. Preferring 00:30:51.630 --> 00:30:53.349 to credit that unique combination of Charlotte 00:30:53.349 --> 00:30:55.829 Bronte and Franz Kafka. And that really is the 00:30:55.829 --> 00:30:57.869 final synthesis we have to leave you with. An 00:30:57.869 --> 00:31:00.069 author who uses classical constraints and structured 00:31:00.069 --> 00:31:02.609 prose filtered through a musician's trained ear 00:31:02.609 --> 00:31:05.269 for subtext and omission. To explore the most 00:31:05.269 --> 00:31:08.910 modern and painful themes of dislocation, disillusionment 00:31:08.910 --> 00:31:11.509 and failure. He mastered the historical setting 00:31:11.509 --> 00:31:14.710 he barely knew. the psychological drama of the 00:31:14.710 --> 00:31:17.730 English elite and then jump seamlessly into sci 00:31:17.730 --> 00:31:20.109 -fi and myth, all while maintaining that core 00:31:20.109 --> 00:31:23.049 emotional force. He is a chameleonic genius who 00:31:23.049 --> 00:31:25.210 forces us to look past the surface of the world 00:31:25.210 --> 00:31:27.410 we inhabit and reckon with the internal failures 00:31:27.410 --> 00:31:29.730 we try so desperately to conceal. We've seen 00:31:29.730 --> 00:31:31.910 Ishiguro move fluidly from historical fiction 00:31:31.910 --> 00:31:35.049 set in the land he barely knew to sci -fi dystopia 00:31:35.049 --> 00:31:37.730 and classical screenwriting adaptations, always 00:31:37.730 --> 00:31:40.109 using constraint to reveal profound emotional 00:31:40.109 --> 00:31:44.039 truths. If his greatest works focus on characters 00:31:44.039 --> 00:31:46.420 who must confront the failure of their old ideals, 00:31:46.599 --> 00:31:49.539 and if he finds deep meaning in the subtle spaces 00:31:49.539 --> 00:31:53.059 between the lines of a song, what unseen abyss 00:31:53.059 --> 00:31:55.420 beneath your own seemingly stable sense of connection 00:31:55.420 --> 00:31:58.519 might his next work prompt you to uncover? A 00:31:58.519 --> 00:32:03.480 compelling and essential question to ponder. 00:32:03.819 --> 00:32:06.259 We encourage you to explore his deeply structured 00:32:06.259 --> 00:32:08.599 and incredibly rewarding works further, particularly 00:32:08.599 --> 00:32:11.099 The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go if 00:32:11.099 --> 00:32:12.880 you haven't already. That was the deep dive.