Klara and The Sun: I Suddenly Had Conflicted Feelings Toward AI

This is my first Kazuo Ishiguro. And yes, I was warned his writings are… sad. 

I got excited with its premise given the battle with (against) AI nowadays. And since each member of our club is a writer, you’d know we have strong feelings about this topic. 

The sun was used as a metaphor for hope, and well, you can say faith or religion like how it has been represented over time: Egypt with its god Ra, then Supergirl’s Rao, who they worship as a god, too. Both resonate with light, warmth, growth and, most importantly, life. Similar to how we look forward to new days as new beginnings because the sun will always rise again.

As I mentioned last time, I fancied how the mysteries in the book unfolded. There was this one scene that made me gasp — despite many times that I had to read some of the pages again (in a matter of just seconds) because “What is this?!” The words aren’t making sense since most of them are jargon. Despite some of them being descriptive, it was still hard to picture them out because, one, I might not know them at all, or I haven’t seen anything of their kind, or two, they really don’t exist in the real world, given this is sci-fi. So I just let it go like Elsa.

Though it had a lot of flaws, construction-wise. There were lots of terms and parts that weren’t defined and didn’t even have enough backstory explained (no, it’s the whole book). Are Japanese dystopian stories really written this way? This is our second Japanese dystopian, and just like in The Memory Police, I had the same feelings — Why did all of these happen? Who started it? How did it start? which I thought would be explained before the last pages.

Now, here’s where my conflict is: Klara was very much humanized despite all her AI characteristics. As an Artificial Friend (AF, which we thought As Fuck?!), she’s made to be a companion for the person who bought her (or the kid of the parent who bought her). But with all her actions, the way she tried to help Josie heal, and the way her story ended, I got sad for her and wanted her to have a better ending. But who’s to say it’s not what’s better for her or their society? Which again would make you think, how did that ending happen? What occurred in between? I hate stories like this. I want a clear explanation despite all the cliffhangers.

Klara and the Sun was Jili's Bibliolater book pick.

I could guess a thing or two but, are there any references to help me conclude? Was there a particular event in Japan that resonated with Klara’s story?

But also me: If Klara is an AI, where we assume AI is an intelligent technology, how come she thinks that way? Is it because Ishiguro wanted to instill that no, AI would never overpower humans despite some of his injects in the book that the AIs are already taking humans’ jobs? And why did everyone believe Klara? Is it because they thought that since Klara is an AI, she has advanced knowledge about Josie’s condition? Or it’s all about hope?

For a story that revolves around hope, this ended sadly despite the optimism it seemed to bring for humanity versus AI.

“Hope. Damn thing never leaves you alone.”