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I just finished Klara and the Sun, and had a couple feelings and theories about it, but I'm generally not that bright about analyzing things. So I'll take a swing at this. My thought was that she's either explicitly programmed not to feel certain things, or follow certain thoughts too far. Or, since we know from the behavior of Manager and the customers, that there are differences in between models and lines that only reveal themselves through customer/product interaction, her sensitivities and feelings may have emerged accidentally, naturally. My main basis for saying this is that early on, Klara watches two men fight with each other angrily, attempting to damage each other. She tries to imagine herself doing this with Rosa, repeatedly, but finds she is unable to do so. Instead she sort of laughs it off, like a woman tolerating an off-color joke. So there is an artificial block in place (a safeguard perhaps). Or, this is an incidental (natural?) limitation of her mind--in other words, features about her mind that would have led to aggression (or self-assertion for crying out loud) weren't a benefit to the customer, and so simply weren't explored. Two other possibilities: she hasn't developed that emotional capability yet, but might, given time, and witnessing the fight is insufficient to trigger its development. Or, I'm wrong about the whole darn thing. We have little idea about how other AFs feel, beyond the anxiety shown by Boy AF Alex over not getting enough sun, a possible neurosis he developed over worrying about not being purchased. So we can't know for sure how uniquely sensitive and emotional Klara is relative to other robots, but there's some variability here. I'm inclined to see Klara as having that part of her chained up, cut out, or simply not developed. Robot minds have progressed to the point where they are no longer understandable at the level of circuitry/nerves. So it's conceivable that her designers sort of grow a mind around certain parameters that mostly work and mostly address the needs of customers, without really caring about the robots actual experience of having the mind. Kind of like designing an AI algorithm or training a new employee. I have little basis for this on-hand, but I don't think Klara has the choice at all to be anything other than what she is. I feel that her perceptions are locked, and that repression is beyond her. (Feel free to prove me wrong, I'm not set in stone here.) Unlike Stevens (Remains of the Day is the only other Ishiguro book I've read) who has made broad choices over a long life, she's a product with no childhood, no adulthood, no period of care, and her lifespan is "naturally" fairly short as well. She's designed. And she does what she's designed to do (serve), and nothing more; she simply goes a lot further than you'd think to do it. The only choices she makes are within the constraints of service. And yeah the book made me mad and made me cry a little bit too. I found it pretty upsetting. I can't say if it's a masterpiece or whatever, but the prose's effects were solid enough on me. My other theory is that she's able to heal people when she thinks they're dying or dead, but I'm not 100% committed to it. She brought a homeless man and a teenage girl back from death. She's literally a saint. Feel free to laugh at this one.
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Apr 22, 2021 05:10
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:13 |
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When I was younger, being forced to read something I otherwise probably would simply dislike would absolutely cause feelings of resentment toward the material itself. I read Catcher as a younger adult, didn't like it, not going to read it again. I recall The Scarlet Letter being a real slog and Dimmsdale being a huge wimp. Reading it as an adult I probably would want to give him a hug and tell him his religion is poison.
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Aug 24, 2021 17:41
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