Klara and The Sun

As is tradition, I purchased my wife some books for Christmas. And, as is also tradition, I began reading them, starting with Klara and The Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

First, I must also mention a truly wonderful gift that I received this year, from my daughter. She gave me a jar labelled "100 books to Read" which contained 100 slips of papers with various book titles on each.  Imagine that, she spent untold hours researching interesting books that I might like to read, then wrote the titles on slips of paper and placed them in the jar. If not, the most, it is certainly right up there with the most precious and thoughtful gift I have ever received. Truly, a remarkable young woman.

Anyway, the basic story behind Klara and The Sun, is that Klara is an AF (artificial friend) who we meet in a shop which sells these kind of robots, in addition to other items.  Interestingly, the word robot is very seldom, if ever, used in the book.  Klara and those like her are always referred to as AFs. Klara possesses extraordinary observational skills, even more than the average AF, a trait which is commented upon by the Manager of the shop. While no actual dates in time are specified by the author, and while it is certainly clear that this is not a story meant to reflect today, I also felt in my reading that Ishiguro is using Klara to make his point about love and empathy, rather than a comment on the future.

One day, Klara encounters a young girl through the window she has been placed in to advertise her to prospective customers.  She has an immediate reaction to seeing this girl, which is further cemented when the girl comes in to shop after seeing Klara in the window. Even though the girl's mother does not agree to buy Klara on this first encounter, the girl, Josie, whispers to Klara how much she likes her, and promises she will come back to bring her to her home soon. Klara actually discourages a different girl and her mother from buying her, an action noted by the Manager, due to her instant attachment to Josie.  And, as it turns out, Josie and her mother do, in fact, come back some time later and complete the transaction.

Again, this entire story is from Klara's perspective, a being whose life until then was confined to what she could see out a storeroom window, on those days when she was placed in the window, and what she is exposed to when standing inside the store. So, going in a car to a new home, encountering a Mother, Housekeeper, Father, meeting other adults and children, seeing things other than what she saw on the street outside the store, all these things are described in the book, as they are intertwined with the relationship between Josie and Klara.

As it happens, Josie is prone to sickness.  There is a vague reference to a process which many, but not all children go through, which sometimes leads to a health issue but it is only discussed in relation to Josie's best friend, Rick, who did not go through the process, and which equates to Rick being at a disadvantage in getting into a better school and having better opportunities.  My interpretation of this topic is that most parents who can afford to, have their child "lifted" as it is referred to, knowing their could be a negative outcome.  There is also a reference to Josie's older sister who has died, perhaps due to a sickness that can happen from being lifted, something I assume has to do with genetic engineering. 

Without giving the whole story away, Josie does in fact get sick, to the point where it is possible she will die.  Klara, who is solar powered and who believes she has seen the sun help and heal humans, makes a deal with the Sun to help clear the pollution that is caused by the machine she occasionally sees in the streets, a machine which not only causes pollution but blocks the sun from shining, by killing the machine in exchange for the Sun curing Josie. She even convinces the Father to help her without specifying why exactly she needs to kill the machine for fear that naming the reason, to help Josie, will cause the deal to be voided.

Anyway, the important aspect to the story, is that Klara is willing to give up part of herself, to actually impede the efficient operation of herself, to seal the deal with the Sun and kill the machine.  Does Klara love Josie?  Is it possible for a machine to love anything?  These are the topics which Ishiguro explores in this life story of Klara, the AF.

For me, regardless of whether one believes that a machine can love or not, it is clear that Klara demonstrates empathy and love for Josie.  In fact, through her observations, she also displays empathy for many of the other characters in the story.  In trying to understand her world and the new things she encounters outside the store, she tries to understand Josie, her Mother, Rick, and all those humans she meets.  She exhibits empathy in these attempts to understand them, tries to see their world as they see it.  To me, there is nothing more human than the trait of empathy, a trait, by the way, which I am finding displayed less and less in our world today.

Does empathy necessarily lead to love?  Do we need to love to feel empathy? 

I find that Klara, by using her strong observational skills, begins to understand those in her life, is able to put herself in their shoes, or at least, tries to imagine how their actions are a reflection of how they see and feel the world. When someone says, I am healthy, I don't need to wear a mask, they, either consciously or unconsciously, refuse to acknowledge someone else's perception of the world, someone who may have an underlying medical condition, or be living or working with someone who does.  Those who choose to refuse to get a vaccine, which is free, during a pandemic that has killed more Americans than any event in our history, just because they don't want to be told what to do, have lost their sense of empathy for their fellow citizens who may be more likely to die or experience the death of someone they know. 

I am not completely sure if one can have empathy without having love in your heart, or that one can have love in a limited way, perhaps just for oneself, or one's set of beliefs, but still not exhibit empathy to those around them, but it seems clear that a group within a society which feels belonging only when that belonging is based on demeaning Others, then that group has no empathy. And, as a society tumbles further and further away from its ability to show empathy, it tumbles further and further towards its eventual decline.

It is very easy to love those like oneself, those with similar beliefs, skin color, gender preference, religious dogma.  If that is all it takes to spend eternity with the Creator, then I guess it will be a crowded place. But if the bar is a bit higher, if we are judged by our actions and ability to empathize with those that are different from us, then we seem neck deep in a time when far too few people have worked on their empathy skills and a time when the rolls of heaven may not include many souls from this era.

I imagine it might seem silly to think that Klara will one day go to heaven.  But if I should reach that place, I would much rather have Klara to spend time with, than those who use religion to create divisions, and those who reside in those small worlds and perspectives that promote bigotry based on race, gender, sexual preference and choice of religion, and who believe that personal freedom grows when the freedom of others is diminished.