Klara & the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Join us at the SE branch of the St. Augustine library for readings from this brilliant novel.

Featuring Ivy Beato as Klara.
Margaret Kaler, Jon Beshara, Heather Eggleston, and Harold George.
Discussion of the novel to follow.

Sunday 1/5 (2pm) and Tuesday 1/7 (6pm)

Discussion Ideas:

1. Consider the idea of an “Artificial Friend.” What does this idea evoke?  Now put yourself in the world of the novel and consider Klara as an AF. After growing to know her does she seem like your initial feeling of an “Artificial Friend?” How does she match it and how does she differ?

2. Can you imagine a world in which teenagers are in need of an AF to keep them from feeling lonely? Would you have wanted to have an AF as a teenager? How about a teenager in the age of social media? How close are we to such a dystopia?

3. Ishiguro is discreet about class distinctions but Klara notes that the Mother is dressed as “high status.” Josie - and her deceased sister, Sal - are “lifted” (genetically enhanced) while Rick is not because of his mother (Helen’s) implied neglect due to implied mental illness. The Father was laid off as an engineer and joins a radical community along with other former elites who have been replaced by AI. What role does shifting class identification play in the world of Klara? What is Ishiguro implying about monetary success and technological (and perhaps Human) obsolesence?

4. The Mother chooses to employ genetic modification to “lift” both of her daughters despite the death of her first (Sal) and almost fatal illness of the second (Josie) because of it. What does this say about a) the society in which this is accepted and b) the morality of the individual within that society?

5. How would you describe Klara’s relationship with the Sun? We learn she is solar powered so she is obviously coded to honor the Sun as life-giving. And yet she personifies the Sun in a religious way. How is this echoed in human experience? How does this rhyme with human iconography? Can an AI be religious? In Klara are the AF’s more religious than the Humans (who, as Capaldi, debate the existence of the Soul itself)? Do they retain something of Humanity that humans have lost?

6. Consider the Mother and Capaldi’s plan to “continue” Josie via Klara. If you had the option to “continue” someone you lost due to death, disease, or even divorce... Would you? What considerations go into such a choice, if technology was offered the option?

7. If you did employ an AF/AI to “continue” a loved one could you believe it? Part of the Father’s ethical dilemma is that he didn’t believe the Mother could accept Klara as Josie no matter her intention - because Klara couldn’t capture Josie’s heart (the essence). If you programmed an AI to capture the essence of someone you loved, would that be the same?

8. Now move from Josie choosing Klara to Klara in the junk-yard. How does this echo our love of a device in the beginning to the end of it when we toss it away. Was Klara just a device? Or was Klara a person discarded when no longer useful? Either way does it describe the way we treat each other?