Preface
It’s been a long time since I wrote a book review - the last time was probably in high school. From elementary to high school, I read many books and periodicals, and these books shaped part of my personality. So I must thank these books, as well as my parents, grandmother, and teachers who provided me with reading opportunities.
Regarding “Klara and the Sun,” it took me almost a year from buying it to finishing it. I bought it in Shenzhen and finished it in Shanghai. During this period, I also changed jobs and experienced 2022 - a year where it seemed like a lot happened yet nothing happened at all.
As for why it took me a year to finish, modern people can surely understand - phones and computers have occupied our work and life, making it difficult to pick up physical books again. But thinking carefully, reading a little each day would have allowed me to finish quickly. Ultimately, it was just my laziness. However, this is the first physical book I’ve completely read in recent years, so it’s worth commemorating.
What is Klara
Klara is a solar-powered artificial intelligence robot designed specifically to accompany children, with extremely high observation, reasoning, and empathy abilities. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s interviews, he mentioned being very concerned and even worried about AI development. But I personally believe that humans need to understand the mechanisms that produce intelligence - this key factor - before we can possibly produce robots with empathy capabilities. We still have a long way to go.
Obviously, in the book, human society already has the capability to produce such robots and is constantly upgrading them, as Klara is not from the latest batch. From the book’s ending, it’s clear this has become an assembly line - from production to store placement to depreciation and recycling, it’s no longer surprising. Another important point is that these robots only think wholeheartedly for their owners, being 100% altruistic. This can be seen from Klara’s willingness to lose her own oil (similar to humans donating blood or organs) to achieve something that wasn’t even proven to help Klara’s condition.
So we return to the point of contention between Mr. Capaldi and Josie’s family: Can AI robots really replace humans? This is actually a question the author poses to readers. My answer is no. There’s a sentence in the translator’s afterword that I find particularly good, which I’ll quote here: It is precisely because selfish desires and sublime aspirations coexist that human hearts are filled with contradictions, hesitation, and pain; without the downward gravity of selfishness, all noble and upward human nature would become ethereal and weightless.
Later, when Capaldi goes to find Chrissie, wanting to reverse-engineer her to appease people in society who are worried about AI, this shows that Capaldi believes AI is still programmable and deducible. Isn’t this contradictory to his claim that AI can replace humans? Doesn’t this suggest that Capaldi doesn’t really believe a robot can replace a human, and maybe he just wants to make money?
What is the Sun
Back to this book - I finished reading it in a library bathed in afternoon sunlight, possibly surrounded by many COVID-positive patients. So what is the sun in this book?
Naive Klara (the AI robot) believes the sun has magical powers to cure diseases, and indeed Josie gradually recovers after basking in sunlight. This establishes the foundation of this being a fairy tale, because as we all know, the sun cannot cure diseases. However, for Klara, the sun provides her with energy, so to her, the sun is the god in her heart, similar to the Christian God or Buddha in human society. So when we go to temples or make the sign of the cross, are we also being naive?
Of course, besides the physical sun, there’s another important element: love. Whether it’s Klara’s love for Josie, Rick’s love for Josie, or Chrissie’s love for Josie - it’s all love, something that warms us like sunshine yet is invisible and intangible.
It’s because of this love that there’s a perfect ending. This reminds me of Nolan’s “Interstellar,” a movie that perfectly illustrates what “love can transcend time and space” means.
About the Ending
I’m someone who likes good endings but doesn’t want good works to fall into clichés. This isn’t out of arrogance from thinking I can see through everything, or being influenced by statements like “the core of comedy is tragedy.” Because I always believe that good works - books or movies - need to leave readers and audiences some room for imagination, similar to “leaving blank space.”
This ending indeed made me think of many things, not limited to this book. First, referring to what Kazuo Ishiguro’s daughter said, this isn’t a fairy tale for children - it’s too dark. This reminded me of a game I played in my senior year: “Fran Bow,” also a very dark game both visually and story-wise. Players’ interpretations of the game’s ending vary - some think the entire process was Fran’s fantasy, others believe Fran actually reached an ideal world. But as the game’s final words say:
“I still don’t know many things…”
“But one thing I do know…”
“That between guilt and fear…”
“I choose happiness…”
Yes, you can choose a happy ending. There’s no right or wrong.
So I’m more willing to believe that Klara accompanied Josie through her childhood, successfully completed her mission, and in her final moments, happily recalled all the memories. Isn’t this what we as humans hope for too?