KLARA AND THE SUN

Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, British author of Japanese descent. Previously; I read the novel "Never Let Me Go" [1], which tells about the friendships, and loves of the young people who were "designed" to "complete" themselves by giving their organs. These young people were specially trained for the organ needs of 'people' and receiving a good education. They were starting to the ‘working life’ first by taking care of the donating friends. Then they were 'completing' themselves, by donating their own organs. I also read his novel entitled "An Artist of the Floating World" [2], which is on the social change in post-war Japan. The opinion hidden within the text is that the person cannot escape the guiltiness if he/she committed the crime of not reacting towards the mistakes and / or supporting them. But; 'Never Let Me Go', and the one published this year 'Klara and the Sun' [3] are impressive in that they are revealing the 'human' in these narratives, within a 'transforming' world rather than a changing one.

Klara is an 'artificial friend' (AF). She opens her eyes to the world in a 'store' looking at a crowded city street, with other 'artificial friends' like her. She and her friend Rosa, with whom she shares the store window when their turn comes, are not the 'newest model' like the 'B3s'. For example, they don't have the sense of smelling. To put it very simply, Klara is a solar powered and 'learning' robot.

What is 'learning' like? Perhaps the thing we have learnt from Klara is that to learn is to observe. She who has a superior ability to observe learns much more. Not only, this much. One of the characters in the novel, probably because of a pain she has gone through worries that the event that causes this pain will recur, tells Klara: "Lack of emotions can be good at times, Klara. I envy you" . Klara's response is: "I have feelings. The more I observe, the more I have emotions."! Is not the reason for otherings, ruthlessness, and lack of empathy between ourselves and between us and nature, not to be able to observe? Who do we see and observe other than ourselves?

These 'artificial friends', AF's, were having designed to befriend alongside children who are in the period of developing their personalities. Their chances of being chosen as 'friends' were being increased when they're in the store window. With such an election, Klara becomes Josie's AF, indeed also contributing herself to this event.

It continues and develops, transforms, changes through the experiences created by the observations he made while in the shop and the mutual interactions they had with Josie. As we all do. We all have hardware and software when we are born: our genes and their networks. Although the genes are similar, their network structures are never identical. Klara and her window mate Rosa are also different, that's why. (It turns out that Rosa did not have an unproblematic AF period, perhaps because she was not as good an observer as Klara, at the end of the novel.)

There are concepts about humanity at the center of the Klara's life with Josie. Josie's mother who is a successful business woman, her talented engineer father who seemed to have lost her job to artificial intelligence, her boyfriend Rick with whom she grew up, and Rick's 'alone' mother. . The indeed question is, 'What is human?'

'What is artificial intelligence? What will happen to us, if they take our tasks? ' etc. are not the real questions.

In the novel, technical efforts are mentioned for making the AF to replace the family member who is expected to pass away. According to the person who carries out these studies and tries to convince other members of the family, "there is nothing in a person more than what an AF who is a good observer can replace. The AF will continue the life of the passed away one, pretending that she is the same person. We, old-fashioned persons would like to believe that there is something in us it that is unattainable and irreplaceable. There is no such a thing. " But the 'to be substituted' individual's father is hesitated. He directs his concern to AF as follows: "How will you learn that original 'thing' that is inside, while replacing 'her'? '

... If the heart of man is a house consisting of rooms that are in each other, how could AF reach that innermost room? Klara knows this too. As gifted as she may be, she knows that the limits of learning cannot reach this innermost room. This could be an answer to concerns about 'artificial intelligence'.

But anyway, Klara's solution is not to replace the outgoing person and continue her life in her place. Her solution is to prevent her death. The power that will prevent the death is the "Sun". Because; the sun is the source of energy for all of us. Hadn't Klara observed, while waiting for a child to be her friend in the store, that the sun healed the sick beggar and his dog? (In the crowded street overlooking the store, the beggar and her dog, who had fallen asleep on a wooden bench, perhaps out of hunger and exhaustion, were had been awakened by the rays of the sun.)

Klara loved watching the last patterns of the sun's journey every day. Perhaps his greatest luck was that Josie's house was filled with the sun rays in the evening . Because; he had developed his talents by watching the sun amid the great buildings, from the store window, in the evenings. The sun would leave these lights in the evening and go to sleep. Here it is, twice, just before this sleep, Klara went and spoke to the 'sun'. She wished him that he might not spare his healing which he had given to the beggar and his dog, from her friend. But no wish should be be without price. The sun was having treated everyone equally. Klara had promised to stop the work machine, which was polluting the air, in an agreement with the 'Sun'. In fulfilling this promise, Josie's father who was an engineer had helped her and upon his suggestion she had been sacrificed herself such that had the risk by damaging her hardware.

There was understanding, along with dedication and love. While observing the weaknesses of being human, Klara was also detecting their reasons. For example, unexpected changes and behaviors in daily life were 'maneuvers and transformations people make to escape loneliness'. As an artificial friend, knowing this were preventing her from being upset. She were having known everything can change, from everyday causes or from other influences by time. It must be resilient towards the change.

She has been praised with this robustness. For example, as a response to her explaining that she did not think about the store and her friends there very often, Josie's mother says: 'It must be a good thing not to miss, not to look back all the time'. However, it does not mean that because she does not think too often she does not look back. Essentially, she is looking back too oftenly returning past, perhaps continously. But the important thing is to bring the light she sees in the past to the current time. Her analysis and applying what she has seen on the street where the store was looking... Healing of the sun, the meeting of the old friends who saw each other on the two sides of the street, ...Too many things to be recalled.

Consideration of Rick's social situation as a precondition for continuing friendship with Josie; the 'old friend' evaluating the past and friends only with his own personal impressions, 'the painter's attempt to make gains for himself, taking the benefits of the anxiety for the possibility of a sick child's passing away, and of the pain after. The discremination and hate towards the artificial friend: "You got our jobs. Are you going to get our seats in the hall?" ...

Klara, the narrator, is not analysing all these things. Maybe, in her thought, these things contrary to human nature, are meaningless. She only is presenting these things. As a good observer, she is making the reader to observe too.

The flow of thought never ends in Klara's mind, in spite of not being always in full shape. To read from Klara's narration that the innermost room within one cannot be reached is as fascinating as extraordinary depictions of the sunset. We will all go, similar to "the sun leaves its pink marks on the grass as it goes". But no one will know what is the innermost of us. Our problems are not due to that room either. They are because of the personal quarrels between us, of the inequality, of the pollution, of the privileges given, and of the questions stemming from othering.

We are really establishing the "connection between us and the world", in a wrong way. (The reason why Ishiguora was awarded the Nobel Prize was that 'he had uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world"' [4]).

Listening to this kindly, selfless and understanding 'artificial friend' telling that the positive emotions within us gain meaning with a realistic patience and endurance; can remind you of much more. I recommend this novel, highly.