Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro - Book Discussion
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Welcome to the last video in my run through of Kazuo Ishiguro's books, 2021's Klara in the Sun. We made it! This video contains spoilers for the book.
Literary scholarship is a bit thin on the ground for a book released this year, so actually got no references for you as of yet.
Let me know what you thought of the book, what points you think I missed, and how you think this ranks among Ishiguro's best. I'll see you all next month once I've decided how to follow up this series.
0:00 Intro
0:37 Plot Summary
7:22 Analysis
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It's better & deeper than this reviewer would have you believe. Don't skip it!
So there it is lads, all of Ishiguro’s books covered on this channel. Let me know what you thought about the series and what books you’d like me to cover next!
Also, on editing, I realise I didn’t really focus much on Chrissie’s character and her relationship with her daughter. It’s been an age since we’ve had an Ishiguro focused on a mother/daughter relationship (not since his very first novel, A Pale View of Hills), and I think it’s a really interesting dynamic they have. She’s a complex character, somehow simultaneously super protective and intuitive to her daughter’s needs, such as in the scene where she runs and comforts Josie in the middle of the night, yet also so bitter and angry to her daughter to the point where she refuses to let her come on the Morgan’s Falls trip. I think I also could’ve spent more time with the idea of grief in the novel, which ties in strongly to this. What do y'all think of her character?
a wonderful wrap up for a wonderful series - SO PROUD
I started Ishiguro with this one and just loved it. I did find it incredibly hopeful but I'm not sure why, given her eventual abandonment . Klara's innocence was so compelling. That she was set aside is very sad but somehow did not blot out her lovely positivity. She still shines in my heart! 💜🧚♀️💜
PS
I have just finished Never Let Me Go. I guess Klara and the Sun could be seen as a rehashing of certain themes and devices but it was so, so hopeless. Klara and the Sun is a step beyond that ievitable blotting out of sentient beings.💜😔💜
I think Klara is his finest novel since Remains of the Day which I rate higher than Never Let Me Go. There's so much we've seen before - AI, Woody from Toy Story and, of course, Pinocchio - but Klara is also a meditation on faith, prayer and grief. Glorious.
Had never made the Pinnochio connection before!
Really nice discussion. I just finished reading it and appreciated it as well, looking forward to reading some of Ishiguro's other books.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the book and the video!
Loved this novel. The ending is very optimistic with Klara safely “sitting out her days” reflecting on her life and her success in fulfilling her objective as an AF. When we see the 7 black birds, Klara looks closely but decides they are just birds, but we immediately think about Rick and his black bird drones. Is the message from Ishiguro that humans may tinker with themselves for an intellectual “edge”, when those in Rick’s person, who weren’t “raised” were more successful over AI.
Very interesting thoughts - if that is indeed the message from Ishiguro (and you may well be right), it's a very depressing one given the suffering that Josie and her mother (and sister) went through to try and get ahead.
Wondering if Ishiguro read Buber. When speaking with her interlocutors she referred to them in third person (I-It), but when talking to her god, the Sun, she referred to him in second person (I-Thou).
Leuven. Flanders. Nightfall.
Eddie. Or rather 'Dear' Eddie.
I stumbled upon your covering of the Ishiguro novels by chance. And while working in the garden, before autumn rain imposes itself daily, your voice has been meandering for a while along the cliffs of my literary interest. So much for the setting. And for the confessional tone.
What about some closing remarks based upon the Nobel lecture and the overall framework of the novels ? And reading a few fragments aloud ? And trying to figure out the recurrent building blocks throughout Ishiguro's journey ? And looking for the original tone or timbre of his voice in the actuall literary landscape ? Or the triggers, the stepstones, the anchors which lurred you to the lighthouse of your inspiration ? ...
And I would love to hear you talk about Shun Medoruma on your next travelogue. As you seem to be intrigued by Japanese literature. If I am not mistaken.
Leaving Flanders for Monte San Savino in Italy bext week, I will take some Ishiguro novels on the road. And while harvesting olives on the slippery slopes of Ciggiano, I shall ponder about the unbereable lightness of being, caressed by the pale sun, cherishing the remains of the day, and unconsoled remembering Klara !
Thank you for the series. Looking forward for more !
G.
Post scriptum. The 'dear' could be due to the 'kindness of strangers'. It would have been different, if you had been talking about Becket or Ionesco. Or even about Murakami or Mishima or Kawabata. But your approach of the Ishiguri novels, as much as the meaningful themes of the works, made me believe I could call you 'dear', the equivalent of the French 'cher'. No intrusion on dangerous personal ground where even angels should fear to tread, nor sterile politeness flirting with outdated rules of an amoral etiquette. Just an acrobatic balancing act, as in the circus of life, above the ground, into thin air, to show warm respect for the posted videos and tender gratefulness for the companionship of sorts.
Thank you for your comments and ideas - I appreciate you sticking with the series for the whole journey. It was interesting to hear such in-depth thoughts surrounding my content and your experience of it.
Shun Medoruma was actually one of the authors I originally planned to cover in my Japanese literature series years ago (I have the footage from Okinawa still, though it is obviously a few years out of date now). If I ever come back to the series, it's likely that I would indeed cover his work. I've occasionally thought about releasing more in that series but I'll see later on.
Thanks again!
Hi!
Thanx for a really fantastic review. Could you plz help me. I have to write an assignment about characterization and I don’t have so much time. I am looking for the page that Klara offers to lose some of her power and destroy the polluting machine to help Josie being cured??
🥺🥺
Discuss Murakami books next!
Thanks for the suggestion! Maybe.... I'm not sure I'm ready to commit myself to rereading 14 Murakami books quite yet
I'm just discovering this series of yours and I'm surprised that my first ishiguro is actual the last (currently) of his published works! I really enjoyed this book, but i have to admit the subsequent Ishiguros I've read so far was a bit hard to go through (Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant). Still, I would read what I have on my pile of him, but maybe not now...
Rank ishiguro and Margret atwood books
what really frustrated me about the book is that stuff was never explained, things were mentioned but were never followed up with actual explanations later on for what is/was going on. and things happened or were mentioned but had no relevance to the plot it seemed. we never found out why Josie actually got better, nor what the "couting machine" was, nor answers to anything else really, the theme was prioritized over anything else which left the book unexplained and unfulfilling. the main lack of explaining I have the most problems with is specifically when Josie got better, as I can't think of anything other than the "lifting" causes a genetic defect that results in a massive vitamin D deficiency.
So, another reviewer surmises that Josie was successfully replaced by AI, hence the miraculous recovery.
"klara mate" xD it was more of a miss for me, i didnt hate it but i found it quite underwhelming and unoriginal, with the ai being just a gimmick, i enjoyed hearing your thoughts :-)
Fair play, I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea. I'm interesting to see whether he shakes it up again for his next novel or sticks with the well known formula again.
I just wanted to shake Klara up most of the time cause she is so naive. Literally "Klara mate".
Just the premise for the plot sounds like the dull idea that an infertile imagination would generate through some mechanical process of "creative brainstorming". Like a guy who has no inner drive to write.