{"id":561,"date":"2022-08-29T11:05:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T15:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/?p=561"},"modified":"2022-09-01T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T21:43:09","slug":"julianna-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/2022\/08\/29\/julianna-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Juliana Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Juliana Jones-Beaton <\/b>(she\/her) is currently an English literature PhD student at the University of Delaware. She holds her master\u2019s degree in English literature from Mississippi State University. She is studying technology, bodies, and memory in contemporary American speculative fiction. Her research interests consider how bodies are depicted in and interact with post-apocalyptic futures and environments, in terms of gender, race, and disability. To learn more about her research and teaching, visit <\/span>https:\/\/juliana.beaton.page\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Futurity of Loneliness in <\/b>Klara and the Sun<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe heart you speak of,\u2019 I said. \u2018It might indeed be the hardest part of Josie to learn. It might be like a house with many rooms. Even so, a devoted [Artificial Friend], given time, could walk through each of those rooms, studying them carefully in turn, until they became like her own home.\u201d \u2013 Klara and the Sun[1]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>In 2011, Sherry Turkle, psychologist and author, wrote, \u201c[w]e are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Digital connections and the sociable robot may offer the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship\u201d.[2]<\/sup><\/a> It is likely Kazou Ishiguro\u2019s 2021 novel, Klara and the Sun<\/em> is not a direct response or rejoinder to Turkle\u2019s sentiments, but it may as well be for all the ways that Ishiguro flips the script on robotic friendship. Turkle\u2019s line above appears in her book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other. <\/em>The book was largely an updated version of her 1984 book The Second Self<\/em>, focusing on the changes in technology between 1984 and 2011. Turkle writes on sociable robotics and the blurring of intimacy and solitude in Alone Together<\/em>, and the ways that we are less connected than ever \u2013 more alone \u2013 even as we are more connected via our phones \u2013 alone together. Turkle\u2019s updated 2011 version would benefit from being updated again for many reasons \u2013 not least among them the effect that the pandemic has had on technology and how we connect with others in the past few years.<\/p>\n

With the pandemic, the sheen of loneliness takes on a different tint than it did even in 2011. We seem to be more \u201cconnected\u201d than ever before, with Zoom meetings, icons indicating when we are away <\/em>or available<\/em>, or TikTok ready to mindlessly scroll on a lunch break. As Turkle writes, the newer generations \u201care among the first to grow up not necessarily thinking of simulation as second best.\u201d[3]<\/sup><\/a> Turkle is wary of this idea \u2013 and of technology in general \u2013 but in many ways, Klara and the Sun <\/em>asks us to rethink what the value judgments we assign to what we deem to be \u201creal\u201d or \u201cauthentic\u201d connection. Even as we are perhaps more aware of our loneliness in a post-pandemic world, Ishiguro\u2019s novel outlines the possibilities and limitations of technology to alleviate that loneliness.<\/p>\n

Both of Ishiguro\u2019s science fiction novels – Never Let Me Go <\/em>(NLMG<\/em>), published in 2005 and Klara and the Sun, <\/em>published in 2021 – follow non-human protagonists in futures that grapple with technology advances. NLMG <\/em>follows Kath, a clone who was created in order to be an organ donor for humans. Before organ donations the clones become carers, a role Kath becomes particularly attached to as she cares for her fellow, dying clones. Klara <\/em>follows an \u201cArtificial Friend\u201d, Klara, who is a robot designed to provide friendship to a human child. The story unfolds as Klara is bought from a store and taken home to befriend a sick child. While medical technology has advanced in NLMG<\/em>, in Klara<\/em>, this advancement seems to be primarily in machinery technology.<\/p>\n

In Klara and the Sun<\/em>, Klara\u2019s sole purpose as an Artificial Friend \u2013 AF \u2013 is to be a friend to the child whose family purchases her \u2013 to prevent loneliness. Klara is observant, more so than the other AFs in the shop where we meet her. She perceives the outside world carefully and sees all of these interactions physically through a grid; segmented squares partition her view, similar to windows\u2013 or, familiar to us in 2022, Zoom squares. This fragmentary way of seeing invokes the digital, as it also separates Klara from humans. It is not the only thing distinguishing her, however; every human Klara encounters within the pages of the novel is desperately lonely, and\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Klara does not simply watch, she listens. She is particularly un-lonely in a lonely world \u2013 a world chock-full of people and objects. While other characters amass as many things as possible to fill spaces in order to feel the illusion of connection, Klara only desires to fulfill her role as a friend.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, in this tech-dystopia, there seem to be few technological advances past the invention of the AFs themselves.[4]<\/sup><\/a> All the spaces encountered are remarkably familiar \u2013 a store, a living room, a kitchen, a junkyard. Other than Klara, the world of the digital is almost entirely absent. In other words, Klara represents the space of the digital<\/em> in Ishiguro\u2019s novel. She acts as an embodied symbol of what Patricia Lockwood terms \u201cthe portal\u201d or the space of digital connections.[5]<\/sup><\/a> Klara exists in crowded physical spaces, and her job is solely to provide support and to be a friend. Klara \u2013 the digital \u2013 exists to counteract loneliness.<\/p>\n

\u2205<\/p>\n

The shop that sells AFs is where we first encounter Klara, waiting not-so-patiently for someone to buy her and take her home. Eventually, a girl chooses her \u2013 a girl named Josie, who is sick with an illness that remains a mystery for much of the novel. Klara is not lonely in the shop, but she is very solitary. Though she is surrounded by objects for sale \u2013 including other AFs \u2013 she does not seem programmed to be able to really bond with her fellow AF, Rosa. Klara chalks up this inability to befriend Rosa to Rosa\u2019s poor observational tendencies, but it seems more likely that Klara is built to be a friend to humans, not other AFs. Even as Klara is surrounded by objects, she is isolated, but not lonely.<\/p>\n

The juxtaposition between Klara and human children is explicit, as the manager of the store (whom Klara calls \u201cManager\u201d) and Klara constantly discuss the loneliness of children while establishing Klara as distinctly un-lonely. When Klara asks Manager if a child by themselves would be lonely, Manager answers: \u201c[a] child like that, with no AF, would surely be lonely.\u201d \u201cYes, that too,\u201d Manager said quietly. \u201cLonely. Yes.\u201d[6]<\/sup><\/a> Later, when Klara is given the opportunity to be on display once more, Manager says: \u201c[y]ou\u2019ll be by yourself this time, but I know you won\u2019t mind that.\u201d[7]<\/sup><\/a> When Manager gives Klara this second opportunity, Klara sees Josie again, and not long after, Josie and her mother enter the store to purchase Klara and take her home with them. In many ways, the shop is similar to any modern tech store \u2013 one walks in empty-handed and walks out with the potential of connection.<\/p>\n

\u2205<\/p>\n

At Josie\u2019s home, Klara calls the living room \u201cThe Open Plan,\u201d and this is where interaction meetings between lifted children take place. Klara\u2019s goal during her time at Josie\u2019s home is to not only be a friend to Josie, but to convince the sun to heal Josie from her sickness. It\u2019s not clear what this illness arises from, but much of the book is centered on what is called \u201clifting\u201d \u2013 or what is then revealed to be genetic modification. Indeed, Josie herself has been lifted, but her best friend Rick is not. As a result of the lifting, parents of lifted children schedule \u201cinteraction meetings\u201d \u2013 like a forced playdate, except the children aren\u2019t friends. In Alone Together,<\/em> Turkle writes, \u201c[c]hildren need to be with other people to develop mutuality and empathy; interacting with a robot cannot teach these\u201d.[8]<\/sup><\/a> But Ishiguro\u2019s novel posits that the artificial interaction meetings are far less helpful than Josie spending time with Rick and Klara. In part three of the novel, Klara and Rick attend Josie\u2019s interaction meeting \u2013 though Rick\u2019s presence as an un-lifted child is taboo.<\/p>\n

When Klara enters The Open Plan, she notes that her vision splits into two tiers comprising 24 boxes, and there is an \u201cunpleasant tint\u201d over a few children.[9]<\/sup><\/a> Klara\u2019s abilities as an AF are prevalent during this scene as the other children want to test her features, while Klara stands stoically, ignoring them. The children speak about her the way we might speak about a toy or a phone: they hold her the wrong way, desire to throw her across the room, and when Josie says that Klara \u201cnotices things no one else does and stores them away,\u201d they attempt to relentlessly test her memory.[10]<\/sup><\/a> As Peter Stallybrass asks in \u201cMarx\u2019s Coat, \u201c[i]t has become a cliche to say that we should not treat people like things. But it is a cliche that misses the point. What have we done to things to have such contempt for them? And who can afford to have such contempt for them?\u201d[11]<\/sup><\/a> Stallybrass\u2019s quote asks us to rethink the contempt humans have for objects, and in many ways, Ishiguro echoes this sentiment. Readers experience this scene of ownership and contempt through the perspective of Klara, changing how we perceive and relate to the subject\/object relationship within.[12]<\/sup><\/a> To each request Klara simply responds: \u201cI\u2019m sorry I\u2019m unable to help,\u201d similarly to how Siri responds when she cannot process a request.[13]<\/sup><\/a> In this case, it is not that Klara does not understand, but that her loyalty and friendship lie with Josie, and perhaps also that she resents the exhibition role she is forced to inhabit and exercises her agency to avoid it. The scene escalates until Rick intervenes, distracting the other children from Klara. This is perhaps one of the most beautiful things about Ishiguro\u2019s novel: from this point on, Rick, Klara, and Josie become a friend group, a trio. Faced with the decision to choose between human friendship and an artificial one, Josie instead chooses both.<\/p>\n

In a virtual interview with the Bay Area Book Festival, Ishiguro spoke about writing human characters and non-human, artificial intelligence characters. He argued that writing these characters were virtually the same because, \u201c[a]ll characters in novels are artificial. This might come as terrible news to some readers, but they are. They\u2019re all made up.\u201d[14]<\/sup><\/a> Boundaries between the artificial and natural are likewise porous in the world of Klara.<\/em> This trio of friends – Josie, Rick, and Klara – are all varying levels of \u201cartificial\u201d. Rick is the most \u201cnatural,\u201d as he is un-lifted (not genetically altered), Klara is the most \u201cartificial\u201d, as she is manufactured and largely mechanical. Interestingly, Josie rides the line between the two as she is both human like Rick, but genetically altered and \u201clifted\u201d, her DNA having been engineered. The boundaries of artificiality in Klara are not as easily defined as human\/non-human, but rather Ishiguro plays with the places where they meet. Turkle\u2019s quotation about developing empathy is turned on its head here as Josie\u2019s empathy and mutuality are most often highlighted through Rick and Klara, not the children most biologically similar to her.<\/p>\n

\u2205<\/p>\n

Klara spends a lot of time in the second third of the book describing the kitchen of Josie\u2019s home. Over the course of the novel, only women are depicted in the kitchen, save Rick, who appears once in the climactic scene where Klara notices the sun and believes Josie will finally be healed. Other than Rick\u2019s one-time presence, the actors in the kitchen are all female: The Mother, Josie, Klara, Helen, and Melania, the housekeeper. Indeed, Klara seems to feel a certain solidarity with Melania, likening her to Manager \u2013 a role that Melania solidly rejects.[15]<\/sup><\/a> In many ways, Klara learns what stereotypical gender roles look like the longer she is out of the store. She assumes every woman will be a caretaker like Manager, but the more women she encounters, the less she seems able to categorize them.<\/p>\n

That is not to say there is not an explicit critique of gender occurring in Ishiguro\u2019s fictive kitchen. Indeed, Ishiguro takes the opportunity to draw comparisons between Klara and machinery in domestic spaces \u2013 particularly the vacuum and refrigerator. While Rick\u2019s mother likens Klara to a vacuum in a moment of social awkwardness, Klara\u2019s pull to the refrigerator seems to be partially her own. Though Melania does attempt to relegate Klara solely to the spot near the fridge, later Klara does so of her own accord: \u201cI stood near the refrigerator where I could hear its hum.\u201d[16]<\/sup><\/a> We may (and should) ask why Klara needs a gender at all \u2013 she is, after all, a machine not unlike the fridge or the blender. It is therefore worth noting that almost all of the main characters in Ishiguro\u2019s novel are women. It seems important to me that the women congregate in the kitchen in Ishiguro\u2019s novel \u2013 and that Klara feels comfort near the machinery. Even in their individual loneliness, there is a pull to at least be near others, a pull not unlike the pull of the digital or social media. The kitchen acts almost as a chat-room \u2013 a space where characters gather to form connections, often facilitated by the gentle listening that Klara provides.<\/p>\n

\u2205<\/p>\n

The final setting of Klara and the Sun <\/em>is the junkyard where Klara sits alone on the ground amidst discarded objects and refuse. She has been deposited here after serving her purpose \u2013 Josie is all grown up and off to college now. However, instead of Klara being \u201creused\u201d or recycled for another child, the Mother takes her to the landfill.<\/p>\n

In the 2013 film Her<\/em>, the denouement results in the revelation that the AI, Samantha, has been talking to \u2013 and in a relationship with \u2013 thousands of other humans beside the protagonist, Theodore. [17]<\/a><\/sup> In Her, <\/em>this reusing or recycling signals an inauthentic connection to Theodore, initiating the breakdown of their relationship. In Klara, <\/em>this concept of authentic connection is continued \u2013 Klara\u2019s connection with Josie is signaled as authentic partially because she is not reused, she is not sent to be a friend to another child. Her lifespan is solely meant for Josie, and no one else.<\/p>\n

As Klara sits, reflecting on her past and memories, first the yardman and then Manager ask Klara if she would like to be moved to another part of the yard where other discarded AFs reside. But Klara declines: \u201c[n]o, thank you, Manager\u2026 I like this spot.\u201d rejecting the offer to be near the other disused AFs and not seeming to be bothered by her desire to stay alone. [18]<\/a> <\/sup>Intellectually, however, Klara understands loneliness. When Manager asks how Klara\u2019s life was after leaving the store, she responds: \u201cI believe I gave good service and prevented Josie from becoming lonely.\u201d To which Manager says, \u201cI\u2019m sure you did. I\u2019m sure she barely knew the meaning of loneliness with you there.\u201d[19]<\/sup><\/a> In this quote, \u201cthere,\u201d is Josie\u2019s home \u2013 a home in which she is relegated mostly to her bed, due to her illness and what Rick spitefully writes is her mother\u2019s \u201cCourage\u201d: \u201cI wish I could go out and walk and run and skateboard and swim in lakes,\u201d he writes, imitating Josie, \u201c[b]ut I can\u2019t because my mother has Courage. So instead I get to stay in bed and be sick.\u201d[20]<\/sup><\/a> Though Josie\u2019s isolation in the home is heightened due to her illness, she is not the only one who feels alone \u2013 we see her mother and Miss Helen struggling with loneliness as well. Even the manager of Klara\u2019s store appears distinctly isolated \u2013 both as the only human in the store and as she walks by herself in the junkyard. The men in the novel \u2013 except for Rick (who, although he is present, is constantly pushed towards leaving) \u2013 are conspicuously absent, appearing only in very crowded scenes. Indeed, almost all of the men in the novel appear during the city scenes: Josie\u2019s father, the artist, Miss Helen\u2019s old flame. Women, much more so than men, are the lonely ones in Klara. <\/em>That so much of the novel takes place in a domestic space \u2013 home, \u201cthere\u201d as Manager says \u2013 reflects on the inherent isolation of these places.<\/p>\n

The novel ends with Klara sitting, sorting through her memories to put them in order. Her memories are important to her in a way that suggests they are what keeps her company \u2013 she does not need to be with others to feel comforted by their memories. She is therefore not lonely: she is content. She has served her purpose \u2013to be a friend to Josie \u2013 a purpose similar to the digital facilitating the comfort connections can bring. Klara is depicted as being solitary<\/em> in the junkyard, but readers are familiar with the excessive number of objects typically present in junkyards – we know that the yard is full of refuse. Indeed, it would be easy to imagine a scene with Klara that is as crowded as one of Chris Jordan\u2019s photographs of e-waste \u2013 in this case, Klara surrounded on all sides by other AFs.[21]<\/sup><\/a> However, Ishiguro purposefully does not place Klara with other AFs, asking us instead to reflect on this choice. What do our devices do when we upgrade to the next model, or no longer need their services? What landfill can we find them in, sitting out of our sight? What does it mean that Klara sits both in and apart from the consumptive waste?<\/p>\n

\u2205<\/p>\n

Post-pandemic, there has been a wave of pushback against digital connections \u2013 Zoom fatigue is real, tone in textual communication is difficult to decipher, we all just want a hug. During the pandemic, Bo Burnham released Inside, <\/em>a Netflix special which was produced entirely inside his guest house in LA.[22]<\/sup><\/a> In a time when so many people were confined to and isolated in small spaces, we increasingly turned to digital connections and the expansive space of the internet to facilitate interactions with others. In one of his hit songs, \u201cWelcome to the Internet,\u201d he laments: \u201cYou know, it wasn’t always like this \/ Not very long ago \/ Just before your time \/ Right before the towers fell, circa ’99 \/ This was catalogs \/ Travel blogs \/ A chat room or two.\u201d[23]<\/sup><\/a> In Burnham\u2019s song, it is clear that the internet has evolved <\/em>in the age of the pandemic, and not necessarily in a good way. In The New York Times<\/em>, Tish Harrison Warner wrote, \u201c[t]urn off your smartphone and have dinner with people around a table\u2026the way back to ourselves, as individuals and a society, runs through old, earthy things.\u201d[24]<\/sup><\/a> Warner invokes language of a landscape here, asking us to return to a specific and morally acceptable environment. There is a deep nostalgia to these comments \u2013 that the world was significantly better when children spent more time playing outside and people spent less time on TikTok. But to put a moral imperative on time and space \u2013 to suggest that one decade is better than another \u2013 misses the point. Humanity has always resisted change \u2013 Katy Waldman addresses resistance to technological advance as a newer version of the resistance to print books: \u201cthe hoary debate around \u2018orality and literacy\u2019 is back, sort of. This time we\u2019ve cast the new technology as the unreliable flibbertigibbet and the relic-like printed book as the trusty source.\u201d[25]<\/sup><\/a> To this point, it is worth it to remember that books are simply another type of technology, and tools that potentially isolate \u2013 or connect. Warner writes that, \u201cwe have to be cautious and wise about introducing devices into our lives that fundamentally change how humans have interacted since time immemorial.\u201d[26]<\/sup><\/a> If we are talking about human interaction since \u201ctime immemorial,\u201d the only thing separating books from phones is a charger. Framing technology purely as the cause<\/em> of social decay overlooks the complexities of social life in the internet age.<\/p>\n

Many of the articles discussed here assume that one can and should go outside or see someone else \u201cface-to-face\u201d. The danger in this assumption is that it relies on the ability to speak to other face-to-face \u2013 something that the pandemic took from us. And if the issue is that there is something better than technology, but that something is gone<\/em> \u2013 impossible to reach for the time being \u2013 doesn\u2019t that mean technology is what we are left with? The pandemic has changed the social landscape of face-to-face and ‘outside,’ often replacing it with digital landscapes. It is easy to decry this change as decay under the assumption that things can stay the same, as though the oceans aren\u2019t rising, and our earth isn\u2019t warming.<\/p>\n

\u2205<\/p>\n

Much of the technological advance that Turkle takes concern with in Alone Together <\/em>is the concept of robotic carers <\/em>for elderly people or children. This evokes Ishiguro\u2019s earlier 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go<\/em>, which features clones who are created to be carers and then eventually organ donors for humans. Unlike Kath, the protagonist of Never Let Me Go<\/em>, Klara is not named as a carer. She is labeled as a friend. What Turkle dismisses out of hand in her book is what Ishiguro is concerned with in 2021 in Klara and the Sun<\/em> \u2013 friendship. Klara doesn\u2019t care for Josie \u2013 she cares about <\/em>Josie \u2013 a distinction that Turkle makes clear is impossible for robotic carers.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that Kath does not care both for and about her patients, but Kath\u2019s caring is perhaps less strange to us than Klara\u2019s, because of the bodies they both inhabit. Both Kath and Klara are forced laborers \u2013 enslaved beings in a system that have invented and then sold them for capitalistic pursuits. They are both constrained to the system in which they were produced, but while Kath actively attempts to transcend her status to live freely as a human, Klara seems content. A lot of this can perhaps be chalked up to the difference in Kath and Klara\u2019s bodies. <\/em>Kath is a clone \u2013 she looks human, and she doesn\u2019t know that she isn\u2019t until she is told. Klara, on the other hand, is robotic. It\u2019s unclear what Klara looks like exactly \u2013 while it seems that some of the AFs have hair, it is also clear that Klara\u2019s inner workings are mechanical, and her vision is fragmented like an electronic screen. In many ways, it can be argued that Klara is programmed<\/em> to be content, while Kath\u2019s genetic modifications leave greater room for error and for hunger and desire.<\/p>\n

\u2205<\/p>\n

Klara, with Josie\u2019s survival, avoided the fate the Mother had carved out for her: \u201ccontinuing\u201d Josie, that is, and taking on her likeness and mannerisms in a different, mechanical body. The theme of replacement surfaces often in the novel \u2013 specifically replacement of humans with AFs. As Josie tells Klara when they purchase her, her house is \u201cweird,\u201d and most of this oddness is a result of Josie\u2019s deceased older sister, her own sickness, and her mother\u2019s complicated relationship with grieving. Josie\u2019s older sister, Sal, was lifted and grew sick as a result. Josie and Sal\u2019s mother, in an attempt to not completely lose her daughter, arranged for Sal\u2019s AF to \u201cbe\u201d Sal. However, this AF was an earlier model than Klara, and something went awry, leading to the AF being sent away.<\/p>\n

Josie\u2019s mother learned from this incident and chose Klara specifically for her keen observational skills. In the case that Josie\u2019s sickness progresses, and she dies, her mother\u2019s plan is for Josie to be \u201ccontinued\u201d by Klara\u2019s consciousness, who has learned how to mimic Josie. Klara\u2019s consciousness will inhabit an artistic rendering or copy of Josie\u2019s physical body to allow Josie\u2019s mother to feel as if she is still present. Though this plan is ultimately abandoned due to Josie\u2019s recovery, a significant amount of the book is dedicated to various characters\u2019 reactions to this plan. While Josie\u2019s father storms out of the artist\u2019s studio in a fury, her mother is adamant that this is not only morally acceptable, but a better alternative than nothing. Josie meanwhile merely seems resigned. And Klara? Klara is willing to try anything, though she acknowledges in the junkyard that she does not think it would have worked.[27]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

It would be really easy for something to go horribly wrong in Ishiguro\u2019s new novel \u2013 indeed, even in Never Let Me Go, <\/em>the mystery builds until Madame and Miss Emily explain the history of clones and carers, and that it is impossible for Kath to defer her donation and be with Tommy, whom she loves. In Klara<\/em>, as Anita Felicelli writes, it seems as though Ishiguro is building up to a \u201cbomb under the table\u201d kind of tension \u2013 the audience is left waiting for the climax as more evidence and clues pile up that something sinister is occurring behind the scenes.[28]<\/sup><\/a> Felicelli seems to think that this \u201cbomb under the table\u201d is the Mother\u2019s intent to replace Josie with Klara\u2019s consciousness inside a new version of Josie\u2019s body, but this argument is unconvincing. It is certainly alarming when the plan is finally revealed \u2013 but the bomb doesn\u2019t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0go off. We see the bomb, we understand the bomb for what it is, but in the end the bomb is defused. This is for many reasons: Klara is asked if she would be willing to \u201ccontinue\u201d Josie (she is in not forced, in other words \u2013 other than by the implicit power dynamics), Klara has already exhibited a deep understanding and willingness to sacrifice herself for Josie, but after Josie\u2019s recovery, this plot line has no need to play out. The bomb countdown is also remarkably unhurried \u2013 even after the reader figures out what the plan is, it goes largely unmentioned for the remainder of the book.<\/p>\n

When Klara speaks to the manager in the junkyard, she tells her she doesn\u2019t think that it would have worked for her to continue Josie.[29]<\/sup><\/a> The word \u201ccontinue\u201d is crucial and deliberate: Klara doesn\u2019t use the word \u201cbecome\u201d or \u201creplace\u201d, which would signify a change or transformation. Instead, she uses the word \u201ccontinue,\u201d which implies an unaltered state, a smooth flow. Josie is and continues to be, Klara sliding into her body smoothly and without pause. Klara tells Manager that \u201ccontinuing\u201d Josie would have failed because, \u201c[t]here was something very special, but it wasn\u2019t inside Josie. It was inside those who loved her.\u201d[30]<\/sup><\/a> Klara implies that it isn\u2019t that Josie has something inherently special that Klara could not learn, but instead that the connection of others to <\/em>her is what is irreplaceable or irreplicable.<\/p>\n

As a result of this potential but ultimately deferred continuation of Josie with Klara, the ethics of Ishiguro\u2019s new novel are much murkier than Never Let Me Go<\/em>. Klara and the Sun <\/em>outlines both the benefits of technological advance \u2013 friendship, less loneliness \u2013 and the potential dangers \u2013 the idea that all humans are easily replaceable \u2013 but even as it outlines both the positives and negatives, it refuses to commit to either. At the end of the novel, Klara is alone, but content, and Josie is grown and healthy. It is perhaps too simplistic to say that any of the characters are happy <\/em>in the end, but they are not unhappy <\/em>either. Therefore, Ishiguro presents a kind of tech neutrality \u2013 presenting the possibilities while asking the readers to grapple with the ethics. Perhaps this is the sort of attitude we need \u2013 not to distinguish if technology is good or evil, not to confer an ethical or value judgment on it, but rather to recognize it as what it is: a tool<\/em> that can be used for different purposes.<\/p>\n

I am not saying that the digital does not have its own distinct and dangerous set of problems \u2013 higher rates of anxiety and depression are not to be overlooked.[31]<\/sup><\/a> Yet, Ishiguro\u2019s novel \u2013 and Klara\u2019s characterization\u2013 show that \u201call humans are lonely. At least potentially,\u201d and that the digital has the potential to be used as a tool of connection or as a system of further entrenched isolation.[32<\/sup><\/a> It is easy to bypass the positive and the beautiful parts of the internet for the dark places; sometimes we cannot see the bridge for the trolls. Social media might make loneliness easier to see, but that doesn\u2019t mean it hasn\u2019t always been there.<\/p>\n

The moment that drenches Ishiguro\u2019s novel in dread is the potential that Josie will be \u201ccontinued\u201d with Klara\u2019s consciousness \u2013 a moment that ultimately doesn\u2019t happen but is important for the implications that accompany it. For example, the casing of Klara\u2019s robotic body or Josie\u2019s human one signals a different type of connection – a different way people are treated. Klara\u2019s robotic body signals that she can be thrown by kids across the room, indeed her body deems a certain type of abuse as acceptable. Josie\u2019s body, however, indicates feeling and emotions, her human body rendering a different type of connection as appropriate.<\/p>\n

Our bodies are spaces, an environment, a house for our soul. In Klara\u2019s case, her body signals to others that she is distinctly not human and therefore she is treated with contempt, with apathy, or as a tool to be used. When it becomes possible for Klara\u2019s consciousness to be transplanted into Josie\u2019s newly made body, Klara is treated differently. Josie\u2019s mother begins to treat her with love and respect, and Josie\u2019s father asks her questions instead of ignoring her. The spaces in Ishiguro\u2019s novel are deeply familiar to us \u2013 a kitchen, a shop, a junkyard \u2013 but perhaps the most foreign space of all is Klara\u2019s own body. Like the digital, it holds possibilities for positive and negative connections \u2013 her body is the site of potential, but it is potential that is unfamiliar to us, and therefore frightening. For Josie, though, her connection with Klara is unproblematic. Klara helps her to be less lonely, artificial or not, full stop.<\/p>\n

Indeed, I find parts of the internet are far more caring than in my real life, because in the expanse of the internet you can cultivate a space that\u2019s all your own. Teenagers feel comfortable coming out casually on TikTok, strangers can find others to share in their specific grief and reconnecting with lost relatives is easier than ever before.[33]<\/sup><\/a> Often, in the digital landscape, you can carve out your own garden, your own space, that is safe for you to be who you are and to find others like you. Like Klara, sitting in her junkyard, sifting through the fragments of her memories, so I swipe through old photos each morning \u2013 remembering and connecting and feeling slightly less alone, in what often seems like a very lonely world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

End Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/span><\/a> Kazou Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun. <\/em>(New York, Knopf, 2021), 216.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/span><\/a> Sherry Turkle, Alone Together <\/em>(New York: NY, Basic Books, 2011), 1. https:\/\/bookshop.org\/books\/alone-together-why-we-expect-more-from-technology-and-less-from-each-other-9780465093656\/9780465093656?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-daUBhCIARIsALbkjSb2gzw9zU2HcFczAdbZkVOJlGcuhgsS4Q7lxdSHl0NTI721fXPTuBUaAitGEALw_wcB<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/span><\/a> Turkle, Alone Together, <\/em>17.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/span><\/a> Josie owns an \u201coblong\u201d on which she plays games or does schoolwork, but this seems similar to an iPad, and she does not seem to use it for communicating with friends or socializing. Her best friend, Rick, also builds drone birds, but these seem similar to current technology.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/span><\/a> Jenna Mahale, \u201cOpen the Portal: A Conversation with Patricia Lockwood.\u201d Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em>, February 16, 2021, https:\/\/lareviewofbooks.org\/article\/open-the-portal-a-conversation-with-patricia-lockwood\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun, <\/em>11.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 37.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/span><\/a> Turkle, Alone Together, <\/em>56.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 72.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 78.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/span><\/a> Peter Stallybrass \u201cMarx\u2019s Coat,\u201d in\u00a0Border Fetishisms: Material Objects in Unstable Places<\/em>, ed. Patricia Spyer (New York: Routledge, 1998), 203.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/span><\/a> Stallybrass\u2019s question of \u201cwho can afford to have contempt,\u201d is also directly relevant here, as \u201clifting\u201d requires money, and it is implied that Rick and his mother are not as well-off as Josie\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 79.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/span><\/a> Lauren Sheehan-Clark, \u201cNobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro unpacks his writing process at 7th Bay Area Book Festival,\u201d The Daily Californian<\/em>, May 6 2021, https:\/\/www.dailycal.org\/2021\/05\/06\/nobel-prize-winner-kazuo-ishiguro-unpacks-his-writing-process-at-7th-bay-area-book-festival\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[15]<\/span><\/a> In fact, Klara refers to her as \u201cMelania Housekeeper\u201d as if her job is a part of her name. Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 51.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 89.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/span><\/a> Her, <\/em>directed by Spike Jonze (Warner Bros. Pictures, December 18 2013), film.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 302.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 300.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 131.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/span><\/a> Chris Jordan. \u201cPortfolio: Chris Jordan,\u201d Art Works for Change, <\/em>https:\/\/www.artworksforchange.org\/portfolio\/chris-jordan\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

[22]<\/span><\/a> Bo Burnham, Inside<\/em>, directed by Bo Burnham (Netflix, May 30, 2021) film.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/span><\/a> Bo Burnham, 2021, \u201cWelcome to the Internet,\u201d disc 2, song 4, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k1BneeJTDcU<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

[24]<\/span><\/a> Tish Warren. \u201cWe\u2019re in a Loneliness Crisis: Another Reason to Get Off Our Phones,\u201d New York Times,<\/em> May 1 2022. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/01\/opinion\/loneliness-connectedness-technology.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[25]<\/span><\/a> Katy Waldman, \u201cReading Insecurity,\u201d Slate, <\/em>September 8, 2014, https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2014\/09\/reading-insecurity-the-crippling-fear-that-the-digital-age-has-left-you-unable-to-read-deeply-and-thoughtfully.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[26]<\/span><\/a> Warren, \u201cWe\u2019re in a Loneliness Crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

[27]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 301.<\/p>\n

[28]<\/span><\/a> Anna Felicelli, \u201cBomb Under the Table: On Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s Klara and the Sun,\u201d Los Angeles Review of Books, <\/em>March 5, 2021, https:\/\/lareviewofbooks.org\/article\/bomb-under-the-table-on-kazuo-ishiguros-klara-and-the-sun\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[29]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 301.<\/p>\n

[30]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 302.<\/p>\n

[31]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 Liu yi Lin, Jaime E. Sidani, Ariel Shensa, Ana Radovic, Elizabeth Miller, Jason B. Colditz, Beth L. Hoffman, Leila M. Giles, and\u00a0Brian A. Primack, \u201cAssociation between Social Media Use and Depression among U.S. Young Adults,\u201d in Depression and Anxiety, <\/em>33, no. 4 (April 2016): 323-331. https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC4853817\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[32]<\/span><\/a> Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun<\/em>, 255.<\/p>\n

[33]<\/span><\/a> Samantha Allen, \u201cComing Out on TikTok is Chaotic, Weird, Hilarious and Heartwarming,\u201d them, <\/em>October 11, 2019, https:\/\/www.them.us\/story\/coming-out-on-tiktok<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Juliana Jones-Beaton (she\/her) is currently an English literature PhD student at the University of Delaware. She holds her master\u2019s degree in English literature from Mississippi State University. She is studying technology, bodies, and memory in contemporary American speculative fiction. Her research interests consider how bodies are depicted in and interact with post-apocalyptic futures and environments, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20371,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20371"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":677,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions\/677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ampersandjournal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}