KLARA AND THE SUN.
start date - 25:11:2025
status - read as on 28:11:2025
emotions felt after - unfulfilled fizzling of soul.
the theme of the book is science fiction which is kind of ironic because i see this book changing to non-fiction soon-ish. you see some facets of the book come to life. the other day i was listening to my friends discuss how remote work is tracked and it made me realise that we have started living in a dystopian world where every little thing can be turned into a data point and has to be used, either usefully or uselessly, mostly the latter to make something out of it.
sigh. okay.
this one may not have many quotable quotes but it talks about big ideas.
it is written from a perspective of an AF (artificial friend) who is an observant, curious humanoid robot made for the purpose of companionship and her name is klara. klara has a kind persona. she was made to cure loneliness in a world where in-person socializing has become a matter of privilege for children. she was meant to be around children and keep them company while they grow up.
klara, being a humanoid, goes through every stage and plight of a human being.
THE BIG FOUR
curiosity, faith, purpose, mortality.
and all other emotions in between like delusion, helplessness, jealousy, yearning, obsession, sadness, disbelief, fear of loss, etc, etc.
this book made me question what does it mean to be human which is also a puzzle that klara tries to solve throughout the book. intially, she does this by observing and questioning. she saw how people walked and talked and what changed their stance and expressions and how absurdly contradictory humans are. she was still trying to graspy grasp the concept of emotions. she was curious about the world beyond the window of the store she was in. she looked for familiar faces, she tried to understand the way people talked to each other, their motivations with a sense of responsibility and sensitivity.
her belief in faith comes from the idea that the one that gives us strength must be the superior one. klara is a version of humanoid that runs on solar power. the concept of sun, she does not comprehend completely. she doesnt understand why it hides and why some parts are covered in darkness when sunrays are hindered by an object. its a mystery for her and something that brings up emotions of mysticism and bewilderment in her.
Similar to us humans and our quest to find answers for things we dont quite understand, our quest to believe in the supreme power we call god and our belief that god listens to us all and mends all things unmendable. the keyword god means different things to different people, some seek god in nature, some in people, some in their work, some in abstract glob of time and some in themselves. the objective is one. reverence, surrender and the quest to find safety. pick your pois-drink?, reader. but this is a fundamental desire for us all.
the aspect of purpose comes in her life when she meets a girl named josie who is 14? who frequents the area with her mother and sometimes stops by the store window to meet klara and interact with her. josie loves klara and wants her to be her AF (artificial friend), but mothers are the same even in the future guys. the mother was skeptical and kept delaying it. josie promised klara that she will take her home one day.
klara was flattered and secretly hoped it was true, she didnt realise it but she did things inexplicably by way of altering her behavior like not responding to customers who were interested in buying her and this was pointed out to her by the store manager where she says that kids make promises all the time and how its not always true and how AFs are not supposed to choose their kids, they have no agency.
until one fateful day, josie was seen in the store with the mother and the promise was kept and klara found her purpose, to be the best AF for josie and help her grow up well.
so, josie was sick. sometimes it got worse and sometimes it was fine. the mother was concerned about her daughter's health. klara did not understand it but wanted to do her best to ensure josie is safe and healthy.
thus begins the game of life, the push and pull of conversations, situations, misconceptions and delusions.
we see how klara convinces herself that one machine that emits black smoke was responsible for josie's deteriorating health, how she tries to persuade, convince, fight with her faith, the sun. how she tries her best to make relationships right for josie and how she is ready to surrender and sacrifice her very essence for josie without batting an eye. klara, love her. bless her soul (processing unit).
she was built for a reason and that reason became her purpose. her unwavering sole purpose to live. purpose is a funny thing and i struggle with the concept most of the times. its a very intimate process if you think about it. you are trying to ignite something in you, every action in your day to day life has to be that action of flint striking, because you never know when you are going to be on fire. everyone has that fire but the purpose is the fuel to keep that flame from getting extinguished. i am still on my quest to find my fuel, until then keep breathing, the flame needs the oxygen until you get there.
one overarching theme is that you cannot escape mortality. no human can. (sorry bryan johnson), no machine can (sorry 1X NEO robo, better versions are coming). we are essentially made to replace each other. how well we survive is a testament of how well our future progeny survives. i dont think any one should think about living forever seriously, i think you have attachment issues and you should address that with your therapist or your journal. back to the book at hand.
we humans love a challenge and the idea of incessant, undiminishing and undiluted presence preservation for our (selfish) favorite state of emotional circuitry feels tantalizing to say the least. i am also human and selfish...okay this is not my journal oops.
OKAY this may not have been my favorite book while reading it, but the more i write about it and try to understand the perspective of our tiny beings living in the world of letters and sentences and how their existence is limited to the length and breadth of the book in my hand, the more i fall in love with it. its a well written book and if you read it, i want you to write about it, and if you do, i would love to read it.
quotes
"it must be great. not to miss things. not to long to get back to something. not to be looking back all the time ." - the mother.
"until recently, i didnt think that humans could choose loneliness. that there were forces much more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness." - klara.
"hope, the damn thing never leaves you alone." - the father.
"perhaps, all humans are lonely. atleast potentially." - klara.