Posthuman Encounters and Patterns of Care in Klara and the Sun (2021) or, What Ishiguro’s AI Tells Us About the Uncanny Valley

Abstract

The protagonist of Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021) seems a perfect candidate to take us through the uncanny valley (Mori, 1970)—a place where the once attractive almost-but-not-quite-human suddenly repulses us. Klara is an artificially intelligent android and the best carer to Josie, a teenager afflicted with a fatal condition. She is also a sympathetic narrator and focaliser, until a plot twist presents her in an entirely different light. Told from the AI’s viewpoint, the fable informs our experience of the uncanny valley. While Mori’s model focused on appearance, the notion that Klara might replicate human consciousness brings up the hypothesis of an ‘uncanny valley of the mind.’ Yet, through most of the story, sharing the AI’s perspective is exhilarating rather than off-putting. Ultimately, in encountering this peculiar narrator, we are reminded that storytelling allows us to theorise about and rejoice in the inner lives of others, human and not.