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Thursday 16 June 2022

Klara and The Sun - The gradient inner life of a Robot.

 Today in our English class, we read two articles about the book that we read. And answering these questions for each.

3-5 New Vocabulary.

TheGuardian.com 

- Ludicrous - So foolish or unreasonable.

- Uncanny - Strange and mysterious in an unsettling way

- Sentient - Able to perceive emotions 

- Beguiling - charming in a deceptive way.

Theatlantic.com 

- Prognosticators - A person who foretells the future 

- Deteriorating - Becoming worse over time

- Monstrosity - A thing that is large and unsightly


Important themes

TheGuardian.com 

This article follows the idea of companionship, which is Klara's (the AF) reason for her existence.

The idea of companionship roams around this article about how the world in the book has AFs for teenagers like Josie. This is to help with their early stages of life.

Theatlantic.com

This article views the story as to how Klara was able to respond to right and wrongs. Ignoring the stricture of the programing in her. She was able to correspond with situations such as Josie getting sick and doing her own actions such as destroying a Cooting machine.

Link

These two articles are linked since they both talked about how Klara gained "consciousness" to become a better companion to Josie.

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What connections can you make between "Klara and The Sun" and "Blade Runner 2049"?

The ongoing theme of discrimination throughout both texts.

In Blade Runner 2049, replicants - bio-engineered beings - are discriminated against in their society. This is because, they are designed to be better than humans, stronger and smarter. Hence why, people became envious of them and hated them.

The teenagers who are "lifted" - engineered to be better - are viewed in their society as top beings who would achieve their academic goals. They are made smarter than the people who are not "lifted. The people who aren't "lifted" are viewed as if they won't be able to get higher-paid jobs.

Love is also present in both texts

During the rain scene, Joi - a hologram girlfriend of K - was finally experiencing rain. This led to a deeply emotional love for both. As Joi attempted to kiss K, she couldn't do it, as she was a mere hologram. This shows that K can feel love.

In Klara and the Sun, Klara synthesized with the sun, to be able to save her friend, Josie. This shows that Klara cares for her friend and is willing to sacrifice herself to be able to save her. Even there's a slight chance of her recovering from an illness. This manifested Klara to have love, caring love for her best friend Josie.

What does it mean to have personhood in both texts?

One's personhood can vary on who's perspective it is. For instance, in Klara and the Sun, Rick's mother viewed Klara as a vacuum machine. However, Josie thinks the opposite. Klara for her is her best friend and someone she loves.

For Blade Runner 2049, K ignored his stricture of being a replicant and made his own decisions. This means that he was able to gain consciousness and awareness around him. Making him have a certain amount of Personhood.




1 comment:

  1. Kia ora Reige

    Well done on your blog post, especially distilling the important themes from the articles you read. What do you mean by 'Klara synthesised with the sun'? Perhaps clarify that point. I find it really interesting that you connected the idea of love with Klara's willingness to make sacrifices. This is something I hadn't thought about!

    Ka rawe and thanks for your hard work and participation! :)

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