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Kazuo Ishiguro uses artificial intelligence to reveal the limits of our own
- nelox 6y agoAt least we agree my intelligence is artificial
- millstone 6y agoNPR's review headlines the book as "A Masterpiece", and the first line of its review is "This is unbearable." I read Never Let Me Go so I know what this means.
- prvc 6y agoVery good book; plausible and relevant wrt current discussions surrounding AI, although possibly with a few narrative-facilitating concessions. Relatedly: apparently this same reviewer had some very harsh words for The Unconsoled in his review of that book (anyone have a copy of the review?). Now, he calls him a "master", so that's definitely progress.
- neonate 6y agohttps://archive.is/B95AI https://archive.is/B95AI
- mejutoco 6y agoI thought this would be about Ishiguro using gpt3 exclusively for one of his characters (the ai character) in the novel. In his kafka-like universe it might even work.
- Gatsky 6y agoHaven’t read the novel, but this is a wonderful review, perfectly constructed. Reading good writing remains unfailingly enjoyable.
- notimetorelax 6y agoI don’t like articles with lengthy preludes, here’s where the discussion about the book starts: ... Klara, the narrator of Ishiguro’s new novel, is a kind of robot version of Stevens, and a kind of cousin of Kathy H. She’s a carer, a servant, a helpmeet, a toy. “Klara and the Sun” opens like something out of “Toy Story” or the children’s classic “Corduroy” (in which a slightly ragged Teddy bear, waiting patiently in a department store, is first turned down by Mother, and finally plucked by her delighted young daughter).
- chris_st 6y agoI agree it's a very long prelude, but I'm glad I read it; I learned about a couple of different literary genres I hadn't heard of before, and I found it useful to understand what Ishiguro was doing.
- mark_l_watson 6y agoNice article. I have a new year’s resolution to read more good literature and listen to more classical music. Anyway, Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go has been on my Audible wish list for a year so I just bought it. Thanks Adam for posting this. Sorry to be a little off topic, but I notice that most of my friends and family spend a lot of time watching movies and other streaming media, but from conversations it seems to me like they spend little time reading (with some exceptions). We all get to allocate our own time, but I like limiting myself to a maximum of one movie a day, but I feel good about spending much more time reading, choosing an active pastime of visualizing the people and world depicted in books, rather than passively watching streaming content. A movie has to be really fantastic to get the same effect as just a good book.
- sho_hn 6y agoI think it's important to be a bit careful in "ranking" entertainment activities in the absolute, rather than purely by personal enjoyment. The knowledge/information retention rate from most light reading (i.e. without taking notes, researching context, re-reading, etc.) is surprisingly low, really, and it's better not to drink one's own kool-aid in that regard - no, the quantity of books read in a year doesn't neatly equate to understanding, just to, presumably, a lot of good fun. "I spend my time doing better things than you do" risks coming across as arrogant, rather dissuades others from reading more, and also closes one's own mind to considering the strengths and depth of other types of media. That said, I enjoy reading as much as you do. I am extremely grateful to my parents for encouraging the habit - I think reading books taught me as a young child to empathize with others around me, by letting me into the internal thought-worlds of their characters and getting me used to inhabiting other viewpoints. In that sense I think reading can also be very formative for comm skills during a certain time of life.
- nontrivialRZ 6y agoThis is incredibly well put, and it reminds me to read on a more active basis. I have two different "modes" when reading - 1) for novels and light matsrial, which is just casual reading, 2) for material that warrants study, typically using a pen to underline critical information and write thoughts in the margins. You seem to suggest that casual reading, while I'm sure shares some spillover benefit, should not be mis-characterized as active study and is closer to entertainment. Do you make a conscious effort to read most things actively?
- chris_st 6y agoGood review, but I felt like some things about the plot were spoiled. I think sometimes "literature" reviewers feel that plot isn't really important, and so spoiling it doesn't matter.
- jberryman 6y agoI've only read "The Buried Giant", but can strongly recommend it. Beautiful, and sad, dreamy, poetic and fable-like.
- blowski 6y agoHe was on an Economist podcast recently discussing the same topic: https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2021/03/04/is-ai-capable-of-falling-in-love https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2021/03/04/is-ai-capable-...
- prvc 6y agoThanks for that link. His comment that he began from children's literature bolsters my impression that the book can be seen as an improved re-working of The Velveteen Rabbit.