Talk:Klara and the Sun

A more detailed synopsis?

The current synopsis says: "In a disturbing speculative dystopian future, Klara, who narrates the story, is an Artificial Friend (AF), a humanoid machine who has come to act as a companion for 14-year-old Josie. Josie is gravely ill. Klara tries to come to grips with the anguishing injustice of a dying child."

I'm proposing an expansion roughly along the lines of the following:

"In a dystopian future, Klara, who narrates the story, is an Artificial Friend (AF), a humanoid machine who has come to act as a companion for 14-year-old Josie. Josie is gravely ill due to genetic enhancements, referred to in the book as "lifting", that she received earlier in life at the behest of her mother. Klara and the reader gradually become aware that it is well-understood that these genetic enhancements can lead to death and that Josie's older sister, who was also lifted, eventually died from that cause. To support Josie's emotional well-being, Klara encourages her relationship with Rick, her neighbor and best friend from youth. Rick's mother did not have him lifted. This interferes significantly with his academic and career prospects and also may drive a wedge in his loving relationship with Josie. Josie is periodically driven into a nearby urban area for photography sessions. Klara becomes aware that the photographer, at the instigation of Josie's mother, is planning to build a Josie-sized apparatus that can enclose Klara so that if Josie does die of the illness, Klara will be expected to become Josie so that the mother can proceed through life as if Josie did not die. Klara devotes her efforts to finding a cure for the illness which she attempts to do through pleas to the sun. The sun has a special role in Klara's being, as it does for all the AFs, because it is for them a direct source of the energy that powers them." Novellasyes (talk) 14:50, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Fine with me! Any more expansions or tweaks can be made afterwards. Be bold! Add it. Οἶδα (talk) 20:20, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Thanks! Novellasyes (talk) 20:30, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

I'm hoping that a reviewer will soon take note of the parallels between Klara's sacrifice of one of her robotic liquids/chemicals (which reduces her ability to function afterward) in the interest of killing the pollution machine and therefore saving Josie, and the sacrifices of the characters in Never Let Me Go. Novellasyes (talk) 14:27, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

Characters

Some elements of the story are given away in the description of the characters. This should be rewritten to only talk about the characters themselves and not for instance 'how they grow' throughout the book. 99.238.49.249 (talk) 22:42, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

I don't think "giving away" elements of the story matters, as that's of course already done in the plot section. But I do agree that the characters section isn't the place to re-tell the story over again. Plot points should be in the plot section, otherwise the WP:NOVELPLOT length restrictions become pointless. I will trim the entries. MichaelMaggs (talk) 22:52, 7 February 2024 (UTC)