禁漫天堂

In my view, something important happens on page 9: the word 鈥渟ee鈥� appears seven times, 鈥渓ook鈥� six times. There鈥檚 also 鈥渇ollow with one鈥檚 eyes,鈥� 鈥渇ix one鈥檚 gaze,鈥� and 鈥渕ake eye contact.鈥� All on a single page! See what I mean?

Now look, Kazuo Ishiguro is a Nobel Prize-winning writer. He knows that one of the 鈥渞ules鈥� of good writing is to favor variety.  Don鈥檛 repeat; use a synonym. Or better yet, delete. Avoid redundancy.

We should be on the lookout for moments when a writer (or visual artist, or composer, or choreographer) disregards the 鈥渞ules.鈥� These moments invite interpretation. There may be more going on than meets the eye.

In the entire book, words like 鈥渟ee鈥� and 鈥渓ook鈥� occur over eight times as often as 鈥渉ear鈥� and 鈥渓isten.鈥�  鈥淓ye鈥� appears eighty-nine times; 鈥渆ar鈥� just thirteen.

This preponderance is surely due to the fact that the narrator possesses 鈥渆xtraordinary observational ability.鈥� After just two days in the store window, Klara鈥檚 observations equip her with extensive knowledge of human behavior鈥攁nd soon thereafter with insight quite profound. Human beings, she realizes, can act one way when they feel the opposite. They may even feel contrary emotions simultaneously.

Later, Klara鈥檚 vision occasionally goes a little wonky, dividing up into 鈥減artitions.鈥� Rereading these scenes, I came to recognize this as a special visual superpower.

And yet, Klara can鈥檛 smell.  She can鈥檛 taste.  Her sense of touch comes up only rarely. (Among dozens of comments about the sun鈥檚 appearance, there鈥檚 only one about its warmth.) And while her sense of hearing seems to have come preloaded with perfect pitch (she notes that Josie鈥檚 voice ranges 鈥渂etween A-flat above middle C to C octave鈥�), this seems more useful as a potential party trick (鈥渟ing for me the harmonic minor scale鈥�) than an ability for gaining useful knowledge, let alone wisdom.

Listening is a struggle. Klara has trouble making out words in the Open Plan, Capaldi鈥檚 studio, the sushi caf茅, the theater, and everywhere outdoors (which, she says, has 鈥渦nusual acoustics鈥�). Gradually she learns to glean information from tone of voice, but these efforts are rudimentary, and are sometimes compromised by her partition-vision, which makes sound fade to the background.

(I couldn鈥檛 help but notice that there鈥檚 essentially no music in this story, just some snatches at the theater. A monotone 鈥淛osie, Josie, Josie鈥� that the Mother repeats, 鈥渁s if this were part of a song.鈥� An unsung harmonic-minor scale.  The Mother鈥檚 un-played cello.)

As I hinted above, we say 鈥淚 see鈥� to mean 鈥淚 understand.鈥� 鈥淢y view鈥� means 鈥渕y way of thinking.鈥� 鈥淟ook鈥� stands in for 鈥減ay attention鈥�; 鈥渢ake a look鈥� for 鈥渆xamine鈥� or 鈥渃onsider.鈥� Ishiguro takes part in this equation of vision with reason, but I suspect he is also making a commentary on it. Klara and the Sun asks what is gained, and what is lost, when we privilege sight over other senses as a way of knowing.