Kazuo Ishiguro

I love THE BURIED GIANT - which could be called 'fantasy' or could be called a reworking of the realm of Arthurian romance. I don't know about 'convincing' but I don't remember having a problem with that world.

I don't think THE REMAINS OF THE DAY is at all bad on 'the incidental details of life'; quite the contrary.

I just finished THE UNCONSOLED. The mystery in a way is still why it needs to be so long - but then again, it's good, so maybe that's not a bad thing.

Suppose we take this as 'fiction trying to render the condition of a dream', has it ever been bettered? The comparison would be FINNEGANS WAKE, which is sometimes, perhaps half-bakedly, described that way. I think that THE UNCONSOLED does resemble what most of us could recognise as a dream; I don't think FW does. This leads me to think that Joyce might have been, in part, trying to render an equivalent of some aspects of dreams, but only at a distorted distance. In other words FW wouldn't represent a dream any more directly than it represents waking life.

The other comparison plainly is Kafka, but I don't think Kafka is so unambiguously dreamlike; more that the dreamlike is one of his methods or instincts. But it must be true that THE UNCONSOLED is the closest thing I've read to Kafka since Kafka, including Lethem / Scholz's KAFKA AMERICANA.

I thought also of Magnus Mills' ALL QUIET ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, because of the inexorable, menacing way in which a polite, innocent sort of person is talked into doing things - jobs, errands, favours - because they're too polite to refuse. In Mills this takes over the protagonist's life entirely. In Ishiguro it's more a series of constant digressions: whenever he's made up his mind to get back on track and do something, someone else comes along and pleads with him to assist with something, and his previous urgent tasks fall away for another 30 pages.

KI is good at polite English discourse - here it's written in English, at least, though most of the characters are not English - thus endless rounds of ...

"Ah. Yes, very good. Well let me say, sir, on behalf of the orchestra and, if I may make so bold, the entire town, not to speak of community, that I, that is to say we, are most grateful for your assistance. Indeed, I would venture to say that the entire programme, thus far, has been a considerable success - not to speak of, dare I say it, sir, haha - a triumph!"

"Indeed", I replied, "And I'm most grateful to you, Mr Volkstein, for your assistance in recent days in assuring such a happy outcome. I'm confident, indeed, that the programme has gone well, under your capable stewardship. Nonetheless, Mr Volkstein, there are certain matters outstanding, which I need to clarify."

"Of course, sir. That's entirely understood, and we will indeed have plenty of time to deal with any outstanding matters after the reception. However, sir, I wonder if I could ask you, for the moment, to turn your attention to the question of the Municipal Library."

I had no recollection of any previous reference to a Municipal Library, but decided it best to press on without raising any objection. "The Library. Ah, yes. Of course."

... KI does this for page after page. It has a certain effect, makes a certain point, is comic - but once you start, it's not very difficult to keep it up. But I like the emphasis on high culture - modern classical music, etc - as part of the town's embattled attempt to claim status and confidence.

A lot more is going on, including family: the parents who are supposed to be arriving but never do, but whose much earlier previous visit to the town is then mostly happily confirmed; the incoherent relation to partner Sophie, son Boris, her father Gustav; the childhood memories of rooms and of schoolfriends turning up. And I suppose the other strength to mention is the creation of fictional spaces with impossible relations: the way that a door will open on to a quite different kind of room, or a road through the city leads through a forest, a roadside café backs directly on to a distant hotel.

Frank Kermode's description of it as 'tragic farce' nails a great deal of the appeal for me - it's very funny (the 2001 scene, the wooden leg amputation, the journalists calling him a fucking shit), but ultimately has a quite cynical and depressing view of human nature and relationships, or those of the characters in the book anyway.

Did not like The Buried Giant at all - the severe amnesia of the main characters rendered them completely hollow and lifeless for me.

Farce, yes; sad, yes; but I don't think it can be tragic, as it doesn't really have any of the criteria for tragedy (destruction of the hero, in accordance with his own great flaw which is also his own strength? Painful irony as an inevitable fate is played out according to the characteristics of the protagonists? etc).

I don't mean to be dogmatic about that genre, which might be definable many ways (cf eg Eagleton's tome SWEET VIOLENCE), but THE UNCONSOLED ends on a sunny morning with the protagonist cheerfully eating a croissant and chatting to someone on a bus while looking forward to his next adventure!

But that may be a digression from the larger point about 'human nature' as seen in this novel.

THE BURIED GIANT for me was an action-packed thrill.

Apologies for the ending spoiler in my last post.

Listening to a BBC radio documentary about 1960s avant-garde literature, it occurred to me that one faint source for THE UNCONSOLED (whose name I largely find relatively unfitting) could be THE UNFORTUNATES.

Anyone read the new one, The Buried Giant?

― kinder, Thursday, 5 March 2015 09:06 (seven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

A mere eight years later (almost to the day! Waht!) I am beginning this, having forgotten it existed. I think I am not going to like it very much, but at least it's easy to read.

I found the Buried Giant a bit of a slog, in terms of the constant amnesia making my brain feel like it was walking through treacle. The setting/style felt quite off for KI, not a great fit imo. I kind of shrugged when I finished it and was glad to be free of the 'mist'. I think some of the magic things like the elves or whatever they were had a nice bit of understated horror.

Anyway, I thought I was probably done with Ishiguro then I picked up Klara and the Sun not knowing anything about it. Would be interested to hear others' thoughts?

I felt it was probably the most 'Kazuo Ishiguro' book yet (or since the early ones) or maybe a 'greatest hits' tour - it hit all the Ishiguro notes - naive yet intelligent outsider learning about human nature, society and love; some slightly melancholy future setting where humans can be a bit different in ways we have to figure out; trying to piece together a history from what the adults say and how the kids react; like Never Let Me Go the latching on to the idea of real true love being a reason people shouldn't get hurt; sacrifice, etc. Not to mention the naive (or is it) certainty of the 'scheme' reminding my of WWWO (not that I can remember much about that book).

I enjoyed it so much more yet it left me with the usual annoyances, contradictions and feeling of unfinished business.
I LOVED the visual perception breaking down, and how that was described.

I read a bit of theory that Josie did die and Klara became the replacement - he makes it very clear that Klara is an unreliable narrator by the end, with the explanation of her memories overlapping, and the stuff with the coffee cup shelves in the shed being unquestioned . I'm not sure this really works but it's fun to think about.

I love THE BURIED GIANT. I still want to get round to reading KLARA.

Haven't read but good to hear, I was also underwhelmed by the Buried Giant, Zelda vibes aside.

xpost

And I only counted 2 or 3 "as I say"s - as opposed to its driving me to distraction in NLMG.

Klara and the Sun - it has the uncanny valley feeling present in almost all of his works, where the world is almost but not entirely the same as ours and the difference is discomfiting. It doesn't have the emotional impact of his best stuff though. There was one bit that approached The Unconsoled, where two people have an argument in a cafe. They don't hold anything back - not in the sense of screaming at each other, but in the way they say absolutely everything that is on their minds, not devoid of bitterness or enmity but unafraid of judgement, not entirely free from petty point scoring but also wanting to be seen, to have their pain recognised. Somewhere between a row and a couples therapy session. There's an emotional depth and honesty there which when he pulls it off (once or twice here, throughout The Unconsoled) is breathtaking. It's a shame the narrator here is such a cipher.

― Scheming politicians are captivating, and it hurts (ledge), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 07:51 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is so true re really nailing people and their POVs here that it seems so much more "affected" that the narrator is so "reasonable" and observant yet not - but I think that's the point, again, the negative space in Klara of what humanity is and why she can only come so close.

Yes maybe that's the point but I couldn't get over the flatness and shallowness of Klara - (or the couple in TBG). As the narrator she is very much the heart of the book and she's just not a real person!

Also the way everyone accepted Klara's fatuous idea about going to the setting sun was ridiculous. You'd think an AI (proper artificial general intelligence, not a chatbot) would have the basic facts of astronomy in its coding. I accept this second point may be akin to complaining about the donor system in NLMG - it's just the world he's set up and you take it or leave it. The first point seems more critically unrealistic about human behaviour.

I don't think she told them exactly what she was doing but there was a bit of 'well you're a super intelligent AI so why not'. With Rick it seemed fine. With the dad I guess they set him up to be a renegade-action kind of guy so it sort of fits, but is forced. But then chasing the Mcguffin WORKED! I was so PISSED OFF. But then that left me with Questions so, good job, I guess, KI

And I hate to say it but I do feel like Klara sometimes. Like I know intellectually why people might be doing something but I'm not always sure how to handle it or can't quite grasp subtleties - I think I am a bit neurodivergent so I kind of like the matter-of-fact character and seeing how she interprets things (some things. Some are left completely opaque - I think that's one of the more annoying/glaring contradictions, that she understands physics and human interaction to the point of being able to correctly judge why people are doing things, but completely idiotic about other things.).

Just finished Artist of the Floating World. Admired the elegance of the sentences, control of mood, etc, but overall it felt a bit threadbare, like an overextended short story. Perhaps, having only read one of his novels, I'm mistaking his strengths for weaknesses?

threadbare, overextended as actual strengths??
Seems like would take a miracle, like the "fantasy" I mentioned on WAYR?

Just now made it almost all the way through Klara and the Sun before echoing another ilxor's recent cry re another offering, "What the Hell, Ishiguro?!" Because of a spot of fantasy appearing in the swirl and clank of fairly rigorous, or at least committed, faith-keeping science fiction, the kind with nuances of individual characters, in context of small group and societal dynamics, influenced by technological options and some related shades and spaces back there (a lot of detail, but gaps for readers to fill as well, agreeable balance, I think).
So better to think of it the way Wells labelled his most popular novels as "scientific romance," like, don't expect total rigor, and know that this sweetened spot (though not "sweet spot," in terms of ideal balance) of authorial convenience leads around and back into the overall cadence, groove of involving elements

lots of expository conversations, but also hearing yourself say that, and how verbalization x thought loops, plans, decisions snowball that way, re diff ideas and "Oh it wasn't even really an idea...(later, re same conversation)Mom just had this shitty idea..." as everything keeps moving along.

The plot's pretty tight, so hard to highlight w/o indicating spoilers, but, re xpost Klara and the Sun as scientific romance, I now notice that Library of Congress data has it classified as Science Fiction and Love Stories, which is right: these are the love stories, as told by Klara, AF (Artificial Friend) series B2, of her and her chosen child owner,Josie, of Josie and her longtime best friend, Rick, as they now struggle with new roles of boyfriend and girlfriend, also stories of love of children and parents, incl. more struggles of course.
Model B2, state of the art/being superseded by new B3, but perhaps compensating for relatively limited features, is here especially challenged tune into and understand humans, sometimes remixing on the fly, as do the humans--because Josie is one of those lucky children, not just gifted, but lifted, genetically edited, which is risky, expensive in a lot of ways, but worth it, if you want your child to have a chance at anything in this world, which is strange and getting stranger, also more familiar, just up the road a little way (copyright 2021, but no pandemic culture; he probably wrote it before we were assured of the probably lingering elements of that, but isolation is a way of life in this story, though Josie and her privileged peers are now reaching the age, as part of college prep, when they must have meetings, which means learning how to be with people outside of the immediate family and household---and that's enough for this month, kids).

― dow, Wednesday, January 26, 2022 3:15 PM