One Book/One New Paltz will be back again, with a wealth of events at a variety of venues, from Sunday, October 29 through Saturday, November 4. But unless someone else comes along and organizes a new drive for its continuation, 2023 will be the annual community reading extravaganza’s last hurrah. So says Robin Jacobowitz, director of education projects at the Benjamin Center at SUNY New Paltz, who has been coordinating One Book/One New Paltz for years now.
“This is our final year. The first year was 2005, when we did The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It’s been going on for many, many years. We have a small-but-mighty committee, but community participation has waned,” Jacobowitz says. “It’s a lot of work.”
For its final offering, One Book/One New Paltz has selected Klara and the Sun, the most recent novel by Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro. The novel was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. Like Ishiguro’s much-lauded earlier works, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, Klara and the Sun is reportedly headed for the big screen; it was announced in May 2023 that Taiki Waititi had been signed to direct.
Klara and the Sun is a dystopian science fiction story about a future society in which some children are genetically engineered for superior academic performance and receive all their lessons remotely. To provide social stimulation, they are paired with android companions, known as Artificial Friends (AFs). The narrative is told from the point of view of an AF named Klara. Before she is purchased to accompany a sickly 14-year-old named Josie, Klara, who is solar-powered, lives in a store window and learns to regard the sun as an all-powerful deity.
“We chose this novel because it’s so timely, because of the current issues regarding AI,” notes Jacobowitz, “but it also examines other issues. The story is rooted into ancient history of the worship of the sun, and it develops themes relating to the power of love, humanity and relationships.”
The format for the weeklong series of presentations, discussions and screenings is similar to that of One Book’s pre-COVID years, with the exception that this time there will be more events designed to entice kids and their parents. As of presstime, the full schedule including venues had not yet been finalized, but as we get closer to the dates, you’ll be able to view it at www.newpaltz.edu/benjamincenter/events/one-book-one-new-paltz.
As usual, the launch event on Day One of One Book/One New Paltz, Sunday, October 29, will be a community book discussion led by Bill Strongin, rabbi emeritus of the Jewish Congregation of New Paltz, followed by a potluck brunch. A major midweek highlight is always the cross-disciplinary faculty panel on the SUNY New Paltz campus, in which several experts discuss the book from their specific academic perspectives. That will take place on Tuesday, October 31, featuring professors Jonathan Rust, Psychology; Andrea Gatzke, History; Eugene Heath, Philosophy; and Min Chen, Computer Science.
Kid-friendly events will include two screenings – with subsequent discussions – of movies about sympathetic sentient robots. The 2008 animated Disney film WALL-E will be shown at the Elting Memorial Library at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 29. Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film about a humanoid android, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, will be shown on Friday, November 3 at 5 p.m., at a venue to be announced. Also appropriate for children will be a Build-a-Robot Workshop at the Elting Library on Saturday, November 4.
SUNY New Paltz engineering students will examine philosophical questions regarding the development and uses of artificial intelligence. The Elting Library will host a talk about the current state of AI by Don Grice, a PhD in Electrical Engineering who worked at IBM in Research and System Design, including the Deep Blue and Watson projects. Additional events will explore related subjects such as the Hudson Valley’s Indigenous stone structures aligned to solar phenomena such as solstices and eclipses, and a discussion of the ethical concerns raised by Klara and the Sun led by Rev. Allison Moore, PhD, of St. Andrews Episcopal Church. All events offer free admission and do not require preregistration.
Klara and the Sun was published by Alfred A. Knopf, with the ISBN number 978-0-571-36487-9.
Join the family! 
