[_list: Books from Korea] Vol.10 Winter 2010

Vol.10 Winter 2010

Special Section

Poetry of Korea Interviews Poet Chong Hyon-jong Novelist Lee Seung-U The Place

Where Writers Call Home, Tongyeong City

ISSN 2005-2790

KLTI Grants for Prospective Publishers KLTI Overseas Marketing Grants

KLTI Overseas Publication Grants

Areas of Funding Publication marketing events and advertisements

Applicant Qualifications Any publisher who has signed a contract for the publishing rights of a Korean book.

The book should be published by December 2010.

Applicant Qualifications Publishers who have published Korean books in translation within a year and are planning to hold promotional events.

The event should occur within 6 months following the final application deadline.

Grant Amount - Roundtrip airfare and accommodation expenses for the author, expenses for events and promotion, etc.

- The amount will be determined by KLTI after due consideration of the marketing plan and scale. * The grant will be provided directly to the author or to the overseas publisher in two payments, before and after an event.

How to Apply Register as a member on the website (www.koreanbooks.or.kr) and complete the online application form.

Application Documents All documents should be scanned and uploaded on the application page of the website.

1. Introduction of the publisher, along with its history and past publications, including any previous books related to Korea 2. Breakdown of total event costs 3. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator 4. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the copyright holder 5. The translator’s resume Other Information to Include 1. Detailed event plan including a breakdown of anticipated expenses 2. Publication cost 3. Total cost of event (marketing or promotion) 4. Requested grant amount Application Schedule Submission period: 2011. 1. 1 ~ 2011. 9. 30 Grant notification: monthly from February to October Contact Name: Oh Eunji Email: grants@klti.or.kr

Grant Amount - Part of the total publication expenses.

- The amount varies depending on the publication cost and genre of the book.

- The grant will be awarded after publication.

How to Apply Register as a member on the website (www.koreanbooks.or.kr) and complete the online application form.

Application Documents All documents should be scanned and submitted on the application page of the website.

1. Introduction of the publisher, along with its history and past publications, including any previous books related to Korea 2. Publication plan including the dates and budget for translation and publication in detail 3. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator 4. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the copyright holder 5. The translator's resume Application Schedule Submission period: 2011. 1. 1 ~ 2011. 9. 30 Grant notification: April, July, and October Contact Name: Oh Eunji Email: grants@klti.or.kr

Top Five Questions for 1. What is list_Books from Korea, and where can I find it? list is a quarterly magazine packed with information about Korean books.

Register online at www.list.or.kr to receive a free subscription.

2. Can I get it in English?

The printed edition of list is available in English and Chinese.

The webzine (www.list.or.kr) is available in English, Chinese, and Korean.

3. What if I want information about Korean books more often?

We offer a bi-weekly online newsletter.

Simply email list_korea@klti.or.kr to begin receiving your free copy.

4. Who publishes list_Books from Korea? list is published by the Korea Literature Translation Institute, which is affiliated with the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

LTI Korea’s mission is to contribute to global culture by expanding Korean literature and culture abroad. Visit www.klti.or.kr to learn about our many translation, publication, cultural exchange, and education programs.

5. I understand there are grants available for overseas publications, right?

LTI Korea offers many useful programs for overseas publishers, including Overseas Marketing Grants and Overseas Publication Grants.

Visit www.koreanbooks.or.kr for detailed information.

Contact: list_korea@klti.or.kr

Foreword

Where Poetry Is Loved Koreans love poetry. The status of poetry in Korea is quite different compared to many countries in the West. Whereas contemporary poetry in the West finds itself distanced by the general public for its immersion in the abstruse Modernist experimental form, modern Korean poetry has been loved by its readers, which in turn have nurtured its growth in Korea. One often finds poetry books on the bestseller lists in Korea. Diverse and specialized magazines on poetry are sold in bookstores. Ko Un, a Korean poet who has been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature many times, has been writing poetry for over 50 years.

In the last century Korea underwent a period of turmoil and rapid change during colonization, modernization, division as a result of the Korean War, and demonstrations.

To overcome the hardships of the times, a great surge of energy was manifested in the arts, which produced many great novelists and poets of Korean literature. The biggest reason why Korean people love poetry is that during the colonial period (c. 1910-45) poetry was how the Korean language was able to survive, and through poetry the literary qualities of the Korean language were most actively explored. Koreans often cite Kim So-wol from 1920s as their favorite poet, and that is because he expressed in his poems the subtleties of the Korean language and the sentiments of the Korean people in a most outstanding way.

In the 20th century Korean poetry directly confronted the conflicts and debates that arose during the course of modernization, and exerted its social influence in the utmost way. Especially, since the 1970s, Korean poetry, in opposition to political repression and rapid industrialization, expanded its social influence. During this time, Korean poets exposed the social conditions of the country through their poems, and revealed their will and desire to overcome the negative state of affairs. On the other hand, there were poets who posed fundamental questions about humanity and the world, experimenting with language and new forms, while others wrote lyrical poems on human emotions and internal reflection. The realm of the imagination has been expanded through these manifestations of the diverse explorations of human existence and novel attempts at poetic idiom, not to the mention the diversification of the poetic language.

In particular, since the 1980s the trend in Korean poetry has been an innovation in literary approaches. Young poets have produced numerous works rebelling against the system and existing conventions, and at the same time garnered much attention to themselves as their books of poetry have gained readership. The poet Lee Seong-bok has deconstructed the dominant poetic idiom and grammar, and conveyed the existential discontent of his times through poetry.

Beginning in the 1990s, the poetry written after the 1970s that expressed the political spirit went into decline, and was replaced with poetry by the new generation of poets with an urban sensibility. These poets were less interested in social issues, and began writing poems on the daily aspects of city life.

Modern Korean literature has a history of less than 100 years. At the onset, the poetry establishment did not surpass the level of small literary magazines, and poets were few in number. However, Korean poetry has rapidly grown in quality and quantity, and the number of poets now number close to 10,000. Without question, there is a plethora of styles and individual voices found among these diverse poets. Translation cannot do justice to poetry; neither is poetry a genre that, despite its relative popularity, appeals to the broadest of audiences. But there is nothing like poetry that can best express the characteristics of Korean literature in a particular era. In comparison to fiction, Korean poetry has a smaller readership abroad, and has not been fairly assessed. This special edition of list_Books from Korea will provide an introduction to a wide range of Korean poems for readers abroad that are curious about Korean poetry.

By Park Sungchang

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 1

Contents Winter 2010 Vol. 10 01 06 07 08 10

Foreword Trade Report News from LTI Korea Bestsellers Publishing Trends

Special Section

Poetry of Korea

12 Where the Power of the Pen Still Lives On 14 Rediscovering the Self Through Lyricism 19 The Rise of a Modern Sensibility

Interviews 24 Poet Chong Hyon-jong 30 Novelist Lee Seung-U

Excerpts

28 Day-Shine by Chong Hyon-jong 34 The Private Lives of Plants by Lee Seung-U

Overseas Angle

36 An Interview with Jonathan Galassi 40 A New Horizon for the Korean Coming-of-Age Novel 39 Book Lover’s Angle: Antonio Colinas 69 Writer’s Note: Sung Suk-je.

The Place

42 Where Writers Call Home, Tongyeong City

Theme Lounge

46 Mythology in Korea

Reviews 50 Fiction 68 Nonfiction 76 Children's Books

Spotlight on Fiction

53 “Garden of Childhood” by Oh Jung-hee

Steady Sellers

67 Silk Mountain at the South Sea 81 Dear Mrs. Astrid Lindgren

Meet the Publishers

82 Youlhwadang Publishers

New Books 84 Recommended by Publishers 90 Index 92 Afterword

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 3

Contributors Baek Won-keun is chief researcher at the Korean Publishing Research Institute. He lectures on publishing at Chung-Ang University, among others.

He is on the editorial board of list_ Books from Korea.

Kim Meekyung

Cho Hyun-soul is a professor of

Kim Yonghee

Korean literature at Seoul National University. His works include The History and Structure of East Asian Founding Myths, The Mystery of Korean Mythology, and The History of Tattoos.

Cho Kang-sok

is a literar y critic. He has written such works as The Constellations of Aporia and The Empiricist’s Clock.

Han Mihwa writes on the subject of

publishing. Her written works include Bestsellers of Our Time and This Is How Bestsellers Are Made, Vols. 1, 2.

Hwang Hieon-san

is a literary critic. His works include Hope Without a Face and The Depth of Speech and Time.

Jang Sungkyu

is a literary critic.

He currently lectures at Kwangwoon University.

Jeong Cheolsoo is the president of Imagine Publishers.

Joseph Lee is executive director of

Imprima Korea Agency. He is dedicated to bringing Korean literature to an English-speaking audience and to Europe. He is a consultant on overseas publishing to list_Books from Korea.

worked as a journalist at The Hankyoreh newspaper from 1988 to 2004. Since 2005, she has been living in New York as an administrative manager at the Korean Cultural Services New York. is a literary critic and professor of Korean Literature at Pyeongtaek University. Her works include Penelope’s Loom: Modern Women Poets and Going to Heaven.

Lee Kwang-ho

is a literary critic and professor of creative literature at Seoul Institute of the Arts. His works include Love, Anonymous, and Of Political Insignificance.

Oh Yunhyun

writes children’s books. Currently, he is editor-in-chief of the culture and science section of SisaIN, a weekly magazine, and is a member of the World of Children’s Story Society. His books include Tori Is Escaping from Game Land and The Amazing Mystery of Our Body.

Kim Ji-eun is a writer of children’s

stories and a critic of children’s literature. She currently lectures on theories of writing fiction for children in the Department of Creative Writing at Hanshin University.

4 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Shin Junebong

is a journalist at the Culture Desk of the JoongAng Ilbo.

He received his MA from Goldmiths, University of London in 2008, and is interested in theoretical analyses of literature, cultural phenomena, and customs.

Uh Soo-woong

is editor-in-chief of the Chosun Ilbo Weekend Magazine.

Yi Soo-hyung is a literary critic and

Yoo Sungho

and professor of Korean literature at Seoul National University. His works include Rhetoric, Korean Literature in the Glocal Age, and Challenges in Comparative Literature. He is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.

Pyo Jeonghun is a book reviewer,

Pyun Hyeyoung

and translator. Among her work are The Cat with Two Feet and Across the River Tumen and Yalu. She is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.

of primary education at Soong Eui Women’s College.

Park Sungchang is a literary critic

Kang Gyesook is a literary critic.

Kim Inae is a children’s writer, critic,

Shin Hye-eun is a full-time lecturer

Chosun Ilbo.

Park Hae-hyun is a writer for the

lectures at Seoul National University and the Korean National University of Arts.

She is presently an editorial board member of Literature and Society, and has published a collection of criticism called A Beautiful Language. She also won the Changbi Prize for New Figures in Literary Criticism in 2002.

and the head of BC Agency. He translated 13: The Story of the World’s Most Notorious Superstitions, appeared on KBS 1 Radio’s “Global Today,” and writes columns for The Korea Economic Daily and Posco News.

a senior researcher at the Seoul National University Academic Writing Lab. He studied contemporary literature, and has taught at Hongik University, Seoul Institute of the Arts, and Korea National University of Arts.

columnist, translator, and freelance writer. He has translated 10 books into Korean and written Books Have Their Own Destiny, A Short Introduction to Chinese Philosophy, and An Interview with My Teacher: What Is Philosophy?

Jung Yeo-ul is a literary critic. Jung

Richard Hong is a book columnist

has published the short story collections Aoi Garden and To the Cages and the novel Ashes and Red. She won the Hanguk Ilbo Literature Award in 2007 and the Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award in 2007. She is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.

Quan Helv

is a p rofe ssor of Korean language and literature at Jilin University. His works include A Comparative Study of Yi Kwang-su and Lu Xun.

is a literary critic and professor of Korean literature at Hanyang University. His works include The Image and Logic of Korean Modern Poetry.

Yu Gina is a film critic and professor

of film and digital media at Dongguk University. Her works include Yu Gina’s Women’s Cine-Promenade and Find Yourself Through Film (Co-authored with Im Kwon-taek). She is on the editorial board of list_Books from Korea.

Yu Youngjin is a critic of children’s

literature and a teacher at Ja-un Elementary School. He is the author of The Body’s Imagination and Fairy Tale.

Translators Ann Isaac

has a BA and MA in Classics and English Literature from Cambridge University, and an MA in Japanese Studies specializing in translation from the University of Sheffield. After moving to Korea in 2001, she studied Korean at various institutions and currently translates from Korean to English, with a special interest in literary translation.

Anne M. Rashid

is an assistant p r o f e s s o r o f E n g l i s h a t C a r l ow University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she teaches American literature and creative writing. She has published poetry in Adagio Verse Quarterly, Lit Candles: Feminist Mentoring and the Text, and The Metro Times. She and Song Chae-pyong recently received the 40th Korean Literature Translation Award in Poetry Translation given by The Korea Times.

Cho Yoonna

studied English Literature at Yonsei University. She currently attends the Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

She translates and interprets freelance.

Choe Wolhee

is a professor of English at Polytechnic University. She is the author and translator of books on poetry, painting, and poetics.

Choi Inyoung

is an artist and translator. She has been translating for over 20 years. She specializes in Korean literature and the arts.

Christopher Merrill has published

four books of poetry, including Watch Fire and four books of nonfiction. He has also co-translated four books of Korean poetry into English. He directs the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Edward W. Poitras originally came to Korea as a missionary and became a professor at the Methodist Theological University. He also writes essays and translates Korean literature.

George Sidney

is a Korean War veteran, taught American literature and English for five years as a Fulbright Professor at Sogang and Seoul National University.

Inrae You Vinciguerra graduated

from Seoul National University of Education. She is an artist, teacher, and translator. She and her husband, Louis Vinciguerra, have translated four Korean novels into English and were awarded a literary translation residency from LTI Korea in 2008.

Juhn Hye-jin has taught Korean at various institutes, including the Defense Language Institute in California. She now lives in Seattle.

Jung Hayun

is a professor at the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation at Ewha Womans University.

Her stories, essays, and translations have been published in The New York Times, Harvard Review, and The Literary Review. She is the recipient of the PEN Translation Grant, Harvard University Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, and a KLTI translation grant.

Jung Yewon studied interpretation and

translation at GSIT, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Jung has worked for Bain & Company, Korea and various other organizations, and is currently working as a freelance interpreter/translator.

Jung received the Daesan Foundation Translation Grant in 2009. She is currently working on No One Writes Back, a novel by Jang Eun-jin.

Kim Hee-young

is a freelance translator. She is currently working on the translation of a collection of the experiences of comfort women titled Histories Behind History.

Kim Won-chung

teaches poetry, translation, and ecological literature at Sungkyunkwan University. He has translated nine books of Korean poetry into English, including Because of the Rain: Korean Zen Poems (2005) and Scale and Stairs: Selected Poems of Heeduk Ra (2009).

Louis Vinciguerra earned his MA in

history from UC Berkeley. He is an artist, teacher, and playwright. He and his wife, Inrae You Vinciguerra, have translated four Korean novels into English and were awarded a literary translation residency from LTI Korea in 2008.

Peter Fusco was a poet, translator, and teacher of classical literature. He died in 1996.

Peter J. Koh is a freelance translator/

interpreter. He is currently participating in the KLTI’s 2010 Intensive Workshop in Literary Translation.

Song Chae-pyong

is an associate professor of English at Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan. His translations of Korean literature have appeared in The Korea Times, New Writing from Korea, Metamorphoses: Journal of Literary Translation, and Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture. Recently, along with Anne Rashid, he won the 40th Korean Literature Translation Awards for translating Kim Hyesoon’s poems.

Sue Y. Kim received her BA in English

Literature and International Studies from Ewha Womans University. She currently resides in Los Angeles, and is working on a novel in the Creative Writing program at the University of Southern California.

Vol.10 Winter 2010 A Quarterly Magazine for Publishers

Yang Sung-jin

is currently a staff reporter at The Korea Herald, covering new media and books. Yang wrote a Korean history book in English titled Click into the Hermit Kingdom and a news-based English vocabulary book, News English Power Dictionary. He runs a homepage at http:// web.me.com/sungjin.

Y i Je o n g - h ye o n

i s a f re e l a n c e translator. She has translated several books and papers on Korean studies including Korean Traditional Landscape Architecture (2007), and Atlas of Korean History (2008).

Editors Kim Stoker earned a Master’s degree in

Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii.

She is currently a full-time lecturer at Duksung Women’s University.

Krys Lee

is an editor, translator, and fiction writer. She also teaches full-time at Duksung Women’s University. Her short story collection will be published by Viking/Penguin in the U.S.A. and Faber and Faber in the U.K., in 2012.

Cover Art Koo Bohnchang has played a pivotal

role in modern Korean photography. His works are in the permenant collections of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, and Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, as well as prominent museums in America, Japan, Germany, and Australia.

The white porcelain pieces that Koo sought in museums across the world then photographed like portraits, form a series that demonstrate a unique, refined sensibility while exploring the themes of empty spaces, memories of the past, wounds, and the traces of time. “ Ve s s e l ” b y K o o B o h n c h a n g i s reproduced on the front and back cover of list_Books from Korea.

You can access more information at http://www.bckoo.com.

PUBLISHER _ Kim Joo-youn EDITORIAL DIRECTOR _ Kim Yoonjin MANAGING DIRECTOR _ Park Kyunghee EDITORIAL BOARD Baek Won-keun Kim Inae Park Sungchang Pyun Hyeyoung Yu Gina OVERSEAS PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Joseph Lee Paek Eunyoung Rosa Han EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Kim Sun-hye MANAGING EDITORS Cha Youngju Kong Min-sung EDITORS Kim Stoker Krys Lee ART DIRECTOR Choi Woonglim DESIGNERS Kim Mijin Lee Jaehyun Jang Hyeju PHOTOGRAPHER Lee Kwa-yong PRINTED IN _ EAP

list_ Books from Korea is a quarterly magazine published by the Korea Literature Translation Institute.

All correspondences should be addressed to the Korea Literature Translation Institute at 108-5 Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea 135-873 Telephone: 82-2-6919-7700 Fax: 82-2-3448-4247 E-mail: list_korea@klti.or.kr www.klti.or.kr www.list.or.kr Copyright © 2010 by Korea Literature Translation Institute ISSN 2005-2790

Cover art © Koo Bohnchang

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 5

Trade Report

Korean Spy Novel Climbs Amazon Bestseller Lists

Korean Literature Gains More Attention Overseas

Kim Young-ha’s novel Your Republic Is Calling You was published by U.S.-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on Sept. 28. His previously translated novel I Have the Right to Destroy Myself was published by the same publisher in 2007. What’s notable is that Kim’s latest novel climbed to the 227th slot of Amazon’s bestseller list shortly after it was introduced by NPR, the public radio broadcaster in the U.S., on Oct. 1. Kim’s novel shot to number 38 on the literary ranking chart under the Literature & Fiction category of Amazon, and third on the ranking of Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue, a subcategory of Amazon’s Mystery & Thrillers. In the Spy & Tales of Intrigue list, Gary Hansen’s Wet Desert was the No. 1 bestseller, followed by John le Carré’s Our Kind of Traitor and Kim’s Your Republic Is Calling You. It is also known that various film industry officials have shown keen interest in Kim’s novel. Kim sold the translation rights to the novel in eight countries, including the U.S.

Pyun Hyeyoung’s debut feature Ashes and Red made inroads into the French market. It marked Pyun’s first sale in a foreign market. Editions Philippe Picquier acquired the rights to the novel in September. The French publisher continues to pay attention to Korean literature. According to Barbara J. Zitwer, an agent handling the novel’s world translation rights, a number of editors and agents from Europe and Asia showed interest in Pyun’s novel at the 2010 Frankfurt Book Fair, suggesting that it is likely to sell its rights in other countries soon. Meanwhile, the first foreign sale of Shin Kyung-sook’s new feature Somewhere There's a Phone Ringing For Me was made by The Peoples Literature Publishing House. The Chinese publisher also purchased the rights for Shin’s two novels, Lee Jin and Violet.

Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian, whose translation was supported by the Korea Literature Translation Institute, is now set to be translated into Vietnamese and published in the local market

by Tre Publishing Co., a leading literature publisher in Vietnam.

And a Chinese publisher recently snapped up the rights for Leafie, a Hen into the Wild written by Hwang Sun-mi, who is regarded as a leading writer in the children’s book genre. The Chinese publisher in question is Jieli Publishing House, known for its good reputation in the market. Hwang’s Leafie, a Hen into the Wild was previously translated into Japanese and published in the Japanese market.

And the rights for Lee Jung-myung’s representative whodunit novel The Deep-rooted Tree was sold to Kawade Shobo Shinsha, a Japanese publisher. Lee’s another well-known novel, The Painter of Wind, was previously sold to a different Japanese publisher.

Actor Cha Inpyo’s novel, Farewell Hill, a moving tale about the Korean comfort women who suffered from the atrocities of the imperial Japanese army during the World War II, was recently sold to Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, a unit of China’s Phoenix Publishing & Media Network.

By Joseph Lee

2

1

1. Your Republic Is Calling You (U.S. edition) Kim Young-ha, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010 2. Your Republic Is Calling You Kim Young-ha, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

2010, 429p, ISBN 9788954610155

Ashes and Red Pyun Hyeyoung, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 260p, ISBN 9788936433734

6 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

News from LTI Korea

KLTI Holds Forums in Nanjing and Taipei

In mid-September 2010, KLTI held two forums, one in Nanjing, China, and one in Taipei, Taiwan. The first forum was staged at Nanjing University on September 9th and 10th. On the theme of “Exchange and Understanding of Korean and Chinese Contemporary Literature in the Context of Globalization,” participants included Korean writers Park Wan-suh, Yun Hu-myong, and Choi Soo-cheol, and Chinese authors Fan Xiaoqing, Huang Bei Jia, Su Tong, and Bi Fei Yu, as well as publishers, translators, and scholars in Korean studies. During the forum, KLTI successfully concluded an MOU with Yilin Press, a subsidiary of the Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, the largest of the 500 leading publishing groups in China.

The K LTI Taipei Forum was held shortly after wards on September 13 at the National Chengchi University, Taiwan. The first session was the “Current State and Future Prospects for Translation and Research of Korean Literature in Taiwan,” while the second session consisted of a discussion between Korean writers Yun Humyong, Kang Sok-kyong, and Choi Soo-cheol, and Taiwanese authors Li Min Yong, Chu An Min, and Chen Fang Ming. The level of awareness about Korean literature and books is low in Taiwan compared to mainland China, and the forum provided an opportunity to awaken interest in Korean literature and stimulate translation and publication activity.

The 4th International Translators’ Conference LTI Korea held a two-day International Translators’ Conference on September 13 and 14 at the COEX in Seoul. This year’s event, the fourth such conference, took as its theme “Evolution of Translation”

and consisted of four main sessions. Proceedings started with a keynote speech by literary critic Professor Kim Hwa-young on the topic “Language, Literature, Translation, and Me.” In the “Translator Meets Author,” session, writer Oh Jung-hee was paired with Jeong Eun-jin, who translated The Bird into French; the author of A House with a Deep Yard, Kim Won-il, was paired with Russian language translator Grigoriy Li; and Jo Kyung-ran was paired with Kim Chi-young, who translated Tongue into English. The authors and translators took this special opportunity to share their feelings about the works and the subtle differences that had revealed themselves during translation.

On the second day of the conference, in the “The Realities of Inspiring Translations” session, translators of works awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, by authors such as Orhan Pamuk, Kenzaburō Ōe and Gao Xingjian, took the stage and attracted much attention as they shared their ‘know-how’ for producing inspiring translations that touch readers’ hearts. In the final session, representatives from translation support organizations of various countries such as Spain, Germany, and Turkey, introduced the role and achievements of each organization and then held a discussion on the future of literary translation support at the state level.

KLTI U.S. Forum in Michigan

The KLTI U.S. Forum, on the theme of programs for the local reception of Korean literature, was held over three days from October 14 to 16 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The forum opened with an opportunity for translators of Korean literature and leading American publishers to openly discuss “The Challenges of Cross-Cultural Literary Translation.” On the second day, Korean authors and U.S.-based Koreanists held a session of unofficial presentations and discussions on the theme of “Recent Trends in Korean Literature.” Participation by local specialists in Korean studies and Asian literature was especially active due to the forum’s links with the North American Workshop on Korean Literature (NAOKOL).

A special point of interest was the participation of Kim Youngha, author of Your Republic Is Calling You, which has recently been published in translation and is attracting huge interest in the American publishing world, and Shin Kyung-sook, author of Please Look After Mom. On the final day of the forum, in an event on Korean authors and their literature called “Korean Fiction Writers Talk About Their Work,” the two writers introduced their own works directly to American readers and gave readings from their books.

The 2010 KLTI U.S. Forum proved to be a very significant event that provided excellent ideas for strengthening the advance into the British and American market, a market which KLTI will give greater priority to in the future.

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 7

Bestsellers

What We’re Reading

Somewhere There’s a Phone Ringing for Me

The Road Not Traveled Is More Beautiful

Fiction The Big Picture Douglas Kennedy, Balgeunsesang 2010, 492p, ISBN 9788984371026 Published in 1997 to international acclaim, The Big Picture, is a major novel by Douglas Kennedy. The plot involves a man who seeks to find his true self.

Although the novel belongs to the thriller category, it showcases the author’s artistic sensibility and extensive knowledge about photography.

Et après…

Guillaume Musso, Balgeunsesang 2010, 424p, ISBN 9788984371019 This novel by France’s bestselling writer Guillaume Musso takes the form of a thriller peppered with surrealistic elements such as near-death experiences, messengers, and predictions about death and the afterlife. But what’s more important than the exotic fictional devices is the author’s core message stressing the importance of life and love.

Dreams of Gangnam Hwang Sok-yong, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 380p, ISBN 9788936433765 In this fast-paced novel, Hwang Sok-yong, who is often said to represent today’s Korean literature, brings the reader back to the historic milestones that are shaping modern Korea, including the tragic collapse of a luxurious department store in the wealthy Gangnam district, and chronicles how South Korea has undergone modernization driven by capitalism.

8 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Wedding Speeches by a Monk

Nonfiction Somewhere There’s a Phone Ringing for Me

The Road Not Traveled Is More Beautiful

Shin Kyung-sook Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

2010, 380p, ISBN 9788954611275 The bestselling novel by Shin Kyung-sook, one of Korea’s most popular female writers, zooms in on four women who depend on each other in a way that explores the significance of growing up in an era of autocratic rule and the meaning of love and youth.

Park Wan-suh, Hyundae Munhak 2010, 268p ISBN 9788972754671 This book provides a glimpse into the innermost thoughts of Park Wan-suh, a famous Korean writer. Park ponders what life and death mean at a deeper level. Her profound affection toward people and nature is well reflected in her refined writings that highlight her joy and wonder in life as well as her gratitude and love.

1Q84, Vol. 3 Haruki Murakami Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

2010, 744p, ISBN 9788954611800 The first and second installments of 1Q84 by the world-renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami made a big literary splash across the world. In the third installment, Murakami enriches the intricacies of plot by mixing the voices of the three characters, Tengo, Aomame, and Ushikawa.

Pump Up Your Serotonin!

Lee Si-Hyung, Joongang Books 2010, 244p, ISBN 9788927800606 Serotonin is a well-known contributor to feelings of well-being and happiness. Doctor Lee Si-Hyung, one of the most famous psychiatrists in South Korea, offers tips on self-control based on neuroscience. In an engaging manner Lee explains serotonin-inducing acts such as walking and breathing as well as recommendations for foods that produce serotonin.

Wedding Speeches by a Monk Venerable Pomnyun Sunim Hankyoreh Publishing Company 2010, 271p, ISBN 9788984314207 The author, Venerable Pomnyun Sunim, received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in Peace and International Understanding in 2002. In this essay collection, Venerable Pomnyun offers heartwarming messages to young people who dream of a happy marriage.

One of his key messages is that marriage is not for oneself but for sharing what one has with their partner.

These totals are based on sales records from eight major bookstores and three online bookstores from August to October 2010, provided by the Korean Publishers.

The books are introduced in no particular order.

From Intellectuality to Spirituality

The Moon Sorbet

What Should I Write in My Diary?

Children's Books Peace World Love

The Moon Sorbet

What Should I Write in My Diary?

Moon Sun-myung, Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. 2009, 383p, ISBN 9788934933755 Moon Sun-myung, the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church, has authored this essay collection. Despite negative reactions from other Christian denominations in South Korea, Moon sold one million copies in just 18 months since publication in early October.

Back Heena, StoryBowl 2010, 32p, ISBN 9788996478201 The book features very interesting cat brothers who eat bread made of clouds and float in the sky. The author, in fact, concocted a similar imaginary narrative in her previous book, Cloud Bread. Meanwhile, in the new book, the day is so hot that the moon melts down, and a grandmother uses the water spilling down from the melting moon to make sorbet and share it with the neighbors. Excellent illustrations that mix together cloth and paper are extremely eye-catching.

Jung Sul-ah, Bluegarden 2010, 173p, ISBN 97889932422317 Keeping a diary is a big headache for Korean elementary students because it’s assigned as regular homework. The book is basically a guide for how to write up an entry for a diary. A fantasy titled Diary Library shows up front the reality of depressed students and charms them by showing them how to keep a diary in a simple and easy way.

Comic Maple Story-Offline RPG, Vol. 41

Choi Sookhee, Bear Books 2010, 36p, ISBN 9788993242317 This picture book illustrates the wonder and surprise of motherhood. Soft colors and lovely pictures instantly draw attention. The book is gaining popularity as it infuses pride in children and reaffirms motherly affection in a way that brings mothers and their children closer to each other.

From Intellectuality to Spirituality Lee O-young, Yolimwon 2010, 304p, ISBN 9788970636511 Lee O-young, former culture minister and renowned author, reveals how he came to be a religious believer, a dramatic turnaround considering that he had long been regarded as a skeptic who held a critical view of the Bible. Lee chronicles his dramatic transformation in a way that grabs the readers’ attention.

People Who Control Emotion, People Who Are Controlled by Emotion Hahm Kyujeong, Chungrim Publishing 2010, 249p, ISBN 9788935208326 Hahm Kyujeong, director of Caruso Emotional Intelligence Skill Center, shares techniques on how to effectively control one’s emotions. Hahm, who has trained numerous CEOs and business people, offers a way of finding a sense of happiness with a set of emotional intelligence skills.

Song Do-soo, Seoul Cultural Publishers, Inc. 2010, 189p, ISBN 9788926391006 The Maple Story series seems unstoppable. The 37th volume marked sales of 10 million copies. A new installment hits the bookstores every other month, an ambitious schedule aimed at pushing sales to eventually hit 20 million copies. The series helps younger readers improve their learning skills and broaden the boundary of their imaginations.

My Boy, My Miracle

Faraway Nations, Neighboring Nations, Vol. 13: China Rhie Won-bok, Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. 2010, 216p, ISBN 9788934940241 Rhie Won-bok, a professor at Duksung Women’s University, put out the first volume of his educational comic series in 1987. He initially attempted to introduce the culture and history of European countries based on what he observed in Germany as a student. The comic series became a smash hit, selling over 10 million copies. In 2010, Rhie shifted his attention to China. His new book on China, as with his previous ones, is selling at a brisk pace in the domestic market.

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 9

Publishing Trends

Fiction

Humanities Craze Sweeps Society There is a book that has maintained its position at the top of the bestseller lists for several months now. Bestsellers are usually novels or essays, or occasionally books on management or selfhelp. However, “It is the exception that proves the rule,” and in this case it is a book on humanities, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Harvard lecturer in philosophy, Professor Michael Sandel, that is arousing public interest. The reason this work is especially popular in Korea can be found in the current state of Korean society. As Korean society has been incorporated into a system of globalization and neo-liberalism, social inequality and polarization has deepened. In concentrating only on economic growth and freedom, the spirit of looking after one’s neighbors and sacrificing for the sake of the community has been lost. Without realizing it, the concept of social justice has become one that it is very difficult for Koreans to find in their current situation. This book criticizes a society without justice and reflects the hope of contemporary Koreans who ardently long for a just society.

The key point of Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? is that it links the things going on around us—what we read in newspapers or see on the news—to various philosophical traditions and theories of justice. Readers of the book are delighted to find that the philosophies of even Aristotle or Kant are relevant to their own lives.

These days a craze for the classics is sweeping Korean society. Lectures on the classics are starting up at universities, while ordinary people also have a strong desire to glean wisdom from the classics. Even business managers are looking to the humanities to find energy for reform. Sandel’s book too is connected to this current appetite for the classics. By connecting an awareness of the problems of our time to the great Western philosophical scholars and classical works that we might have felt were too hard to grasp, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? is, as it were, a magnificent bridge linking the classics to the here and now.

By Park Sungchang

Nonfiction

Readers Seek Intellectual Inspiration Harvard University Professor Michael Sandel’s book in the field of political philosophy Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? topped the bestseller list last quarter, as books related to Harvard came out one after another. Subtitled “Harvard University’s Most Famous Lecture Series Over Two Decades,” this book has achieved a phenomenal popularity rarely seen in the humanities, captivating the hearts of Korean readers who long for a ‘fair society’ now that political democratization has been achieved. It 10 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

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1. Borrowed Book, Bought Book,

Abandoned Book

Jang Jung-il, MATI 2010, 336p, ISBN 9788992053389

2. I Read a Book Today Too Choi Sung-kak, Dongnyok Publishers 2010, 475p, ISBN 9788972976318

3. Commentaries on Korean food Chang In-yong, Roots & Leaves 2010, 364p, ISBN 9788964620052 4. Story of the Joseon Kings Lee Duk-il, Wisdomhouse publishing Co., Ltd 2010, 344p, ISBN 9788993119152

is remarkable that, while previous works about Harvard were on the whole strongly practical in nature, concerned with the study method of Harvard students or university entrance examinations, since the publication of Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? there has been diverse interest in the field of humanities at Harvard. Examples of this are books such as Harvard – Interviews on Philosophy, The Whole Five Feet, and Scholars of Harvard University. It will be interesting to see how far this craze will go.

Meanwhile, there has been a recent stream of books about reading, including The Presidents' Reading Skills, an introduction to the reading style of successive Korean presidents, and Bookshelf of Obama. Environmental activist Choi Sung-kak’s I Read a Book Today Too, and the 8th book in the Reading Diary series by writer Jang Jung-il, Borrowed Book, Bought Book, Abandoned Book, has also attracted much attention. It is anticipated that books on reading will continue to increase as greater weight is placed on reading and essay writing in the Korean university entrance examinations.

In the field of humanities, there has been a stream of specialized books on interesting subjects such as Story of the Joseon Kings, which investigates the individual characteristics of past Korean kings, and Commentaries on Korean Food, which fascinatingly describes the history of Korean food culture.

Translated works such as Robert Kiyosaki’s Conspiracy of the Rich,

in the area of business, and What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, in the field of self-help books, have proved highly popular. In addition, owing to the Smartphone frenzy sweeping society, many books have been published that explain how to use a Smartphone, or deal with topics such as the transformation of the industry or Smartphone applications.

By Baek Won-keun

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Children's Books

Mirroring Books

by Adults

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It sometimes happens that the children’s book market acts as a mirror reflecting the book market of adults. If psychology books are popular in the adult market, a few months later that popularity is reflected by a boom in psychology books for kids. If books on the economy are all the rage, the same pattern emerges. When the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad became a bestseller, the children’s story Kira, Rich at the Age of 12, also became a big hit.

This sort of trend has continued recently. As Michael Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? topped the bestseller list in the humanities for several months in a row, Professor Moon Yong-rin’s Happy School of Morality has since been attracting considerable attention. In this book Moon Yong-rin, a scholar of education and former Minister of Education, explores the moral concepts of honesty, promises, forgiveness, responsibility, the consideration of others, and possession in the form of a children’s story. A significant number of critics are asking pessimistically whether the fact that people are so interested in justice and morality means that such values have become extremely rare.

Meanwhile, The Days of Sungkyunkwan Confucian Students, the

1. The BORI Korean Dictionary TOBAGI Dictionary Editing Department Bori Publishing Co., Ltd. 2008, 1497p, ISBN 9788984285439 2. How Such Words Came to Be Woorinuri, Gilbutschool 2008, 183p, ISBN 9788992279932

original novel behind a popular television drama these days, is being swiftly reworked into a children’s comic book form.

Also noteworthy is the sudden rise to bestseller status of John Goddard’s Mr. John’s List of Dreams. This book, the success story of a man who has achieved 111 of the 127 dreams he wrote in a ‘life list’ as a child, is now, more than 30 years later, being used to help teach Korean children the value of having life-long dreams.

It is wonderful to see children’s Korean language dictionaries appearing in various forms. How Such Words Came to Be and The BORI Korean Dictionary give the derivation of Korean words and present pure Korean language relating to traditional culture, daily life, and plants and animals. In addition, the Faraway Nations, Neighboring Nations series by Rhie Won-bok, a series of comic books designed to help children understand world history, and Treasure Hunting in Switzerland, are steadily finding a place in readers’ hearts.

By Kim Inae

3. Treasure Hunting in Switzerland Gomdori Co., I-Seum 2010, 190p, ISBN 9788937848254 4. Far Countries, Neighboring Countries

Vol. 13: China

Rhie Won-bok, Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. 2010, 216p, ISBN 9788934940241

5. Happy School of Morality Moon Yong-lin, Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. 2010, 152p, ISBN 9788934941408

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6. Sungkyunkwan Confucian Students Yeha; Illustrator: Kim Suk The Dreamers Publishing House 2010, 176p, ISBN 9788994136431

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Special Section

Poetry of Korea Trends in Modern Korean Poetry

Where the Power of the Pen Still Lives On In Korea, poetry is still loved by the public, and many people aspire to be poets.

Here’s a look at the influences and inspirations that propelled Korean poetry into the modern age.

Korea, like many East Asian countries, was greatly damaged during the progression of modern history. With a throng of foreign warships swarming to its shore, the country could no longer stay a recluse. After Korea was colonized by neighboring Japan, the people of Korea who had always had a deep respect for literature, tried to escape hardship by embracing Western civilization. The most urgent priorities for Koreans were learning the modern sciences and establishing a stable economic foundation. But it was also important for them to understand the literary forms of the modern Western world and begin practicing a new form of literary art in order to imbue their language with a unique power, as well as awaken to their fate and boost national pride in the midst of despair. The Korean people grasped the essence of Western literature in a relatively short period of time, and immediately set to creating outstanding works of modern literature. Such a feat was made possible due to a literary tradition of over a thousand years spent mastering Eastern classics and literature, but also due to the urgent call of the day. The fetters of colonization, however, could not be removed for more than three decades; liberation led to national division with the South and the North, divided by an inflow of foreign ideologies and a bloody, fratricidal war.

The 1960s of Korea began with the April 19 Revolution, through which students and citizens rose up to topple the dictatorship. The revolution is significant in the context of Korea’s spiritual history, in that it awakened the people to the fact that they were key players in the making of history. A politically heightened spirit led directly to poetic passion. Everyday citizens penned a poem, and more. Poetry was all the rage, and poetic imagination surpassed political imagination. The spiritual force leading to this poetic fervor came from various sources. Poets, who had long been making an effort to give a Western literary form to Korean native mythology and sentiments, now attempted to fuse the modern achievements in the humanities with the mythical imagination of the Korean people. Poets believed that 12 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

the universal analogy connecting humans and nature had been nullified as a result of the inflow of unfamiliar cultures into Korea and the passive modernization of the colonial era. These poets sought a foundation for democratic growth in the meditation of nature as well as classic ethical teachings of the East. The poets who had honed their sensibilities through a study of Western or modern art, wrote poetry with poetry itself as the end goal, and at the same time, tried to make the sophisticated language of poetry the allegory of a pure spirit, free from worldly desires. By their side were poets who glimpsed the hope for an absolutely pure language in the purity of the self-confession found in Christianity, a religion still unfamiliar to the Korean people at the time.

However, poets who made a keen observation of the political and social realities believed that through constant and careful reflection on everyday life, the possibility of a newly unfolding history, as well as the possibility of an advanced language, could be founded simultaneously. The political changes incurred by the civic revolution are significant in that they led the poets of Korea to devise poetic methods appropriate for the era in which they lived, by finding their own language and discovering themes large and small in their own lives. As implied by the title of the poem, “Shells Shall Depart,” by a major poet of the era, outdated ideas and foreign ideologies were nothing but empty shells, to be filled with deep reflection and affection for life and humans.

The changes in society, however, did not include the realization of the hopes embodied by poetry, and once again, poetry grew in its power to inquire and express amid the strife against a coercive military regime. Such a phenomenon was not limited to poetry, which had always engaged in political struggle, actively advocating social participation. Regardless of which side they were on, poets who had lived under the ideals of a neo-Confucian tradition that asserted conformity of learning and action, tried to clearly define the relationship between the outstanding language of their creation and true spiritual liberty; thus they endlessly posed existential questions and asked how effective poetry could be in establishing a healthy prospect of life in a reality where all kinds of social ideas and aesthetic theories intermingled.

The wounds of national division, already internalized, left a deep scar on the language of poetry. As a result of rapid industrialization, people from rural areas, who came swarming to the city, attempted to express their feelings of anxiety through the unique language of poetry. Even when the reality is unfortunate, if that reality is embodied in an appropriate way, the spirit and the mind can be uplifted. Political unrest, fierce competition, and heated intellectual fervor often made the language of poetry like that of prose, seemingly unfamiliar, but the poetic territory expanded and the power of language was strengthened. People learned that poetry, not verse, exists in life, even a pathetic life, and that any word can lead to poetic inspiration.

In 1980, with the bloodshed in Gwangju among citizens and soldiers, another poetic boom occurred in Korean society. People tried to keep what they did, saw, and heard in their memory.

What they had to remember, however, was not just the scene of a single incident. Their memory went down to the root of this unfortunate history, even further below. They tried to remember how the world, existing deep within their memory as a faint trace, and forbidden because it was so beautiful and sacred, was buried

just below the bloody tragedy of the day. Memories were recalled, and those memories were turned into rough slogans at times, and sophisticated songs at others. Nothing is without meaning if it is something experienced and conceived by humans. Moreover, there is no tragedy that cannot fill a human heart with poetic sentiments. When a veteran Korean poet dedicates his poems, at times lyrical, at times satirical, and at times instructive, to the people he has encountered in life and history and myths, then he always has this conviction in mind.

The themes and methods of Korean poetry underwent many changes at the turn of the century and into the new millennium.

The focus was removed from literature as a political tool, and placed on the fundamental political nature of literature, and poets who had sung of rural sentiments and meditation on nature were now showing a deeper concern for the ecological environment.

Above all, the emergence of a great number of women poets and their lively engagement should be noted. Being in charge of everyday life, being mothers who bear and raise children, they have come to grasp the secrets of everyday life, unknown to men.

When men flaunt weapons of theories and ideologies, women can write an entire poem with the words, “It’s not always that way.”

In this country, still tainted by the tendency of preferring a son to a daughter, women poets have changed the climate of Korean poetry. It’s not surprising that the young poets who have emerged since the year 2000 have the same roots as that of the women poets. From the conventional perspective of men, middle-aged and older, young poets, like women poets, belong to a new order.

They declare, against the globalization and capitalization of the world, and against the conspiracy to rationalize and mechanize everything in human history, that the world cannot turn those who use a language so alive that it is nearly confusing, into “dead poets.”

Korea is a country of poetry. Collections of poetry often become bestsellers in this country. The safety doors of the Seoul subway stations display poetry, as do parks and hiking trails, so much so that it is almost annoying. As can be seen in “Poetry,” a film by Director Lee Chang-dong, local governments in Korea provide their people with poetry writing classes, and many people take advantage of them. Also, as can be seen in “Ha Ha Ha,” a film by Director Hong Sang-soo, poets, looking like angels or devils, can be found in any town in Korea, delving into people’s thoughts. The reason why Koreans love poetry is because they all believe that their roots have not been extracted in this era of industrialization, and they keep sacred in their hearts something that cannot become lost.

By Hwang Hieon-san

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Special Section

Poetry of Korea Trends in Modern Korean Poetry

Rediscovering the Self Through Lyricism As Korea struggled with democracy and industrialization, poets explored lyricism and the inner self.

Through the 1960s, Korean poetr y pursued the creative integration of social consciousness and lyricism rather than traditional sentiments, based on the experiences of those who had lived through the April 19 Revolution. Such change could be seen in the leading poets such as Seo Jeong-ju, Kim Hyun-seung, Park Mok-wol, Kim Gwang-seop, Pak Tu-jin, and Cho Chi-hun.

For example, Seo Jeong-ju built his own linguistic fortress with a unique mythical imagination and a mastery of the language while Kim Hyun-seung explored the existence of an individual who stands face to face with God. Park Mok-wol turned around from his nature-oriented imagination and delved deeply into the joys and sorrows of the city people and Kim Gwang-seop criticized civilization in The Pigeons of Seongbuk-dong, which was a rare attempt at the time. These poets all explored topics with immutable values such as nature, the individual, the inner self, existence, and the classics, thus diversifying the genre.

Ju s t a s t he p o e t r y of t he 19 6 0 s w a s b a s e d on t he possibilities created by the April 19 Revolution, the poetry of the 1970s bloomed amid political oppression and the waves of industrialization. While Ko Un, Shin Kyung-rim, Kim Ji-ha, Cho Tae-il, Lee Sung-boo, Jeong Hee-sung, and Lee Si-young demonstrated social lyricism, Hwang Tong-gyu, Chong Hyonjong, Choe Ha-rim, Mah Chong-gi, Oh Kyu-won, Kim Kwangkyu, Kim Myung-in, and Park Jung-man presented diverse inner experiences based on ontological explorations. Meanwhile, poets like Heu Young-ja, Chung Jin-kyu, Lee Keun-bae, Kim Huran, Oh Tak-bon, Yoo An-jin, Park E-dou, Ra Tae-joo, Lee Soo-ik, Song Soo-kwon, Oh Sae-young, Lee Geon-cheong, Kang Eungyo, Shin Dalja, Lim Young-jo, Lee Sung-sun, Moon Chung-hee, Kim Hyeong-young, Cho Jeong-kwon, Hong Shin-seon, Sin Daechul, Kim Jong-hae, Kim Jong-chul, Lee Ga-rim, Kim Seung-hee, Lee Jun-gwan, Lee kee-chul, Cho Chang-whan, and Yoon Suksan continued their path in exploring lyricism.

Such trends continued in the 1980s with poets exploring human existence through the ups and downs of individual life histories. Poets such as Jeong Ho-seung, Lee Seong-bok, Choi Seungho, Choi Seung-ja, Lee Ha-suk, and Ki Hyung-do presented poems that explored an authentic existence by embodying the inner self of a person living in a capitalist society and the social 14 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

violence that induced it. In particular, Ki Hyung-do lifted language up to the highest degree of tragedy by comparing “death,” an event in an individual’s life, to social violence.

A number of female poets formed the main body of poetry in the 1990s. This signified a shift that had previously centered on reason, power, and men, to a focus on emotion, diversity, sexuality, and life. Examples of this change can be found in poets such as Chun Yanghee, Kim Hye-soon, Bak Ra-yeon, Hwang Insuk, Choi Jeong-rye, and Jeong Keut-byeol.

In a similar vein, a dramatic increase in ecological poems can be regarded as a notable trend in poetry in the 1990s.

Environment-friendly poems, contemplative poems immersed in nature, post-humanist poems that affirm all living things, and poems critical of civilization can be included in this trend. Poems

by Kim Ji-ha, Chong Hyon-jong, Lee Sung-sun, Lee Ha-suk, Choi Dong-ho, Ko Jin-ha, Ko Hyeong-ryeol, Lee Si-young, and Shim Ho-taek are some of the examples.

In the 1990s, active critical discourse on modernity emerged in Korean poetry. They demonstrated a great diversity, ranging from clarifying the attributes of “modernity” that Korean poetry had achieved from an aesthetic point of view to examining the dysfunction that modernity had brought about. In particular, the ecological imagination was based on the critical reflection on the “modern.” At the same time, we remember the new poets of what can be called the 1990s style “new lyricism” who aimed to restore the minute details of the senses. These poems consistently presented the patterns of internal psychology rather than external events. The “new lyricism” revealed the psychological and existential conditions that modern people felt at every single moment of life, while the “old lyricism” celebrated universal emotions that relied on nature. With a subtle linguistic awareness, these poems made an important contribution to the development of modern poetry.

Ko Un’s Ten Thousand Lives was finally completed in 2010.

This means that modern Korean history written in poetry over a long period of time and through diverse experiments has finally been finished. Ko’s work is not an epic but rather a collection of lyrical poems that clearly reveal the dynamics of modern Korean history. Shin Kyung-rim shows the depth of life that was based on

his experiences while Huh Man-ha combines a unique mythical imagination and linguistic self-consciousness. Hwang Tonggyu presents a new world of poetry that is renewed constantly and Chong Hyon-jong maintains the zenith of fundamental thinking in pithy poems. Mah Chong-gi shows the beauty of his mother tongue found in a foreign land while Chung Jin-kyu transfers the rhythm of nature with the eyes that discover the depth of human lives in nature. Oh Sae-young confirms that poetry is originally meant to comprise the image of an object and the world of lyricism that arises from it. Oh Tak-bon discovers metaphysical logic in trivial sensual experiences and Lee Geoncheong demonstrates a beautifully original imagination through the discovery of a “whale.” Kim Jong-hae writes about imaginary embodiments but makes sure that such an embodiment is a world that evokes universal experience. Kim Ji-ha combines ecological imagination and national form in his poems, and Kim Jongchul carves beautiful images of the mother and the hometown, showing the depth of eternal memory.

It is also worth examining the works by poets who explore feminine identity. Yoo An-jin expresses beautifully how one can reach new self-awareness in life in the midst of trivial objects. Shin Dalja perfects the imagination of passionate love with sizzling yet sophisticated linguistic senses, and Moon Chunghee demonstrates self-awareness of language itself in the process of applying his native language to the abundant objects that we encounter in everyday life. Chun Yanghee presents an elegant linguistic style, a narration of memories and the vicissitudes of love while Kim Seung-hee, with an acute sense of the world of chaos, shows how to attain a paradoxical salvation by giving the rhythm of life an aesthetic touch. Choi Moon-ja writes authentically about a symbolic ritual that heals the scars of life.

Lee Ga-rim expands his poetic territory by combining a classical imagination and material embodiment and Kim Hyeongyoung maintains his position by perfecting religious thought and depth of lyricism. Kim Myungin demonstrates a consistent depth of poetry and an understanding of the true condition of language, Shin Dae-chul a vast scale and fine self-awareness, Lee Si-young narrative impulse and unique concerns on “poetry,” and Hong Shin-seon a depth of lyricism while contemplating nothingness.

Choi Dong-ho’s spiritual poetics demonstrate a profound thinking in poems that have been enriched with experiential details. Poems

by Jo Jeong-kwon express his eloquent linguistic sense through the self-consciousness that he has formed through musicality.

Kim Sinyong continues to feel imaginary pains even after the disappearance of a painful life but endures them with aesthetic sorrow. Do Jong-hwan uses correct, proper language of enlightenment to demonstrate the depth of spirituality and how he can free himself completely from lonely self-contemplation. Lee

Jae-mu writes poems that show how instantly the body responds to the outside world while demonstrating self-awareness as a poet.

Ahn Do-hyeon unites the objects and the poet or the objects and the readers with a close affinity that is almost like a rapport between parents and children, and simultaneously creates a cognitive shock that would make the readers open their eyes to the authenticity of life. Jang Seok-nam shows the stature of a leading poet of lyricism with the purity of memory and an acute sense of language. Ra Heeduk presents objects that reveal their hidden beauty the minute the poet’s hand touches them. Song Chanho recreates the grand apocalypse that “records” the disappearance of things with great compassion and love. By printing sad memories, Park Hyung-jun shows how poetry can resist the retrogression of time. Bak Ra-yeon demonstrates a maturity that embodies individual objects and concepts through the point of view of a woman’s sensuality rather than with an affectionate motherhood. Moon Tae-jun enhances the reputation of Korean lyrical poetry with faithful memories and delicate lyricism. Yu Hong-june demonstrates an imagination that reaches the depth of life through the traces of death embedded in everyday life. The ecological poems that present skeptical views on modernity have been continued by poets such as Park Nam-jun, Ha Jong-oh, Lee Moon-jae, Lee Hi-jung, Jang Cheol-mun, Lee Jeong-rok, Jeon Dong-gyun, Lee Byungryul, and Gwon Hyeok-ung.

As such, Korean lyrical poems have shown diversity and dynamism that discover the individual and the inner self. The return-to-self aspect in lyricism gives meaning to objects and represents the attributes of reflection that bring such meaning into one’s life. Through the process of a poetic imagination that brings vitality and life into objects, the poets clearly demonstrate a lyricism that is a return to the self and a reflection upon that return.

By Yoo Sungho

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1. The Festival of Pain Chong Hyon-jong, Minumsa Publishing Group 1974, 129p, ISBN 9788937406119 2. Pyeongang, The Princess of Seoul Bak Ra-yeon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1990, 100p, ISBN 8932015821 3. The Horn Shin Kyung-rim, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2002, 96p, ISBN 8936422189

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list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 15

Special Section

A Winter Night at 00:05 Hours

By Hwang Tong-gyu I walked watching the stars.

I was about to cross after I got off the local bus behind the apartment’s back entrance, but I just kept walking.

The stores’ shutters came down, as if trying to conceal their inner cold.

Still, one or two snowflakes blew in the wind from the snow that had briefly fallen late that night.

The dust must have died down for now.

How long had it been? I adjusted my coat, collected myself, and walked to the last stop watching the stars.

The last bus stop. Not so long ago, on one side of the small triangle-shaped square, an ironmonger’s with scissors and knives hanging outside its window like baroque music, was demolished, and a farmer’s market with the sign To the Field took its place.

The building lights go off and a streetlamp reads the sign.

On the opposite side, a Shilla Bakery closes its doors for the night.

Where the last side begins, a woman stares hollow-eyed at her cell phone, as if waiting for her daughter or husband on the last bus.

She is tall, her waist slightly bent, and she is memorizing something in a just audible voice.

I stand by her as if I know her while rubbing my hands together, and look up to the sky.

In the sky that seems to have frosted over, Ursa Major, over there, Cassiopeia…and Orion.

None torn into separate stars, all still alive!

The woman in a just audible voice now says decisively, “Now I’m going to kill myself.”

The streetlight just shines off her pale face.

There is no murderous trace staining it.

I feel somewhat at ease.

Silently, I also think, “Just let him or her come!” several times.

16 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

A star brightens, and asks, “What are you waiting for? Someone who might not come?

A world without darkness? A world without dust?

The life of a comet radiating light as its body of dust freezes and melts in the dark is probably not a bad life.”

Who let out a dry cough?

If someone hadn’t been next to me, I would have spoken up precisely to the star, “I won’t speak about the dark or the light next to those desperate in their waiting!”

Like the outside of a scuba diving mask, the stars shimmer, then stop.

It’s time for the last bus to arrive.

Translated by Krys Lee

To My Root

By Ra Heeduk I can remember you when you were my root in a deep place and I was soft earth, just plowed.

Ah, my love, steam rose from the spot where your breath first touched me and I trembled at the joy of drawing my clean blood to flow into you.

My root thirsting for the clean well, please rise in me.

Because my flesh, bedazzled, breaks easily, dip your feet merrily in my clean blood and spurt it out.

When you grabbed my spine and reached farther I became a good vessel, I sheltered you.

A flaming wind thrashed me, but I felt a secret stupid joy, always blessing the tip of your growth.

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 17

Special Section

See how my flesh toughens when you climb down through me.

Please drink my last cup, because I’m old and murky, a husk pierced by strings of sorrow.

When you were my root in a deep place worms sprang up in my mind; but I’ve become an empty vessel.

When your green stems shine in the sunlight, I will be plowed into the soft earth on the hillside.

Translated by Kim Won-chung and Christopher Merrill

Flatfish

By Moon Taejoon In room 302, which houses six patients from Kimcheon Hospital, she lies in bed with her oxygen mask and struggles with cancer.

She lies there like a flatfish on the floor of the sea.

I lie down beside her like another flatfish.

When one flatfish glances at another, she bursts into tears.

The emaciated woman cries, with one eye moving into the other.

She looks forward only to death, I look back at the billowing days of her life.

I remember her life in the water, wading to the right and left, the lanes she took, the cuckoo’s song at noon, the evenings she boiled thin noodles, and the history of her family that for generations couldn’t build mud walls.

I remember the winter day that her legs slowly forked and her back bent like branches under heavy snow.

The sound of her breath roughens like the bark of an elm.

I know she can no longer see the world beyond death; One eye has moved darkly into the other.

I swim and twist to the right and left, toward her, I lie down quietly beside her.

She sprinkles on my dry body drops of water drawn through her mask.

Translated by Kim Won-chung and Christopher Merrill

18 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Special Section

Poetry of Korea Trends in Modern Korean Poetry

The Rise of a Modern Sensibility The dawn of a new generation of poets opened the possibilities of experimentation and diversification.

One of the driving forces of modern Korean poetry has been the pursuit of modernity. The efforts to attain a sense of the contemporary that went beyond traditional lyricism became active in the Korean literary scene in the 1930s. Korean poetry, however, only began to include the diversity and depth of modernity after liberation and division in the 1960s when a new generation emerged as literary leaders. After liberation, poets Kim Su-young and Kim Chun-soo pursued two aspects of modernity: a “critique of reality” and the “autonomy of language,” both of which had a major influence on the subsequent development of poetry in Korea.

The struggle against the detached and lofty nature of Korean literature and the oppressiveness of Korean society meant that the poetic methodology itself came to signify resistance against reality.

The way poetic language responded to the oppressive reality of the times was in itself an aesthetic achievement and a form of resistance.

The “April 19 generation” that entered Korean literature after the epochal April 19 Revolution in 1960, was the leading force behind it. The poetry of this generation recognized an oppressive reality as the problem of existence and explored the poetic methodology that could expose it. Such poetry was based on the relationship of tension between the autonomy of literary language and reality. It can be seen as the exploration of modernity in Korean poetry as a response to the industrialization that took place in the 1960s and the 1970s.

The April 19 generation’s literary achievements began to appear as collections of poems from the latter half of the 1970s: Lee Seunghoon’s Bridge of Fantasy (1977), Hwang Tong-gyu’s When I See a Wheel I Want to Roll It (1978), Mah Chong-gi’s The Invisible Land of Love (1980), Chong Hyon-jong’s I Am the Uncle-star (1978), Shin Dae-chul’s For a Desert Island (1977), Oh Gyu-won’s To a Boy Who Is Not a Prince (1978), Kim Kwang-kyu’s The Last Dream to Affect Us (1979), Kim Hyeong-young’s Mosquitoes Make Noise Alone (1979), Choe Ha-rim’s At a Small Village (1982), Lee Ha-suk’s Transparent Inside (1980), Cho Jeong-kwon’s The Seven Forms of the Mind That Looks at the Rain (1977), and Kim Myung-in’s Dongducheon (1979) are achievements that reflected such trends in poetry after the 1960s.

Awareness of a new cultural freedom and independence, and pride in writing in their native language as the “Hangeul generation” became free from the oppression of language during the Japanese colonial period, made such adventures in modernity possible. Hwang Tonggyu’s “Tension in Methodology,” Oh Gyu-won’s “Irony and Satire,” Chong Hyon-jong’s “Poetics on Life and Freedom,” Mah Chonggi’s “Lyrical Perspective,” and Kim Kwang-kyu’s “Common Critical Mind” are important examples of such adventures.

Such pursuits of modernity continued in the 1980s. Having experienced the structural violence of Korean society at the end of

the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s made the new generation reflect fundamentally on the concept of freedom, the literary ideal of the previous generation. With the emergence of another generation, more progressive aesthetic poetry continued and the language of negation and deconstruction came to the fore. In this context, the poets of the 1980s posed more fundamental questions on the custom and the grammar of the poetic genre based on the achievements in poetic modernity attained by the previous generation. The desire to negate the reality they faced unfolded as an adventure to deconstruct and reconstruct the poetic structure itself.

The publication of Lee Seong-bok’s When Does a Rolling Stone Awaken? (1980) was a symbolic event that was followed by Choi Seung-ja’s The Love of This Age (1981), Kim Hye-soon’s From Another Star (1981), Kim Jeong-hwan’s A Song That Cannot Be Erased (1982), Goh Jung-hee’s Abel of This Age (1983), Choi Seungho’s Heavy Snow Warning (1983), and Song Jae-hak’s Collection of Poems on Ice (1988).

These new poets pushed forward with works that revealed an inner, oppressive reality by using an even stronger language of negation.

Hwang Ji-woo’s Even Birds Leave the World (1984), and Park Nahmcheoll’s Human of the Earth (1984) pushed such deconstructive methodology to an extreme. The new sensibility symbolized by Kim Youngseung’s Reflection (1987), Ki Hyung-do’s The Black Leaf in My Mouth (1989), and Bak Ju-taek’s Mobile Architecture of Dreams (1991) was a meeting point for the experimental mind of the 1980s and the emotions of the 1990s.

Modern Korean poetry of the 1990s emerged under a new set of cultural circumstances. Korea’s procedural democracy expanded as a result of the June Uprising in 1987 and the symptoms of a consumer society began to appear on a full scale in the 1990s. With the new information-oriented society and capitalism as a part of daily life, modern Korean poetry reinvestigated its aesthetic identity.

The poets of the 1990s reexamined the status of poetry in the age of popular culture. A diversity of themes—the aesthetics of death and extinction, the exploration of urban daily life, connecting with popular culture, the digital environment and cyberspace, the poetics of the body, and feminism and sexuality—brought about a pluralism that had not existed in the previous era. The generation that grew up on popular culture began to express the images of daily life as a consumer society. Various cultural aspects of the consumer society emerged as themes of poetry. Jang Jung-il’s Meditation on a Hamburger (1987) and Yoo Ha’s We Should Go to Apgujeongdong on a Windy Day (1991) were a starting point. New poems that explored the issue of existence in the reality of the new popular culture included Jang Kyoung-lin’s Lion Is Escaping, Catch the Lion (1993), Yeon Wang-mo’s The Premonition of the Dogs (1997), Sung list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 19

Special Section Kiwan’s Have You Been Shopping? (1998), Seo Jung-hak’s The King of Adventure and the Aristocrats of the Coconut (1998), Kang Jeong’s Execution Theater (1996), and Joo Chang-yun’s Sheep Hanging on a Coat Hanger (1998). They presented the emptiness and the chaos behind the dazzling spectacle of capitalism.

Meanwhile, works that transformed the grammar of lyrical poems to reconstruct the other side of the city with a modern language continued to take place. Kim Ki-taek’s Fatal Sleep (1991) and Lee Yoon-hak’s The House of Dust (1992) are representative works of this trend. Works that used idiosyncratic language to express the gloomy existential reality hidden behind the age of consumer capitalism are: Chae Ho-ki’s Bitter Love (1992), Nam Jinwoo’s A Prayer for the Dead (1996), Haam Seong-ho’s 5 Billion and 670 Million Years of Solitude (1992), Ko Jin-ha’s Francesco’s Birds (1993), Kim Joong-sik’s Golden Corner (1993), Cha Chang-ryong’s Unending Plowing (1994), Park Hyung-jun’s I Will Now Talk about Extinction (1994), Song Chan-ho’s Empty Chair of Ten Years (1994), Park Jeong-dae’s Short Stories (1997), and Kim Tae-dong’s Youth (1999).

The literary development of female poets enriched the poetic space after the 1990s. A new aesthetic revealed previously neglected perspectives and a decentralized discourse style. The female poets who exposed the sense of a feminine existence more minutely formed a strong power that enriched the poetry of the 1990s.

Following the works by female poets such as Kang Eun-gyo, Moon Chunghee, Chun Yanghee, and Kim Seung-hee of the 1970s and Choe Seung-ja, Kim Hye-soon, and Koh Jung-hee of the 1980s, Hwang In-suk’s The Birds Set the Sky Free (1988), Ra Heeduk’s To the Root (1991), Heo Su-kyung’s Going Alone to the House Faraway (1992), Lee Jin-myung’s At Night the Word Forgive Was Heard (1992), Jeong Keutbyul’s My Life Like a White Birch (1996), Jo Eun’s The Land Does Not Death Easily (1991), Cho Yong-mee’s Fear Eats the Soul (1996), Choi Jeongrye’s A Forest of Bamboos in My Ear (1994), Yi Won’s When They Ruled the Earth (1996), Lee Soo-myong’s New Misreading Filled the Street (1995), and Kim Sun-woo’s If My Tongue

Refuses to Stay Locked Inside My Mouth (2000) were published. The progress of these female poets has taken Korean poetry to a new level.

The movement to achieve and reconstruct the “modernity” of Korean poetry is now in progress. In the 2000s, new poets like Lee Jang-wook, Kim Haeng-sook, and Hwang Byeong-seung are leading Korean poetry with a brighter, decentralized language. The efforts to discover a sense of contemporaneity and language is energizing Korean poetry.

By Lee Kwang-ho

1. Heavy Snow Warning Choi Seung-ho, Minumsa Publishing Group 1983, 163p, ISBN 9788937406188 2. When I See a Wheel I Want to Roll It Hwang Tong-gyu, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1978, 114p, ISBN 8932000573

1

3. Even Birds Leave the World Hwang Ji-woo, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1983, 134p, ISBN 8932001871

2

3

The Dream of Things 1 - The Dream of the Tree

By Chong Hyon-jong Kissing the sunlight flowing down over its leaves The tree dreams of its strength; Rubbing its cheeks against the rain falling, the tree Cries out as it dreams of its blood; With the green strength of the wind blowing against it, the tree Hears the voice of its life shaking.

Translated by Edward W. Poitras

20 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

That Fall

By Lee Seong-bok that fall though I didn’t send anybody a letter I got several from friends who’d gone off to do the obligatory military service they’d been postponing all the trees in the world turned yellow at the same time, as usual, and houses scaled the hillside right up to the sky, overwhelming the color of grass that fall a five-year-old Jeju island pony bit somebody’s private chauffeur arguing with its owner, and a well-known writer serialized some travel pieces about his journey to South America Dad, I didn’t realize you were going to be here that fall the children playing house were more tedious even than Korean films, and the long drawn-out yawns were heavier whenever we raised the flag or lowered it people were driven like posts into the ground, but the sound of a hammer wasn’t heard that fall when a dead young eel floated to the surface of the stream in front of Moraenae, the stream, which had been dredged, also floated, and a worker fell at the speed of a feather from the elevated expressway that was under construction that fall when dogs changed coats, the mother of the children who’d died the previous summer after eating sautéed silkworm larvae bought from a sidewalk vendor, hung out on dark street corners a senile old man was abandoned at the Seoul train station, as was a congenital idiot at the Ch’anggyōng Palace that fall a Buddhist monk returned as a mystic, playing a flute made of human bone, and when I asked a woman for a date she spit and turned away my father, who used to leave home in the early morning and come back in my dreams— how would I have known he was buried here? that fall I decided to break my habit of talking as though there wasn’t any fun in my life, but even that decision turned out to be no more than a joke I picked up fallen ginkgo leaves and dead cicadas and kept them in match boxes, and my sister and I locked our rooms from inside that fall I realized that there was no fall that belonged to any particular year, and I taught myself not to debase things so as not to beautify them Dad, Dad! am I your dad that fall I lived all the days I’d lived, and those I was going to live but I met another woman, who was like a drop of water clinging to a wall, and I realized that not an eye in all the world would close until she splattered, so I understood why Gregor Samsa’s family prepared to go on an outing after burying him Dad, Dad... you little fucker, you should be too ashamed to talk that fall, the face behind the mask was a mask Translated by Juhn Hye-jin and George Sidney

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 21

Special Section

The Shampoo Fairy

By Jang Jung-il The young man doesn’t like mysteries, domestic news, sports, or controversial foreign films.

He doesn’t watch them. He feels nauseous when he sees other women who appear on air. He watches her only.

He waits for her, the woman of eight thirty. Would you like to watch her?

She advertises for 15 seconds for a shampoo company.

Would you like to watch her?

She greets us nicely. “How are you?” she whispers with a smile.

Wearing pajamas patterned with blue polka dots, she appears and has her hair shampooed.

Bubbly foam carrying a rainbow fills up the TV screen.

Then the shampoo fairy whispers, “A brand new shampoo, the shampoo you have chosen, a shampoo with wonderful fragrance, a shampoo people use all over the world.

Perhaps you will fall in love.”

This is what she whispers.

There is a beauty care corporation.

A preeminent Asian beauty care corporation.

And for us there is the fairy. The only fairy who still exists, the shampoo fairy who flies to us at eight thirty, breaking out of the TV screen. For fifteen minutes she chatters away, then disappears behind the dark screen.

Every night at eight thirty the ad she’s in comes on.

Please wait.

After the ad the young man lazily turns off the TV. Every night he needs only fifteen seconds.

He looks into the pictures. He collects pictures of her who he loves with an unrequited love.

He even decorates his room with them.

The pictures of her smiling with bare teeth, her wearing a swimming suit, her wearing

22 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

an equestrian outfit, he collects them all.

And with a razor blade he cuts them off.

With a razor blade, he cuts off the lips of the actor she was about to kiss in a film she appeared in.

At eleven o’clock at night when the night is swarming with commercial phrases, Isn’t the shampoo fairy whispering in a low voice?

Isn’t her song echoing in the head?

Use it, use it, feel the fragrance of love. And doesn’t her promise beat in the heart? I will visit you tonight, she promised in the ad. The young man’s head swarming with desires.

The fairy taking off her clothes. The fairy lying obliquely on the sofa smudged with cigarette stains.

The fairy who sinks mysteriously, mysteriously, the fairy who whispers with her hot lips —“Come over here, pretty baby.”

The midnight swarming with fantasies, and at last the shampoo fairy pulls his head toward her and smells it. “You must have used what I recommended.

Of course you did, right?”

Twelve thirty a.m. The young man wants to talk about something other than shampoo. He desires to try something else. How fast is she running away, putting on her slippers? Nicely done.

For shampoo, ours is the best.

Continue to use it.

Dragging her pink pajamas the shampoo fairy disappears.

Oh, please stay a bit longer! A bit longer!

The young man wakes up from the dream, and taps on the typewriter, clink, clink, clink.

There is the preeminent beauty care corporation and the only fairy who exists is the shampoo fairy.

Translated by Song Chae-Pyong and Anne M. Rashid

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 23

Interview

Chong Hyon-jong, A Poet Who Steals the Air On a toasty, sunlit afternoon, could there be anything more perfect than interviewing a poet? This is just wishful thinking, but if I could capture the poet Chong Hyon-jong’s departing laugh on this page, I would just stop writing. He has a fierce gaze but a wholesome laughter.

Chong was born in Seoul in 1939. Since his literary debut through the journal Hyundae Munhak in 1965, he has published poetry collections including The Dream of Things; I Am the Uncle-Star; Like the Ball that Bounces; So Little Time to Love; Blossom; Trees of the World; Like a Thirst, Like a Spring; Unbearable; and Whispers of Splendor. And his critical essay collections include Soar Up, Gloomy Soul, and Breath and Dream. His poetic world attracted unusual attention from critics and readers early on, and as a result he has been the recipient of Korea's leading literary prizes including the Isan Literary Award, Hyundae Literary Award, Daesan Literary Award, and Midang Literary Award. Moreover, he took the lead in introducing poets like Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca to Korea by translating their poetry. For his translations of Neruda, he was one of the hundred writers and other literary contributors around the world who were awarded the Pablo Neruda Medal by the Chilean government on the centennial of the poet's birth. Chong 's poetry has been translated into many languages abroad.

Even though his work is now widely read by critics and readers alike, it has in fact always been quite unique—and in certain aspects, even considered unprecedented in Korean poetry.

Whereas much of Korean poetry tends to be heavy, burdened by a sense of debt to history, society, reality, and ontology, Chong’s poetry is truly like air. In the language of Gaston Bachelard’s “material imagination,” one can immediately name several Korean poets who exhibit the imagination of water, fire, or earth, but one is hard-pressed to think of one that exhibits the imagination of air. In some sense, Chong is the only one who meets that criterion. One can but pronounce Chong a born poet of the air, if one considers his poems like “Soar Up, Bus,” “In Praise of Thunder,” and “Trees of the World;” or if one recalls the lightness, elasticity, and verticality of his poems that capture a soaring bird or a dynamic dance in poetic images. On the scarcity of poets of his kind and his own poetic orientation, Chong commented, “Think about how heavy our history and political situation used to be. Perhaps even the poets have been oppressed by them—I mean, by the weight of history. Poetry should not be weighed down by things like history. But that’s not to say that history should be excluded. That’s not possible, I mean, language itself is historical…But in some sense, Korean poetry has been too oppressed by ideology, both political and religious. Ideology

is not even a necessary evil for poets in some ways, since poets communicate through objects and images.”

Chong mused that if a poetic image is “a meaning in the nascent stage” as according to Bachelard, it should not reflect or reenact but give birth to something new. He added that it is almost always the relatively unburdened soul that carries out this work in the end. What followed next in our conversation is even more interesting. “You know the authenticity we talk about in both poetry and fiction? This can be considered a kind of certificate of purity. Like the certificate of carat weight which measures the amount of gold in the gold itself. Under this kind of scrutiny, there are those who stand out as utterly authentic. Kafka is one such writer. Rilke is of course another example, along with my favorites Neruda and Lorca.” According to Chong, these artists were “the real deal” because they were “souls who did not vaunt themselves.” He explained, “For me, souls that do not vaunt themselves, souls that talk about how small they are and how big others are, let alone vaunt themselves, they’re the real deal. If asked to explain how artists are different from other professions, if asked to name just one thing, I’d probably name just that.”

A Nietzschean passage—which, Chong said had engrossed him—came to mind. The passage in which Nietsche wrote that he felt insignificant when he listened to later Wagner, as he felt Wagner grow infinitely big; by contrast, when he listened to Bizet’s Carmen, he felt as though he was the greatest philosopher in the world. Remarking on the large volume of contemporary poetry that is merely self-vaunting, he commented, “The poet can’t weigh anything if he’s heavy, you know? I mean, how can he weigh anything heavy if he himself is too heavy?”

That those souls who inf late themselves cannot build up others and that those souls who are too heavy themselves cannot bear the weight of others—these are the main points of the “poetics of air.” But a light soul is certainly not an empty soul.

Chong argues the opposite to make this point. A soul packed with the weight of not the self but others, he says, is a truly light soul. “A soul that vaunts itself does so because the self is too strong, and really, what artist isn’t narcissistic? But in Water and Dreams, Bachelard wrote about individual narcissism versus cosmic narcissism. Surely, the narcissism of poets should be the cosmic kind. Individual narcissism just won’t do. Why do you think Whitman, Rilke, and Neruda were so great? All great poets list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 25

Interview

reporter Cho Kang-sok and poet Chong Hyon-jong

“For me, souls that do not vaunt themselves, souls that talk about how small they are and how big others are, let alone vaunt themselves, they’re the real deal” have that in common. Instead of vaunting himself, shouldn’t a poet be able to distinguish between the self that is in union with the things that have entered it from the outside—whether they be objects, space or others—and the self that is not? Even critics can’t really tell them apart...”

Out of c osm ic — not ind iv idu a l — na rcissism, on a n authentic—not cerebral—level, the poet acquires the right to speak about the suffering of the world. Chong explained this point by telling me how much he liked the term incarnation: “Poetry is in essence a chemical reaction to another body, that is, donning the body of another. Otherwise, good poetry cannot be produced.

And that very process can be described using my favorite expression, incarnation. In that sense, the misfortune or violence that hits a community, a country or the world nowadays—war, for example—all these problems can be understood in the same context. It breaks my heart. When I get this kind of feeling, I start writing poetry again. “Intercepting Poem” is one such poem.”

Chong has written two poems under that title. “Intercepting Poem 1” begins, “I have no other weapons / so I launch my heart.”

Then it continues: “I shoot up cranes against all missiles / I shoot up wild geese against all bombs.” Chong explained that he wrote this poem at the time of the Gulf War. Although writing poems like this cannot possibly stop people from building missiles or starting wars, the poet nevertheless has no choice but to sing. And this is the very power of poetic images. Just as people in power fire artillery and politicians hurl their opinions, images are the 26 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

2

1

4

3

1. Day-Shine

Chong Hyon-jong, Cornell University, 1998 2. Такмаловременидлялюбви

Chong Hyon-jong, BLITS, 2002 3. Unter den Menschen ist eine Insel

Chong Hyon-jong, Verlag Am Hockgraben, 1997 4. The dream of things

Chong Hyon-jong , Homa & Sekey Books, 2008

Collected Poems of Chong Hyon-jong, Vols. 1, 2 Chong Hyon-jong, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1999, 350p, ISBN 8932011338 (Vol. 1) 1999, 284p, ISBN 8932011346 (Vol. 2)

weapon of poets.

Chong spoke in a similar vein about the image that came to him after he saw a photo of the DMZ in a newspaper. “I recently saw this newspaper series about the DMZ and felt a number of things. One day they published a large photo that showed a reservoir in the DMZ—it’s called the “golden reservoir.” In the photo, the water was glistening in the bright light, and there were soldiers training nearby. And a field of reeds next to them. As soon as I saw that photo, I thought of that body of water as the amniotic fluid for the rebirth of our country, and this image made me write again.” Where the pain of a community gives birth to heartache, not headache, the poet launches his poetic images.

As I mentioned in my introductory paragraph, Chong has also devoted himself to translation, introducing poets like Neruda and Lorca to Korean readers, who enjoyed the literary fruits from abroad. Moreover, his own work has been translated and published in English speaking countries. In response to my question about problems of translation, he shared a related anecdote. Apparently, back when novelist Kim Hoon was working as a journalist, he read Chong’s translation of Neruda’s poetry and commented, “This isn’t Neruda, it’s Chong Hyon-jong’s poetry.” I told him that I’d noticed a number of young poets who came of age around that time that write in a style à la “Neruda as translated by Chong Hyon-jong.” He laughed politely and then smiled, as he said, “Why do you think translation is called

a recreation of the original?” After acknowledging the many errors and problems in the translation process, he emphasized nonetheless the importance of translating more works of foreign poets into Korean and introducing more Korean poetry abroad as well. But he laughingly added a saving clause, “no adverse trade balance though.”

As the afternoon sunlight began to fade, I asked him a final, rather conventional question that reflected my own professional anxiety as a poetry critic: “Is there work to be done by poetry in today’s speed-driven world?” “Like the Ball that Bounces,” Chong energetically answered, “Of course. You can call it the work done by poetry or the poetic—what’s needed is the poetic. It overlaps a little with the religious and the philosophical. In a time when the materialistic or relationships of calculation and interest run rampant, where does the minimum human dignity spring from? You see, we need something like the woods or lungs.”

Then he began to talk about a passage from Seamus Heaney’s Finders Keepers. “There’s a part in that book where he quotes Osip Mandelstam. Mandelstam apparently described the poet as someone who ‘steals the air.’ Heaney then makes a comparison to the holes in lace and donuts, that a poet doesn’t make the useful parts himself but makes them possible by creating the holes. How great is that! It’s probably the same for people today. Giving the breath of life, enabling others to breathe—that’s what’s needed now, that’s what we call the poetic.” Thus the interview ended, with a welcome suggestion from the poet that was in fact a breath of fresh air for me: “Why don’t we go grab a beer?”

By Cho Kang-sok

1

Like the Ball that Bounces

1.

Chong Hyon-jong Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1984, 108p, ISBN 8932002169

Chong Hyon-jong Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1995, 119p, ISBN 8932007535

Chong Hyon-jong Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1978, 115p, ISBN 8932000581

Trees of the World

I Am the Uncle-Star

Blossom

Chong Hyon-jong Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1992, 112p, ISBN 8932005516

Chong Hyon-jong Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1999, 110p, ISBN 8932010900

Whispers of Splendor

2.

Chong Hyon-jong Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2008, 104p, ISBN 9788932018874

3.

Chong Hyon-jong SEGYESA Publishing Co., Ltd. 1989, 100p, ISBN 8933810013

So Little Time to Love

3

4. The Dream of Things

Chong Hyon-jong

Minumsa Publishing Group, 1972 5. Unbearable

Chong Hyon-jong, Poet & Poetry Co.

2003, 131p, ISBN 8982121765

5 2

Like a Thirst, Like a Spring

4

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 27

Excerpt

Day-Shine Chong Hyon-jong translated by Choe Wolhee and Peter Fusco Cornell University, 1998

In Praise of Thunder

By Chong Hyon-jong How, on a summer day, without the thunderbolt which cracks the backbone of heaven and earth how can a man cleanse himself body and soul, really scrub and cool himself -light as air to shift like a breeze let the dawn inundate him?

Thunder, the umbilical cord of your voice makes us smile like fresh born babies.

Nothing earthbound has ever given us the limpid blood and ambrosia of your voice.

Nothing on earth, no idea or book,

28 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

no triumphs or enchantments, petty our majestic, can halt the birth of a world which your vocal chords bless as you tongue the cosmic entrails clean; nor excuse the lucent pathlessness of your passage.

Thunder, hear me.

The thunder that claps and ceases between my skull and ribs is unlike you. It cannot flow through heaven and earth fearless of beginning or ending, and yet stops this repetition that digs its own grave, purging this fetid system, and burning off the lukewarm, hesitant motion.

I feel as cascading enthusiasm, the measure of which is the eyes infused with grape green juice of a young coed who yesterday in a voice, like seeds floating downslope wondering if she should root there, asked: "How's it going, professor?"

Whatever. With you, the ever-dangerous truth, the nakedness that competes with death in the fever of my flesh, my poetic alchemy quickens.

Flow on, thunder, as the theme of my song, my life, the impure mix, you, thundering nirvana you who thunders to the wild joy of kesa.* You voice has echoed within.

Look. This new born babe, thunder-naked, nourishing in the limpid blood and food of your voice, relishes stepping bewitched upon the luminous pathlessness. Thunderbolt...

* A Buddhist term referring to the state of suffering caused by stupidity, hatred, and greed.

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 29

Interview

Lee Seung-U, a Korean Author Beloved in France “A moving, weighty novel that has emerged from a quiet, serious soul” – Le Monde “A great novel in which abundant, powerful images have brought to life the mythical dimension of love” – Le Figaro Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, the 2008 Nobel Laureate for Literature, has a deep affection for Korean literature. During his year-long stay in Korea as a visiting professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, he held book readings with Korean authors on several occasions. At the press conference after the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony, he stated that “Korean literature is quite worthy of the Nobel Literature Prize,” and that “Personally, I would say that Anatoly A. Kim, Hwang Sok-yong, and Lee Seung-U are likely candidates for the prize.”

Anatoly A. Kim, an author of Korean descent residing in Russia, is widely known among experts on Russian literature.

Hwang Sok-yong is noted as a major author of Korean realist literature, and also for his political activities that contributed to the democratization movement. Many Koreans anticipate that he will receive the Nobel Prize, for a substantial number of his works, including the novel The Guest, have already been translated into English, French, and German, gaining him international recognition.

In the case of Lee Seung-U, the general readership in Koreaaside from a small number of specialists such as critics, journalists, and editors-are unfamiliar with the author. Lee, who began his literary career in 1981, has received many prestigious literary awards in Korea, including the Daesan Literary Award, Dongsuh Literary Award, and Hyundae Literary Award, and in 2010, he received the Hwang Sun-won Literary Award for his short story, “Cutlass.” Despite high critical acclaim, Lee’s novels have never made it to the top ranks of the bestseller list in Korea. They are considered high literature, enjoyed only by a small but loyal readership.

What’s remarkable about Lee is that he is more widely recognized in France than he is in Korea. Of his novels, The Reverse Side of Life and The Private Lives of Plants have been published by Zulma, a French publisher, and received positive reviews. In 2000, The Reverse Side of Life was a finalist for the Prix Femina of France in the category of foreign literature. The Private Lives of Plants, published as a Gallimard Folio edition, was 30 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

selected as one of the novels recommended by French booksellers.

The French daily, Le Monde, has said of Lee’s novel, “a moving, weighty novel that has emerged from a quiet, serious soul,” and Le Figaro wrote that it’s “a great novel in which abundant, powerful images have brought to life the mythical dimension of love.”

The Reverse Side of Life unfolds through the first person narrator, a writer working on a critical biography of Pak Gilbu, a novelist. The work, through a novel-within-a-novel framework, deals in depth with the meaning of writing. Many factors in the novel are derived from the life of Lee, the author himself. The Private Lives of Plants depicts, through elegant storytelling, the private lives of people who live as “embodiments of failed love,” in a world where the law of the jungle prevails. Le Clézio has suggested that a Korean film director adapt the book to film.

Lee, a graduate of a theological university, has said regarding the popularity of his novels in France, “It seems that the Christian worldview, the concern for individuals and their inner worlds, and the sentences that don’t appeal so much to emotion, are to the liking of the people there.” Regarding the relationship between religion and literature, he said, “If religion is the bone in the human spirit, literature is the flesh.”

I met Lee at a café in Hongdae, a popular neighborhood in Seoul famous for its youth culture. The talk of the media at the time was The Grand Design, a book by Stephen Hawking in which Hawking denies the existence of a god, and claims that the universe was born out of nothing. I asked Lee, who majored in theology, what his thoughts were on Hawking’s claim.

As expected, he emphasized the existence of a supernatural being, saying, “We cannot help but acknowledge a being and a power which we cannot name.” He went on to say, “The black hole and the big bang spoken of in science have all arisen from the imagination. They’re not investigated through science alone.

Humans would do well to humble themselves before the universe.

They should keep themselves open to infinite possibilities regarding the formation of the universe.”

Lee began his literary career with his reception of the New

Interview

reporter Park Hae-hyun and novelist Lee Seung-U

Writers Award by Korean Literature Monthly, with A Portrait of Erysichton, a novel triggered by the shock at the assassination attempt of Pope Paul II in 1981. Because he began his career with this novel, dealing with the anguish of a young student of theology regarding the order of rank between God and representatives of God, and between humans, Lee has always been labeled as a religious and abstract writer. On the other hand, because of such a label, Lee is noted as a serious, contemplative writer among critics.

In the history of Korean novels, Christianity, along with the train, represents modernity. Christianity, as a conveyor of Western civilization, shook to the core the worldview, class view, and social view of the Korean people. Thus, Korean writers of the past often dealt with the conflict between Christianity and native shamanism. Unlike his predecessors, however, Lee kept himself at a distance from the grammar of the existing Korean religious novel, in that he delved into Christianity itself, which he had accepted with his body and mind since his childhood. He stated, “There was no conflict between Christianity and shamanism in me. The shamanism of Korea is a secular religion through which people try to ward off evil and receive good fortune in this life. It is different from Western metaphysics. Ever since I was young, I had naturally accepted Christianity. I felt awkward at Buddhist temples, but felt very familiar with Christian sentiments. I grew accustomed to such sentiments, inherent in volumes of Western literature. I discovered Christianity through Western literature.

Perhaps I lack a certain Korean quality, though I am a Korean writer.”

Among Lee’s works, only full-length novels have been translated into English and French, but he has published a great number of short story collections in the past three decades, due to the climate of the Korean literary world in which a writer’s capacity is evaluated mostly through short stories published in literary journals. Currently, he teaches creative writing—mostly

32 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

2

1

3

4

1. The Reverse Side of Life Lee Seung-U, Munidang

2005, 299p, ISBN 8974562766

3. Mysteries of the Labyrinth

Lee Seung-U, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd.

1994, 296p, ISBN 8932007004

2. The Private Lives of Plants

Lee Seung-U, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

2000, 294p, ISBN 8982813233

4. Journals from Days Past

Lee Seung-U, Changbi Publishers, Inc

2008, 279p, 9788936437084

“The Korean short story is so unique that it can’t be described as just a short story. In a Korean short story, many characters and episodes appear, as in a Western novel, making the overall content as full as that of a novel. Korean writers are accustomed to condensing a full-length story down to a short story.” short stories—to aspiring writers at Chosun University.

Lee stated, “The Korean short story is so unique that it can’t be described as just a short story. In the eyes of the Korean people, the Western short story is closer to a vignette. In a Korean short story, many characters and episodes appear, as in a Western novel, making the overall content as full as that of a novel. Korean writers are accustomed to condensing a full-length story down to a short story. When introducing short stories by Korean writers abroad, it would be good to introduce together three stories written by an author on similar subjects.”

It has been said that Lee’s novels have evolved from his earlier novels, which were full of abstract narration, to ones with more descriptive elements of everyday life.

It seems that emaciated characters are gradually putting on flesh. “In the early days, I would add a story upon an idea, but now I focus more on the storytelling than the metaphysics. I deal more with understanding the character’s mentality than conveying a message. That is why, I think, people say that my novels have become more like fables and easier to read. In writing a novel, I try to find an answer to the question of why a certain character does a certain thing.”

Formerly a full-time writer, he came to change his views on novels in the process of teaching at a university.

He said, “In the past, there were so many novels I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge, novels I couldn’t even bring myself to read. Reading the works of my students, however, I’ve grown more tolerant of the kind of novel each student aspires to write, no longer insisting on the kind of novels I like.” In other words, he was a picky eater in the past when it came to reading, but now, he eats anything and everything. His only concern is that by eating everything up in this way, he might become “watered down.”

Among Korean writers, Lee is noted as an exemplar.

He takes meticulous care of himself, never putting a cigarette to his mouth, and playing tennis at a near professional level. He encourages aspiring writers to read a book instead, if they have the time to drink, for drinking does not lead to inspiration. Jin Jeong-seok, a critic, said of Lee’s serious literature: “Lee’s novels make each reader dig up his old journal, buried deep in memory.” Thus, his novels invite readers on a journey into their own inner worlds. Though metaphysical, they read easily. Lee is a magician who turns readers into trees. His novels make readers stand still for a moment, and discover at their roots what they, long ago, had forgotten, turned away from, or hidden in their private lives.

By Park Hae-hyun

1

2

3

4

5

6

1. Vermutungen über das Labyrinth

Lee Seung-U, Pendragon, 2005 2. The reverse side of life

Lee Seung-U, Peter Owen, 2005 3. L'Envers de la vie

Lee Seung-U, Zulma, 2000 4. Die Rückseite des Lebens

Lee Seung-U, Horlemann, 1996 5. La Vida Secreta de las Plantas

Lee Seung-U, Ediciones del Ermitaño, 2009 6. La vie rêvée des plantes

Lee Seung-U, Gallimard, 2009

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 33

Excerpt

When she finished recounting her dream, I was struck by its familiar ending. I recalled my drive back to Seoul after the funeral in Namcheon when I was engrossed in wild imaginings related to the palm tree. I imagined the tree’s roots reaching the ocean and the ocean hugging the tree. And I remembered saying, no, it was the oppositethe tree hugged the ocean. And the tree was grand, its roots reaching across the waters. I imagined the tree’s deep and long roots crossing the Pacific and reaching the coasts of Brazil or Indonesia. I thought maybe the tree’s roots traveled across the ocean nightly. I also believed that it would be the most malicious prejudice to think that trees are immobile.

I remember uttering to myself that if a tree can travel to Namcheon it should also be able to travel back. I concluded that trees move; they just don’t reveal it to us.

At that time, though, while imagining the tree’s ocean travel, I didn’t consider why the tree had to cross the ocean.

My imagination didn’t include this, so it was incomplete.

But I didn’t think that she had her dream to complete my

The Private Lives of Plants Lee Seung-U, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

2000, 294p, ISBN 8982813233

imperfect imagination. It would be arbitrary to think that she had a dream for my sake. No, I didn’t want to be that egocentric.

“All trees are incarnations of frustrated love.” This sentence, as if it had been on standby, suddenly flashed across my mind. It came from nowhere. But as I uttered these words, I remembered their source. It was my brother who had written the line. I read this sentence in a notebook

The Private Lives of Plants depicts, through elegant storytelling, the private lives of people who live as “embodiments of failed love,” in a world where the law of the jungle prevails.

that I had taken from his room. The notebook came from a file that contained over two hundred pages of his writings.

It was now all somewhat vague, but his writing contained something like the following: “In myths fairies are often disguised as trees. They shed their appearance and mask themselves as trees in order to avoid the gods’ lust and greed. The gods are the ones who possess power, and those with power are always rapacious. Their cupidity is never impeded. The only way for fairies to escape from the absolute greed of the gods is to transform their appearance. Thus, fairies are compelled to become trees to protect their love from the greedy gods, the embodiment of power. And that’s why each tree has its own sad and unfulfilled love story.” Many other stories about the

34 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

transformations of flowers and trees were in his file. Each page

confirmation cleared away all my lingering doubts; I was now

of his writings was filled with them.

resigned to the role given to me. My perception that I was

I wondered then why my brother was writing about such

guided by an unknown power helped me surrender to it. I

things. Maybe he was just passing the time, but if that was the

didn’t think the power came from my brother, though. But, at

case then collecting myths didn’t make sense to me. If I hadn’t

the same time, I wasn’t absolutely sure that it didn’t. I realized

concluded that his ardor for something, anything, would

what my role was-to take Soon-mee to the house on top of

be good for his mental health, I would’ve questioned him

the cliff in Namcheon where the palm tree stood.

about doing something so seemingly pointless. By reading

I blankly gazed at the dayflies, all still stuck to the

his writing, I confirmed my previous suspicion that he was

windshield, with what was left of their bodies, but soon I

obsessively infatuated with the pine and snowbell trees in the

stepped out of the car. With my hands, I tried to wipe away

park, but I also felt that those trees roused him with a peculiar

the insects. But they didn’t come off easily. I took out a rag

zeal, so I didn’t feel like asking him to stop writing.

from the trunk and began to rub them away. “We need to

But how can I explain Soon-mee’s dream that sounded as

find out where we are and where we can get some gas,” I told

if it had come from my brother’s file? She said that her dream

her, while vigorously rubbing the windshield. “Are you saying

was very realistic and detailed, but in actuality, it was nothing

that you don’t even know where we are now?” she asked, while

but a myth. But I noticed that my usual way of thinking had

stepping out of the car. “Well...not yet. Last night I just drove

also changed and had become more mythical, and I couldn’t

without any sense of direction,” I explained. Suddenly, I again

do anything about it. I then suspected that maybe my brother

smelled sea water in the air. While putting the rag back into

wanted to be a tree. He might’ve projected his wish into her

the trunk, I cried out, “Ah...okay!” I had a premonition and

dream. But how? Is her dream my brother’s projection? Has

hurriedly lifted up my head and closely examined the snaking

she read his writing? I know she hasn't. What is it then? Was

road, a road drenched in bright sunlight. The far end of it was

my brother the master of her dream? Does this mean that he

skirting the foot of the mountain. “I knew it was familiar...,”

entered her dream while I just roamed about outside it? Does

I muttered out. I thought I had driven mindlessly, without

he still control her dream? Thinking this, I felt like a rag in

thinking of the direction or a destination, but the fact that I

front of their deep soul connection. He directs her dream and

ended up there after a hectic nightlong drive didn’t seem like

I interpret it. This is the reason for my existence, I mumbled,

a random happening. Was my reckless driving fated? For sure,

as a way of tormenting myself.

it wasn’t an accident. I knew that the ocean and the palm tree

“Did you say something?” she asked, having probably overheard my mutterings. “Was it a palm tree? I suddenly asked her. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” she asked. But for a moment, I hesitated to answer her, not knowing what to say,

would appear if we walked around the foot of the mountain.

We were in Namcheon.

Translated by Inrae You Vinciguerra and Louis Vinciguerra

but I soon managed to tell her, “I was thinking about your dream.” The sun was in her eyes. And her clear beautiful eyes reflected the sunlight. At that moment my emotions suddenly surged, but I held back tears. In an attempt to stem my tears, I squinted.

“I mean the tree in your dream, was it a palm tree?” I asked her again, cautiously, like I was investigating something.

“How did you know that?” she asked, surprised, her eyes wide open. It was only a guess, but this confirmed my place in relation to Soon-mee, making me feel wretched. This

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 35

Overseas Angle

An Interview with

Jonathan Galassi Known for its literary fiction, Farrrar, Straus and Giroux has garned an excellent reputation for publishing award-winning quality literature. Kim Meekyung sits down with FSG President and Publisher Jonathan Galassi to discuss poetry, translation, and the future of the publishing industry.

36 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Last summer, while doing background research for my interview with Jonathan Galassi, President and Publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, one of the most influential publishers in New York, I became quite fascinated by him. One of the most intriguing things was that he continued to write poems all the while working as one of the busiest publishers in the U.S. I immediately ordered his two books of poetry via Amazon.com. While reading his poems, I thought of him as a shy character, not the famous president of a big publishing company. But I realized that this quality was his real power.

The day of our interview, The New York Times published an article titled, “Barnes & Noble Considers Selling Itself.” It was about how the giant bookstore chain's board is considering selling the company. According to the news, Barnes & Noble, the largest bookstore chain in the U.S., was struggling to survive in the era of digital media. When I met Mr. Galassi, I could feel that, like Barnes & Noble, he was also struggling for his company’s survival in the era of digital media. And, I could sense his passion and wisdom to find and lead the way towards a future for all print books and poems.

Kim Meekyung: You have changed from a poet to an editor and now a publisher. What kind of title are you most comfortable with? In the future, what do you want to be?

Jonathan Galassi: I have been an editor and publisher all my life; and I have also always written poetry. I find the two occupations very complementary, in fact. I expect to continue working with writers—and writing my own poems—indefinitely.

KM: Can you tell me what the most important factor is when it comes to publishing a book? I mean, can you figure out which books might be popular in the market? When you first read a draft, can you predict the outcome?

JG: I think the first thing I look for in a manuscript is a voice that I can believe in, that feels accomplished and authentic and strong. Without that, I can’t get interested. And with it, I feel the book is going to be there. It’s very seldom that the authentic voice isn’t presented in a work that isn’t also convincing. One seems to more or less guarantee the other. What I do feel sometimes, is a terrible tension as I read along and love what I’m reading that the book is going to somehow not live up to the expectations that it’s created. The tension can be practically unbearable!

KM: I know you are not only a publisher but also a translator. I want to ask you about translations.

JG: Translation for me is another way of writing poetry, a kind of exercise where the original poet’s work creates a template that needs to be responded to as creatively and as accurately as possible.

The double challenge is to be true to the poem in as many ways as possible AND create something of your own, too. It’s a very constrained and challenging but also inspiring situation.

KM: When you decide to publish a translated work, what are the most important considerations? Do you have any special standards or requirements? How do you get information about foreign-language books? What kinds of information do you rely on? Especially, what kinds of information do you rely on for Asian books? Are you personally interested in Asian books, culture, and people?

JG: What matters in publishing a translation is to give our readers access to a sensibility, a voice, an attitude that will truly

expand their awareness—but that they are also somewhat prepared for. A book that is published entirely out of context is not going to be read. We depend on recommendations from other publishers, critics, and friends. We do not have as strong a network in Asia as we do in Europe but we’re interested in Asian literature and culture, and have recently published several important Chinese and Filipino writers as well as books about Asian history and current affairs.

K M: Can you please tell me what percentage of books published by your company are translations? Can you also explain the current market situation of translated books in the American book market?

JG: I think translations represent about 10 or 12 percent of our work, or perhaps a bit more—which is quite high for an American [publishing] house. Americans are notoriously inward-turned, as I’m sure you know, but there are often foreign writers who become very popular here—such as, recently, Roberto Bolaño and, in a more popular vein, Stieg Larsson.

KM: Are you interested in Korean books? Do you have any special group or source from which you can get information on Korean books? If you published Korean books, which subjects would interest you? Can you give recommendations to Korean publishing companies that want to have their books translated and published, and gain popularity in the U.S.?

JG: I personally don’t know a lot about contemporary Korean fiction but have read some wonderful Korean poets and novelists, like Yi Mun-yol.

KM: I want to hear your opinion about bestsellers. Can you give me your own definition of a bestseller? As a publisher, do you have pressure to have to publish more bestsellers?

JG: Bestsellers are simply the books that are reported on lists as selling the most copies in certain bookstores in a certain week.

Bestsellers are often the new books that have gotten the most publicity in a certain period, which drives sales. The bestsellers are not always the “best” books but over time I do believe that many of the best books end up being their own kind of bestseller, that they end up reaching many readers and therefore selling many copies.

KM: With the development of digital media, there have been lots of changes in the method of writing, too. In Korea, many famous writers are writing online. And many people publish articles that they have written on their blogs. What do you think of these kinds of changes?

JG: There are fewer newspapers, so much of the writing energy that went into journalism has found its way to blogs—it’s a looser, more personal, perhaps sometimes less responsible journalism. I’m sure there’s a lot that’s brilliant published here—but there’s a lot of everything on blogs. The challenge is how to separate the wheat from the chaff, which is one of the challenges with the Internet in general.

KM: Google is scanning tons of books from many libraries.

What do you think about this project? How do you think this project will affect the future of books? Are you involved in the project or the lawsuit, and so forth?

JG: The Google settlement that I’m sure you’ve heard about remains unsettled and has raised many issues about copyright, fair use, and so forth. I think the idea that all books may soon be list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 37

Overseas Angle universal is fascinating, inspiring—and problematic. Copyrights exist not so much to protect publishers as to encourage creativity among authors.

Authors deserve and need to be compensated for their work. The possibility of instant availability leads to the fallacious notion that information is free.

But it was created and curated by individuals and their stake in the work needs to be honored and protected, in the interest of society as a whole.

KM: I want to hear about your opinion on the e-book market. The market is growing very rapidly. It's so difficult for publishing companies to adjust to the rapidly changing environment. What's your opinion of the future of paper books?

JG: No one wants to give his or her parents an e-book that he or she has written. There will always be physical books. We need them and love them.

At the same time the ease of access of e-books is intoxicating and exciting.

Their time has come and they are going to be a vital part of the publishing spectrum and we need to embrace them and learn how they are going to affect what we do. This is just happening now, and everyone is in the process of adjusting.

KM: How do you imagine the future of books? The future of publishing companies?

JG: Books are going to exist in many formats. They are going to be more supple than ever. What I’m concerned about right now is how new authors are going to find their way in this boundless information universe.

But they will. Publishing companies are going to be vital in choosing, curating, presenting and marketing, and, yes, printing authors’ work—just as they always have been.

KM: Are you happy and satisfied with your work as a publisher? Can you tell me your favorite of the books you’ve published?

JG: I love being an editor and publisher. There is nothing more thrilling than reading something new and fresh and helping to bring it into the world. I don’t have a favorite book or author—of course not—how could I? But I would say that the poet Elizabeth Bishop is among the very greatest that FSG has published.

KM: How has your business been affected by the recession?

JG: Any business that depends on people’s discretionary income has been affected by the recession. Yet our company as a whole had its best year ever in 2009. It all depends on what particular books one has to sell at a particular moment.

KM: Personally, who is your favorite writer? Can you tell me who you think is the greatest author of the 20th century?

JG: One of my favorite writers is Stendhal. Lampedusa’s The Leopard is one of my favorite modern novels. Proust may have been the greatest author of the 20th century.

KM: You have published several poetry books. Do you have any ideas on writing another book?

Inside the New York City headquarters of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

JG: My translation of Leopardi’s poetry is coming out soon and I am working to finish another book of my own poetry, which I hope to publish in the next couple of years. And I have lots of other projects up my sleeve!

By Kim Meekyung (administrative manager, Korean Cultural Services New York)

38 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Book Lover's Angle

Korean Literature in Spain Korean literature has been gaining increasing visibility in Spain in recent years. To my understanding, this can be attributed to three factors: the presence and hard work of the Korea Literature Translation Institute; the efforts made by the Spanish editorial Verbum, directed since 1990 by Pío Serrano, a champion of Korean literature; and, above all, the frequent visits to my country and others in Europe (Italy and Germany) made by the Korean poet Ko Un. Ko has visited universities in Spain, such as those in Salamanca and Málaga (the work of Professor Kim Hye-jeoung at the University of Salamanca, in particular, has been invaluable in bringing Korean language and literature to a wider audience.) The University of Salamanca is home to the oldest and perhaps most prestigious library in Spain. It is all the more delightful to witness Professor Kim’s dedication in urging other professors and writers from Korea to share their most valuable cultural assets at that noble institution.

The name Ko Un brings to mind his translated works that have been well received by Spanish poets.

Among the most noteworthy would be the anthology of his poetry, Fuente en Llamas (published by Linteo) and the 64 poems of Diez Mil Vidas translated by Professor Kim Un-kyung of Seoul National University.

Nor can we forget the special edition of Ko Un’s work that appeared under the title of Cierta Alegría (published by El Gato Gris), illustrated by the poet himself, or his 108 Poemas Zen. The poet’s visits to Spain have been exceptionally well-covered by the media. Among these were two long interviews I did with the author for the magazine of the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid and for El Cultural, a magazine published by the daily El Mundo. Ko Un has also given readings at the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid, and at this cultural center, the liveliest among those in the capital of Spain.

I have recently had the honor of introducing the works of three other Korean writers visiting Spain: Kim Hoon, Kim Kwang-kyu, and Yi In-seong. The works of these authors cannot be discussed without mentioning the collection of Korean literature published by that prestigious house, Trotta. Among others, Trotta has published such works as Kim Hoon’s El Canto de la Espada and Park Wan-suh’s Aquella Montaña tan Lejana, the latter translated by Kim Hye-jeoung and Javier Martín, with a prologue by myself.

Other works in this notable collection include Yi Chong-jun’s Canto del Oeste Coreano. Besides the works of these authors, a notable selection of Korean poetry has been published by Verbum. This includes the work of such poets as Kim Soo-bok, whose work is now being translated (this article is turning into a list of names) and poets who have already been translated into Spanish: Kim Chun-soo, Yun Dong-ju, Chon Sang-pyong, Seo Jeong-ju, Yi Sang, Kim Nam-jo, Oh Sae-young, and Han Yong-un.

In conclusion, my thoughts turn toward this last poet in particular, better known in Spain by his pen name Manhae and for his El Silencio de Mi Amor. It is striking to note the similarities between this poet, a monk, and the Spanish mystic poet Juan de la Cruz, author of the beautiful Spiritual Canticle. The Korean poet wrote in the 20th century, the Spaniard in the 16th, and yet they are alike in many ways: monks and poets, fighters, a patriot in the case of Manhae, and a reformer of his religious order in that of St. Juan. The likeness is also apparent in their poetry: lyricism, the theme of love and the beloved, a delicate eroticism, spirituality, pastoral scenes, and the interpretation of the realistic and mystical in both texts.

It would take a much longer article than this one to discuss my subject in full. I would therefore like to sum up my love for Korea and Korean literature by quoting an idea from my collection of essays, Cerca de la Montaña Kumgang (Published by Amarú, Salamanca). In the book I discuss the intensity of the attraction that Korea, and that symbol of the sacred mountain, holds for this Spanish poet. Korean culture in Spain is like the heart of Mt. Keumgang, a hope for the future.

By Antonio Colinas * Antonio Colinas is a writer and translator.

He is the recipient of several prizes including the National Prize in Criticism and the National Prize in Literature in Spain. His works include The River of Shadow: Poems for 35 Years, 1967-2002, the novel A Year in the South, and The First Meaning of the Word Poetics.

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 39

Overseas Angle

40 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

A New Horizon for the Korean Coming-of-Age Novel 鳀鱼 Kim Joo-young, Jilin University Press, 2010

I teach at a university in China, with a degree in Korean Literature. It follows, naturally, that I should take part in promoting Korean literature in China. I am truly grateful for the opportunity I have been given to do so through the translation grant program of the Korean Literature Translation Institute.

While studying literature in Korea, I encountered many authors indirectly through their work. As I was merely a student at the time, direct encounters with authors in most cases seemed only a remote possibility. Upon returning to China, I came across a chance to participate in a Chinese-Korean writers’ conference hosted by Paradise Culture Foundation, as a translator and simultaneous interpreter. Thus, I was fortunate enough to meet Korean writers I had admired as a student, and to meet Director Kim Joo-young of Paradise Culture Foundation, himself a novelist, who gives continued support to the Chinese-Korean writers’ conference. At the suggestion of Nam Yeongjeon, the former director of Changbaishan—a major Korean literary journal in China—the Chinese translation of Anchovy, a novel by Kim Joo-young, was set in motion, with myself as the translator.

Anchovy is hailed as one of the best coming-of-age novels of the day in Korea. The work is similar to A Skate Fish, a novel by the same author that was translated into Chinese before Anchovy, in that in both novels, a young narrator serves as a medium through which the author observes, feels, thinks, and speaks (from An In-Depth Reading of Kim Joo-young).” The boy narrator of Anchovy waits for “Mother,” who has left home, just as the boy narrator of A Skate Fish waits for “Father.” The father in Anchovy talks big but with no substance, and suspects his wife and her half-brother of having an affair, despite his own extramarital affair, and sees his wife’s half-brother as a thorn in his side. It is such pettiness and malice that drives the boy’s mother away from home. The boy, with a father in name only, and with a mother who has left home, does what he can to fill up the empty space in his life. He comes to believe that the day his father recovers his dignity will be the day his mother comes home again. Through his own wisdom and means, even deceit, he brings his father and uncle to reconciliation, and calls them to participate in a boar hunt, intending to help his father regain his dignity. By fighting the boar that the father shot and missed, the boy’s uncle does all he can to help the boy’s father recover his honor as a hunter, but is unable to show up at the celebration held for them by the

townspeople. The novel ends with the boy swimming freely with a school of fish that appear unexpectedly in the receeding basin where his uncle used to work, as though he now owns the basin. Anchovies, though “insignificant fish,” are “undeniable vertebrates.” The boy, too, though still a boy, has grown into the leader of a world, his uncle’s world, the receding basin (the world of the ego).

The advancement of Korean literature into China is part of the many exchanges between the two countries in various fields. The translation and publication of Anchovy in Chinese is a major example of such exchanges. In China, Korean pop culture, consisting mostly of Korean dramas, has gained great popularity as a part of this cultural exchange. Now is the time to go beyond the sharing of pop culture and share literature, which in fact is the fundamental source of pop culture. China seeks an understanding of the finer culture of Korea that surpasses its pop culture. With the Korean Literature Translation Institution leading the way, improvements are underway. Based on such movements, it is my hope that Korean literature will be introduced in China at a greater scale and in a more systematic way, in the near future.

The time has come to go beyond a sporadic and fragmentary introduction of Korean literature and establish a freer exchange of literature between the two countries.

The smooth process of translating Anchovy has been made possible thanks to the full support of Kim Joo-young, the author, and President Kim Joo-youn of the Korea Literature Translation Institute, as well as Jilin University Press. The author readily gave his permission for the translation, and KLTI, after an evaluation process, provided the necessary support for translation and publication of the novel. Jilin University Press, with a deep interest in the translation of Korean literature into Chinese, has given full cooperation for the publication of the work, with the active support of Jang Hyeongil, the vice president, promising a fuller and more systematic support for the translation and publication of Korean literature in China in the future. With such enthusiasm from people in the Chinese and Korean literary and publication circles, I believe that auspicious days are ahead for the advancement of Korean literature into Chinese speaking countries.

By Quan Helv

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 41

The Place

Where Writers Call Home,

Tongyeong City Tongyeong, a city in Gyeongsangnam-do (province), is renowned as a center of arts and culture. Its most famous scion is “Cheongma” Yu Chi-hwan, followed by Kim Chun-soo, Park Kyongni, Jeon Hyuck-lim, and other greats who have embroidered 20th century Korea’s world of literature and art. Living within the natural environment of Tongyeong must have been conducive to the poetic imagination.

Paradoxically, I planned to begin a memorial ceremony for Tongyeong because of poets’ laxness in ignoring the city. Early 20th century poet Jeong Ji-yong (1902-1950) was quoted as saying, “I do not possess the ability to describe how the natural scenic beauty of Tongyeong and Hansan island gives birth to literary art.” This was the verse I saw in February 2010 when visiting Tongyeong’s Mt. Mireuk for the unveiling of a poetryinscribed plaque in honor of Jeong Ji-yong. What an absurd statement—Imagine, a poet unable to express something in words! Once you come here and experience the subtle fragrance and beauty first-hand, however, you will understand why Jeong made this seemingly inane statement. From the top of Mt. Mireuk, the view of the Tongyeong coast spreading out below is breathtaking, perhaps accounting for the praise of Tongyeong

by Jeong Ji-yong. My recent visit to Tongyeong is still fresh.

Motes of light mix with the azure sky, floating lazily along while particles of cobalt blue swimming in the indigo sea of the Hallyeo waterway (which connects Tongyeong with Yeosu).

While the scenery alone is enough to take one’s breath away, the actual focus of this article is on the artists of Tongyeong, a miracle in Korea’s artistic and literary history from the early 20th century. Playwright “Dong-rang” Yoo Chijin, the poets Yu Chihwan and Kim Chun-soo, painter Jeon Hyuck-lim, sijo (Korean

verse) poet Kim Sang-ok, and author Park Kyongni are all natives of Tongyeong! How was it possible for so many outstanding artists to emerge at the same time from a small port city on the southern sea? Daring to slightly alter poet Jeong Ji-yong's quote above, I could say, “I do not possess the ability to describe in writing why Tongyeong and Hansan island have produced so many artists.” As a travel reporter, I have visited many foreign cities, yet it is quite rare to encounter one place where so many artists of the highest caliber were born within the same generation. Just counting the number of famous artists born in Tongyeong around the same time yields a surprisingly high number.

Depending on one's interests there are several ways to discover Tongyeong, but I recommend that visitors first stop by the martyrs’ shrine, not to pay respect to Admiral Yi Sun-shin, hero during the Japanese Imjin invasion of Korea and a main character in Kim Hoon’s historical novel Song of the Sword, but to visit the roundabout located in front of the martyrs’ shrine in the Myeongjong neighborhood which houses a poetry-inscribed stone slab erected in memory of Japanese colonial period poetry wunderkind Baik Suk (1912-1995). The title of the poem inscribed there is Tongyeong 2, an excerpt of which appears below: “Nan lives in Myeong-jeong (bright well) Valley / home of Myeong-jeong village where the deep-green, sweet nectar-like

The Place

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1. Chungnyeolsa 2. Birthplace of Cheongma

water bubbles up from Myeong-jeong spring / among the newlymarried women drawing water from the noisy spring, the one I fancy seems likely to appear / but come the season when the camellia's green branches bloom red flowers, my love will likely go to another village to get married...I sit down heavily on the old stone steps of the shrine for old generals and feel like I will cry this night, become a ferryman on the sea of Hansan Island / I think only of the low-roofed and low-fenced house with the elevated yard where my love spent 14 months threshing grain with a foot mortar.”

While touching the verses carved into the smooth headstone, I think of the poet's distress over a love that could not be. Perhaps the low social status of Baik Suk's mother, a gisaeng (female courtesan performing Korean classical music and dance), made the union impossible. The two wells referred to in the poem stand next to the inscribed stone slab. One well denotes the day (日), while the other denotes the month (月). When these two Chinese characters are combined, they form the character myeong (日+月 = 明, brightness), which is how the wells got their name.

Now let’s head south from the shrine (of Admiral Yi Sunshin) to the Seoho market. Tongyeong is famous for its seafood market offering delicious fare, but today we are calling here for a different reason. The one kilometer radius around the seafood market is the area in which most of Tongyeong’s poets and writers 44 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

once lived. First, the house where "Chojeong" Kim Sang-ok was born is right in front of the market. His excellent and visuallyevocative piece, “Garden Balsam,” appears on the poetryinscribed monument, conveying how much he missed his older sister: “As the rain falls, only one side of the garden balsam stretches its branches over the big jars of (fermenting) soy sauce / will the yearly blossoms leave me bereft / I send a detailed letter of my circumstances to Sister / already I wonder if she will laugh or cry when reading / you miss the childhood home which is still so vivid to me / remember you stained my fingernails with dye from balsam petals / we sat facing each other in the sunlight while you wound string round and round / my finger, making each fingernail of my white hand light crimson / as if in a dream I see my veins standing out.”

After quietly looking at the light crimson of my fingernails I purposely ball my hands into a fist until the veins stand out in my hand before heading to Jungang-dong in front of the Munhwa Post Office. A story of unattainable love similar to that of poet Baik Suk's awaits us here. This love story concerns "Cheongma" Yu Chi-hwan and sijo poet Lee Youngdo. Today we can convey our emotions at the speed of light through the world of the ‘handheld Internet,’ making it hard for me to understand the sentiments of Yu Chi-hwan, who sent about 5,000 letters to people here and there.

The phrase 'authenticity of the moment’ sounds initially pleasing, but it's also a nuanced reproach of those who change their hearts from moment to moment. Yu Chi-hwan's first wife was alive and well and her eyes were open to the fact that her husband was sending love letters to other women. How could Tongyeong, the city of “courtesy and decorum,” cheer such a native son? In his poem, “Happiness,” he opens with the optimistically romantic line, “I can see the broad emerald sky from the front of the post office window as I write this letter to you,” but in his poem, “Fragrance,” the verses are filled with exclamations of anger and feelings of betrayal. “People in my hometown mock my dreams / I despise you and cast you away like a pair of worn-out sandals!” Although the poet claims he discarded his hometown like a pair of old shoes, perhaps it was the fiercely proud city of Tongyeong which discarded the poet. The 18th century British critic Samuel Johnson once said that all novels were origina lly love stories.

Were the conservative people of Tongyeong aware of this quote?

The love stories of the adulterous Yu Chi-hwan have become yet another facet of his charm that attracts today’s readers.

Not so long ago, I received a call from a younger colleague and novelist who had just moved into the Toji Culture Center. While there a re a considerable number of studios for writers to pursue their craft, my friend mentioned that he Poem written by Jeong Ji-yong had never seen a n

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1. Park Kyongni Memorial Hall 2. Park Kyongni 3. Seoho Market

environment as perfect for writing as Land. Until she passed away two years ago, it is said that the famous Park Kyongni (1926-2008), author of the novel Land, fed, gave lodging to, and gathered writers under her wing, earning the nickname “mom.” After leaving Seoho market and crossing the Tongyeong Bridge, I arrive at Mireuk (Maitreya) island. Pak’s memorial and burial place are both located here. While she also had deep connections with Wonju City (in Gangwon-do) and Hadong (in Gyeongsangnamdo), Tongyeong was her hometown. Her last wish was to be buried in a sunny spot in her hometown, a wish which was granted after her passing in May 2008. “When I look back at my youth with my failing eyes I can see how brief yet beautiful it was. Why couldn’t I realize this fact back then?” I recite the lines of her poem, “About Living,” which is carved into the memorial stone.

Next, I head to the Jeon Hyuck-lim Museum of Art (JMA) located in Bongpyeong-dong of the same island. Self-taught “cobalt blue” painter Jeon Hyuck-lim (1915-2010) successfully supported his family through painting and is reputed to have said, “Tongyeong-style is global-style.” He never left Tongyeong until the day he died because he became mesmerized by the cobalt color of the sea bordering his home, and spent his life exploring the source of his favorite color till the very end. Regrettably, one week after I visited the JMA, Jeon Hyuck-lim passed away at the age of 95, and I felt guilty that I hadn’t been there at the end to say farewell. Jeon's oldest son and master artist Jeon Young-geun (54-years-old) now runs the JMA, the site of a happy confluence of literature and art.

Mt. Mireuk, with a height of 461 meters, was originally named by the Venerable Wonhyo, the famous monk from the Silla dynasty. He named the mountain as such because he believed that the future coming of the Maitreya Buddha would occur here. Would it be too outlandish to say that the energy from Mt. Mireuk was responsible for the amazing preponderance of literati, painters, and artists born here in the early 20th century? I think the conjecture becomes less biased if we consider the interpretation that culture is the manifestation of Buddha

for all mankind. If we look at today’s culture and the shabby circumstances of creative talents, we realize that culture is not a gift for redeeming mankind but rather a means of maintaining the thread of existence. It’s a rather romantic view, isn’t it?

I recall a poem I saw on the 2nd floor of the JMA which was dedicated to Jeon Hyuck-lim by the poet Kim Chun-soo. It was written shortly after the poet arrived at the painter’s 80th birthday feast in 1995: “To painter Jeon Hyuck-lim–Hey Jeon, you only have one upper tooth left in your mouth and (the walls of) your wife’s stomach grow(s) thinner by the day, but the most exquisite thing in the world is the abundant cobalt blue sky of summer which is still hovering over the roof.”

Today, the fall sky here in Gwanghwamun (a neighborhood in Seoul close to Gyeongbok-gung (palace) reminds me of the ocean’s color in Tongyeong. I feel the impulse to fly down the highway and see the cobalt blue sea once more.

By Uh Soo-woong

The Jeon Hyuk-lim Museum of Art

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Theme Lounge

Mythology in Korea

Korean mythology refers to stories that have been passed down in geographical regions on the Korean peninsula and its many islands. The motifs found in Korean mythology share many traits with mythology from East Asia, and therefore have a broader cultural resonance.

The Mystery of Korean Mythology Cho Hyun-soul, Hankyoreh Publishing Company 2006, 309p, ISBN 9788984311787

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Many of the mythologies found in the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) and other literature concern the foundation of Korea. That is because the mythology of the founding of the ancient kingdoms is partially incorporated into history. The myths that have been orally transmitted are mostly shamanist in tradition. From ancient times to the present, the shamanist tradition has been prominent in Korea; myths still live on through present day shamans who still recite the origin of the world during rituals, as well as the genealogy of the deities.

A prominent mythology of the founding of Korea is the “Myth of Dangun� which tells the story of how ancient Joseon began. It is about how Hwanung, the son of Hwanin, the heavenly god in the Dangun myth, descended to Earth, and married Woongnyeo, originally from a bear clan, and how the two produced Dangun, who established ancient Korea. In addition, Jumong of Goguryeo, Hyeokgeosae of Shilla, and Suro of Gaya are all founding figures of ancient historical Korea. They also share the common origin of having been born from an egg. The heroes in the myth of founding

Tamra on Jeju island are known by their last names of Go, Yang, and Bu. The founders of Goryeo and Joseon, who are Wanggun and Yi Seong Gae, respectively, have also been mythologized in the books, Godaesa (Ancient History) and Songs of Flying Dragons (a eulogy cycle in 125 c a ntos c omprisi ng 248 poem s). T h is wa s to ju st i f y t he establishment of these countries by honoring their founding fathers.

The shamanist mythology of Korea has had a long history of being transmitted orally, and therefore there is a great quantity of stories.

There are foundation myths, like “Changsaega” and “Shirumal,” and “Princess Bari,” a shamanist foundation myth, as well as “Seongjo Puri,” a myth of the Gataek deity, protector of the home, and “Ireolnoripunyeom,” a myth on the origin of the sun and the moon.

These are all mythologies which have been passed down on the Korean peninsula.

Jeju island can arguably claim to be the home of shamanist mythology as there is much evidence there of many deities and altars.

There have been over 500 such recorded shamanist mythologies.

Moreover, Jeju island has altar (dang) mythologies and ancestral deities that are not found elsewhere on the peninsula. The mythology of the altar is about the genealogy of the main deity honored at each particular altar, whereas myths about the ancestral deity are about the history and the origin of the ancestral deities themselves. The most representative mythologies of Jeju are “Cheonji Wang Bonpuri ” on the island’s foundation, the “Samseung Halmang Bonpuri,” a myth on the origin of Sanyukshin, the protector deity of childbirth and care, and “Saekyeong Bonpuri” on the origin of the deity of agriculture. Among the dang mythologies, the “Songdang Bonpuri” and “Gwaenwaegitdang Bonpuri” are famous, with “Yangimoksa Bonpuri” being well-known as a mythology of an ancestral spirit.

The mythologies on the founding of Korea from the northern and southern regions of the peninsula, including Jeju island, each have different characteristics. The northern region mythologies of Dangun and Jumong are both about a father figure who descends from the heavens and marries a mother figure from Earth for the purpose of establishing a new land. Hwanung, a son of the deity, marries Woongnyeo, who represents the deity of a bear clan, to found ancient Joseon, and likewise, Haemosu, son of the deity, marries Yuhwa, daughter of the water deity, for the foundation of Goguryeo. In both cases each of the parents symbolizes foreign and indigenous clans.

Meanwhile, the founding mythologies of the southern regions of the Korean peninsula, namely Silla and Gaya, have their founding fathers descend from heaven in the form of an egg. The child born from an egg grows up and is crowned king by the agreement of various clans.

According to this mythology, Silla was comprised of six clans, and Gaya was unified under 10 clans. Marriage took place after the coronation of the king. In contrast to the foundation of a new land taking place as a result of conquering in the northern region, the founding of Silla and Gaya are based on a coalition of clans. The distinct characteristic of the mythology of ancient Tamra on Jeju island is that the three founding figures rose from underground and married princesses who had sailed from a foreign land, thus reflecting their maritime geography.

The shamanist mythologies of Korea have a distinct spatial quality.

In the mythologies of Central Asia, the underworld and heaven appear as places but in Korean shamanist mythology, there is no physical description of the underworld. However, the imaginative qualities that are found in the country that is now known as India are welldeveloped; “Princess Bari,” a centra l shamanist my thic stor y, exemplifies such an imagination very well. To save her ailing parents, Princess Bari embarks on a trip to the underworld. But in what is the realm of death, there exists in the underworld the life-saving flower and water. In Korean shamanist mythology, the underworld symbolizes the origin of life.

The Living Mythology of Korea Shin Donghun, Hankyoreh Publishing Company 2004, 334p, ISBN 9788984311268

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Theme Lounge

The Origin of Korean Myths Kim Hwa-kyong, Jisik-sanup Publishing Co., Ltd. 2005, 280p, ISBN 8942348254

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The other characteristic of shamanist myths is that most involve families. Except for the foundation mythologies, the ones that reveal the genealogy of numerous deities are all stories about families. In “Princess Bari” there is the motif of a child abandoned on account of being born as yet another daughter.

The other daughters refuse to get hold of medicine for their ill parents, and it is Bari, the abandoned one, who actually goes in search of it. “Seongjushinga,” the foundation mythology of the Gataek deity, tells the story of how the wise wife saves a marriage in crisis due to the absence of her husband, as well as his foolishness. “Samgong Bonpuri,” a Jeju island shamanist myth, is about a daughter who gets kicked out of her house for defying her parents, and then marries a worthy man and becomes wealthy, finally rescuing her parents who have become blind and destitute.

As can bee seen in the aforementioned mythologies, the deities in the shamanist myths were originally all earthly people.

Princess Bari who was from an imaginary kingdom called Blaguk goes on to become the deity of Ogu with the mission of leading the dead to the underworld. Hwang U Yang from “Seong-jushinga,” and his wife too were ordinary people who become the deities of Seongju and Teoju. Gamunjangagi of “Sa mgong Bonpuri ” wa s born a s t he daughter of Gangiyoungseong and Hongunsocheon, and later became the deity of fate. Just like the dead who are honored as ancestral deities in Korean rituals, ordinary people who become deities are a common trait of Korean shamanist mythologies.

The influences of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are also evident in the shamanist mythologies of Korea. The Jade Emperor from the Taoist tradition makes appearances as the greatest deity, and there are heavenly officials and maidens as well. There is the Buddha of the Future in the foundation mythologies, and Shakyamuni; when the hero is in danger, Shakyamuni or the Bodhisattva provides him with guidance. In the shamanist mythologies, Confucian values are reflected in the presence of an authoritarian father f igure representing a patriarch, and children are portrayed as being filial sons and daughters. The shamanist mythologies were passed down over a long period of time, and therefore the teaching s of t he a ncient religions in f i lt rated e x ist ing element s of shamanism.

In the past, there was not too much interest in these Korean myths with their profound content. It was solely a research topic for academics and not for the general public. But the interest in Korean mythology by the public has risen greatly just in the last 20 years. There are several reasons for this. First, after the democratization of Korea, t here ha s been w ide spread interest in realms beyond ever yday

reality. At the same time, this situation coupled with the development of Internet and the advancement of cinematic techniques has increased people’s interest in my tholog y.

Moreover, skepticism about the humanism-oriented ideology of the modernist era has turned people’s attention in the direction of mythology. Awareness that the improvement of technology has not necessarily provided happiness has also led people to turn toward the world of mythology that science and technology have failed to explain.

In step with the return of mythology, there has been an outpouring of books on mythology for the general public. The Living Mythology of Korea by Shin Donghun, and The Mystery of Korean Mythology by Cho Hyun-soul are two such books. The former provides an easy-to-read explication about Korean shamanist mythologies with annotations; it is recommended for the novice who is interested in mythologies of the shamanist tradition. The latter explores Korean mythology via 30 topics, offers new insights, and engenders a critical mindset in its readers.

If one’s curiosity has been piqued by reading the first book, then the second book is a must-read.

There is a need for more scholarly books in order to gain a deeper understanding of Korean mythology. A book that would meet such criteria would be Seo Dae-seok’s The Study of Myths in Korea. Based on lengthy research, the book covers a broad spectrum from the foundation of Korea to the shamanist mythology, not to mention the more general aspects of Korean mythology. The Origin of Korean Myths by Kim Hwa-kyong is a thoroughly researched book which categorizes mythologies into t wo classes, that of the ruling and the ruled, and does a comparative study on mythological motifs, like “appearance on earth,” “descent from the heavens,” “birth from an egg,” and “ born from a deit y,” in exploring the origins of Korea n mythology. The Foundation Mythology of Korea by Kim Heonseon, a well-researched book that can also serve as a reference book, is highly recommended for those interested in the facts and the meaning of Korean foundation mythology.

Korean mythology has not received much attention from abroad, and has been treated as if on the fringe of Chinese and Japanese mythologies. But the mytholog y of Korea is not something that is found only in books but is also very much alive in the shamanist rituals that are still being carried out. As noted earlier, there are diverse deities and an even wider range of stories about them. Korean mythology is a timeless herald about Korean culture that provides stories that enrich our present lives.

By Cho Hyun-soul

The Study of Myths in Korea Seo Dae-seok, Jipmoondang 2001, 580p, ISBN 8930308201

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Reviews Fiction

The Dead Teach the Living How to Survive Zombies Kim Junghyuk, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 376p, ISBN 9788936433802

Zombies, the first novel by Kim Junghyuk, author of the short stor y collections Penguin News a nd The Librar y of Instruments, does not actually feature that many zombies. Those who do make an appearance are nothing like the ghoulish figures familiar from zombie movies, neither do they prey on human f lesh.

Zombies explores more profound themes than that: the relationship of the living and the dead, and life and death.

To prota gonist Chae Ji-hoon, a n a nten na re ader whose job check ing antenna reception takes him all over the country, none of the people he sees in any of the cities and buildings he visits seem to have any purpose in life. The reception of antennas, marked on a scale of zero to 10, is his only interest until his older brother dies and everything changes. His view of life as merely a steady decline from 10 to eight, six, and three, just like the reception of antennas, is shaken to the core by the sudden death of his brother.

Chae Ji-hoon on ly beg ins to understand his brother after his death, listening to his old LPs and getting to know his tastes, when one of the records leads him to Fatty 130, and then Hong Hye-jeong, and her daughter Hong Ian.

Ironically, it is thanks to his dead brother that his life takes on a new turn.

Among the many changes that occur in Chae Ji-hoon’s life after he moves to Gorio village where Hong Hye-jeong lives, is of course, the zombies. The villagers of Gorio live an isolated, ghost-like life as they attempt to hide themselves from the outside world. The question is, why? It is because their livelihoods at Gorio were bought by selling the bodies of their dead family members who never amounted to much in life and died before their time.

The families of the dead, having supplied the bodies without the sense that they had lived their lives in full and were resting in peace, struggle with feelings of guilt and depression.

Any comfort they might have derived by telling themselves that the bodies were being used in medical experiments for the greater good, however, is dashed when it is revealed that the military is turning them into zombies to use in military experiments. Faced with real-life zombies, Chae Ji-hoon begins to ruminate over the once remote issue of death: “I wondered what was the use of everything I was so desperate to hang onto if I died, if everything were to disappear,

if nothing I knew existed anymore. I once thought that nothing in this world was of any value. I did not see anything in relationships, love, obsession, despair, hope.

I did not feel like starting anything when the end of that path was so clearly ahead.

It pained me to think that everything must have a beginning and an end. But maybe the beginning and the end were not what mattered…It felt like a miracle just to be standing here. For all those who are dead and those who are dying, someone has to survive and keep going down that path.”

Is death the end of life, the end of all things? Ironically, it is the zombies, animate after death, that lead Chae Jihoon to change his outlook on death. If being alive is a miracle in itself, life must be the most precious thing in the world.

Zombies is not so much a survival guide in that it teaches how to survive the attacks of zombies, but rather how to live a more meaningful life by avoiding becoming one in the first place.

By Yi Soo-hyung

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Reviews Fiction

Remembering Heartache The Valley of Parting Lim Chul-woo, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 315p, ISBN 9788932020730

The Valley of Parting, Lim Chul-woo’s first novel in six years, takes its name from Byeoreogok Station, a flag stop in the hills of Gangwon-do (province). Starting with “Autumn,” followed by “Winter,” “Summer,” and “Spring,” the four chapters of The Valley of Parting are narrated, respectively, by Jeong Dong-su, a young would-be-poet and railway conductor who guards a secret about his father; Mr. Shin, a conductor facing retirement but who is haunted by an old mistake that caused a train accident; Jeon Sun-rye, who cannot forget her traumatic experience as a sex slave to Japanese soldiers; and Yang Sunji, consumed by guilt because she may have unwittingly identified and caused the death of a deserter during the war when she was a child.

The meaning of the title, The Valley of Parting, becomes clear upon finishing the book. Parting is such a sad, painful experience that it is only natural to wish to avoid it; but then again, who can truly be free of such memories? On the contrary, it

Ordinary Miracles Spectators Yoon Sung-hee, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

2010, 309p, ISBN 9788954612807

An increasingly large number of people are living alone in Korea. There are more lonely souls than ever who live alone, eat alone, sleep alone, and die alone. These people are increasingly alienated from their roots and the family unit. A scant few decades ago it was common to see three generations under the same roof in Korea; now the concept of family itself is being challenged. Yoon Sung-hee shows exceptional perception in examining the history and meaning of family in a Korean society that is slowly being forgotten.

Spectators tells the story of a boy who miraculously survives three near-death experiences while also exploring how the eight members his family have a profound effect on each other’s lives. The boy wonders how he, not being particularly brave, industrious, or selfless, was allowed 52 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

to defy death on not one but three extraordinary occasions. His miraculous survival, however, is not due to personal luck but thanks to the efforts of his family and all the members of society who interact with them. The boy himself may not look special at all, but the stories of his family members are. It is their stories that make this noteworthy as well.

Yoon Sung-hee’s writing focuses not on the grand miracles that happen to extraordinary people, but the everyday miracles that happen to ordinary people.

Spectators shows what a remarkable amount of history lies behind the birth and life of an ordinary boy, and the amount of love and miracles needed to make that happen.

The small but precious miracles that go unnoticed every day are lovingly depicted in this novel.

By Jung Yeo-ul

may be that the valley of parting is what helps us hang onto our sanity. How could we possibly separate such an integral part of ourselves from our lives? To quote the author, “Nobody tries to remember the past, or gives a second thought to it in this world of disposable sensations, disposable images, disposable relationships. It seems, almost, that we wish we could dispose of our own lives as easily. In that case, this novel is about those whose time is arrested in the past, or those who refuse to forget.”

An observation that nicely sums up the author’s insight into the importance that each of our valleys holds for us.

By Yi Soo-hyung

Spotlight on Fiction

Garden of Childhood

(an excerpt)

By Oh Jung-hee Translated by Jung Hayun

Garden of Childhood Oh Jung-hee, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2001, 296p, ISBN 8932009872

Garden of Childhood After dinner, Grandmother told Older Sister to do the dishes and went outside, carrying Little Brother on piggyback. He always cried around sunset so every night Grandmother had to carry him around on her back and returned only when their hair and clothes turned damp with night dew. That was why Little Brother always seemed to have a cold and his hands and feet were always warm with worrisome fever.

Skinny as a spider, he was constantly crying in frail, shallow whimpers, except when he was sucking on Grandmother’s dried-up breasts. Even when he finally fell asleep, faint ripples of sobs remained on his open lips, making his mouth quiver. Sometimes I gazed at Little 54 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Brother when he was sleeping as if it were an odd sight, especially his chin, the skin red and sore from constant drool.

Second Brother brought home mudfish that he caught with a fishbowl buried inside the brook and frogs that he hunted with a supple willow branch, and Grandmother boiled them down and fed it to Little Brother, but he did not seem to get any better.

In the middle of fields or on hills, we often found piles of small stones. They were graves for babies.

We knew that he was going to die. One night, he would be carried out on an A-frame, wrapped in sheets like a little bundle, listening to Grandmother and Mother crying quietly.

After fishing and swimming in the brook all day, Second Brother fell asleep on the warm spot of the room with his arms and legs spread out. Older Sister had been making noise doing dishes in the dark kitchen, but was now quiet, probably gone to town. Older Brother was long gone.

Turning over in his sleep, Second Brother kicked the rice bowl placed near his foot, rolling it over until its lid came open. I reached out to close the lid, but then snatched a few grains of rice and put them into my mouth. The smooth, white boiled rice swiftly went down my throat before I even realized it. I rushed to grab some more and swallowed, then smoothed the surface of the rice in the bowl so that it wouldn’t show.

Grinding his teeth, Second Brother tossed about, then let out a laugh. I quickly put the lid back on the bowl and sat back against the wall. The dark room was scary. My hand kept crawling toward the rice bowl. I could forget my fear for as long as the sweet, rich taste of the rice grains remained in my mouth.

As I could not help reaching out my hand, again and again, the rice in the bowl was quickly disappearing. Under

the thin layer of white rice on top was the usual black boiled barley that we ate. Grandmother would notice right away. I fought desperately with my hand as it kept heading toward the bowl, trying to look the other way. On the nights that she drank, Mother usually did not eat dinner.

Just this once—under this condition, I negotiated with my shameless hand. I carefully lifted the lid, grabbed another handful of rice, then evened the scooped surface before lying down next to Second Brother.

I wanted to sleep. I wanted to fall asleep before Mother returned, before Older Brother came storming back from the market street and crossed the room, carelessly stepping on our arms and legs, to lie down facing the wall, all huffy, before he clasped and yanked Older Sister’s locks.

From the backyard of the main quarters, I could hear ripening persimmons falling from the tree.

Was Bu-ne sleeping, too? Lying awake in the middle of the dark night, I could picture only scary thoughts. I took as long as possible chewing the rice grain by grain, trying to forget my fear, but the fistful of rice was already gone, as if it had never been there. When I moved my toes even slightly, the rice bowl at my feet swayed and rolled.

I stood and felt my way out to the kitchen. I got on tiptoes and fumbled through the cupboard and the dishes on the shelves. The sweet potatoes were hidden inside a pot in the cupboard. Grandmother had boiled them for Little Brother, who cried every night. If she found out that the sweet potatoes were gone, Grandmother would probably shake Older Sister and Second Brother, even if it were in the middle of the night.

You ate them up, didn’t you? Didn’t you?

I dropped the pot lid to the kitchen floor to make it look as if a mouse had done it, and took a big bite of the sweet potato, which had turned slightly sour.

I heard Grandmother’s footsteps on the other side of

the boarded wall of the kitchen. I hurriedly swallowed the sweet potato. My throat felt choked and my chest hurt, as if it were about to tear open, but I had no time to get a drink of water. The pot lid that I had just dropped got caught in my flurried footsteps and rumbled on the floor.

On my way into the room I bumped my foot on the threshold, which hurt horribly.

Grandmother breathed out a long sigh and lit the lamp.

The smell of gasoline spread and black soot rose then the room brightened. Grandmother felt around with her hand, as if the light were not bright enough for her, then pushed me towards the wall and laid Little Brother down.

Carefully I put a hand into my pocket. The sweet potato that was mashed up inside stuck all over my hand.

You must be hungry. Get inside.

When Mother returned late, Grandmother got up from her dozing and brought in dinner for her. My heart thumped hard.

I’m fine. You don’t go hungry working at a restaurant.

But you’ll ruin your stomach. Eat up.

Mother struggled to pull off her padded beoseon socks and threw them to the floor.

Goodness, what happened to the rice?

Grandmother opened the lid of the bowl as she handed Mother her spoon.

I had to pee so bad my tummy felt as if it were being pulled taut, but I could not budge.

Now she even steals from her own mother’s food…

It’s Yellow Eye. She’s like a little mouse, gets her hands on everything. The landlady says she can’t find a single fallen persimmon in the garden. What an embarrassment…

Gr a nd mot her r a i se d her voic e i n e x a g ger ated anger. There was always an air of fawning in the way Grandmother talked to Mother, as if she had something to be ashamed of, and Mother seemed to take it for granted. list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 55

She gets hungry so quick, that’s why. Barley’s no good for keeping you full. She’s at that age…has to fill her stomach with anything she sees.

The way Mother was rambling on carelessly, she sounded like she was either drunk or raving.

People might think I starve the kids, if they heard you talk. She eats even more than the older ones. Look at her.

Sturdier than her sister.

Grandmother sounded as if she were about to slap me awake.

Give it a rest.

Mother pushed her dinner away without touching it.

And without changing her clothes, she lied down on her side, folding her arm under her head as a pillow.

I could be punished for saying this… but I don’t feel like I really gave birth to her.

Mother seemed to be falling asleep, but mumbled, as if to herself, her voice now alert.

Grandmother had her back to Mother, rubbing her feet with perilla oil, and did not answer. The smell of gasoline and oil mingled together, filling up the room with soot-like blackness. Grandmother had burned her foot on shrapnel in the chaos of the war and every night she rubbed perilla oil and wrapped it with oil paper.

Mother did not appear to be waiting for a response as she kept on. ….Doesn’t laugh, doesn’t talk…She’s different from other kids. Seems slow and she has only food on her mind, as if she were possessed by the ghost of a pig. Maybe she’s slightly dumb…Still wetting her sleeping mat at seven…

How can I send her to school next year. It can be a disease, you know, a child her age getting fat like that. People say kids can swell up when there’s too much fluid in the body.

It’s the little one I’m worried about, more than Yellow Eye. Grandmother cut in, the paper on her foot rustling.

56 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Doesn’t seem like he’s going to make good, just gets weaker every day… He feels like nothing more than a bunch of dry leaves on my back. What a pity, a penis good for nothing.

Mother sighed again.

It was quiet in the room. Grandmother did not speak anymore. She was probably thinking about Father. Day by day, Father was growing more distant and faint, but in the dark night, he seeped in like a phantom through the crack in the wall and pushed his way between us to lay himself down.

I could not remember Father’s face. The only memory I could conjure up was of him getting off the truck, the back of his shirt soaked and the underarms even darker with sweat. Mother had cried out, waving her arms wide.

I will get settled around here. You have to come back, promise.

Mother lifted herself up. An enormous shadow wobbled on the wall. She blew out the lamp with an audible breath.

The shadow fluttered, then in a second, was gone.

Big one’s not back yet.

Grandmother spoke cautiously.

He’ll be here.

I could not get to sleep. As I lay still and listened closely to the clear chirp and trill of the insects in the garden, my body gradually turned into a paper-thin, transparent layer of skin and I could even hear the millipedes scurrying underneath our reed mat.

Deep into the night, Older Brother returned, smelling damp like morning dew. He walked across our bodies, mumbling something foul, and lay down next to the wall.

I tore off tiny bits of the sweet potato without making a sound and sucked my sticky fingers to their very tips, melting the sweetness with my tongue.

The millipedes’ numerous little feet busily gnawed into

the darkness. Because we slept without pillows under our heads, we ferociously ground our teeth.

Mot her si g he d i n her sle ep a s i f i n pa i n a nd Grandmother murmured incomprehensible words.

In the kitchen, a hungry mouse was searching the empty bowls, rattling and clattering.

I opened my eyes, clear and wide, and spoke in a low voice.

Go back to where you live, there’s nothing to eat here.

I knew what was keeping me awake, this unsettling anxiety. The bump on my foot had long stopped hurting.

But I curled up to wrap my hands around the foot and scowled fiercely. I scowled again and again in the darkness.

In the midst of the noise of our teeth gnashing and grinding, all the smells of our living selves was boiling up fiendishly—the smell of our sweat, of the dry flakes of our skin, of the gas that we kept squeezing out, of our naïve, bloody lust.

I stretched out my arm quietly and reached toward Mother’s head. Even when she was drunk, Mother always went to sleep with her wallet stashed underneath the sleeping mat. I took out a bill from the wallet and put it back under the mat. Mother never seemed to notice that the money was missing, being so drunk. But I kept thinking that she just pretended not to notice, when actually she knew. That was why, although I knew that I would eventually end up taking the money, I was always sick with anxiety until I pulled the bill out of the wallet, until the sweet, sweet candy finished melting in my mouth.

I pushed the money deep into my pocket, still sticky, then lay on my back and finally, hazily, fell asleep.

I could still hear the sound of persimmons falling, intermittently, in the backyard. The insects sounded much closer now.

Bu-ne was crying. Without making a sound. This was

what I thought as I sank far and deep into sleep. Was it a dream?

• The late summer heat would not retreat. The morning sunlight poured down so intensely that the zinc roof was about to melt.

Yellow Eye, carry the little one on your back.

Grandmother put Little Brother on my back and tied him on with a band, then, with a groan, lifted up the wooden laundry basin to carry on her head.

She kept on walking against the current, past the shallow waters where children were swimming naked, past the women doing laundry or rinsing vegetables.

On the upper reach of the brook, Grandmother found a quiet, clean spot and soaked the laundry in the water. I put Little Brother down in the meager shade of a cornel tree by the brook and chased away the flies on his head and on the flaccid skin around his chin.

Little Brother, skinny as a spider, kept frowning and blinking his eyes at the sunlight shining through the leaves.

He was covered with prickly heat all summer long, which turned red then festered with pus, but when you pulled off his long-sleeved underwear, in no time goose bumps popped up on his dull skin.

Quickly bored, I began picking purslane to make grass dolls and floated them down the brook, soaking my feet in the water.

When she was done with the washing, Grandmother spread out the laundry to dry on a flat rock, heated hot and white by the sun. My skirt got wet from the swift current, so I took off my clothes and got in the water. Down at the bottom of the brook, my feet looked so white and clean amidst the round, eroded pebbles, as if they had just list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 57

sprouted into being.

Grandmother raked the flowing water with her fingers to push the dry grass and leaves downstream, then pulled out the pin from her hair, held up in a bun. In an instant, the skein of thin, tight braids fell down on her back. Then she pulled loose the ribbon, tied tight around the tip of the braids. The violet ribbon was so worn and oily that it looked glossy and black.

Wretched old habit…She used to sing and dance and pour drinks for men.

Mother would say in a rather condescending tone, pointing at Grandmother’s flower-patterned ribbon.

She was so pretty people called her a bag of flowers, Bongji, Flower Bongji.

Mother said that her father took Bongji in as his concubine and built her a tile-roofed house with ninetynine rooms, huge as a whale’s back.

Grandmother bathed often. Even in the middle of winter, she sat inside the wooden tub, set up inside the kitchen with the milky steam rising, and washed herself, splatter, splash. Of course, she locked the door tight so no one could peek inside. When Mother heard Grandmother bathing from the room, this is what she said.

That old habit… Pitiful, I’d say. Keeping that up when she has no husband to attend to in bed…

The scene from three years ago, of the day Grandmother came to our house for the first time, still remained as vivid as a painting in my memory.

The events that came before and after that day were blurry in my mind, except for the fact that things were chaotic.

Father had been digging up a corner of the garden. Next to him were piles of porcelain and glass ware. He said he was going to bury them deep in the ground to keep them from breaking. Then we would be leaving for some place.

58 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Father bent down and kept on hoeing, wiping the sweat off his forehead, but could not dig into the frozen earth.

Instead, the edge of the hoe broke and bounced off.

Bitter cold snow fell in the wind. A truck was parked outside our gate and Mother, in her last month of pregnancy, waddled back and forth like a duck, carrying our bundles to the truck.

That was when someone stepped in softly through the open gate. She was like a flower petal that had bloomed out of season, blowing in with the white snow.

Grandmother walked in carefully, taking tiny steps like a breeding hen, wearing a violet silk overcoat and a pretty black traditional hat with earflaps and a five-color tassel draping on her forehead. (It was only sometime later, when we got to our first shelter and Grandmother took over as caretaker for Mother after she gave birth, that I learned that Grandmother’s tiny steps were a desperate attempt to hide the limp caused by the burn on her foot.)

Suddenly disoriented by Grandmother’s appearance, for a while we stared blankly at the gate. Even Mother.

The way she was standing there bashfully in the falling snow with such a clear, innocent look on her face—her body had turned into a bundle of clothing to lighten the load and to keep warm from the cold—was somehow a tremendous shock to us, so much that for a moment we forgot why we were leaving in such a scurry.

Until she showed up at our house at our parent’s insistence that she flee the war with us, we had never met Grandmother, not even known that we had a grandmother.

Mother told us only later that after Grandfather lost all his riches (Mother used the term “sucked up by concubines”) and died, Grandmother, who had not been able to bear children as was often the case with these women, had been living by herself.

Father also seemed dumbfounded at the sight of

Grandmother, then he threw the broken hoe in his hand to the ground. He said gruffly and with disdain, to no one in particular. Come on, let’s get going.

Grandmother got up on the back of the truck, wrapping her coat tight around her, wearing an awkward, abashed look. I was handed over to Grandmother right away but I was so scared of that hat on her head. Because of my terrible, petrified crying, Grandmother had to take off her hat and sit all night with her white head freezing naked in the winter wind.

Inside the small bundle that Grandmother had brought with her, there was a red silk sack with a blue and red tassel.

There were two phoenixes leaning their heads against each other, embroidered in gorgeous gold and silver. She kept two silver spoon and chopstick sets in the sack, which belonged to her and her late husband.

Grandmother soaked her hair, rough and yellowish white like hemp yarn, and washed it for a long, long time.

When she was done, she braided the wet hair, tied her violet ribbon, and put the hair up in a neat bun. Then she pulled my naked body and held me under her arms, pushing my head into the water.

As my head entered the water, it felt cool and light, as if my head had suddenly opened up and begun emptying itself out.

It was summer but the first dip in the water always felt cold. The sky and the clouds and the trees flipped over, as if in a headlong fall, and turned upside down. I kicked and struggled with fear and displeasure whenever I got pushed in the water upside down, but soon I got used to the feeling of water flowing beneath my head.

I let my arms hang and quietly watched the upsidedown scenery. The sky and the smooth mountain ridges holding it up, and the trees and the small forests, all shook in a blur in my vision. Tiny minnows swiftly swam past

right above my eyelashes. Strands of loose hair wobbled like water plants and sunk in between the rocks at the bottom of the water.

Look, look at all this dirt inside your hair.

Grandmother rubbed and scratched my hair mercilessly.

There was nothing but the mid-day sunlight boiling up quietly; even the sound of the water flowing seemed to be sinking into languid sleep. I pulled slightly away from Grandmother’s loosened grip and dipped my head deeper into the water. I could see green moss, soft as velvet, growing in the hidden corners of the rocks at the bottom of the brook. Seen through my eyes from underwater, the upside down scenery seemed very familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere before.

Grandmother’s naked underarms smelled sour with sweat and her abundant, sweaty armpit hair tickled my shoulders each time she rubbed my hair.

Finished with washing my hair, Grandmother turned around and took off her skirt. And she stepped precariously on the slippery rocks, losing her balance a little, and entered the water.

It was my first time to see Grandmother naked. Unlike her dry, withering arms and legs, covered with black and brown spots, the skin under her clothes was shiny white— her belly, without the ugly wrinkles that many births had left behind on Mother, was especially lush and round. The water that had been bubbling through Grandmother’s dark crotch flowed downstream and curled around my waist before moving on.

Looking at Grandmother standing in the middle of the brook as if in a daze, I suddenly recalled my astonishment from that first day when Grandmother entered our house in the snow, like a flower petal blowing in the wind.

Grandmother was beautiful. Noticing my gaze on her, she smiled wide, showing her gums. Laughing in the sun list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 59

like that, her mouth agape, Grandmother looked like a dry petal. Bongji, Bongji, Flower Bongji, Grandmother was really like a sack filled up with seeds, black and ripe.

Sand carried down by the current gradually buried Grandmother’s pink burnt foot, which shed a layer of skin every night.

Grandmother stood tall in the middle of the water, then dissolved like watercolor, light and slow, and passed through my ugly wrinkled crotch, bubbling and flowing on down.

Little Brother began to cry in faint whimpers. Perhaps an ant was crawling on his face. Mixed with the sound of the water, his crying sounded almost natural, like nothing out of the ordinary, like the sound of insects in the bushes or sand piling up on the bottom of the brook, and it did not occur to me that I should rush over to him. Grandmother seemed to be thinking the same thing. When the sleek serpent, thick as my arm, appeared from the woods where Little Brother lay and dipped its head in the water and slowly swam with the current, she stared blankly then mumbled, as if the thought had just occurred to her.

He must have been scared out of his wits.

• Mother slept late. Older Sister and Second Brother had long ago left for school. When sunlight landed on her make-upsmeared face, puffy and swollen from a hangover, Mother turned over, blocking it with the back of her hand.

Older Brother turned his back to us and as always, began to read the English book in a loud voice and I walked around Mother’s head and got out of the room.

The corner store was at the entrance of the village, on the other side of the road that led into town.

The young woman would be fanning herself with 60 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

her skirt hiked above her knees, or catching flies with a flyswatter when I got to the door and looked around inside, and without saying anything, she would open the flowershaped tin lid of the wide-mouthed glass jar and take out two pieces of candy. Sometimes she would scoop up an extra handful of coarse sugar from the bottom of the jar and hand it to me with a blank face. There were also times when she just glanced out the tiny window on her door and yawned lazily, apparently not wanting to bother coming out, as she told me to leave the money and take the candy myself. She knew that I always had money for exactly two pieces, never more, and I had never bought anything but candy.

On days like this, after taking out the two pieces, I would linger before closing the lid. If she did not seem to be watching, I quickly grabbed another piece and ran out, yelling, Here’s the money. When I put the candy, as big as a cow’s eye, inside my mouth, my cheek stuck out as if it were about to burst. I knew how to make the two pieces of candy last until way after lunch time. I could not go home anyway, until they were all melted and gone.

I walked aimlessly along the newly paved road. Along the side of the road, the leaves on the corn stalks hung low, covered with dust, and the silk holding the full, ripe ears was turning yellow.

As I walked down the dusty road, I sucked the candy as slowly as I could, to make the sweetness last longer.

Boom, boom. I heard cannons in the distance. People said the sound came from beyond the many layers of faraway mountain ridges. I stopped many times to remove the candy from my mouth and hold it up to see how small it got, then put it in my pocket. After taking about ten steps, only after the sweetness in my mouth was completely gone, I put the candy back in my mouth. The sticky sweetness of the candy made my fingers glue together like a duck foot.

At the end of the paved road was Older Sister’s school.

It was a squat single-story wooden building. Next to the gate, right outside the fence of hardy orange trees along the edge of the school yard, a vendor spun cloud-like blossoms of cotton candy. He poured a fistful of white powder into a large funnel-shaped tin container and stuck a thin wooden stick inside, then stepped on the foot pedal. Layer by layer, the cotton candy wrapped around the stick and bloomed into a shiny white flower, just like a cotton blossom. I never got tired of watching. As I stood staring at the sticks of cotton candy, multiplying into five, then ten, the vendor said, You want one, then go get some money, and put down the eleventh cotton candy with a boastful clang. I could hear clear, shrill singing from the open windows of the old wooden building, painted black with tar.

Ha lf way up t he hill behind t he school wa s a n orphanage, fenced with barbed wire. On the other side of the barbed wire stood a shack with high windows that looked like a warehouse and a couple of military tents.

There were piles of square wooden bars and bricks here and there, probably for construction. The sun was so bright but there was no shade, so the girls sat head to head in the sliver of space under the wooden bars leaning against the wall, taking turns picking lice for one another, while the shirtless boys fetched water in pails.

Second Brother always envied these kids. He said they made sharp knives out of nails, could lick off the blood from their wounds with their tongues, ran away in groups of three or four every night, and every time, the same number of children would be caught and brought in from somewhere. This kind of talk made Older Sister shudder with fear. Second Brother said there was no one in his class who did not get scared when one of these kids spit out between his teeth, I’ll see you after school. And without fail, the gang would be waiting in one of the dark back

alleys on the way home. Picking you up and throwing you upside down into a toilet was as easy for them as eating porridge.

A girl who was licking milk powder off her hand approached the barbed wire fence.

You want some?

I stuck out my hand. She held up her hand then blew the tiny pinch of remaining powder into my eye.

Get lost, you fatso.

Someone banged the oxygen tank outside the shack, clang clang clang clang.

We’re hungry, clang clang clang.

Come and eat, clang clang clang.

The children all got up and ran, their hair bouncing, and disappeared inside.

I put the remaining candy in my mouth and walked back the way I came, then past the village and into town.

There was no market today so the mid-day streets were quiet, only the hammering from the blacksmith’s shop echoing clear and loud.

I walked slowly to the end of the street, chasing the local bus that had just dropped off two passengers, peering inside the dead quiet alleys, the hair salon, the pub, the inn.

Whenever I passed these streets, I always thought of Father. How far was it from here, the spot where Father was pulled off the truck by men in military uniforms. Even in my faint memory, I somehow felt that we were not too far from where Father got off the truck.

The blacksmith heated a piece of metal on sizzling oak charcoal and forged the blade with heavy hammering.

Every time he pounded with the hammer, the flesh under his arm swelled up, bubbling and trembling. As I walked past the farmers who had come to get their tools repaired lying asleep in front of the shop with ruddy faces, I came to a sudden stop. There among the men was the one-eyed list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 61

carpenter, curled up on his side with the familiar tool sack tucked under his head.

I returned home long after sunset. It was time for Mother to leave for town.

Older Sister was pacing around the vegetable patch with Little Brother on her back. She tried hard to hide a smile as she pouted at me. It was a sign that there was good news.

You wretched little girl, where have you been?

Grandmother snapped at me as she washed the stone mortar at the well. Older Brother was reading his book in the room, but rushed to carry the mortar into the kitchen as soon as Grandmother was done, as if he had been watching intently all along.

Inside the kitchen, it was hot and dark like the inside of a steamer, with the cooking stove already lit and water boiling. Now I knew exactly what was going on.

Grandmother thumped her knuckles on my head when I kept going back and forth from the kitchen to the backyard, wearing a huge grin on my face. Then she spoke suggestively to Mother who was leaving, her face all made up.

Make sure you come home for dinner tonight.

Grandmother had brought home a lost chicken again.

Grandmother’s laundry basin was huge compared to the amount of laundry we usually had. Sometimes inside that basin was a big old chicken sitting with its legs folded as if it were dead, glaring at us. Grandmother found them poking around the vegetable fields outside the village. She always insisted that they did not belong to anyone.

When Grandmother shoved the chicken’s head under its wing, placed it inside the mortar and pounded down with a pestle, the chicken died instantly, without a squawk.

The weather was so hot that our clothes stuck to our skin, but Grandmother shut the kitchen door and pulled out the feathers, blinking her eyes as sweat rolled down her face.

62 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

We closed our door tight and gulped down the hot chicken stock, dripping sweat.

Grandmother placed the drumstick and intestines on Older Brother’s rice before we could get our hands on them.

The clean-up was handled just as quickly and efficiently.

Older Brother mixed the feathers with ashes so that they would not f ly away, and buried them deep in a corner of our garden. The black clots of blood on the kitchen floor disappeared without a trace when we swept it with a sprinkle of soil.

Grandmother placed the bones, stripped of any trace of meat, behind the kitchen cupboard where no one could see. She was going to lure centipedes with them, to use as medicine.

We opened the door and sat out on the wooden verandah, wiping our oily mouths with the backs of our hands.

When we first moved here, there were rumors in the village that chickens were disappearing and owners would come around our place, looking for their missing chicken.

People whispered that it must the refugees from outside the village who were doing it. But it was only after a year had passed that Grandmother actually started to go out with the huge laundry basin on her head. No matter what the circumstances, the truth was that we were wandering refugees, no better than beggars.

At first Older Brother would not even touch the chicken. We were aghast when he poured his share of the soup into the rice rinsing bowl, as if he had something to prove. But he could not deny his vigorous adolescent appetite for long.

Grandmother fed me a fistful of coarse salt, and baking soda to Little Brother. She said we might get our stomachs horribly upset from food that we weren’t used to eating.

The salt was bitter and strong, stinging and burning my

throat as it went down.

In the middle of the night, I woke up with a bad thirst.

I felt my way across the sleeping bodies and opened the door.

You eat salt, you need water.

Mother was still awake and she let out a laugh, smelling of alcohol, and Grandmother threatened, If you pee in your sleep, I’m going to send you all around the village with the straw basket on your head.

The well was deep. Inside, the sky sat dark and round, endlessly sucking in the rope on the well-bucket, then in one unguarded second, it cracked with a splash and scattered into a thousand pieces.

Mist was falling, wet and shiny like fine shards of glass.

I pulled up the bucket and drank, then poured the rest of the water on my feet and released the rope on the bucket again, endlessly, gazing into the well. There, it was silent and at the same time full of unknowable sounds. It seemed like I could hear someone’s breathing, much like a sigh of lament, mixed in with those sounds.

A mouse scurried out from under the verandah of Bune’s room. Moonlight penetrated deep into the cracks on the wooden flooring. I got closer and looked under the verandah. There was a pair of shoes, one standing up and one fallen on its side, as if the mouse had just been playing with them. I pulled them out. They were a pair of high heels, the toe and heel sharp as blades, filled with dust and dirt inside. I shook out the dirt and rubbed the shoes to give them a shine, then gently pushed in my wet feet. I swung forward, feeling like my ankles were about to give.

I took the shoes off neatly on the terrace stone and put my eye on the door. It was dark inside so I could not see anything between the dense wooden frames. But strangely, I did not feel afraid like before.

The persimmons had just started to turn red and one

by one they fell, sporadically, as if they had just been reminded.

Sitting outside in the middle of the night and staring at Bu-ne’s room like this, everything so quiet, the events that went on during the day felt as hazy and distant as a dream.

Mother coming home drunk every night, the times I spent sucking my thumb like a mouse under the dirty blankets, all seemed like a long, weary dream. Could it be possible that the real me had been left behind as bits and pieces of sensations in the folds of faraway memories, revisited with longing. Just as it was with Father. Father was very tall. Or maybe this was something I simply associated with Father, because of Grandmother’s remarks that Older Brother, who was well-built, looked just like Father.

After dinner when the winds cooled down, Father used to carry me outside on his shoulders. It was so high up there on Father’s shoulders that I felt dizzy and shaky, as if I were about to float into the air like a balloon.

A little one will be born soon. Father spoke as if he were singing, squeezing my thighs tightly. There is a baby inside Mommy’s tummy.

Hold on tight. And when I held on to his hair, as he told me to, I got his sticky and greasy hair tonic all over my hands.

Father stayed with me as the grip on my frail thighs and ankles, as something vaguely warm and soft, as something large, as a back drenched in sweat. But could it be that all these memories were merely a distant dream, a fabrication of my imagination?

Father will return when the war is over. We hadn’t heard from him in two years but Grandmother was persistent. But despite the affectionate memories and the hopeless waiting, Father’s possible return also worried and scared us. Even Older Brother seemed to feel this way, coldly threatening Mother upon her late return, What will Father say when he comes back? list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 63

Just as we grew accustomed to the taste of lost chicken, just as my hands reaching for Mother’s wallet got bolder and the amount they grabbed got larger, just as Grandmother got more skilled in the art of secret and silent butchering, just as the chickens eventually learned to yield at a mere glance, burying their heads under their wings and surrendering, Father would also have changed.

This vague, fog-like unfamiliarity that now filled every fold of the time that Father spent away from us would likely come back to us as a new war. Could it be that perhaps

this hopeless waiting and affectionate reminiscing was our way of trying to cover up and to ask for forgiveness, for not wanting Father to ever come back, for choosing to believe that Father was never coming back?

The sound of cannons that traveled from the other side of the mountain ridge would suddenly remind this quiet, sunken village of the war, and the refugees that arrived every now and then said that outside, there was still a war going on.

Oh Jung-hee Oh Jung-hee was born in Seoul in 1947. She graduated from Seorabeol Arts College, now part of Chung-Ang University, with a degree in creative writing in 1970. She published her first story in 1968, winning the JoongAng Ilbo’s New Writer’s Award for “Woman of the Toy Store.” She has since received the Yi Sang Literary Award for “Evening Games” in 1979, The Tong-in Literary Award for “Bronze Mirror” in 1982, and other awards including the Oh Yongsoo Literary Award and the Hyundai Buddhist Literature Award. She was awarded the Liberaturpreis in 2003 for the German translation of her novel The Bird, the first time a Korean author won a literary prize abroad in a landmark event for Korean literature in translation. Her works include the short story collections River of Fire, Garden of Childhood, The Soul of the Wind, Fireworks, the fable collections Boar Dream and Autumn Woman, and the novel The Bird.

64 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Reviews Fiction

Urbanites Swim Upstream None the Wiser Kim Young-ha, Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

2010, 300p, ISBN 9788954611763

Kim Young-ha is one of the best writers at depicting the modern urban lifestyle.

Urban dwellers working at their cuttingedge jobs, their daily grind at work and secret pleasures in private, the dazzling entertainment available in the city, and how increasing efficiency at work only leads to ever-greater loneliness. Kim’s latest collection of short stories, None the Wiser, showcases his talent in capturing the daily, inner lives of city dwellers.

Urbanites pretend that nothing is wrong on the surface, but their polished lifestyles are only a façade for monstrous secrets and desperation. The urban dwellers described in Kim Young-ha’s light yet probing style hide memories of pain and trauma as they masquerade as carefree, elegant urbanites. The man who thinks he is a robot; the woman attracted to the man who thinks he is a robot although she is having an affair with her boss; the corrupt policeman who cracks down on shoplifters, only to make a profit selling their loot; the man suddenly gifted with

the most beautiful voice on Earth after his voice breaks; the man who continues to meet his ex-girlfriend once a year at the same hotel in Frankfurt for seven years; and the woman who uses her beautiful skin to get a job as a nurse at a dermatologist, only to contract a disease that leaves her face looking like “a botched pizza,” and then commits suicide.

Kim Young-ha’s stories are peopled by all the different types we bump into in our daily lives. They ignore each other at the price of ever-growing loneliness, ultimately failing to connect with each other. Their growing isolation and pain is portrayed in sharp relief in Kim’s writing.

By Jung Yeo-ul

Read that Post Again Scandal Ha Jae-young, Minumsa Publishing Group 2010, 163p, ISBN 9788937483103

Ha Jae-young is a young writer. She belongs to the generation more comfortable with the new media of the Internet and Twitter than print media, an ease that is apparent in her first novel, Scandal.

The narrative of Scandal is quite straightforward: an actress dies, and her death was somehow facilitated by rumors circulating on the Internet. In today’s post-industrial society, the truth is what is reconstructed out of numerous rumors.

Nobody knows the truth of the scandal involving the dead actress. When the public accepts rumor as truth, however, and when the rumor spreads like wildfire via online comments, groundless rumor becomes accepted as truth. Messages in the new media are easily disseminated thanks to their anonymity, a process in which we as members of the general public often play at

least a passive role.

Ha Jae-young’s work may appear superficial to some. Her work, however, offers much more than mere fluff or light satire of contemporary mores. Above all, her work focuses on what lies beyond the mores that govern our daily lives. Beyond the story of an actress’s death linked to a scandal is a razor-sharp intellect that cuts through the mechanism of how rumors and online comments distort and reconstruct “truth.” This is what saves Ha Jae-young’s Scandal from superficiality. The reader of Scandal is sure to think twice about taking online comments at face value in the future.

By Jang Sungkyu

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Reviews Fiction

Stepping Out of Society’s Shadows One Hundred Shadows Hwang Jung-eun, Minumsa Publishing Group 2010, 193p, ISBN 9788937483059

Hwang Jung-eun’s aesthetic achievements stand unique in Korean literature. Her work so far has used fantasy and allegory to reconstruct the voice of social minorities.

Her unique aesthetic in portraying her deep interest in social issues stands out among the major achievements of Korean literature in the 21st century.

H w a n g ’s O n e H u n d r e d S h a d o w s also stems from this particular kind of sensitivity. The subject is the social issue of an old electronics market being torn down for redevelopment. Hwang does not stop at giving a general commentary on the injustice of eviction or the rights of the tenants. What she focuses on are the shadows of these social minorities. These shadows reinforce social violence and threaten to swallow their owners in the end. In short, the shadows are a symbol of all injustice in society.

Could any member of society, however, claim to be free of shadows? Everybody has shadows. As long as injustice exists, all of us are minorities of a sort. Nobody

can remain untouched by the problems of society. Hwang Jung-eun presents this argument in flawless prose and through the devices of fantasy, all in all creating a striking aesthetic. One Hundred Shadows is remarkable in that it goes beyond the old device of mimesis and pulls off an aesthetic that successfully reconstructs the voices of social minorities. Hwang’s work is an exciting example of the new possibilities opening in Korean literature in the 21st century.

Dream of the Amazon Workers A Ha Sung-ran, Jaeum & Moeum 2010, 282p, ISBN 9788957075173

Based on the mass suicide of members of the “Odaeyang” cult in 1987, this novel begins with the protagonist, a survivor of a similar event, returning to the cement factory where the incident occurred. The filth and the dank smells of the factory hint at its mythical origins of primeval energy.

Now it is only the site of a mysterious and horrifying incident, but the protagonist’s memories of the workers at the factory reveal that it was far more than that.

The factory was built as a community of hope, dreams, and solidarity by women, marginalized by society, who had experienced the violence of patriarchy firsthand. The community is described as being full of laughter, love, and independence, built by women who had broken away from the patriarchal status quo, who were 66 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

in effect, modern-day Amazons.

An even more pervasive violence was at work, however, underpinning the very existence of the community. The world of the Amazons turns out to be a house of cards built upon the sacrifice of its members to richer, more powerful men, a community so weak it was destroyed when even that failed. The unresisting deaths of its members were the work of the powerful men reigning above them.

This is why the protagonist continues to fear the cold, clammy hands that pressed down around her throat. The suspense throughout the novel pinpoints how the weak can only keep their simple happiness by compromising with injustice, which in turn makes them all the more vulnerable, revealing the amount of brutality and corruption that still persists in society today.

By Kang Gyesook

By Jang Sungkyu

Steady Sellers

The Age of Disgrace and Illusion Silk Mountain at the South Sea Lee Seong-bok, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 1986, 102p, ISBN 8932002738

Poets have always had an uncomfortable relationship with the age in which they live. Such is the discord modern literature has by birth. Georg Lukács has said that literature is the logic that seeks truth in life with subversive methods in a restless era.

It is necessary to call our attention to a Korean history that has gone through a number of upheavals in the past century.

In the last 100 years, Korea entered the modern era through colonial rule, was liberated, fought a n ideologica l wa r (Korean War), and endured decades of military dictatorship. Politics were always u nstable a nd t he times were a lways turbulent. Human rights were easily ignored under the military dictatorship and a great number of people died of torture and lynching. The most terrible scene of ma ssacre wa s t he Gwa ngju Uprising that took place in May 1980.

It was still a long time before Korea beca me democratized even a f ter the Gwangju Uprising. It might be too much of a reductive error to link modern Korean poetry with the hardships of the times simply because Korean history has been full of upheavals. Poets are the ones, however, who respond most acutely to the oppression of the times. Korean poets in

particular have internalized the idea that they should voice their opinions on politics and the age they live in. This is perhaps a natural result of an overly turbulent national history.

Kore a n poet r y entered t he most abundant season in the 1980s. This was the paradox brought on by the Gwangju Uprising. A great number of citizens fell before the military force in Gwangju while people in other regions only heard rumors about what was happening. People only found out through the terrible photos and articles reported by the foreign media.

Poets screamed and wrote poems as if they were vomiting blood. Anger at the sight of labor struggles was turned directly into poetry. This was the result of an epochal and realistic sympathy; laborer-poets or farmer-poets emerged.

Living in such times, poets could not help but internalize the oppressive me c h a n i s m c a l le d c e n s or s h ip, a nd consequently, modern Korean poetry had to bring to the fore more stylized experiments and avant-garde writings; s uc h a t t e mpt s s h a p e d p o e t r y. I n a situation where poets could not explicitly express the truth, they tried to resist the times by destroying the poetic form and experimenting with it.

In the midst of this background is poet Lee Seong-bok. The title poem “Silk Mountain at the South Sea” from his collection of poems Silk Mountain at the South Sea (1986) reads like a love poem between a man and a woman. This collection certainly has the romanticism of love poetry. There is a mountain called Geumsan (Silk mountain) in Namhae, Korea. At the top of the mountain is a stone monument with Lee’s poem “Silk Mountain at the South Sea” inscribed on it. “A woman was buried in stone / For her love, I followed her into the stone / One summer, it rained a lot, / And weeping, she left the stone / Helped by the sun and the moon, which drew her out / In the blue sky of the South Sea and the Silk Mountain, I’m alone / Into the blue water of the South Sea and the Silk Mountain, all alone I sink.” The reason Lee’s love poem “Silk Mountain at the South Sea” is beautiful is because it portrays the love

and desire for the beloved in a symbolic sense. The poet buries meaning and specific reality and also retracts the surface tension of expression as much as possible.

This is to prolong the lingering scent of the symbol. He merely evokes situations that were full of intense emotions between the woman and the narrator through natural objects such as a stone, the sun and the moon, the South Sea, Silk Mountain, the blue sky, and blue water. Enjoying the lingering scent in the purest sense with signs and symbols is the joy of association and fantasy that Lee’s poems provide. In other words, this is the “sensual depth of symbols.”

Unlike the title poem “Silk Mountain at the South Sea,” however, the rest of the collection is filled with illusions of disgrace. “The younger sister cried out in a low, low voice / It’s a disgrace, older brother, a disgrace!” (“Shame, like a tortoiseshell”); “Often ancestors were crying / They were crying under the root of the grass, Sister, what we believed to be the sky was a field of stones.” (“Our Ancestors Were Often Crying”); “Red fruits are rotting silently” (“Red Fruits Are Silently”); “Today again a mother pulls out nails deeply rooted in the hands, the feet, and the heart of her son, exhausted from selling toilet paper.” (“Mother 1”); and “My dear mother is sinking in water” (“When It Rains Again”). Just as in Lee’s first collection of poems, puss is running from the little boy’s penis, the sister’s body is polluted, the mother is sinking in water, and the son’s heart is always deeply rooted with a day’s worth of nails.

Ancestors are crying and the red fruits of the tree are rotting in silence. While all living things suffer unjust pains, the poet watches with indifference or says paradoxically that nothing ever happens in the world. Tragedy is maximized and disgrace screams again. What did the 1980s do to the poet? He is full of disgrace about the times. The scenery in his heart is full of subversive illusions and symbolic negatives. It is a symbolic scenery that is rare in modern Korean poetry.

By Kim Yonghee

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Reviews Nonfiction

Experts Cast Creative Net Over Readers The Joy of Creating Lee O-young · Kang Chang-rae, ALMA, Inc. 2010, 304p, ISBN 9788992525800

Each side of the traditional Korean instrument janggo produces a different sound. One side is made of cowhide and the other, of horse leather. Janggo sounds different from other drums, as its two distinct sounds harmonize to create a profound sound. According to Korea’s leading intellectual Lee O-young, janggo serves as an ideal model of conversation.

The rationality of communication is not achieved through grand theories or ideal situations but through the harmonization of different voices. This book is about conversations of the latter kind. A true conversation has the power to transform a monologue to adopt an objective viewpoint. In this sense, this book is not a typical interview where one person asks questions and the other gives the answers.

Each chapter offers a different perspective and a number of clues to understanding the life, soul and ideas of an intellectual

Who’s Really in Control?

Pump Up Your Serotonin!

Lee Si-hyung, Joongang Books 2010, 243p, ISBN 9788927800606

We always want change but it is difficult to put it into practice. We then reproach ourselves for not being able to control our minds the way we want. The author, a well-known psychiatrist, argues that even though a person is moved by emotions, it is the brain that controls these emotions.

The conflict inside the brain makes it difficult to control the mind. When the prefrontal cortex, which controls reason, decides to make changes starting today, the amygdala—which is associated with instincts—resists. What controls the amygdala is none other than the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is “the hormone of control, creativity and happiness.” It suppresses the impulsive amygdala and activates the rational prefrontal cortex. It is widely used in treating depression, obsessive-compulsive 68 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

disorder and impulse control disorder. In other words, serotonin is the key to the “self-controlling ability” that manages the wavering mind. Serotonin cannot be consumed in the form of supplements or food. It is only produced in our body but only in small quantities. The author suggests easy, practical ways to stimulate the brain: for instance, by following what the author calls “Socrates’ Walking” and changing the pattern of one’s breathing. In other words, what should be changed is not the mind but the brain which controls your mind.

By Jeong Cheolsoo

who dominated an era. These stories attract us because the author shows us a model of a joyful and enjoyable creative process through his own life and also because the dynamic energy of the creative bug, conveyed to us via adequate metaphors and symbols, prompts us to converse with ourselves. Finally, the book is popular because such conversations are in line with both the general and specific aspects of everyday life of readers living in today’s world. The conversation between Korea’s leading interviewer and an intellectual of global stature casts a net of creativity over us.

By Jeong Cheolsoo

Reviews Nonfiction

The Secrets of Good Reading Revealed The Reading Education of the Great Families of the World Choi Hyo-chan, BaDa Publishing co.

2010, 280p, ISBN 9788955615456

“If you cannot read all your books . . . fondle them . . .” is a famous quote by Winston Churchill. Families that read prosper. Putting aside what it means to be successful, Churchill’s view on reading offers much to ponder for parents who are concerned about reading and children’s education. Successful individuals usually come from families that keep books close at hand. Even if reading is the biggest factor in their success, there is no other investment that renders a more reliable and steady outcome when it comes to education. In this regard, reading is the best source of private education. The author who runs Children Management Research Center introduces the secrets of reading education that he has amassed from studying the great families of the world.

His examples come from both East and West and include the families of Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Jawaharlal

Nehru, Franklin Roosevelt, Warren Buffett, Andrew Carnegie, Hermann Hesse, Yeonam Bak Ji-won, John Stuart Mill and Yulgok Yi I. The secrets, which are similar yet different across families and countries, will help parents recognize and cultivate their children’s talent. Through the “Ten Commandments of Reading Education from the Great Families of the World” and “100 Must-Reads of the Great Families of the World,” this book offers the reader a grand tour of the world of reading.

By Jeong Cheolsoo

The Power of Humor Prevails Humor Is a Winner’s Secret Shin Sang-hoon, Sam&Parkers, Co., Ltd. 2010, 272p, ISBN 9788992647830

Is a person’s humor directly proportional to his or her annual salary? According to this book, it is. Competent leaders understand the critical importance of humor. In today’s world, humor is a comprehensive communication skill that is required not only for leaders but also for ordinary people. The author of this book claims that humor is a necessary virtue and a new form of authority to the leaders of the 21st century. Cheerful leaders are also more efficient. For the past 20 years, the author has been publishing his writing and bringing humor to thousands of Koreans as a “humor coach” through his media appearances and lectures at large companies and universities. Based on his experiences, this book presents various situations we come across in everyday life and offers

practical know-how on how we can overcome difficulties with humor. He says this is possible because humor is not innate but rather a learned skill. At the same time, he underscores that humor is not simply a “skill” but an issue of the “mind.” No matter how good one’s sense of humor may be, it will not be able to make people laugh if it lacks insight. Moreover, it cannot provide creative solutions that embrace others’ difficulties if it is without affection.

Humor is the strongest weapon that can persuade clients with a hearty laugh, serve as a source of passion and energy to employees, and stimulate and harmonize the creativity of an organization.

By Jeong Cheolsoo

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Reviews Nonfiction

A Doctor Visits the North Doctor’s Bag Left Behind in Pyongyang Oh In-dong, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 359p, ISBN 9788936471941

Oh In-dong is a world-renowned physician who served as Assistant Professor of Orthopedic surgery at Harvard Medical S c h o o l a n d t a u g h t a t t h e Ne w m a n Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation of MIT. Oh’s credentials include 11 patents and three total hip replacement prosthesis systems that he designed himself. His precious medical expertise is now being used for the reunification of the two Koreas, now the only divided nation in the world.

Back in October 1992, Oh made his first-ever visit to North Korea as a delegate representing the Korean American Medical Association. It was a trip that stimulated a long-forgotten sense of his motherland and inspired him to take up another responsibility as a doctor. Since then, Oh has visited the North three times: January 1998, May 2009, and June 2010. Whenever he made a trip to the North, he carried a big bag as if he were Santa Claus bearing gifts. In that bag, he crammed all sorts of surgical tools, including replacement

War Wives Speak Out War Widows Break the Silence About Korea’s Modern History Lee Im-ha, Cum Libro 2010, 407p, ISBN 9788991221642

The Korean War lasted for approximately three years, but its impact has lasted far longer as the wounds of war have continued to haunt millions of people even after the war ended in a truce. The author, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University who works in the East Asia History Center, was researching women in the 1950s for her doctoral dissertation. In the process, she was drawn to the so-called war widows, women who were on the fringe of Korean War studies, getting little academic attention. War widows refer to women who lost their husbands to wars. Many men were dragged away to the battlefields, and when they were killed, only a slip of paper serving as a death notice was sent to their wives. Some of the men were simply taken away for no apparent reason and found 70 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

dead a few days after. The war killed many innocent men; the surviving women were in no better position as their horrifying pain remained intact. Worse, Korean society did not have any legal framework for embracing the grieving war widows.

The book features the war widows’ graphic testimonies, illustrating how their families were destroyed overnight, how long-lasting their suffering was, and how difficult it was to make a living in the aftermath of the war: “There should be no war. Absolutely no war. We saw all that when we were retreating southward on January 4th, it’s what women could handle. I had to take two kids with me, and I had to feed them, cover them with whatever clothes, you know. Back then, also, people preferred boys, so we had to leave the girls behind.”

Although the war is technically over, the post-war struggle to survive has been more grueling than the actual war for the 45 war widows in Lee’s book. Their unfiltered testimonies underscore how a

prosthesis systems. At first, North Korean doctors did not appreciate Oh’s efforts. But slowly they came to notice Oh’s sincerity in helping out North Koreans confronted with poor medical service conditions. Oh spearheaded several operations with his equipment and replacement prosthesis gears together with North Korean doctors, an experience that gave a new meaning to the famous doctor’s life.

This book is a travelogue that chronicles Oh’s trips to North Korea and details his thoughts. On his first visit, he was emotionally struck by the similarities seen in North Koreans. He delivered a letter recommending reunification titled “Korea 2000” after he made his second trip to the North. On his third and fourth trips, Oh transferred what he learned in the field of orthopedic surgery to doctors in the North, a process that he said generated a strong sense of mutual trust and brotherhood.

There is no question that Oh is treading the beautiful path as a pioneer of civilian diplomacy with North Korea through his medical expertise.

By Richard Hong

single war can leave innumerable scars and cause permanent separation in the lives of ordinary people.

By Richard Hong

Reviews Nonfiction

Finding Wisdom in Buddhist Graveyards Sensibility-Driven Travel to Budobat Im Yeon-tae, CLEARMIND 2010, 325p, ISBN 9788993293203

Jinjeon Temple in Yangyang, Gangwon-do (province); Shinheung Temple in Sokcho, Gangwon-do (province); Silsang Temple in Jeollabuk-do (province); Jeondeung Temple on Ganghwa island; Hwaeom Temple in Gurye, Jeollanam-do (province). These Buddhist temples nestled in the green forests of South Korea are famous for their scenic landscape and refined structures.

All the temples, however, have a not-sofamous area known as budobat, a graveyard of Buddhist monks. Although a budobat is reserved for monks who have passed away, a budobat is no dead space. Rather, it is a space where people can feel the meditative musings of the monks who led a life of religious discipline and restraint. Im Yeontae is a reporter who has covered Buddhist news for the past 20 years. Im received the 17th Buddhism Journalism Culture Award from the Jogye Order, the largest Buddhist sect of South Korea. In the book, the

author introduces 28 budobat hidden in the deepest corners of famous temples.

Budobat vary from temple to temple: some graveyards are well organized and are vigorously taken care of, others are sadly deserted. For all their variety in appearance, each budobat remains the very symbol of time-honored Buddhism in Korea and the sacred space where absolute silence dominates along with the timeless teachings of the deceased monks. “Budobat is another teaching hall. It’s a place symbolizing the Buddhist teaching that life and death are not two separate things, and we should see death in life, and life in death.” The book includes pictures of the graveyards bearing the marks of time that will surely make the readers meditate and ponder the meaning of life and death.

By Richard Hong

Last Words from a Poet-Monk I Met Buddha in India Cha Chang-ryong, Bookhouse Publishers 2010, 301p, ISBN 9788956054599

Cha Chang-ryong made his literary debut as a poet and went on to produce five collections of poems, grabbing several prestigious literar y awards. With a doctorate degree under his belt, Cha was also an established literary critic and a lecturer who taught poetry at universities.

But all these credentials were put behind as he became a Buddhist monk shortly after publishing I Met Buddha in India. At the age of 44, he decided to devote his life to Buddhism, and his short dedication, “To my beloved mother,” sums up his mind filled with mixed yet intense emotions.

Cha made a total of four trips to India. He claimed that he met Buddha on every trip. This is why this book is both a pilgrimage to sacred Buddhist sites and a travelogue of Buddhist myths and legends.

He describes his book as a “simple record of what I felt about Buddha and myths in my travels to India.” His pilgrimages offered a key impetus for him to turn to Buddhism.

Until he was able to “depart from mundane conditions,” he had placed himself in a void without any relationships through the trips. These trips were a transition from the mundane to the Buddhist world, which was also a mental journey through which he learned Buddhism at a deeper level.

The book takes a simple diary format in which he rediscovers Buddha in India, while demonstrating his extensive knowledge about Indian myths (his previous book was Travelogue of Indian Myths) and offering his own poems and landscape photographs that capture the particular characteristics of India.

By Baek Won-keun

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Reviews Nonfiction

Wisdom Gleaned from the Classics Learn from Novels Rather Than Management Theories An Sangheon, Wisdomhouse Publishing. Co., Ltd. 2010, 300p, ISBN 9788960862746

Lee Byung-chull, the founder of the global corporation Samsung Group, said, “To do business, we should read novels where we can understand humans and the world, rather than management theory books.”

Why? Most business books and self-help titles try to answer specific questions or provide techniques, many of which end up being a mere example, failing to offer an ultimate answer.

In contrast, novels raise questions instead of attempting to provide answers, and encourage the readers to contemplate the answers themselves, according to author An Sangheon. Readers come in contact with various characters and communicate with the entire world in a way that enhances their adaptability in everyday life. Literary works, whose practical utility conventional wisdom often deems minimal, are in fact, the most practical. The author and director of the Meaning Reading

Management Center, quotes memorable passages from 31 classics, demonstrating the seasoned skills he has acquired by giving numerous public lectures at companies and public organizations concerning selftransformation, innovation, and leadership.

For example, in a chapter on what work is and how work should be done, Ahn introduces Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. He goes on to argue that what matters is not the end result but rather a devotion to one’s life and work.

He illustrates his point by quoting several passages from the famous story.

This self-help book zooms in on fictional characters that pursue their dreams despite an unjust reality, juxtaposing famous scenes in well-known novels with key principles that govern self-discipline, attitude in the workplace, lifestyle, the human mind, and world knowledge. In addition, the book is about reading itself, bringing readers to a world of masterful novels in a natural way that will open up their appetite for reading books.

By Baek Won-keun

Questioning 20 Masters You Are Still Right Lee Joohyung, Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 275p, ISBN 9788973372324

This book is a collection of interviews with celebrities in various fields, ranging from a bestselling writer, a comic book artist, to a sport star, and a painter. But the encounters the author unveils are not about actually meeting with them but about a journey to find oneself. Lee Joohyung was worried about his lack of passion after hitting age 40. He hit his stride after he was given the opportunity to meet so many successful people as part of his work duties. He lost no time asking questions—not questions about the usual “success,” though. What he asked was this: What is success? In other words, he asked those celebrities to define what attitude is ideal in leading a better life, and the book is a culmination of those questions.

The book’s 20 interviewees include: creative director Park Woonghyun; Julliard 72 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

School professor Hyo Kang; painter Youk Shim-won; comic artist Huh Youngman; musical director Kolleen Park; photographer Kim Dae-byeok; Korean Wave actor Lee Byung-hun; and designer Choi Bumsuk. The interviewees weave their own web of ideas while the author ambles through the words and ponders their meaning.

The author asked Hyo Kang to share his teaching techniques that helped nurture world-renowned artists such as Sarah Chang, Kim Chee-yun, and Richard Yongjae O'Neill. The answer almost borders on meditation: “Truthfulness breeds perfection. Perfection is achieved solely by students, not by teachers. That is why trusting in students is the most important aspect of education.” Although the dialogue often defies literal interpretation, those who are ready to listen may find the excerpts from the interviews deeply insightful and even shockingly revealing.

People tend to focus on success in life, while disregarding failures or challenges.

But life is a mixed bag of all sorts of emotions. Some succeed; others fail.

Successful people, after all, confront failures and challenges. The only difference is the fact that they continue to move forward.

By Han Mihwa

Reviews Nonfiction

Searching for the Roots of the East Asian imagination Stories of East Asian Mythology Jung Jaeseo, Gimm-young Publishers, Inc. 2010, 535p, ISBN 9788934939900

Jung Jaeseo describes mythology as the archetype of culture and the cradle of imagination in Stories of East Asian Mythology.

Jeong completed this book after doing thorough research on the Chinese classics and their concomitant myths. He used about 600 images that he collected on his trips to China, Japan, and Taiwan. When speaking of mythology, Greek mythology is what usually comes to one’s mind. But the author claims that there are archetypes in East Asian mythology that cannot be translated into a Western idiom.

According to ancient Chinese mythology, in the beginning the universe was like a huge egg. Amidst the chaos, a small clump was created that became bigger and bigger, finally turning into the shape of a gigantic human being. After sleeping for 18,000 years, this giant awoke and shattered the egg into chaos. The breath of the giant became the wind and the clouds,

Treasures from the Eye of the Collector Choseon Dynasty's Collectors Son Young-ok, Geulhangari 2010, 384p, ISBN 9788993905342

Choseon Dynasty's Collectors features an exclusive group of art collectors from the Joseon period. In the West, the concept of artists was formed only during the Renaissance period; in China and Korea, painting and calligraphy were already an essential part of the culture. The ruling class during the Joseon era nurtured court painters, but painting and calligraphy were widely enjoyed by the educated class. Joseon’s scholar class gathered and appreciated paintings, often leaving their reactions or critical remarks on the very paintings they enjoyed in the form of jebal, a kind of inscription added to a painting.

Kim Gwang-guk, a scholar of the Joseon period, aptly summed up what it means to be a collector: “Once you love it, you’ll

develop an eye for it; once you have an eye for it, you’ll want to have it.” The book brings together top-notch Joseon collectors, ranging from scholar Kim Gwang-su who opted for an art collector’s life instead of becoming a government official, Lee Jomuk who went bankrupt because of his passion for paintings, to Oh Se-chang who desperately protected Korean artworks during the Japanese colonial period.

Prince Anpyeong was a top calligrapher whose artistry was high enough to charm a Chinese emperor. The prince, in fact, was an avid collector of prized Chinese calligraphic arts, which in turn paved the way for developing his own style.

Anpyeong’s case illustrates how collecting can lead to creation. Park Ji-won, a renowned Shirhak scholar of the 18th century who is known for his travelogue Yeolha Ilgi (Jehol Diary), was extremely talented in painting and calligraphy. But Park cautioned against an overzealous

his voice became the thunder, his left eye became the sun, and his right eye, the moon. That is how the world where we live came about.

In all the mythologies of the world, the world is created from chaos, but the distinctive characteristic of Chinese mythology is that there is the absence of an absolute creator of the world. In Chinese mythology, the world was not created by the will of God, but happened of its own accord. Moreover, the deity of fire who invented agriculture is depicted as a terrible monster in East Asia.

Why is the deity who is beneficial to mankind represented as a monster? That is because in ancient East Asia where nature was more revered than people, animals that were deemed closer to nature were regarded as being more sacred. The book compares the mythologies of China and the West, and thereby makes it an easy book to read for those who are not familiar with either’s mythologies.

By Pyo Jeonghun

attitude toward collecting art. Under his collector’s guidelines, one should be satisfied to buy artwork that is “neat in form, antique, peculiar, and sincere.”

The book includes tips on how to appreciate paintings from the Joseon era.

Jebal, for instance, chronicle the birth of a painting and the worldview of the painter. Collectors often print their seals on notable paintings, revealing their artistic preferences. These additional stories are so entertaining and intriguing that some readers might take them as not a mere addition but an integral part of the book.

By Han Mihwa

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Reviews Nonfiction

Daily Life Explored Through Folk Paintings Folk Customs of the Chosun Dynasty, Vols. 1-3 Kang Myung-kwan, Purnyoksa Publishing Company 2010, 431p (Vol. 1), 343p (Vol. 2), 287p (Vol. 3) ISBN 6003920391 (set)

The artwork of any given historical period not only has artistic value but also reveals the customs and the lifestyles of the people who lived during that time. The authors of the book explicate the folk customs, lifestyles, and the social mores of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) through artists Shin Yun-bok (c. 1758), Kim Hong-do (c.

1745), and many others. Readers can view the folk paintings in this book and learn about the diverse aspects of the era.

The difference between the two master painters, Shin Yun-bok and Kim Hongdo is shown in their portrayal of women.

Whereas Shin Yun-bok focused on women in relationship to their sexuality, Kim Hong-do drew attention to women’s

Choe Byong-taek, et al., Humanist Publishing Group 2010, 407p, ISBN 9788958623519

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By Pyo Jeonghun

agricultural and domestic duties. The bathing women with their breasts bared in Shin Yun-bok’s paintings are detailed and erotic. In contrast, the breastfeeding woman in Kim Hong-do’s painting is maternal.

There is a painting by Kim Hongdo in which he shows farmers separating the kernel from the grain. Upon a closer examination of the image, one can see there is a man lying on his side in a leisurely manner. But then there is also another farmer who appears very worried.

The author surmises that the man in the comfortable position is most likely the landowner if not the overseer, whereas the man with the somber expression is the poor peasant. So in effect, a single picture will show the relationship of land ownership and the peasant’s condition in the late Joseon era.

If readers wa nt to v ie w t he fol k paintings of the Joseon period as works of

Answers About Korea We Want to Know Korean History of 100 Years Ago

art, then other volumes in the collection are recommended. But if they are in need of a time machine to get a glimpse of people’s lives during Joseon, then this book will surely serve as one.

This is a book in which 100 questions on Korean modern history are posited and answered. The year 2010 marks the 100year anniversary of Korea’s colonization and usurpation of its national rights by Japan. Koreans refer to this historical event as “The Kyeong Sul-year infamy.” In other words, it is something that happened in the year of Kyeong Sul and is regarded as a great disgrace. Historians and teachers compiled this book with the aim of educating Korean youth about historical truth.

For example, why was the Japan-Korean Annexation Treaty of 1910 with the clause that Korea should rescind its national rights to Japan, illegal and null? The council where the treaty was signed was not one that was officially convened. King Gojong of the Great Han Empire (Korea) did not sanction and sign the treaty. Moreover, Japan had mobilized their army to threaten the Korean governmental ministers.

Therefore, the treaty was signed without the proper procedures of international public law, not to mention the approval of the King who was the sovereign of Korea, and was entered into forcibly, thus rendering the treaty illegal and void.

Ma n y o f t h e q u e s t i o n s a n d t h e answers in the book require a preliminary understanding of Korean modern history.

But there are also numerous questions that would interest foreign readers. Is Korea’s successful modernization thanks to the building blocks of Japanese colonial rule? How did foreigners view the Korean anti-Japanese movement? Why did King Gojong stay in the Russian legation for a year? Where did the Koreans’ antiJapanese sentiment originate from? What are the differences and similarities in the colonialism of Great Britain, France, and Japan? This book not only covers Korean modern history, but also delves into the general topic and issues of imperialist history.

By Pyo Jeonghun

Writer's Note

The Scalding Taste of Solitude During the Berlin Residency Program On June 2, I boarded a flight for Frankfurt, Germany. I travel frequently but I had never lived away from home for as long as three months.

The apartment I stayed in was a quiet, spacious studio with a lot of east-facing windows that made it difficult to sleep in.

Located in a residential neighborhood in southwestern Berlin, the surrounding area felt warm and peopled, and I liked the fact that Kneipes dotted the chestnut tree-lined streets.

Berlin is the most international city in Germany with plenty of tourists and an open atmosphere. Near the subway station that was a five-minute walk from my apartment, there was a discount store, a department store, and a specialty store that sold all kinds of goods. And at the nearby restaurants, I could sample foods from all over the world, including Korea, Vietnam, Turkey, Greece, Italy, China, and Japan. Thanks to the Asian supermarket, I could cook for myself like I did back at home. The kitchen was fully equipped with cooking utensils.

However, I experienced some inconveniences as well. It took nearly a month to get the Internet up and running. The Internet in Germany draws a lot of complaints because of the low connection speed and the time it takes to sign up with a new Internet service provider. There was a specialty coffee shop about 10 minutes from my place where I could use the wireless Internet for free, so I reported there just about every morning until I had Internet access at home.

I had been asked to give a lecture at five places. After completing a short story, I spent the end of June through the beginning of July visiting Ruhr-University Bochum in the south of Berlin, Bonn University, and lastly the University of Hamburg in the north. In mid-July, when I began writing my novel, I delivered a lecture at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Tübingen in southwest Germany. Students majoring or interested in Korean studies made up most of the audience, and sometimes there were a few Korean-Germans in attendance as well. I read excerpts from translations of my novels, which was followed by a Q&A session. During the rather brief event, which lasted for about two hours, the audience remained enthusiastic and serious.

I usually traveled by train for these lectures. The “German Pass” is a type of discount rail pass that grants unlimited travel within a certain period of time (typically less than a month) for a set number of days (three to 10 days). Traveling on this pass was significantly cheaper than buying separate tickets for each destination. I used the remaining days on my pass to visit Nuremberg, Weimar, Leipzig, Köln, and the northern coast. As I traveled alone by train, I experienced for the first time in 30 years the fluttering anticipation that I had felt when embarking on a journey to a strange, faraway place. The only difference was that it wasn’t free this time around.

The Korean word for Germany (獨逸 in hanja, pronounced “Dokil”) also means “hiding alone.” And I was, in fact, alone and

lonely in a quiet town in the German capital of Baekrim (伯林). I took countless walks underneath the chestnut trees that stood like pillars. I got lost in thoughts and memories. To combat loneliness, I kept myself busy, visiting Sachsenhausen, the site of the Gestapo headquarters and a concentration camp, Wannsee, a vacation spot for many Berliners, and the Neues Museum. I also went to the Beethoven, Bach, Goethe, and Schiller museums, the Berlin Gemäldegalerie and the Dresden Gemäldegalerie, and the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The famed restaurants of Berlin that had been recommended to me by locals fell short of my expectations. I was invited to the home of acquaintances both inside and outside the city on five occasions, where I had a chance to hear about their lives. I also attended the international beer festival and the St. Christopher’s Day Festival. But I was still lonely. I did get a lot of writing done though, thanks to my sheer loneliness. Solitude is the cauldron as well as the firewood of creative writing. Without solitude, the residency program would have lost much of its significance.

The first half of my stay in Berlin passed slowly, while the second half passed in the blink of an eye. My trips to the nearby Czech Republic, Austria, and several other German cities including GÖttingen and Wolfsburg, were partly to blame; but I was always so busy without getting much done—so much so that I can hardly remember anything from this time period—largely because I finally had Internet access at home. If I stay in Berlin again, I won’t sign up for Internet service even if it is somewhat inconvenient.

My memorable stay in Berlin and safe return home were possible with the help of many people. As I look back now, what stands out the most is my debt of gratitude to them.

By Sung Suk-je

* Sung Suk-je made his debut in 1994 with Flabbergasts Dwell Here. He has published such short story collections as The Last 4.5 Seconds of My Life, The Swell Life, Dazzling Ecstasy, Charmed, Thus Spake Hwang Man-geun, To Be Human, and the novel The Power of Man. He was awarded the 30th Hanguk Ilbo Literature Award in 1997 for Nomad and has also won the Dongseo Literary Award, the Lee Hyo-seok Literary Award, and the Tong-in Literary Award.

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 75

Reviews Children's Books

Being Alone Is Fun, but Being Together Is Better!

Separate but Together, Three Musketeers Kim Yang-mee; Illustrator: Oh Seung-min, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 215p, ISBN 9788936442583

76 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

mother has died of an illness and her father has stopped making any effort to continue his relationship with Eunu and concentrates only on his work. At the same time, her best friend Seonju has moved to Italy. Trying to stand alone is not easy for Eunu. She thinks she has been left alone, cut off from all relationships and thus finds it difficult to overcome loneliness.

She is afraid to do anything alone. Then Eunu finds new friends: Hyeongbin whose younger brother suffers from autism; Changi, an animal expert who always surprises with his unexpected behavior; an old lady who is as affectionate as her mother; and her neighbors. To Eunu who is sad because the happiness she thought was just right got broken, “new relationships” are a challenge and an experiment that end in heartwarming success. As she laughs and cries with them, Eunu finds herself enjoying both being alone and being together.

The author of this book, Kim Yangmee, won the Second Ma Hae-song Literary Award with Jjinjjingun and Duppangdu. She has continuously been dealing with the issues of relationships children experience at home and at school. People tend to give two pieces of advice to children who have problems with relationships. One asks children to be independent with, “you should now be able to stand alone,” and the other is a guideline to “cooperate with other people.” Kim Yang-mee, however, does not vaguely assert the “importance of independence” and does not hastily depend on the “power of friendship and family.”

By Kim Ji-eun

Adults feel lonely even when they are surrounded by people because they can’t trust anyone or easily open their hearts.

This is perhaps because their trust in community has weakened as they have come to know the reality of the world better or because they have been hurt too many times by their relationships both big and small. Becoming a good adult is to know the difference between “being alone” and “being together with other people” and enjoying both circumstances. But so many adults cry in solitude and can’t get along with others because of their egotism and mistrust.

Children are different, however. With one good friend, a child gains strength, and together they begin making their own dreams; with a second friend, the three become fearless, ready to take anything on.

Of course, sometimes they might rush into something that each of them finds more interesting, or quarrel, and prefer playing alone. But after a night of sleep, they will run back to their friends as if nothing had ever happened. Upsetting things and lonely moments disappear when they are with their friends. Friendship between children is capricious but strong. This is due to their pure and open attitude towards people and the world.

Kim Yang-mee’s Separate but Together, Three Musketeers is a story about friendship and more importantly, on the relationships between people. Eunu dreams of a perfectly happy family and unbreakable friendship but her dreams are easily broken. Her list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 77

Reviews Children's Books

Celebrating Everyday Miracles My Boy, My Miracle Choi Sook-hee, Bear Books 2010, 36p, ISBN 9788993242317

The title of the book My Boy, My Miracle is a phrase all parents cherish deep down.

The moment a woman realizes that she is pregnant, the first time the baby smiles, the moment when a tiny white tooth pushes its way out through the gums, the first time the baby says Mom or Dad—all those moments must be amazing to every parent.

As all things go, however, the most wonderful moments of our lives pass us by in a mere blink of time. Raising a child is never easy for any parent and perhaps that is why most parents let such miraculous moments of raising a child pass by without truly appreciating them. In this book, author Choi unfolds a panorama of the amazing moments of life she has experienced while raising her own child.

She deftly portrays a mother’s hopes to keep those once-in-a-lifetime moments close

and deep in her heart so that she will be able to one day share them with her child.

All the wonder, happiness, fluttering of the heart, the worries, the pride, and emotions that the mother has with the child come together in one sentence: “That you are my child, that is a true miracle.”

The parents who read this book will never miss such moments of wonder as they raise their children. They will be able to freely say, “You are a miracle” to their child at those moments. Parents will also find other moments of marvel that have not been mentioned by Choi in this book.

This is one of the book’s most powerful strengths. It helps open up a new world to readers! The children who grow up sharing this picture book with their parents while being told that they are a miracle, will regard themselves as the most cherished and valuable beings. They will grow up to be happy children their parents can be proud of.

By Shin Hye-eun

Mistakes Must Be Paid For A Shameless Mistake Hwang Sun-mi; Illustrator: Kim Jin-hwa Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2010, 116p, ISBN 9788936451271

78 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Hwang Sun-mi, the author of A Shameless Mistake, has established herself as a major children’s book author in Korea through her works including Leafie, a Hen into the Wild, and The Bad Boy Stickers. As in her other works, she shows how a timid child responds to the challenges encountered at school, and how they adjust and grow up in the process. With her skillful depiction of the mentality of children who are driven into a corner by unforeseen circumstances, Hwang has become popular with children as well as among parents, because she prefers stable endings over shocking or open-ended ones.

In Daeseong’s classroom there is an aquarium full of pretty fish. The aquarium was a gift to the class from Yeongil’s mother.

Yeongil, the class president, wants to wield power by choosing at his will whose turn it will be to feed the fish. Daeseong, unhappy with such display of power, secretly mixes detergent with the fish feed, and all the fish end up dying as a result.

As it happens, the other children come

to suspect Bomi, who is autistic, and things become more complicated than Daeseong ever intended. He musters up the courage to tell the others that what happened was his fault, and that he had been the one to make the mistake. Mistakes must be paid for, however, and Daeseong has to start saving up money to buy new fish. But even up to this point, Daeseong hasn’t really thought about the dead fish—he has only thought about taking revenge on Yeongil.

It’s not until he has to dig up the spot where the fish are buried in order to find out what kind they were, and sees them decaying, that he is shocked and comes to truly regret what he had done.

This book conveys to children the simple truth that when they have done something wrong, they must admit to it honestly, apologize sincerely, and finally take full responsibility.

By Yu Youngjin

Reviews Children's Books

Love Is Learning to Share My Bluebori Prince Oh Chae; Illustrator: Oh Seung-min Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 170p, ISBN 9788932020778

Children love dogs. Children’s books about dogs, such as the classic A Dog of Flanders by Ouida, as well as Phillippa Pierce’s A Dog so Small, Wilson Rawls’s Where the Red Fern Grows, and Daniel Pennac’s Cabot-Caboche, are loved by children around the world.

Oh Chae’s My Bluebori Prince, too, is a book about a dog. Hansol, the main character, wants to raise a dog, but his mom will not allow him. When a fruit vendor in town brings home a Siberian Husky, Hansol falls in love with the huge dog. Hansol names the Siberian Husky “Prince” and they spend happy days together.

As their friendship grows deeper, hard times fall upon them. At a meeting of the Husky club, attended with the fruit

vendor, Hansol gets injured because of Prince. While Hansol is in the hospital, Prince becomes friends with a girl named Minji, who gives Prince the nickname, “Bluebori.” Hansol, who wants to keep the Siberian Husky to himself, becomes so jealous and vengeful that he feeds Prince toxic potatoes.

Soon enough, Hansol comes to regret what he’s done and realizes how much he loves Prince, but learns that Prince is to be sold to someone else. Before Prince goes away, Hansol unleashes him. Through friendship, love, jealousy, and farewells, Hansol grows up and learns many lessons.

This book about a dog shows that true love is not about being jealous and monopolizing someone, but accepting someone as they are, and also shows how a child grows up in the process of raising a dog.

By Yu Youngjin

Growing Up Isn’t Just Growing Taller Together As One Park Ji-ri, Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. 2010, 251p, ISBN 9788958285007

When children describe their future dreams, they often say “when I grow up, I want to be so and so.” The hope to be someone in the future can become useless without the supposition of growing up.

Growth can be divided into physical and mental growth, and getting older does not necessarily entail a similar speed of growth for everyone. Children and teenagers are particularly sensitive about their appearance and when their physical growth seems to be slower than others, they tend to take it as a sign that their dreams are over.

This story is about twins who are in middle school. One is named Hap and the other, Che. Their father who was so short that he was called a “dwarf ” had a hard time finding a job because he was discriminated against for his size and worked at a bar performing a ball-rolling stunt. The twins are left with resentment against their father and “do not want to be like their father.” It is, however, difficult to

endure the looks of contempt from friends that causes weariness.

One day, the twins meet Master Gye, an old man who is supposedly training in Mt. Gyeryong. He tells the twins that they will grow over 20 centimeters taller if they train their body and mind for 33 days under his instructions. The two cut off all contact and begin their life in Mt. Gyeryong during summer vacation. They encourage each other and work hard at training their body and mind. However, they are told one day that Master Gye is just an old man suffering from dementia and that everything he said was probably a delusion.

In the end, the twins’ efforts result in a few centimeters of growth by the end of summer. They still belong to “the shortest kids’ group” at school, but the summer camp has brought them mysterious energy and a chance to recover confidence at school.

The author was inspired by A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball, which is regarded as a monumental work in Korean literature.

The story won the 2010 Sakyejul Literary Award. Ultimately, the book makes us realize that believing in oneself is key to cultivating the body and mind.

By Kim Ji-eun

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Reviews Children's Books

Nothing to Fear, Only Ghosts Here Encyclopedia of Ghosts Lee Hyun; Illustrator: Kim Kyung-hee Prunsoop Junior, 2010, 124p ISBN 9788971846513

Encyclopedia of Ghosts? Even the title is scary.

Images of a virgin ghost dressed in white with long unkempt hair, the King of Hell with large glaring eyes, these images come to mind even before opening the book.

Add to this the fear of death. Such fear will disappear into a grin as soon as readers turn the first page. The author shows an astonishing wit and writing style that present scary ghosts and the underworld with humorous writing and illustrations.

As the subtitle “Stories of Korean Ghosts Hidden in Classics” says, the author introduces the stories of Korean ghosts and the underworld that have been passed down through generations of grandmothers. Even so, it is true that the author, Lee Hyun, has never seen a ghost or the underworld, but this is where his imagination shines brightest. Take a look at the “Travel Guide of the Underworld.”

Make-believe categories like “famous places

Never too Different to Become Best Friends White Umbrella Kim Duck-yoon; Illustrator: Shin Min-jae Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 120p, ISBN 9788932020617

Friendship, disability, and ostracism are the topics of children’s stories, as love and separation are common topics in novels.

White Umbrella brings together these three old topics. How did this new generation author, 21-year-old Kim Duck-yoon, weave the topics of friendship and disability that older writers have already used countless times? To get straight to the point, he shows a unique talent for telling the story smoothly, as well as flaunting a unique writing style and composition.

The story itself is also cheerful yet touching, making it hard to put down.

The creative illustrations that support such a moving story also stand out. Perhaps this is why we feel as though we are 80 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

walking along a warm, sunny, and peaceful path after finishing the book. The main character is 12-year-old Ha Baragi who is as tall as a sunflower and Dajeong, a girl of the same age who is in a wheelchair.

The two children take turns talking about what’s on their minds just as if they were writing in a diary. Baragi always sits alone at the back of the class because he is the tallest. He hopes to sit next to Soyeong, one of his classmates, but he ends up with Dajeong who just transferred from another school. Thinking that he cannot sit next to Soyeong because of Dajeong, Baragi always frowns whenever he sees Dajeong. Feeling sorry and uncomfortable, Dajeong also finds it hard to become friends with Baragi.

Fortunately, the two children overcome the biases and prejudices against each other through the medium of a pencil and an herbal plant. One rainy day, they share a white umbrella, talk about their thoughts on “difference” and pain, and gradually

in the underworld,” “celebrities of the underworld,” and “special products of the underworld” are introduced with humor.

The book also covers various kinds of ghosts: ghosts that defend the nation; ancestor ghosts that watch over their descendents; love ghosts that are caught by the fever of love; ghosts that repay kindness to people; ghosts that spread smallpox; luminous ghosts that glow; ghosts with a face but without eyes, nose, and mouth (that must be really scary!); and warajin ghosts that live underground and kidnap women.

The ghosts become familiar to us like neighbors as we read the detailed descriptions of how ghosts often “appear and disappear” around us and how they have come to live among us. Ghosts were indeed treated as friendly neighbors in traditional Korean society. The author’s intention is simple. He wants young readers to have a new experience of the ghost culture and understand how this traditional ghost culture has been embedded in our lives. In this regard, this book gets 100 points out of 100!

By Oh Yunhyun

become best friends. This process is truly heartwarming. The way the children open their hearts and understand each other is more refreshing than any other form of reconciliation. Young readers might think of themselves as either Baragi or Dajeong when it comes to this part of the book and will think about how they should communicate with their friends. They won’t have to worry. They will be happy and satisfied simply to have read such a heartwarming story.

By Oh Yunhyun

Steady Sellers

How a Writer Can Change a Life Dear Mrs. Astrid Lindgren Yoo Eun-sil; Illustrator: Kwon Sa-woo, Changbi Publishers, Inc. 2005, 184p, ISBN 9788936442194

Dad died, but mom could not accept the fact that he was dead. Mom tells her daughter that he went to America. There was a time in Korea when “going to America” was used as an explanation for a long and permanent absence of a family member resulting from death or divorce.

America, in this context, was not a country that existed across the Pacific Ocean,

but was perceived as a place that existed outside of reality. It was a country that not everyone could go to or easily return from, and at the same time, for those permitted to enter, it was a country of all possibilities, abundance, and happiness. Korean children once believed in America like children believe in Santa Claus.

Bu t t h o s e Ko re a n c h i l d re n w h o

believed in America like it was Santa Claus no longer exist, although the parents, who talk of America as if were still Santa Claus, remain. The mother of Bi-eup, the main character of the book Dear Mrs. Astrid Lindgren, is one of them. Instead of telling her daughter that her father died, she tells her that he went to America. It is not unlikely that Bi-eup’s mother herself did not want to acknowledge the death of her husband, thereby escaping her own acceptance of the truth.

And then there was a child who believed in Astrid Lindgren like she was Santa Claus. Bi-eup, the protagonist of this book, is like that. Although she is aware of her father’s death, she does not let on to her mother that she knows. Like her mother, Bi-eup resorts to a world of fantasy in order to fill the void in her life. That world consists of Astrid Lindgren, and the books she wrote. Bi-eup links all aspects of her daily life to Lindgren’s books. When her hair grows long, she thinks to herself that she will be able to braid it in pigtails like Pippi Longstocking. She happily loses herself in Lindgren’s books, and writes to the author with great joy. Bi-eup continues writing the letters since they keep her happy and give her company.

But life cannot continue to exist within the realm of fantasy. The role of fantasy is to help one overcome an obstacle after which it must end. In this vein, the book does a remarkable job of delineating the inter-relationship of fantasy and reality.

When Bi-eup realizes that fantasy has taken too deep a root in her life, thereby disrupting it, she stops her letter writing to Lindgren. She ventures out to make new friends, and spends more quality time with her mother, finding ways not to depend on her imagination to make her happy.

The book is about the life of a mother and daughter who have to fend for themselves after a death in the family. Yet going deeper into the story reveals how big a role that books, and an author, can play in the life of a child. What author would not want a reader like that? That is why this book can be a dream of all authors. Just like Bi-eup, all writers would love to hear a reader say: “From this book I have learned to read with all my being.”

By Kim Inae

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 81

Meet the Publishers Yo u l h w a d a n g i s o n e o f the most distinguished art publishers in Korea. Art publishing in Korea was virtually non-existent when Youlhwadang was established in 1971. Art publications were less popular than fiction and commanded even less of an audience than books in the humanities, which had a small but loyal following. While Youlhwadang is now commended for venturing into a new market, breaking into art publishing was considered a reckless move at the time. Today publishing experts agree that the history of art publishing in Korea cannot be separated from the history of Youlhwadang.

Youlhwadang’s founder Yi Ki-ung was born in Seoul in 1940, when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. As the Japanese oppression grew worse, his father, a doctor, decided they should move back to his hometown in Gangneung, a port city located in the east of the Korean peninsula. Yi’s childhood in Gangneung had a profound effect on him when he opened his own publishing house and decided to focus on art publications after years of working as an editor. Sungyojang, the family home for generations, was a traditional hanok of 99 kan (one kan equals about six square meters), the largest size that noble households were allowed in the Joseon period. Youlhwadang was the family library. Named after the immemorial lines of the 4th century Chinese poet Tao Yuanming, “How pleasant it is to converse with close friends,” Youlhwadang means “House where friends may converse.” The library was a treasure trove of ancient books, calligraphy, and pictures.

Youlhwadang Publishers

2

The Original Art Publisher An art publishing house inspired by a library full of ancient tomes—Youlhwadang’s history follows the tradition of noble art of the Joseon dynasty, when the finest artistry was always associated with deep learning.

1

1. Korean Buddhist Sculpture: Art and Truth Kang Woobang, 1990, 528p, ISBN 8930110347 2. Art and Truth: The Principle of Ancient

Korean Sculpture II

Kang Woobang, 2000, 584p, ISBN 8930110703

3. Because of the Rain: Korean Zen Poems Kim Daljin, 1985, 506p

82 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

3

Upon visiting Youlhwadang in Paju, Gyeonggi-do (province) this October, Yi remarked: “The beauty of the books I saw in the library as a child haunted me far into my adulthood.” These memories meant he was always interested in the beauty of books, whether the subject was art or the humanities, and finally steered him towards specializing in art publishing. An art publishing house inspired by a library full of ancient tomes— Youlhwadang’s history follows the tradition of noble art of the Joseon era, when the finest artistry was always associated with deep learning.

This philosophy underlines Youlhwadang’s 40-year history of publishing more than 700 books. Such an impressive list can be largely divided into art and Korean culture.

Youlhwadang’s strength in these areas was reaffirmed at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair, when Korea was the guest of honor. Korean publishers selected 100 volumes that would best represent Korea and Korean publishing to foreign readers; of the 100 titles selected, eight were from Youlhwadang Publisher. Among the eight, Korean Buddhist Sculpture: Art and Truth by eminent art historian Kang Woobang offers an in-depth analysis of Buddhist art from Goguryeo, Baekjae, and Silla, kingdoms that existed 1,000 years ago on the Korean peninsula. Aesthetician Zoh Johann’s An Exploration of Korean Aesthetic Beauty ponders the essence of Korean beauty. The other six volumes are on Korean culture, including Korean Traditional Costume; The History and Future of Hangeul: Korea's Indigenous Script, which looks at the Korean alphabet; Korean Mask Dance Dramas: Their History and Structural Principles; Korean Ancient Palaces; Because of the Rain: Korean Zen Poems, an introduction to 370 Zen poems; and Gut, Korean Shamanic Ritual: Songs Calling Spirits, an introduction to shamanistic rituals from various regions of Korea accompanied by vivid photographs.

Other Youlhwadang publications were introduced at the fair among the “100 Most

Beautiful Books of Korea,” including Lu c k o r De s t i n y, K a n g Wo o n - g u’s collection of rural and urban scenes from the 1960 to 1980s in Korea; Korean Musical Instruments, a photographically illustrated guide to traditional Korean instruments; Eternity in the Moment, a collection of photo essays by Kang Woobang; and one of his studies on Buddhist art, Art and Truth: The Principle of Ancient Korean Sculpture II. Youlhwadang’s legacy is even more impressive in Korea. It started publishing its “Youlhwadang Art Library” and “Youlhwadang Art Selections” series in the mid-1970s, introducing the Korean public to such art classics as Ernst H. J. Gombrich’s The Story of Art. The photography collection Gyeongju Namsan, bringing together the work of Korea’s best photographers and essayists, is also counted as one of Youlhwadang’s masterpieces. Most recently Youlhwadang has branched out to comics and photography, publishing the French comic version of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, among other books.

Books by Youlhwadang Publishers that have been published overseas.

1 2

By Shin Junebong 3

1. Korean Traditional Costume Lee Kyung-ja, et al.

2003, 372p, ISBN 8930100481

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2. Gut, Korean Shamanic Ritual:

Songs Calling Spirits

Kim Soo-nam, 2005, 288p, ISBN 8930101771

3. Korean Mask Dance Dramas:

Their History and Structural Principles

Jeon Kyung-wook, 2007, 384p ISBN 9788930102780

4

6

4. An Exploration of Korean Aesthetic Beauty Zoh Johann, 1999, 366p, ISBN 9788930100779 5. The History and Future of Hangeul:

Korea's Indigenous Script

Kim Zong-su, 1990, 120p, ISBN 8930107230

6. Korean Ancient Palaces Shin Young-hoon, et al.

1988, 316p, ISBN 8930108466

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Copyright © Lee Hyoung-jin, The Mother of Cuckoo, NURIMBO

New Books

Recommended by Publishers Korean editors have handpicked their favorite titles among the collections from their own publishing houses.

The following list contains hidden gems in Korea’s publishing industry. For further information, please contact the agents directly.

Fiction

Yeongran

Rhapsody in Berlin

The Goldberg Variations

Cat Hotel

Gong Sun-ok, Edition PPUL 2010, 272p, ISBN 9788901114293

Ku Hyo-seo, Edition PPUL 2010, 484p, ISBN 9788901106793

Seo Jun-hwan, Edition PPUL 2010, 332p, ISBN 9788901112683

Kim Heejin, Minumsa Publishing Group 2010, 284p, ISBN 978893748324

A story of loss and redemption, Yeongran tells the story of a bereft woman who loses her husband and son in an accident. She lives on nothing but bread and rice wine for days on end until she meets an old friend of her husband’s who takes her on a road trip to the Yeongran Inn in Mokpo.

Through the people she meets there, she becomes healed of her wounds, and is reborn as “Yeongran.”

In this novel, the Korean diaspora unfolds through music and art.

Hanako, a Japanese woman, goes to Germany in search of her first love’s whereabouts. Why did Kentaro, a second-generation Korean Japanese, as well as a Korean German musician, choose to end his own life in Germany, and not in Japan or Korea?

Renowned musician Gillen Guldmund is invited by the Goldberg Foundation to the musical hub of Europe to take on a project to turn the Goldberg Variations into a linguistic form. Having brought together all kinds of artists, he anticipates a bustling night in the city, and hopes for a reverse revolution to the harpsichord era.

Go Yoda, the heroine of Cat Hotel, lives with 188 cats in a three-story castle-like mansion with 11 rooms.

Living a veiled life as a secluded writer behind a sign that reads, “Vacant Rooms,” she’s an enigma to the world.

At last, Gang Inhan, a journalist, seeks an interview with her.

Copyright Agent: Kim Jiyeong odrama35@wjbook.co.kr 82-2-334-7244 www.wjthinkbig.com

84 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Copyright Agent: Kim Jiyeong odrama35@wjbook.co.kr 82-2-334-7244 www.wjthinkbig.com

Copyright Agent: Kim Jiyeong odrama35@wjbook.co.kr 82-2-334-7244 www.wjthinkbig.com

Copyright Agent: Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com

The Eighth Room

Like a Fairy Tale

Baron Quirval’s Castle

The Islamic Butcher’s Shop

Kim Mi-wol, Minumsa Publishing Group 2010, 272p, ISBN 9788937483028

Kim Kyunguk, Minumsa Publishing Group 2010, 360p, ISBN 9788937483127

Choi Jae-hoon, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 304p, ISBN 9788932020525

Son Hong-gyu, Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 248p, ISBN 9788932020747

The Eighth Room is a coming-of-age novel about wounded souls who have retreated into their own world but make their way back out. The dreams of the youth, as well as their pains, are described in a warm, cheerful manner in this book about rooms. The seriousness of the subject matter; the lively emotions, the subtle portrayal, and witty figures of speech add weight, as well as light humor, to the work.

Kim Kyunguk, the so-called “evolving writing machine,” has returned with a bittersweet coming-of-age romance for grownups. Like a Fairy Tale is a popular novel that was serialized on the Interpark website, as well as the first novel written by Kim after he received the 2009 Dongin Literary Award. It starts out as a fairy tale, then turns into a romance, and neatly wraps up as a coming-of-age novel.

This is the first collection of short stories by Choi Jae-hoon, hailed as an extraordinary newcomer. The eight short stories in the collection show his unique imagination dissolving and restructuring existing texts, his expertise in creating new stories, and solid, fast-paced sentences that keep your eyes glued to the pages.

Copyright Agent: Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com

Copyright Agent: Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com

This is a story about a Turkish man who stayed in Korea after his participation in the Korean War, and his adopted son. The child becomes healed of the deep wounds in his heart as he grows up among the wretched people living in an alleyway near a mosque in Seoul in the 1980s. The author delves deeply into the wounds, desires, and memories of violence and madness that lurk inside the human heart.

Two Geese, “That’s Right” and “No Comment”

My Ridiculous Mother

Flickering Fireflies

Are We a Family?

Kim Yeon, SILCHEONMUNHAK 2009, 224p, ISBN 9788939206229

Cho June-ho, Sigongjunior 2010, 180p, ISBN 9788952758682

Kim Hye-yeon et al., Barambooks 2010, 224p, ISBN 9788994475097

The author of this book has been an author engaged in environmental movements since the early 1990s.

Through this reminiscence of two years with a couple of geese, readers, regardless of age or gender, will be compelled to laugh even amidst the sadness.

A frank, open discussion about all women who live as daughters and mothers, this book is especially noteworthy in that it deals with girls’ coming of age. From the perspective of a girl in junior high, the book unfolds with stories about the wounds of and reconciliations between three generations of women in a rhythmic prose.

Flickering Fireflies is a coming-of-age novel about Sunmin, a 14-year-old boy, who learns how to communicate with the world as he grows up. The book is full of delicate emotions, conveying the message that though everyone passes through maturity in similar ways, each must communicate clearly in order to understand one another.

This collection is a joint effort by four different authors, each writing about separate characters who eventually meet. The characters are all models in a mobile phone commercial based on the concept of family. In the process of making the commercial, the actors come to ask themselves, What is a family, and, What am I to my family?

Copyright Agent: Kim Hyesun silcheon@hanmail.net 82-2-322-2161 www.silcheon.com

Copyright Agent: Kim Hyesun silcheon@hanmail.net 82-2-322-2161 www.silcheon.com

Copyright Agent: Min Yu-ree yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongjunior.com

Choi Seong-gak; Illustrator: Lee Sanghun SILCHEONMUNHAK, 2009, 168p ISBN 9788939206151

Copyright Agent: Yoo Hee-kyoung morte@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext. 110) www.moonji.com

Copyright Agent: Won Jong-kook won@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com

Copyright Agent: Nam Kyungmee windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 85

Poetry

Nonfiction

Seo Jeong-ju: A Collection of Poetry

Let’s Have a Drink

Kim Hwa-young, Editor Poet & Poetry Co., 2001, 180p ISBN 9788982121500

This collection of poetry by Seo Jeong-ju, dubbed the “greatest poet of the Korean language,” with a gift for working alchemy with his mother tongue, has been complied

by Professor Kim Hwa-young. The collection provides readers with an opportunity to get a new, fuller taste of the world of Seo Jeongju’s poetry.

Copyright Agent: Yang Seung-soon kunna@kunna.co.kr 82-2-2057-7060 www.kunna.co.kr

You Yong-joo, Kunna Publishing Co. 2005, 220p, ISBN 9788991296435

You Yong-joo, the author of And Yet I Shall Go on Living, selected as an MBC Exclamation Point Book, has published a book for the first time in five years. The anecdotes about drinks, written in simple, beautiful sentences about life, bring comfort to the weary.

Consisting of 16 vignettes, the book touches readers with stories about people who lead healthy, vibrant lives.

Copyright Agent: Yang Seung-soon kunna@kunna.co.kr 82-2-2057-7060 www.kunna.co.kr

Children's Books

Che Guevera’s Empty Backpack Gu Gwang-ryeol, SILCHEONMUNHAK 2009, 316p, ISBN 9788939206168

Through 69 poems that lay hidden in the green notebook that was among Guevera’s possessions, the book sheds new light on the last three years of his life. This work has great significance in that, as does no other book in the world, it brings to light Guevara as a man of literature who fought with a pen as well as a gun.

God Loves Me Editorial Dept. Agape Publishing Co. Illustrator: Kim Seunga Agape Publishing Co., Ltd., 2008, 16p ISBN 9788993975121

Copyright Agent: Kim Hyesun silcheon@hanmail.net 82-2-322-2161 www.silcheon.com

The Attributes of God series is a series of children’s board books, three volumes in total. The books, with heartwarming illustrations, talk about the attributes of God. Children can come to learn about God in a way that is easy for them to understand, through stories about everyday life with which they are familiar. Book 1, God Loves Me, explains the nature of God, who loves everyone with a constant love.

Copyright Agent: Lee Soyeon agapepub@hotmail.com 82-2-522-5148 www.iagape.co.kr

Secret Roads in the Forest

The Mother of Cuckoo

Seoul

The Bare Desert

Lee Hyoung-Jin, NURIMBO 2010, 32p, ISBN 9788958761143

Lee Hyoung-Jin, NURIMBO 2010, 32p, ISBN 9788958761105

Park Kyeongjin, Miseghy Children’s Press 2010, 44p, ISBN 9788980712533

A road, exclusively for children, begins where a road for cars comes to an end.

It’s a forest road! The children run through the forest, discovering roads known only to squirrels, ants, and water. Water flows through tree trunks to their leaves, and the leaves meet the wind to create a path of wind. When a car appears again, however, the path of wind is scattered away.

One day, a strange-looking egg is abandoned into a mother bird’s nest so she sits on it along with the other eggs.

When a baby bird breaks out of the strange-looking egg, the mother bird discovers that the other two eggs have disappeared. When she finds that the eggs have dropped to the ground, she weeps with sorrow, seeking revenge on the baby bird. But she can’t help embracing it as her own, becoming the mother of a cuckoo.

Yun Jae-In; Illustrator: Oh Seung-Min NURIMBO, 2010, 32p ISBN 9788958761112

Copyright Agent: Park Mi-suk dustsong@naver.com 82-31-955-7391 www.nurimbo.co.kr

86 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Copyright Agent: Park Mi-suk dustsong@naver.com 82-31-955-7391 www.nurimbo.co.kr

Ari and Noa are stray cats in the streets of Seoul. The adult cats hide away from people and rummage through trash cans in search of food, but Ari and Noa feel stifled by such a life. One night, the two set out on an adventure to a park. Ari hunts with success for the first time in the park, which they had avoided because of the crowds.

Copyright Agent: Park Mi-suk dustsong@naver.com 82-31-955-7391 www.nurimbo.co.kr

This illustrated book on the environment shows how nature, once abundant, turned into a desert.

A community in which trees and forests and animals lived together in abundance begins to crumble with the new presence of humans. Only a desert, full of sandstorms, remains.

Copyright Agent: Oh Sun-hee zerohour7@unibooks.co.kr 82-2-560-0491 www.miseghy.com

Guess What This Is?

A Family Picture

Park Wan-suh; Illustrator: Lee Hyeri Miseghy Children’s Press, 1997, 20p ISBN 9788980710409

Nam Chansook; Illustrator: Kim Jinhwa Miseghy Children’s Press, 2010, 168p ISBN 9788980712625

Dungchi’s grandmother gives Hangwang something odd. It is “round and flat,” “darkish,” and “sticky!” What in the world is this? As Hangwang comes to learn what each thing is, he also comes to understand his friend’s grandmother, whom he had been afraid of. The lively expressions on the characters’ faces add to the fun of the story.

The book touchingly portrays how two girls from different families come to accept each other as family.

Hyeongyeong, through her mother’s divorce and remarriage, has come to live with her stepsister, and Miseon has come to live in a new house with people who are complete strangers to her.

Copyright Agent: Oh Sun-hee zerohour7@unibooks.co.kr 82-2-560-0491 www.miseghy.com

Copyright Agent: An Ji-hyun daydreame@unibooks.co.kr 82-2-560-0426 www.miseghy.com

If I Were to Become a Real Tree Kim Jin-cheol, BIR Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 36p, ISBN 9788949101620

This illustrated book was inspired by the diary of the author’s son.

The author, describes “the dreams and wishes of a sprout that wants to become a tree” in an imaginative, lyrical language. The unique illustrations add to the depth of the book, along with the various pop-up illustrations that open up on all sides.

Copyright Agent: Lee Young-mi ymlee@bir.co.kr 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 311) www.bir.co.kr

Sweet Water Hill So Chung-ae; Illustrator: Oh Jung-taek BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., 2010, 40p ISBN 9788949101248

A young woodcutter, who has a deep love for his parents, accidentally comes across a spring of sweet water. The water is no ordinary water—it is as cold as ice, and as sweet as wild grapes.

He becomes greedy and as he starts to sell the water, he neglects his mother.

The experimental and sophisticated illustrations by Oh Jung-taek, the recipient of a prize at the International Noma Concours, make the story even more appealing.

Copyright Agent: Lee Young-mi ymlee@bir.co.kr 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 311) www.bir.co.kr

The Rabbit and the Turtle

Cheer Up, Prince Himchan!

It’s Okay If You’re Shy

The Revealed Lie

Sung Suk-je; Illustrator: Yun Mi-Sook BIR Publishing Co., Ltd., 2010, 44p ISBN 9788949101255

Song Eon; Illustrator: Gyeong Ha IANDBOOK, 2010, 64p ISBN 9788992830676

Yang Seunghyeon; Illustrator: Ju Mi IANDBOOK, 2010, 112p ISBN 9788992830805

Yu Hyojin; Illustrator: Ju Mi, IANDBOOK 2010, 64p, ISBN 9788992830645

“The Tale of the Rabbit,” a traditional oral narrative of Korea, has been recreated by Sung Suk-je, the novelist, with his characteristic wit. Based mainly on the pansori “Sugunga,” and also on the “Tale of the Rabbit,” the work brings to life the charm of the Korean language. The illustrations by Yun Misuk, renowned for her highly artistic works, make a new, unique book of story and illustration.

There’s no child in the world who stirs up trouble for no reason. The same goes for Prince Himchan of Cheer Up, Prince Himchan! He causes so much trouble that his teacher doesn’t know what to do, and insists stubbornly on doing everything his way. His teacher, who scolds him for his behavior, comes to know him better and to understand why he behaves in such a way, by learning of his wounded heart.

This book is about a girl named Danbi, who is very shy. Through her friendship with Yejin, a cheerful, outgoing girl, Danbi learns to overcome her shyness and becomes cheerful and outgoing as well.

Copyright Agent: Lee Young-mi ymlee@bir.co.kr 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 311) www.bir.co.kr

Copyright Agent: Cheong Ye-young iandbook@naver.com 82-2-2248-1555 www.iandbook.co.kr

Copyright Agent: Cheong Ye-young iandbook@naver.com 82-2-2248-1555 www.iandbook.co.kr

This book is about the mentality of children who tell lies, through the story about a girl named Miri who lies to get her friends’ attention. It also shows adults that lying is a natural phenomenon during their children’s growth, helping them understand that instead of just scolding, parents must nurture the rich power of imagination that lies hidden within.

Copyright Agent: Cheong Ye-young iandbook@naver.com 82-2-2248-1555 www.iandbook.co.kr

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 87

Children's Books

The Dog Table and the Poet Park Sangryul; Illustrator: Baek Cheol Kunna Publishing Co., 2008, 120p ISBN 9788991296022

This is a sad story about Jindol, a dog who used to have meals at the same table with a poet. Park Sang-ryul, a children’s book author, tells the story, which he had kept deep in his heart for 10 years. The loyalty of the dog makes people reflect on trust and love between humans.

Copyright Agent: Yang Seung-soon kunna@kunna.co.kr 82-2-2057-7060 www.kunna.co.kr

Kimo, Traveling into His Mother's Mind

A Trip into the World’s Amazing Customs, Vol. 1

A Trip into the World’s Amazing Customs, Vol.2

Lee Young; Illustrator: Shim Chang-gook YeaRimDang Publishing Co., Ltd. 2009, 158p, ISBN 9788930209892

Shin Hyun-Soo; Illustrator: Park Jung-In Haksan Publishing Co., Ltd. 2009, 88p, ISBN 9788925833736

Shin Hyun-Soo; Illustrator: Park Jung-In Haksan Publishing Co., Ltd. 2009, 100p, ISBN 9788925848891

Kimo is a troublemaker. His mother watches over him carefully and interferes with everything he does, so he ends up registering at a hypnosis school to learn how to control the human mind. How will Kimo entering his mother’s mind, change her? Will Kimo’s dysfunctional family be able to find happiness once more?

This is the first volume of the A Trip into the World’s Amazing Customs series.

Through fascinating stories about how traditional foods originated, the book introduces the food culture of the world. The foods introduced in this book include dumplings, pizza, and potato chips, to more peculiar foods such as foie gras, fondue, paella, and mosquito eyes.

The second of the A Trip into the World’s Amazing Customs series is a book about traditional houses around the world from Italy’s trullo, Mongolia’s ger, the Masai’s cow dung house, the Inuit’s igloo, to Japan’s gasshozukuri and China’s siheyuan.

The views of the global village, seen through food and architecture, will provide children with a shortcut to understanding the world.

Copyright Agent: Claire Ko rights@yearim.kr 82-2-3404-9248 www.yearim.kr

Copyright Agent: Park Jin-a Joshua@haksanpub.co.kr 82-2-828-8805 www.haksanpub.co.kr

Copyright Agent: Park Jin-a Joshua@haksanpub.co.kr 82-2-828-8805 www.haksanpub.co.kr

The Secrets of the Runaways

The Cane Race

Hurrah for the Bad Dad

Hair, Hair Everywhere

Kim Hye-Yeon; Illustrator: Bae Hyun-Jung Barambooks, 2010, 128p ISBN 9788994475073

Kim Hye-jin, Barambooks 2007, 600p, ISBN 9788990878441

Kim Kyung-ok; Illustrator: SoBokYi Sigongjunior, 2010, 108p ISBN 9788952759733

Kim Youn-kyoung; Illustrator: Han Seung-im Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd. 2007, 32p, ISBN 9788901071695

Chanwu’s father is a “bad” husband to his mother, and a “bad” son to his grandmother—he has no job and he is divorced. There is nothing he wouldn’t do, however, for Chanwu, his son.

This book takes a look at single dads, categorized as “bad dads” in society, and the role of the father in a family.

The book takes a look at body hair from scientific, anthropological, and everyday perspectives. My daddy, unlike me, is very hairy. Is it possible that he’s a wolf? I took a closer look, however, and realized that everyone has hair—not only on their faces, arms, and legs, but all over their bodies.

Copyright Agent: Min Yu-ree yrmin@sigongsa.com 82-2-2046-2855 www.sigongjunior.com

Copyright Agent: Claire Yang shy07@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-3670-1168 www.wjbooks.co.kr

The Secrets of the Runaways relays the two-day adventure of two kids who believe they have inadvertently committed a crime. Mingi and Gyeongsu, though awkward and vulnerable, are full of courage and faith—and delusions of grandeur— characteristic of young boys. Traveling with the two, readers will come to feel that everything will be all right in the end.

Ahyeon, an ordinary girl in junior high with close friends and good grades, is sick and tired of everything.

Then, however, a door opens up for her, leading her into a whole new world. The moment she steps into the perfect world, Ahyeon is no longer an ordinary girl. The adventures surrounding the cane race unfolds, revealing everything we want to know—everything from conspiracies and the truth to growth.

Copyright Agent: Nam Kyung-mee windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub

Copyright Agent: Nam Kyung-mee windchild04@hanmail.net 82-2-3142-0495 cafe.daum.net/barampub

88 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

Graphic Novels

Myths Lift Up Science

The Children of Delta

Jung Chang-hoon; Illustrator: Min Eun-jung Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd. 2010, 144p, ISBN 9788901105833

Lim Eo-jin; Illustrator: Cho Seong-yon Woongjin Think Big Co., Ltd. 2010, 196p, ISBN 9788901106991

This book shares interesting episodes from Greek mythology followed by scientific information. The book allows children to approach science, often considered difficult, through fun and interesting mythology, which helps them understand scientific principles in an easier way.

This book is about the heroes of our society who appear one day, only to be toppled down the next. News spreads about a scientist who has developed a “sleep plant” that helps people cut down on sleep. The media focuses on the story, and children dream of becoming like the scientist. When it is revealed that the study results are false, the children are shocked to discover that their dreams have been based on a lie.

Copyright Agent: Claire Yang shy07@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-3670-1168 www.wjbooks.co.kr

Copyright Agent: Claire Yang shy07@wjbooks.co.kr 82-2-3670-1168 www.wjbooks.co.kr

Why? The Origin of Humankind and Civilization Kim Seung-ryeol; Illustrator: Choi Bok-gi YeaRimDang Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 200p, ISBN 9788930200806

Everything great about the bestselling Why? series by Yearimang has been taken and incorporated into this new series of graphic novels on world history. The 12 volumes in this omnibus series are easy to understand, even when they’re not read in order.

The foreign rights for the Why? world history series has been sold to China and Indonesia.

Copyright Agent: Claire Ko rights@yearim.kr 82-2-3404-9248 www.yearim.kr

ELSWORD, Vol. 1 Kim Eun-jong; Illustrator: Harim Haksan Publishing Co., Ltd., 2008 188p, ISBN 9788925810294 (set)

ELSWORD, the graphic novel, is based on the characters and story of “Elsword,” the new dungeon action game by KOG Studios. The story, revolving around an immature troublemaker who grows into a genuine hero as he undergoes difficult trials, is rich with unique characters that will move you and make you laugh.

Copyright Agent: Park Jin-a Joshua@haksanpub.co.kr 82-2-828-8805 www.haksanpub.co.kr

The Swordsman, Vol. 1

Drink, Drink, Drink, Vol. 1

Chocolat, Vol. 5

Bibim-toon, Vol. 8

Lee Jae-hun; Illustrator: Hong Ki-woo Daewon C.I. Inc., 2010, 188p ISBN 9788925256696

Gari; Illustrator: Hong Dong-kee Daewon C.I. Inc., 2010, 267p ISBN 9788925267647

Shin Ji-sang∙Geo, Daewon C.I., Inc. 2010, 170p, ISBN 9788925269498

Hong Seoung-woo Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. 2010, 248p, ISBN 9788932020747

Baek Dongsu, the swordsman, is an actual historical figure known as “a man who attained scholarship through swordsmanship.” Told through the eyes of the swordsman, Dongsu, who rose above the advantages of being the son of a concubine, this dynamic tale is based on research on the history and culture of the Yeongjo and Jeongjo eras.

This book on traditional Korean drinks begins with a “drinking journal” by Professor Ju Baekryeong, known as the greatest drinker in Korea. Yu Taegyeong, a TV writer, comes across secheonju, a legendary drink, while filming a documentary and ends up traveling the country with an expert on drinks, pondering the meaning of Korean alcohol.

Copyright Agent: Oh Sunjoo sunjoo@dwci.co.kr 82-2-2071-2141 www.dwci.co.kr

Copyright Agent: Oh Sunjoo sunjoo@dwci.co.kr 82-2-2071-2141 www.dwci.co.kr

Chocolat is a funny and romantic story about boy bands and a fan. Hwang Geumji is a great fan of Jinryeol, a member of a boy band called DDL. Geumji, who will do anything for the DDL members, sneaks into the broadcasting station as a member of the fan club of Yo-I, a new rival boy band. She comes to learn, however, that the members of Yo-I are not what she had expected, and finds herself attracted to them!

Copyright Agent: Oh Sunjoo sunjoo@dwci.co.kr 82-2-2071-2141 www.dwci.co.kr

The title of the series, Bibim-toon, is a combination of the word “bibim,” meaning to mix together everything as in bibimbap, or the emotions felt in everyday life, and “toon,” from “cartoon.” The graphic novel is about a typical family, represented by the Jeongs. The humor employed in dealing with even serious subject matter adds to the charm and popularity of Bibim-toon.

Copyright Agent: Shin Young-hee osori@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 (Ext. 126) www.moonji.com

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 89

15p

INDEX Title Original Title Publishers Copyright Agent E-mail Phone Homepage

The Festival of Pain (Gotongui Chukje) Minumsa Publishing Group Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com Pyeonggang, The Princess of Seoul (Seoure Saneun Pyeongganggongju) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com The Horn (Ppul) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english

20p Heavy Snow Warning (Daeseoljuuibo) Minumsa Publishing Group Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com When I See a Wheel I Want to Roll It (Naneun Bakwireul Bomyeon Gulligo Sipeojinda) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Even Birds Leave the World (Saedeuldo Sesangeul Tteuneunguna) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 02-338-7224 www.moonji.com

27p Collected Poems of Chong Hyon-jong, Vol.1, 2 (Chonghyonjong Si Jeonjip) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com The Dream of Things (Samurui Kkum) Minumsa Publishing Group Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com I Am the Uncle-Star (Naneun Byeorajeossi) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Like the Ball that Bounces (Tteoreojyeodo Twineun Gongcheoreom) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com

90 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

So Little Time to Love (Saranghal Sigani Manchi Anta) SEGYESA Publishing Co., Ltd. Heo Joo-hyun lucidlyla@naver.com 82-10-2303-7026 www.segyesa.co.kr Blossom (Hankkotsongi) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Trees of the World (Sesangui Namudeul) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Like a Thirst, Like a Spring (Galjeungimyeo Saemmurin) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Unbearable (Gyeondil Su Eomne) Poet & Poetry Co. Yang Seung-soon kunna@kunna.co.kr 82-2-2057-7060 www.kunna.co.kr Whispers of Splendor (Gwanghwiui Soksagim) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com

32p The Reverse Side of Life (Saengui Imyeon) Munidang Jung Sara munidang88@naver.com 82-2-927-4990~2 www.munidang.com Mysteries of the Labyrinth (Migunge Ppajin Chucheuk) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Journals from Days Past (Oraedoen Ilgi) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english

32p, 34p The Private Lives of Plants (Singmuldeurui Sasaenghwal) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

Kim Mijeong mijeong@munhak.com 82-31-955-2662 www.munhak.com

40p Anchovy (Myeolchi) Munidang Jung Sara munidang88@naver.com 82-2-927-4990~2 www.munidang.com

46p The Mystery of Korean Mythology (Uri Sinhwaui Susukkekki) Hankyoreh Publishing Company Chung Hoe-yup yuptopia@hanibook.co.kr 82-2-6383-1619 www.hanibook.co.kr

47p The Living Mythology of Korea (Sara Inneun Uri Sinhwa) Hankyoreh Publishing Company Chung Hoe-yup yuptopia@hanibook.co.kr 82-2-6383-1619 www.hanibook.co.kr

48p The Origin of Korean Myths (Hanguk Sinhwaui Wollyu) Jisik-sanup Publishing Co., Ltd. Kang Sook-ja jsp@jisik.co.kr 82-2-734-1978 www.jisik.co.kr

49p The Study of Myths in Korea (Hanguk Sinhwaui Yeongu) Jipmoondang Im Yong-woo edit@jipmoon.co.kr 82-2-743-3096

50p Zombies (Jombideul) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english

52p The Valley of Parting (Ibyeolhaneun Goljjagi) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Spectators (Gugyeongkkundeul) Munhakdongne Publishing Corp.

Kim Mijeong mijeong@munhak.com 82-31-955-2662 www.munhak.com

53p Garden of Childhood (Yunyeonui Tteul) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com

65p None the Wiser (Museuniri Ireonanneunjineun Amudo) Imprima Korea Agency Kay Choi kay@imprima.co.kr 82-2-325-9155 (Ext. 304) Scandal Minumsa Publishing Group Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com

66p One Hundred Shadows (Baegui Geurimja) Minumsa Publishing Group Michelle Nam michellenam@minumsa.com 82-2-515-2000 (Ext. 206) www.minumsa.com A Jaeum&Moeum Hwang yeo-jung munhak@jamobook.com 82-2-324-2347 www.jamo21.net

67p Silk Mountain at the South Sea (Namhae Geumsan) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Kim Phil-gyun feel@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com

68p The Joy of Creating (Yukoehan Changjo) Jeon Sang-hee shjeon@munhak.com 82-31-955-2643 www.munhak.com Pump Up Your Serotonin!

(Serotoninhara!)

Rachel Ahn Rachel_ahn@joongang.co.kr 82-2-2000-6024 www.joongangbooks.co.kr

69p The Reading Education of the Great Families of the World (Segye Myeongmungaui Dokseo Gyoyuk) Han Hae-sook badahhs@hanmail.net 82-10-3259-7822 badabooks.tistory.com Humor Is Winner’s Secret (Yumeoga Iginda) Choi Se-hyun sherry@smpk.co.kr 82-2-3140-4650 smpk.co.kr

70p Doctor’s Bag Left Behind in Pyongyang (Pyeongyange Dugo On Susulgabang) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english

War Widows Break Silence About Korea’s Modern History (Jeonjaeng Mimangin, Hanguk Hyeondaesaui Chimmugeul Kkaeda) Cum Libro Ryu Jong-pill prpub@hanmail.net 82-2-335-1982~3

76p

71p

78p

Sensibility-Driven Travel to Budobat (Gamseongeuro Ganeun Budobat Gihaeng) CLEARMIND An Sun-young yayaho-@hanmail.net 82-2-2198-5151

Separate but Together, Three Musketeers (Ttaro Tto Samchongsa) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english

My Boy, My Miracle (Neoneun Gijeogiya) Bear Books Choi Hyun-kyoung bearbooks@naver.com 82-2-332-2672 www.bearbooks.co.kr

I Met Buddha in India (Naneun Indoeseo Butdareul Mannatda) Bookhouse Publishers Park Sangkyeung pueic@bookhouse.co.kr 82-2-3144-2703 www.bookhouse.co.kr

A Shameless Mistake (Ppeonppeonhan Silsu) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english

72p

79p

Learn from Novels Rather Than Management Theories (Gyeongyeonghak Bodaneun Soseoreseo Baewora) Wisdomhouse Publishing. Co., Ltd. Kwon Min-kyung ohappyday@wisdomhouse.co.kr 82-31-936-4199 www.wisdomhouse.co.kr You Are Still Right (Geuraedo Dangsini Matda) Hainaim Publishing Co., Ltd. Park Su-jin sujinpark@hainaim.com 82-2-326-1600 (Ext.302) www.hainaim.com

73p Stories of East Asian Mythology (Iyagi Dongyangsinhwa) Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc. Lee Youjeong bookmaker@gimmyoung.co.kr 82-2-3668-3203 www.gimmyoung.com/english Choseon Dynasty's Collectors (Joseonui Geurim Sujipgadeul) Geulhangari Kang Seong-min bookpot@hanmail.net 82-31-955-8897~8 blog.naver.com/bookpot

74p Folk Customs of the Chosun Dynasty, Vols. 1~3 (Joseon Pungsoksa) Purnyoksa Publishing Company Shin Sang-mee rolieca@hotmail.com 82-2-720-8920 Korean History of 100 Years Ago (100Nyeon Jeonui Hanguksa) Humanist Publishing Group Park Jung-sun pjs2001@humanistbooks.com 82-70-7842-9402 www.humanistbooks.com

My Bluebori Prince (Naeui Beullubori Wangja) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Lee Na-young lny@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com Together as One (Hapche) Sakyejul Publishing Ltd. Kang Hyunjoo kanghjoo@sakyejul.co.kr 82-31-955-8600 www.sakyejul.co.kr

80p Encyclopedia of Ghosts (Gwisin Baekgwasajeon) Prunsoop Junior KIm Sol-mi peach@prunsoop.co.kr 82-31-955-1410 (Ext. 302) www.prunsoop.co.kr White Umbrella (Hayan Usan) Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd. Lee Na-young lny@moonji.com 82-2-338-7224 www.moonji.com

81p Dear Mrs. Astrid Lindgren (Naui Rindeugeuren Seonsaengnim) Changbi Publishers, Inc. Lee Soonhwa copyright@changbi.com 82-31-955-3369 www.changbi.com/english

82p Korean Buddhist Sculpture: Art and Truth, etc.

(Wonnyunggwa Johwa) Youlhwadang Publishers Yi Soojung ysj0710@youlhwadang.co.kr 82-31-955-7006 www.youlhwadang.co.kr

list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010 91

Afterword

Pick Up and Just Read “Can you recommend a work of Korean literature?” I am quite used to this question. Nothing against useful guide books introducing the country in a prosaic way, but there is a proven demand for fiction that gives an idea of life on the peninsula. When I became interested in Korea almost 20 years ago I also began to read Korean novels. With the help of existing translations, I eventually (very slowly, of course) turned to reading the originals. And even now, whenever I read something in Korean that strikes me as good literature, I wish it would be translated. As it happens, I was born too early. German translations of Korean fiction came forth in rapidly increasing numbers during the last two decades, approaching the 200 mark (not to mention the considerable number of short stories or poems scattered here and there).

Suppose if you want to be fair to every piece, you will have to devote maybe two years to doing little else but reading.

So how about a university major of Korean literature merely on the basis of translations? (I am not seriously suggesting this, but it’s at least worth playful speculation.) These days, while teaching a course at university about Korean literature in translation, I still negotiate with my students the number of books I can justly demand them to read.

A ny talk about Korean literature in translation inevitably ends up at the question of impact and quality.

Right, little comes into the radar of the so-called public.

But assuming that a good translation guarantees success is either naïve or cynical. Some critics even complain of a perceived oversupply of translations. In contrast, I am happy with the increase in numbers and consider quantity a virtue in itself. Support should go to quality, of course, but let’s keep in mind that some eventual success will come like the tip of the iceberg. And as a matter of principle, I am reluctant to condemn even a poor translator. To translate a book from Korean to German requires great sacrifice. You will never earn a reasonable amount of money or rounds of applause beyond your circle of friends. Last but not least, you will need to endure a great deal of frustration when it comes to the ordeal of having to look for a publisher.

I am not denying the existence of poor translations. I have just grown tired of the notorious translation bashing that is based on a very small amount of vague impressions instead of close reading. You might say: “In order to make a reliable approximation as to the readability of these 200 books one does not have to read them from beginning to end. Read one or five pages and you will know.” Good point. But even that job, I bet, is not done by the majority of the critics. Actually, as a critic to be trusted, one should

92 list_ Books from Korea Vol.10 Winter 2010

read even the worst translation from beginning to end.

I do this. How do I hold on? Here is my secret: fault analysis and correction. Often I write notes at the top, the bottom, and in the margins of every page. And in order to counterbalance negative feelings, I highlight cases of a really fortunate choice of words (you know, eclipsing a translation’s achievements on account of its flaws would be unfair).

There is a famous story from the end of the 18th centur y by t he Germa n aut hor Jea n Pau l about a schoolmaster who writes all the books on his shelf by himself because he has no money to buy them. No, he does not copy these famous books (by philosophers and scientists); he takes just the titles and writes down what comes to his mind until he has his “own” book. What I do—reading books while constantly changing phrases that I do not like into ones I approve of—does not go as far as that quaint schoolmaster’s second authoring of books already written, but it gives me pleasure as well. These days I am busy with a project you could call an extension of those reading habits of mine: I examine translations and try to classify all kinds of observations related to style and use of language.

When I was a freshman majoring in German literature, it soon struck me as strange that even professors would talk extensively about a text without regularly citing it.

Citations and excerpts were only used to prove a point or to illustrate a theory, but seldom a quotation served to show that the author had really pondered his words. Was it too trivial to talk about a text for its own merit? I became enthusiastic when I finally met a professor who obviously put trust in the texts he dealt with and who was willing to study an author’s wording with patience. What I like about translation as a process is something related to this: You reflect the care with which an author administered his or her choice of words by carefully choosing your own expressions.

Well, that is why maybe I should be satisfied if my students read just one book carefully instead of flipping t hroug h dozens. W hich book do I recommend? I recommend sensible reading.

By Andreas Schirmer * Andreas Schirmer holds a PhD in German Literature.

He is currently working on a translation of short stories

by Park Min-gyu and a novel by Ku Hyo-seo.

KLTI Grants for Prospective Publishers KLTI Overseas Marketing Grants

KLTI Overseas Publication Grants

Areas of Funding Publication marketing events and advertisements

Applicant Qualifications Any publisher who has signed a contract for the publishing rights of a Korean book.

The book should be published by December 2010.

Applicant Qualifications Publishers who have published Korean books in translation within a year and are planning to hold promotional events.

The event should occur within 6 months following the final application deadline.

Grant Amount - Roundtrip airfare and accommodation expenses for the author, expenses for events and promotion, etc.

- The amount will be determined by KLTI after due consideration of the marketing plan and scale. * The grant will be provided directly to the author or to the overseas publisher in two payments, before and after an event.

How to Apply Register as a member on the website (www.koreanbooks.or.kr) and complete the online application form.

Application Documents All documents should be scanned and uploaded on the application page of the website.

1. Introduction of the publisher, along with its history and past publications, including any previous books related to Korea 2. Breakdown of total event costs 3. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator 4. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the copyright holder 5. The translator’s resume Other Information to Include 1. Detailed event plan including a breakdown of anticipated expenses 2. Publication cost 3. Total cost of event (marketing or promotion) 4. Requested grant amount Application Schedule Submission period: 2011. 1. 1 ~ 2011. 9. 30 Grant notification: monthly from February to October Contact Name: Oh Eunji Email: grants@klti.or.kr

Grant Amount - Part of the total publication expenses.

- The amount varies depending on the publication cost and genre of the book.

- The grant will be awarded after publication.

How to Apply Register as a member on the website (www.koreanbooks.or.kr) and complete the online application form.

Application Documents All documents should be scanned and submitted on the application page of the website.

1. Introduction of the publisher, along with its history and past publications, including any previous books related to Korea 2. Publication plan including the dates and budget for translation and publication in detail 3. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the translator 4. A copy of the contract between the publisher and the copyright holder 5. The translator's resume Application Schedule Submission period: 2011. 1. 1 ~ 2011. 9. 30 Grant notification: April, July, and October Contact Name: Oh Eunji Email: grants@klti.or.kr

Top Five Questions for 1. What is list_Books from Korea, and where can I find it? list is a quarterly magazine packed with information about Korean books.

Register online at www.list.or.kr to receive a free subscription.

2. Can I get it in English?

The printed edition of list is available in English and Chinese.

The webzine (www.list.or.kr) is available in English, Chinese, and Korean.

3. What if I want information about Korean books more often?

We offer a bi-weekly online newsletter.

Simply email list_korea@klti.or.kr to begin receiving your free copy.

4. Who publishes list_Books from Korea? list is published by the Korea Literature Translation Institute, which is affiliated with the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

LTI Korea’s mission is to contribute to global culture by expanding Korean literature and culture abroad. Visit www.klti.or.kr to learn about our many translation, publication, cultural exchange, and education programs.

5. I understand there are grants available for overseas publications, right?

LTI Korea offers many useful programs for overseas publishers, including Overseas Marketing Grants and Overseas Publication Grants.

Visit www.koreanbooks.or.kr for detailed information.

Contact: list_korea@klti.or.kr

Vol.10 Winter 2010

Vol.10 Winter 2010

Special Section

Poetry of Korea Interviews Poet Chong Hyon-jong Novelist Lee Seung-U The Place

Where Writers Call Home, Tongyeong City

ISSN 2005-2790