Lee Hyemi, tr. by Soje, from Unexpected Vanilla; “Inside the tower”

[Text ID: “Why am I / inside this absence”]

The Fruit of My Woman, Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)

Nothing happened this past summer. Only that, in the hot sun from time to time, a brief thought would appear and disappear around me. That thought was closer to me than any of the flowers in the shop. Even as I tried to capture the thought on paper, the heat would exhaust me and I’d give up. There were plenty of things I gave up on, using the heat as an excuse. Which means I spent this past summer repeatedly deciding to do things and then giving up on them. As if my life were an exhibition of how good I am at giving up. It was that kind of summer.

—Kyung-Sook Shin, Violets tr. Anton Hur

JOMP challenge | feb 5 - pink books 🌸🎀🌷💗

Han Yong-Un, from “The Silence of Love: Twentieth-century Korean Poetry; “At the shrine of Non'gae’ ”, tr. Sammy E. Solberg.

“And she frequently forgot, That her body (all our bodies) is a house of sand.”

— Han Kang, The White Book, 2016

where, in what form, shall we meet again?

in memory of a dear friend.

--

Original poem <In The Night> by Kim Gwang-seop under the cut. Translated from Korean to English by me.

저렇게 많은 별 중에서 별 하나가 나를 내려다본다 이렇게 많은 사람 중에서 그 별 하나를 쳐다본다 밤이 깊을수록 별은 밝음 속에 사라지고 나는 어둠 속에 사라진다 이렇게 정다운 너 하나 나 하나는 어디서 무엇이 되어 다시 만나랴

<저녁에> 김광섭.

I can’t be the only one who is loving RM’s photo dumps lately, right Peachy? It feels like he’s going to drop his album any day now.

*

Ask 2: Peachy, sorry one more thing! What do you think the theme of RM’s new album will be? Do you think he draws any real music inspiration from the art and stuff he posts about? Will he draw from it in his new ep?

***

Oh, I’m absolutely living for it. Joon is such a sweetheart and sometimes it kills me that he’s my bias because I struggle, genuinely struggle, to talk about him.

Which brings me to your second ask. Recently, a kind person from Tumblr (KPFT), sent me this link. I hope that snippet gives you a glimpse into what Korean art means for him and how it impacts others around him.

If you hear the way my Korean professor talks about Joon, you’d think he parted the Red Sea and turned water into wine or something. But a lot of Korean people, regular people and those in the arts, have a huge respect for Namjoon because he’s genuinely all about it. He loves Korea, loves Korean art, and wants to amplify the voices of Korean women and men. And the best part of it, at least for me, is that I’ve watched him for years to see how almost all his knowledge is self-taught. It’s a true passion for him and he’s changed the lives of so many people (Korean publishers, artists and authors) in the process.

He’s flawed, obviously, like we all are, but everything I’ve observed in him for the last 12 years reinforces for me that he’s a remarkably decent man.

I expect to see more Korean art influences in RM4. His photo dumps recently make me wonder if we’ll get more retro genres or something more avant garde. Joon seems to have a preference for alt-hiphop with heavy bass lines like we hear in Joke and Sexy Nukim, but he’s also a softie for stripped back acoustic pieces. I don’t know what we’ll get but I do know it will be inspired by his experiences and the music will be good. As always.

Review: Her Tale of Shim Chong

Summary: Her Tale of Shim Chong (referred to as Her Tale from here on) is a Korean manhwa written by Seri and illustrated by Biwan. Set in feudal Korea, Her Tale is a historical, girls' love retelling of classic Korean novel The Tale of Shim Chong. It tells the story of Shim Chong, a beggar who is desperately trying to make ends meet to feed her and her blind father, and the soon-to-be second Madame Jang, who has been sold into marrying the Chancellor to give her family a better position. After a chance encounter, they build a friendship -- and eventually more -- that transcends class boundaries. But not everyone is happy with the Chancellor's new wife, and Chong's presence is far from welcome in the royal palace. When the Chancellor falls into a mysterious coma after the wedding night, his children make plans to oust Madam Jang, and it may be up to Shim Chong to save not only their relationship, but their lives.

Minor spoilers under the cut:

The Good: This writing in this manhwa is, overall, excellent. Chong and Madame Jang are complex characters with a variety of competing wants, needs, personalities, and flaws that elevate the conflicts in the story and bring them to life in an extraordinary way. As a result, their relationship is very realistic, developing organically thanks to their dazzling chemistry. But, not all is easy in this story; as our protagonists grow closer, they are met with fierce opposition, sometimes from each other, that adds much needed drama to the story. In particular, Jang's daughter-in-law and Monk Sumin are incredibly effective antagonists, each challenging Chong and Jang in unique ways. The long term conflict -- the raging waters of the Indangsoo Sea -- is also an ever-present threat, growing and growing until the characters in the story have no choice but to take drastic action. All of this is brought to life by Biwan's incredible art, which injects a vibrancy to the story that elevates it from a great story to an unforgettable one.

The Bad: Despite how much I clearly love this story, Her Tale does have some shortcomings, the most glaring of which lies in the pacing. This story has, putting it lightly, a lot of ground to cover and, though it is a solid 81 chapters long, there is not enough time to cover it. This results in some major plot points being resolved incredibly fast, particularly at the end of the story, and other plot points being seemingly dropped with no explanation. A good example of this is in the first half of the story, when it is revealed that Madam Jang may be poisoning the Chancellor and causing his coma. Initially, this seems like it is going to be a big deal in the story, but at a certain point, it is dropped and never brought up again. This leaves the audience no insight into why Madam Jang would potentially do such a thing, despite the crucial fact that the Chancellor's coma is actively making her life harder. Additionally, while some of the antagonists are well-written to the point of being lifelike, others are antagonistic to the point of being over the top, making them feel cartoon-ish and overall clashing with the tone of the rest of the story.

The Overview: All in all, Her Tale is an excellently written and plotted story that drew me in and raised the bar for what it means to tell a visual yuri/girls love story. Shim Chong and Madam Jang will stick with me for a long time and I really look forward to rereading this series sometime in 2024. It says something that my biggest criticism of the series is a complaint about the pacing, which ultimately boils down to wanting more of the story. I truly can not recommend Her Tales enough and will certainly be looking for more girls love stories by Seri in the near future.

Overall rating: A-

kim jiyoung, born 1982 by cho nam-joo should be required reading, i think.

Some of my favourite Pachinko covers.

Lee Soho, tr. by Soje, from Catcalling; “Page 29 of my sorrowful legend”

[Text ID: “From the start it was just the two of us / Me and the gap in between”]

  — Hope is Lonely, Kim Seung Hee (tr. Brother Anthony)

[text ID: hope and I, / hope is a life sentence, / hope is lonely.]

Some more Korean reads 🇰🇷📚

난 요즘 많이 좋아 😌

Reading books recommended by Rm from BTS

Kim Su-Yong, from “The Silence of Love: Twentieth-century Korean Poetry; ‘Helicopter’ ” tr. Peter H. Lee.