| [ EnglishOnly ] in KIDS 글 쓴 이(By): silly (하 성호) 날 짜 (Date): 1997년03월10일(월) 10시55분18초 KST 제 목(Title): Words, reality, and imagination This is a product of my imagination. This is also not interesting at all, rather somewhat boring and gloomy. So please hit "q" now if you are not for this kind of stuff. This was written some time ago. qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq "Satire or Suicide" is a brilliant essay at the end of a collection of the poems of Kim, Ji-ha(a well known poet in Korea). The collection was published during 1970s. My bad memory tells me that the essay was written by Kim himself. But I am not quite sure. If I make a mistaken statement at any point of the writing, please correct me. The baisc point of the essay was that Korean poets/intellectuals in '70s had only two options in writing: satire or suicide. Here again, I may be misinterpretating the essay. Here Kim was referring to the political situation in Korea during '70s. Kim chose "satire" for his style. His all poems in '70s were, in my humble opinion, nothing but a satire of the political situation in Korea. His satirizing cost him a good deal in several ways. Kim's writing of satire is quite interesting to me. But what to do if you would not, or could not write "satire"? Then do they have to go for "suicide"? How can a poet committ suicide in writing? I don't know. And I suspect there isn't much a possibility of writing a poem of suicide. But I am somewhat afraid that at least some of Korean poets/intelletuals wrote poems of suicide with their "phisical" existence. From now on, it is all my imagination. But let me continue this image. I imagine that they substituted a phisical suicide for a poetical suicide. They killed themselves slowly and unconsciously. How did they write this "phisical" poem of suicide? I think they committed suicide by consuming massive amount of nicotine and alchole. I know at least 2 Korean poet/literary critics who literally died of alchole. I also read about one poet whose alias was "Butt." Now I have only three people who died early becuase of alchol or nicotine. And I have no substantial evidence that their early death was a way of suicide. I am just stretching my imagination. And I hope my imagination is not true. In fact, I think it is almost impossible to prove that my imgination has any truth, even if it does. But what my gut tells me is that some of Korean poets/intellectuals during 1970s committed suicide by consuming excessive amount of alchole and nicotine, becasue they faced the dilemma between "satire" or "suicide" as a poet/intelletucal. And when "satire" was not allowed, they chose "suicide." It was a slow and probably unconscious suicide. The above posting is out of my weird imagination. So never belive it! I just distorted facts to say something: for some people, words are so important that they live in the world of words. They are so sincere to their words to the point to commit suicide to keep their words. I think these days many people discount the "truth" of words. The words of "friendship" or "love" sound so hollow, and look to have lost their real meaning. "Hospitality" is intepretated as "waiting to take advatage of." "Teaching" is interpreted "to inject a dogma." The whole human relationship seems to be based upon this falsity/hollowness of words. In my biased opion, some people simply do not belive what they hear. These days I am reading some 18c and 19c European stuff. The writers of those stuff seem to have been so sincere in their expression. They really "meant" what they "said." And they "believed" what they "read or heard." I know we can not go back across time. I also know there has always been hypocracy at any moment of time. In fact, I read very special people of 18c and 19c. They were unique even in their times. But I was quite impressed by their devotion to "words" and, at the same time, happen to think of the history of Korean literature, and came upon the weird imagination I wrote above. Even though words sound so hollow these days, I know at least a couple of people who are so serious about what they write or say. I am not one of them. And I also feel there is some danger in living in the "world of words." But after reading old writers, I could better underastand why some of the people I know are so serious about words. I give them my sympathy and some amount of respect. Song-ho |