From a free book I got when I read at a laundromat with Sung J. Woo

"In 1404 King Taejong fell from his horse during a hunting expedition. Embarrassed, looking to his left and right, he commanded, 'Do not let the historian find out about this.' To his disappointment, the historian accompanying the hunting party included these words in the annals, in addition to a description of the king's fall."

Novel underdogs

At The Atlantic, Hua writes about North Korea's soccer team:

Of course, after proclaiming this ["North Korea will win the World Cup"], he [the NK football association VP] added that it would be "because of the great support of our Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il that our national team will make this great achievement." Which is exactly the kind of statement—there are plenty more here—that makes the North Korean team the most novel underdogs of them all. Not only do they find themselves in the figuratively-speaking "Group of Death" (with one useless player, no less), they are near-delusional in their outlook.

(Via Arlo)


Speaking of matters Huavian, I don't know if I mentioned this before—the attractively persistent editors of PEN America squeezed a spirited (Hua)/sleep-deprived (yrs truly) e-mail exchange out of Hua and moi about all sorts of topics...I think we talk about e-mail...and Sebald...and...other stuff...Our heated exchange is in the current issue (#12), under the title "Linked Rooms." But the things we said are too controversial to be offered online!

Wait, I've looked at our actual e-mail exchange, and this will give you a rough idea of my lightheadedness. (I'm not sure if this passage made it into the published version.) Speaking of the first Mac I used, which was indeed the very first model (128K), I reminisce:

The only game was a program for slots and keno—a good way to unwind in the midst of an English paper, and how refreshing the primitive sound of "coins" when one hit the jackpot!

Lessons in journalism, Part XXIII: Acid Effete Matters

I like the lack of reportorial affect—aside from "secretive," this piece ("N Korea hails Development of new 'super drink'") essentially reprints the press release. And it's great!

KCNA says: "It, with effects of both preventive and curative treatment, helps improve mental and retentive faculties by multiplying brain cells.

"It also protects skin from wrinkles and black spots and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral haemorrhage, myocardium and brain infarction by removing acid effete matters in time.

"It, much higher than quality cosmetics in anti-oxidation capacity, is efficacious for different skin diseases, including allergic dermatitis. It also makes skin fair.

"The drink has no side-effect."

—BBC

Two ladies

I. The Korea—India connection:

Korea's first lady Kim Yoon-ok is a descendant of one of India's royal families dating back two thousand years, according to the presidential office Monday.

The presidential couple arrived Sunday in New Delhi for a four-day state visit. It is the first visit to India by a Korean president since 2004.

The office said Kim is a descendant of Heo Hwang-ok, a princess who travelled from an ancient kingdom in Ayodhya, India, to Korea.

Heo arrived on a boat and married King Suro of Korea's Gaya Kingdom in A.D. 48, according to Samguk Yusa, an 11th-century collection of legends and stories.

The chronicle says Princess Heo had a dream about a handsome king from a far away land.

After the dream, Heo asked her royal parents for permission to set out on an adventure to find the man of her fate.

The ancient book indicates that she sailed to the Korean Peninsula, carrying a stone, with which she claimed to have calmed the waters. —Korea Times

(From S.K.)

II. More importantly, the Lady Gaga–Korea connection:

She also revealed that one of her best friends while growing up in New York was a Korean adoptee.

"We used to go out for Korean food together. She's never been here before so I sent her photos and told her about what I've seen here. It's personally very exciting for me,'' she said. —Ibid.

Disambiguations for July 23, 2009

I. Invisible Library — the soundtrack!

II. Levi on Hard Case Crime's publication of a new Donald Westlake book. (An except is here.)

III. In today's NYT op-ed: Chisun Lee's "Their Own Private Guantánamo."

IV. Hmmmmm...

On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang issued a statement criticizing remarks Mrs. Clinton had made earlier this week to ABC News, in which she said the best response to Pyongyang’s behavior would be to ignore it, as one would a child clamoring for attention.“

We cannot but regard Mrs. Clinton as a funny lady as she likes to utter such rhetoric, unaware of the elementary etiquette in the international community,” the North Korean statement said. “Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping.” —NYT

Famous and nameless

Sun Mu, who was trained to create posters and murals for the Communist government, is the first defector from the North to have won fame as a painter in the South by applying that same propagandistic style to biting parodies of the North Korean regime.

His renown, however, is shaded by political concerns. In addition to adopting a pseudonym, he refuses to allow his face to be photographed, afraid that the family he left behind might face reprisals for his art. South Korean news outlets often refer to him as the “faceless” or “nameless” artist from North Korea.

—Choe Sang-hun, NYT

Azaleas

[Kim Jong Il], who is known to be a film buff and connoisseur of Hollywood movies, reportedly finances a three-story building in Pyongyang with a full-time staff of 250 that houses his collection of 20,000 films from all over the world. Regular citizens must settle for homegrown propaganda movies like “Five Guerilla Brothers,” “An Azalea Behind Enemy Lines” and “Wormwood Rice Cake, National Food.” —Malte Herwig, "North Korea's Very Cautious Cinematic Thaw," NYT, 11/21/08

What Would Indexed Do?

From a page on Korean garage-rock band San Ul Rim:

Yongbyon

The collapse of the concrete structure, the most conspicuous part of the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, bore witness to the incremental progress that has been made in American-led multilateral efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs. —Choe Sang-hun, "North Korea Destroys Tower at Nuclear Plant," NYT

* * *

When you leave,
weary of me,
without a word I shall gently let you go.

From Mt. Yak
in Yongbyon
I shall gather armfuls of azaleas
and scatter them on your way.

Step by step
on the flowers placed before you
tread lightly, softly as you go.

When you leave
weary of me,
though I die, I'll not let one tear fall.

—Kim Sowol (1902–1935), "Azaleas"

* * *

Parkus Grammaticus Sr. says: "Azeleas" is THE most loved poem for Koreans. No Koreans can look at azeleas without thinking of Kim Sowol, that young, beautiful and tragic poet. Yongbyon's Yaksan has been a mythical place of love and stories of unfulfilled love. We were shocked and dismayed discovering suddenly that Yongbyon became the site of nuclear plants and potential massive destruction of civilization. Now the plant dismantled, we hope azeleas can bloom once again—so that some day we can recite Kim Sowol and weep softly (without tears) with him, surrounded by Yongbyon's azeleas. Some day."

Shelf life

“Entering one’s study and touching the books can brighten one’s mood even if one is unable to read regularly.” —King Chongjo (r. 1776–1800)

Great quote (and image) to start the day—thanks to Karen Rosenberg's NYT review of the Korean scholarly screens exhibit at the Met.

(Read more on Chongjo by Parkus Grammaticus.)

Haiku ambulance

On the sideline of his dental practice in Seoul, Rhee has published thousands of haiku, minimalist 17-syllable poems, in Japan.

"No sooner do Koreans eat sushi or buy Japanese chocolate for their kids than they bad-mouth the Japanese," Rhee said. "Both Koreans and Japanese are too narrow-minded when it comes to dealing with their neighbors. How are we going to catch up and compete with Japan without studying Japan?"

Rhee is a regular at the Seoul Haiku Club, where since 1993 about 20 Koreans and Japanese living in Seoul have met twice a month, to read and write haiku.

—Choe Sang-Hun, "Japanese Poetry Endures in South Korea," IHT

Puppet theater of war

A wrenching story by Choe Sang-Hun in the Int'l Herald-Tribune about a grave for North Korean commandos...in South Korea. Grist for a great novel, I think.

It has some lighter moments:

Still, in recent years, as a thaw has set in between North and South, the dead here have received better treatment. South Korean soldiers greet new arrivals with a modest ceremony and keep the weeds trimmed back. The name has been changed from Cemetery for North Korean Puppet and Chinese Communist Soldiers to the more neutral Cemetery for North Korean and Chinese Soldiers, though many still refer to it as the "enemy cemetery."

Two peninsulas

This is from Strange Maps, via Weekend Stubble—the states of the U.S. renamed after countries with equivalent GNPs. I like that Florida = Korea, two peninsulas.

In a nice coincidence: Piers Anthony's Xanth books have a map showing that fictional realm to have the shape of Florida...and I think there is at least one book in which Korea is substituted...Ah!! Wikipedia says:

In some instances, Xanth has been compared to other peninsulas. It has been described as similar to the Korean Peninsula with the Gap Chasm being used as a metaphor for the Korean Demilitarized Zone, and the location of Castle Roogna being similar to the location of Seoul, South Korea.

A career, a Korea—

Who is Scrabbel? This winsome stop-motion video for their song "Emily, I"



led to this one, for "1909"—about the assassination of Japanese foreign minister Ito Hirobumi by Ahn Jung-geun.



Korean history as fodder for pop?! (The footage comes from the film 2009: Lost Memories.)

(My favorite song of theirs so far might be this one, "Chicago New York.")

A colossal gaffe

War in Korea was provoked by “a colossal gaffe” — the failure of Secretary of State Dean Acheson in a routine speech to include non-Communist South Korea in America’s Asian “defense perimeter.” That oversight caused a reluctant Stalin to unleash North Korea’s army for what Kim promised would be a three-week blitzkrieg to reunite all Korea. He very nearly succeeded.—NYT

Flood brothers

Today, the “Peace Dam” — begun in 1987, abandoned halfway through as a misguided cold war scheme, then revived and completed in 2005 — stands here, a 410-foot-high, 1,970-foot-wide rock and concrete hulk. There is no reservoir; the dam’s only function is to contain a possible deluge, by accident or design, from the Imnam Dam in the North, 22 miles up the northern tributary of the Han River. —NYT