Why Korean literature is washed up.jpg
원본 (Korean)
Translation + Context
FT = ForbiddenTome — tap to see Korean slang explained
I kept the ticket reservation site's server clock open and waited until 21:00:00 before entering the 'Lonely Cho Seong-jin' chatroom. The moment I entered, someone uploaded a Cho Seong-jin photo with the caption "Please send me the Carnegie Hall photo in high quality." I opened the '초팽' folder on my MacBook.
Paradox Interactive [General] Looking for someone to give me 20k... (have a sad story...) 00 (211.46) Views 3078 Comments 66
Stars of the steppe flow through my soul. More than a thousand years ago, in the distant western steppes, my brothers in spirit lived. They used the earth as their floor and the sky as their roof, leaving no records and wandering until death. Only fragments of history left by the ancient Greek Herodotus, whom we can barely fathom, tell us that my brothers rode horses and fiercely roamed the steppes. Truth is, I've never told anyone, but after falling asleep, I still gallop across the eternal steppes alongside my brothers. When I close my eyes, I soon see galloping horse manes and leather reins decorated with bronze in my vision. Grasping the reins to avoid falling from the horse, it advances as swiftly as if treading on wind. My brothers and I could truly be free on the steppes. The steppes were primordial lands that no one could invade. Even the great kings who led the mightiest warriors—the mightiest in this world—and tried to gallop to the end of the world, even the masters of kings who embraced the world, had to turn back after only touching the edge of my brothers' land. After galloping so crazily like that, when I wake at dawn, my heart still pounds mimicking the hoofbeats from two thousand years ago, and my soul cries out begging to return to that time filled with stars and wind. But when that brief excitement ends, I'm wrapped in indescribable fear and sorrow and cry like a child. My brothers from two thousand years ago who loved the stars and were brothers of the wind and a golden people have now weathered away in time. I cried like a child because their disappearance was so sad, because I didn't want them to disappear. That sorrow could be soothed by eating a Psai burger sold at Moms' Touch. Everyone, my brothers still gallop through eternity in an endless cycle. To save them, you need to buy a lot of Psai burgers. Please help. People 94 Comments 66
2020s Korean literary magazine award-winning works
Literature from the Japanese colonial era
The road is caught on the long mountainside. After passing through the middle of the night, in a silence like death, the breath of a beast-like moon can be heard as if in one's grasp, and the soybean plants and corn leaves are wetly bathed greener in the moonlight. The mountainside is entirely buckwheat fields, and the flowers just beginning to bloom are like salt sprinkled in the moonlight that takes one's breath away. — From "When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom"
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These guys are in their own league — they can't even compete with 20th century literature, let alone internet jokes
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15 comments
And the young writers' award that gets mentioned a lot has always been about literary merit, but more importantly it's focused on experimental works. Then came the 'feminist era' and male Korean writers basically got wiped out from the literary establishment, either jumping into web novels or quitting writing altogether. I heard this a lot from friends in creative writing programs. After feminism faded as a trend, things are more balanced now, but honestly almost all the new writers and Korean authors getting attention are women — Kim Ae-ran, Jung Se-rang, Jung You-jeong, Jang Ryu-jin, Sung Hae-na, Cheon Seon-ran, Kim Cho-yeop, Son Won-pyeong. Seeing male creative writing students genuinely devastated was sad. So I think 'literature' has been feminized for a long time now.
Nowadays literary awards won't even give one slot to a man. It's too much. Seriously, if you're a male literature student now, your best bet for making money off writing is coming down to the establishment and writing TS fiction.
The order flipped after the 2000s when men stopped reading books. Since 70-80% of readers are female, literature got reorganized for the main consumer base. Male writers weren't unfairly oppressed — they just couldn't adapt to what readers and the market wanted.
That's bull. Real talk: 1. If you're gonna say men don't read, bring actual numbers on average reading amounts by gender and year. 2. The female-heavy trend in the literary world started in Western cultural circles over a decade ago. The cultural industry was already progressive-leaning and aligned with PC culture at its peak. Korea just caught up late. 3. It's not just capitalist logic that female readers read female authors more. Inside the literary establishment, female authors formed a cartel using gender as leverage and played politics. Look at the gender ratios of major literary award winners like Changbi or the young writers' award. Naturally the literary world got female-heavy, but the ratios aren't completely broken like that.
So aren't men just moving to commercial stuff like web novels while women stay in the money-losing literary world?
Guys don't realize it but women read web novels too, indie stuff, and romance fiction.
Web novels being read a lot by women isn't new, right? People like Gwiyeoni were already famous back then.
First, men were 30% of Korean literature purchases at Kyobo last year. Men really do read less pure literature.
One of the most important things in literature is contemporary relevance. The literature of the Japanese colonial era and modern literature can never be aiming for the same things. Seeing people think rhetoric and archaic style are all literature is is proof of how far they've walked from reading and publishing altogether. That high school language textbook passage is probably their last text lmaooo
What exactly are literary magazine awards even trying to do with their works?
The fact that you go straight to personal attacks shows you're not so great either. Literature appreciation isn't just about contemporary relevance — it also matters how much it connects to readers' experiences. If you're just constantly writing about themes disconnected from readers, of course they'd find it boring, right?
You gotta learn how to write so people can understand you first. And 'contemporary relevance' means touching on the experiences and emotions of people living in this era, but what are you even talking about...
The most important thing in literature is fun, not timeliness. Look at Shakespeare — high-octane dopamine hit with a plot just as much of a dumpster fire as anything today. But people with art sickness and no sense of self act all high and mighty with their hipster act, using literature as a stand-in for their non-existent selves. Literature is just one type of content among many. And about that contemporary relevance thing — can you really say that trash talking tree thing in the post represents this era? I don't think so lmao
The colonial era piece still reads well, but what is modern literature even trying to do to end up like that? Literarily speaking, is that top piece better written than the DC gallery post below it?
That bottom post is just super immature stuff packed with expressions that have been used a lot in modern literature. Back in the day, the anonymous internet poet Zepheto was legit king.
This is kind of random, but since you brought up modern artists... I actually just went to an art exhibition today and came home in a bad mood. Literature seems less bad, but visual art is really turning into their own closed-off league. Unless you're a recognized artist in contemporary art, it's all gatekeeping, and exhibitions are being made where viewers have to do research just to understand it, and that's just rough.
The 'immature' sentence you mentioned is literary technique, and if you're just packaging nothing, that's one thing. But that first image is something you actually need to see and learn from.
But wait, wasn't The Count of Monte Cristo super fun back then too? That was the whole point, wasn't it?
For instance, if you compare Da Vinci to modern art, of course Da Vinci's work has overwhelming historical value and technical mastery. Past artists aimed to show how genius, how great, how awe-inspiring they were. Modern artists focus on how close I am to readers, what we share in common, how sharply I reflect reality. And Korean literature hasn't collapsed — the pure literature market that dipped in the 2010s is basically back at its peak now. That author Jang Ryu-jin you mentioned with <The Joy and Sorrow of Work> sold over 100,000 copies lmao
So if those expressions are verified and established from being used so much in modern literature, is a literary magazine piece that doesn't even use those things more valuable literarily? Modern literature is like modern art I guess.
The most important thing in literature is contemporary relevance. (You backlash guys who don't get gender agendas) Literature from the colonial era and modern literature can never aim for the same things. (The oppression of patriarchy, the pain we women had to endure...!!) Seeing people think rhetoric and archaic style are all there is to literature shows how far they've walked from reading and publishing lmao Your last text was probably something you read in high school language class (If you don't know, study. Ex. 82-Year-Old Kim Ji-young) Somewhat loose translation
Korean literary circles — turned into complete idiots building an iron fortress with their own narrow-mindedness, sucking each other's dicks. I used to buy those literary award collections and once I was reading on the bus and tore up half of it.
It's just like contemporary art where you draw a few lines on canvas, splatter some paint, and say '1 billion, 2 billion,' they're going down the exact same path.
Literary evaluation is usually done by older people, but seeing 2020s Korean literary magazine award winners, it's hopeless. Who judged this. And honestly that Cyber Ger guy's writing would probably become a bestseller if he got serious about it.
That dumbass sex criminal Go Eun being lauded as a literary giant with 'Ah our teacher deserves even more than a Nobel Prize in Literature' was the writing on the wall from the start.
The clique literary world is mad similar to the indie film scene where they call each other 'director' and praise you if you just shoot one 8mm or 16mm 5-minute piece even if it never got shown anywhere, but then a director who made a multi-billion won blockbuster gets called 'comedian-turned-director' (no 'sir') and gets tagged with their origin like some permanent scarlet letter — they're their own league.
So that's why literary first editions can't even sell 1,500 copies now.
This post's focus is a bit off, but most people think literature is just pedantic writing crammed with a bunch of rhetoric.
wait this is actually making me want to read more korean authors now, the opposite of what they intended 💀
That Cyber Ger guy has the skills to throw jokes and start keyboard fights in galleries. He says he makes money doing ghostwriting for papers. Really sad situation.
It might be different now, but usually when you do workshops in creative writing classes, there are way more friends who prioritize philosophical and ideological context over the plot, character emotion, or narrative completion of writing. From what I could tell, more than half already had a default setting in their heads. Depending on the philosophy or ideology they follow, instead of 'Why does this character act this way?' they'd say 'This character is anachronistic.' I personally think narrative should be interpreted within that world's worldview, the character's traits, their relationships with others, and turning points in the story. But very few of those friends had that kind of perspective. They'd just be uncomfortable with anything that went against the ideology they held and use philosophy as a filter. The talented ones probably debut and do well now. But back then I felt pretty hopeless.
But don't people who write among writers not know how the general public will feel? Nobody knows if it'll land with the general audience or not.
If you post to the main gallery, that award line would probably slide in easy lmao
Real talk: Modern pure literature is completely lame, low quality, a money-sucking operation deserving to collapse. These self-proclaimed 'experts' can't keep up with internet Shakespeares.
Mazinger Z Z trembles trembles
lmao the title is clickbait but honestly korean lit has been getting slept on for too long, glad someone's calling it out
disagree completely but the korean text in the title is kind of funny ngl