[KS] Mr. Keith

[Frank Hoffmann]

REPLY sends your message to the whole list
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One more "flaw":
Keith seems to be Dr. Howard's first name.


>REPLY sends your message to the whole list
>__________________________________________
>
>I am Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, a Korea born American who wrote the book and
>produced/directed the film with the same title, Silence Broken: Korean
>Comfort Women.  Howard Keith, University of London, reviewed both at length. 
>He offered unsparing praise for my film, but had reservations about the book.
>  He appears to be conflicted, seeing some merit in the book and yet compelled
>to nitpick, finally bringing himself to utter those infamous last words --
>the book is "flawed," especially "as an academic document."  He does indeed,
>by his own admission, have conflicts with my book.  He published an oral
>history volume on the same topic.  More about that later.
>
>Surely, as a reviewer, he is entitled to write anything he wishes.  A
>reviewer should evaluate the work, upholding certain standards and presenting
>signals for potential readers.  I am not, therefore, interested in
>challenging his views, but I must point out some factual errors.
>
>1.  Mr. Keith complains that I largely dismiss other published accounts and
>that I don't seem to be aware of other English work on the topic.  He
>observes that the "footnotes contain references to a number of Korean
>accounts, but no English-language accounts except for a couple of
>translations of articles from Korean Council members."  Included in the list
>of works in English is his own book (nineteen translated Korean testimonies),
>True Stories of Korean Comfort Women (London: Cassell), and "Chong Moo Choi's
>excellent edited volume, The Comfort Women: Colonialism, War, and Sex."
>
>A few clarifications are in order.  He clearly feels offended by my comment
>which he quotes: ". . .most accounts are primarily summaries of interviews
>conducted by scholars or journalists.  In the name of objectivity and
>scholarship, much of their stories are refined, hence taking away the raw
>pain and feelings from their stories.  They have largely become issues,
>numbers, things and objects of studies, not full blooded human beings."  He
>states that this "dismissal" of other oral accounts is "disingenuous."  I did
>not, however, dismiss those accounts lightly and I stand by what I wrote. 
>Those testimonies are the first I read in Korean.  I lived under Japanese
>colonialism and I know what it was like, yet this material is so dry I could
>not feel the depth of tragedy and pain they experienced.  My exact statement
>is: "Most oral accounts in print of the former military comfort women are
>primarily summaries of interviews conducted by scholars or journalists with a
>focus on their lives as comfort women.  If those women told stories beyond
>'that period,' that information was not included in the majority of the oral
>history. . .it was important for me to present their lives--before, during
>and after--as much or as little as they told me."  I discussed this with some
>Korean scholars and activists, some of them interviewers, and they were not
>offended.  They explained how each was assigned to interview several women.
>Each then went with five identical questions, checked out some facts and then
>refined the content. 
>
>Since I read the original Korean testimony, I did not feel the need to read
>Mr. Keith's translation.  I studied (not just read) all the other English
>work he cites as well as other accounts in Korean, far beyond his list.  If I
>don't refer to them in my footnotes, that's because I did not use them in the
>book.  I found it puzzling that he would accuse me of not knowing Choi's
>excellent work.  My own article, "They Are Our Grandmas," is included in that
>volume.
>
>2.  Mr. Keith writes, "I am unsure how to treat the following comment: 
>"Feeling the power of the (comfort women's) stories as a common experience, I
>made composite characters but the stories are their's, not fiction.  That
>statement has nothing to do with the book.  It refers to the dramatized
>portion of my 88 minute documentary.
>
>3.  Mr. Keith omits a crucial component in what I call double subjectivity. 
>He writes, "Indeed, she accepts a 'double subjectivity,' first because of her
>own depth of emotion, and second since in her writing she consciously
>positions herself in her story."  I use this term to indicate that these
>women's stories were subjective and that I chose not to be a neutral
>listener/interviewer.  Double subjectivity does not just refer to my
>subjectivity but more importantly to the subjectivity of the storytellers.
>
>Finally, he complains about the "style of writing,  "all too common lapses in
>grammar," and "the misspelling of place names."  It is one thing if he does
>not like my style (which many who have read my book consider one of its
>strengths) but is quite another about grammatical errors and misspellings. 
>For instance, he indicates that there is a grammatical mistake in the long
>quotation cited above and gives "Batavia, then known as Jakarta" as an
>example of misspelling.  According to the Random House Dictionary, the
>spelling is correct.  So I am puzzled.
>
>Mr. Keith warms those in Korean Studies that my book does not meet academic
>standards.  As I wrote early on, I don't want to dispute that since it is his
>prerogative to express his opinion.  I will say, however, that it was not my
>intention to make the book "academic" (my primary readership is outside the
>academy), but based on the feedback I have received both from general as well
>as scholarly readers, I can say that the book deserves your direct
>examination.  In fact, I am aware that some professors have already included
>the book in their course readings.  It would be a mistake to dismiss the book
>based primarily on Mr. Keith's evaluation.  Since mid-January of this year,
>over 2,000 copies have been sold and I continue to receive strong
>endorsements from scholars and non-scholars alike as a compelling,
>informative, and inspiring book which enables one to feel the flesh and blood
>of these women.  Please give them a chance.  The book is essentially their
>stories.
>
>If you would like additional information on comfort women, please check my
>web site: twotigers.org.