[KS] A light contemporary read on Korea

[Lauren Deutsch]

I am rereading the Isabella Bird Bishop book and find its ³missionary
position² focus very distracting / annoying / weighted.

Why not use an anthology of fine short stories, taking advantage of
excellent translations and a variety of perspectives. I did a public radio
series of 20th century Korean short stories read in English translation over
10 years ago and continue to find the works inform my sojourns in Korea.
MANOA, the pan-Asian journal published by University of Hawaii had a Korea ­
focused edition some years ago.

Lauren Deutsch
-- 
Lauren W. Deutsch
835 S. Lucerne Blvd., #103
Los Angeles CA 90005
Tel 323 930-2587  Cell 323 775-7454
E lwdeutsch at earthlink.net



From: "J.Scott Burgeson" <jsburgeson at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: <jsburgeson at yahoo.com>, Korean Studies Discussion List
<koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:29:36 -0700 (PDT)
To: <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Subject: Re: [KS] A light contemporary read on Korea

> Any ideas out there for a relatively light read on Korea
> that I could pair with Hokkaido Highway Blues to assign to
> a group of High School Teachers that I will be leading to
> Korea and Japan this summer.

I have not read Hokkaido Highway Blues but it seems to have been inspired by
the classic and indeed founder of that particular subgenre: Alan Booth's The
Roads to Sata (1985), in which the former British drama critic and fluent
Japanese speaker literally walked from the Northern tip of Japan all the way
to the Southern tip in Kyushu, which was once described if memory serves as
"one long pub crawl across the entire length of Japan." The Roads to Sata is
a classic of literary and cultural observation, extremely funny in a wry,
understated way, and the best book about Japan in English that I have ever
read. I recommend it in the highest terms.

The equivalents on the Korea front would be either Isabella Bird Bishop's
Korea and Her Neighbours (1898), itself a classic and well-recommended, if
slightly crotchety at times, and of more recent vintage Simon Winchester's
Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles (1988), penned by the famous
writer who alas was not very informed about Korea when he wrote it (the
pretext is that he follows in the footsteps of Hamel, less rather than
more). It does have its fans, however -- myself not among them.

But I see that you want contemporary, which is a harder call. My personal
advice would have them read Paul S. Crane's Korea Patterns (1967), just to
give them a quick grounding in the basics since it's a short read (and with
the caveat that its essentialism should be read critically), and then have
them read a few blogs like The Marmot's Hole, Mongdori or Korea Beat for an
introductory taste of more current local affairs. I would certainly
recommend Bruce Cumings' Korea's Place in the Sun (1997), but while written
with brio it is perhaps not as light as your needs.

Enjoy your trip!

--Scott Bug



      
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