[KS] Striking photographs of the DPRK from AP's David Guttenfelder, in The Atlantic

[george katsiaficas]

Ruediger and all,

I was in the midst of writing a similar reference to Edward Said to help
this discussion when Ruediger's last post arrived. Substitute the DPRK for
Arab-Moslem below and see if it makes sense to you:

"Very little of the detail, the human density, the passion of Arab-Moslem
life has entered the awareness of even those people whose profession it is
to report the Arab world. What we have instead is a series of crude,
essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as to
make that world vulnerable to military aggression."

The last four words speak volumes to a key function of many current
portrayals of the DPRK--and not only in a possible future but in the
destruction waged upon Korea half a century ago.

Is there some degree of rationalizing that past destruction by portraying so
prominently the regime's gulags and problems today?

George


> From: Ruediger Frank <ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at>
> Organization: University of Vienna
> Reply-To: Ruediger Frank <ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at>, Korean Studies
> Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 09:16:43 +0200
> To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
> Subject: Re: [KS] Striking photographs of the DPRK from AP's David
> Guttenfelder, in The Atlantic
> 
> Dear Charles,
> well spoken. You and I and others have been making this point (recognition of
> commonality) for years - to no avail, I'm afraid. Even liberal economists turn
> into pigheaded central planners with no trust in the forces of the market
> whatsoever when it comes to North Korea policy.
> I would like to add that this treatment of North Korea as an extraordinary
> case is even more than just annoying for the experts. It is the root cause for
> a number of policy failures that we have observed in the past years, having
> allowed the tail to wag the dog. Treating NK as a normal state is, I believe,
> the key to finding more sustainable solutions to issues such as human rights,
> famine, or the nuclear threat. Unfortunately, this demand is often
> misunderstood as appeasement, even though in fact it means quite the opposite.
> The previously mentioned NK arts exhibition in Vienna was a case in point.
> Having said that, we should also be realistic. Although we tend to look down
> upon stereotypes, in the end our own life, too, would be pretty complicated
> without them. This is even more the case for those (large) parts of the
> population whose general level of education about international affairs is
> often very shallow. This is when stereotypes of the crudest type replace
> knowledge. It is no surprise then that a country as remote and admittedly
> different as NK arouses such a curiosity. This is not without effects - think
> of Team America (ronery, I am so ronery), James Bond (Die Another Day - we
> watched this in Washington together, you remember?) or a recent computer game
> (Homefront). On the top of my list is still that T-shirt with a Kim Jong Il
> image (hanging right next to one of Che Guevara) I found in a shop in, of all
> places, Athens/Georgia a few years ago. Serving strong stereotypes is a viable
> business model. This is true for journalists and sometimes even for scholars.
> Look at the exponentially growing number of NK "experts". It is a simple
> instance of supply reacting to demand. Well, so what: our societies are built
> upon that principle, aren't they?
> Finally, we need to understand that this exoticization of NK itself is
> anything but a unique phenomenon. It is actually just another extreme
> expression of what Edward Said has so vividly described - Orientalism. When I
> recently read his book again I sometimes almost forgot that it was not about
> North Korea.
> So I guess for the time being we have to live with all those little
> Columbuses, while we are trying to provide a counterbalance by spreading our
> own, hopefully better results and insights.
> All the best,
> Rudiger
> PS: You will like this (NY Times: The Black Hole of North Korea):
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/opinion/09iht-edfish09.html
> 
> 
> 
> on Montag, 8. August 2011 at 15:42 you wrote:
> 
>> Dear Ruediger and all,
> 
>> I would like to expand a bit on my brief comments last week. They were
>> not meant as a criticism of Aidan's taste or the perfectly fine photos
>> in the Atlantic. What troubles me, however, it the continued
>> exoticization of North Korea in the Western (particularly, perhaps,
>> American) media that the article reflects. After all, it is unlikely
>> that there would be a major spread in a leading American journal of
>> equally fine photos of, say, Canada or France -- or South Korea for
>> that matter. These images of North Korea warrant such attention
>> because North Korea is supposedly so isolated, inaccessible, and alien
>> that any representation other than the usual stock images is greeted
>> with astonishment (not by members of this listserve, of course, but
>> the general reading public). Anything that goes beyond the narrow
>> standard narrative of military threat, starvation and gulags is
>> jarring to an American media audience. This is not to say these things
>> don't exist -- they certainly do -- but obviously that's not all there
>> is, and I am dismayed that the evidence that everyday life exists in
>> North Korea is treated in this country as a journalistic discovery. My
>> hope is that someday North Korea will be treated as an ordinary
>> country. "Ordinary" here is not meant as a value judgment, as there is
>> obviously plenty to criticize about the DPRK. Rather, I simply mean
>> that one would never guess from most media representations of the
>> place (at least in this country) that North Korea occupies the same
>> planet that we do, and that it is populated by human beings with the
>> same needs, desires, and general level of intelligence as people
>> anywhere else. It seems to me that any useful criticism has to begin
>> with this recognition of commonality, rather that the idea of North
>> Korea as an unknowable Other.
> 
>> best,
> 
>> Charles
>