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

Lauren Deutsch lwdeutsch at earthlink.net
Tue Aug 9 23:07:40 EDT 2011


May I add that the commercial media ‹ even the more enlightened ones --
hunger for the quick Œn¹ easy story that makes headlines, relying more on
reportage that is embedded either in the propaganda machinery of the country
itself or the shallow understanding of the average person about the topic.
To this end, the media are the message.


-- 
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: Werner Sasse <werner_sasse at hotmail.com>
Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 01:36:08 +0000
To: list korean studies <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Subject: Re: [KS] Striking photographs of the DPRK from AP's David
Guttenfelder, in The Atlantic

Hi, George,
that is one side of it.
The other side : a gulag is a gulag. What is ... Guantanamo?
And what is the word for the search for weapons of mass destruction by a
country which should no better because they have been a major supplier of
military equipment to the evil country?
And for the trouble around the globe under the pretext of spreading
democracy?
Who's talking!
Boy, am I glad that N-Kor has no oil or other important deposits.
Our job re N-Kor should be description first and trying to understand the
reasons for their incredible deeds and only then critics rather than the
other way round, re our "West" should be critical analysis of our own
behavior.
Bill Skillend once remarked that news about N-kor are to too many people
what pornography is to others. But then, pornography cannot as easily used
for political reasons.
Frustrated by the press and by some postings on this list, Werner
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 07:30:16 -0400
> From: katsiaficasg at wit.edu
> To: ruediger.frank at univie.ac.atkoreanstudies@koreaweb.ws;
ruediger.frank at univie.ac.at; koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
> Subject: Re: [KS] Striking photographs of the DPRK from AP's David
Guttenfelder, in The Atlantic
> 
> 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
> > 
> 
> 
       


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