tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705935382346558648.post6992538140572893412..comments2023-10-31T22:40:09.763+11:00Comments on Acheron LV-426: An open letter to Gord Sellar about South Korean sci fiAnselmo Quemothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09409052325497882321noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705935382346558648.post-25874531785052059532011-02-12T11:33:28.165+11:002011-02-12T11:33:28.165+11:00Incidentally, I think Seungsook Moon's work lo...Incidentally, I think Seungsook Moon's work looks fascinating, partly because she picks up on the importance of social movements as evidence of the spaces that open up (civil society, public spheres) outside of institutionalized settings such as parliaments. The references to feminism in this context (her critique of a masculine "militarized modernity") would, I expect, make for interesting reading alongside the piece I've linked to in this post.<br /><br />To me, it's interesting how there is little appeal to myths etc in such instances, but I'd also comment on an important institutional setting that is quintessentially modern and would have influenced many of these developments: the university. This is the university as a critical cosmopolitan project. It's interesting how prominent student activism was in forging coalitions with the labor movement etc, and she suggests a lasting legacy of the turbulence that took place is that Park Chung Hee's legacy remains contested to this day. Like Shin, she's not suggesting that South Korea is necessarily a vibrant democracy, and nor am I, given the strength of the state, but rather that there were forms of resistance which did draw on a modern norm of emancipation.<br /><br />Perhaps on a more mundane level, and here you might agree, sci fi everywhere faces a bit of a legitimacy problem (albeit to varying degrees!). I think Gary Westfahl even wrote a book on how it suffers in regard to the more respected (ahem) "canon". I bet there are gatekeepers in literature departments in South Korea who are promoting this attitude, along with the usual ranks of cultural journalists. Added to the factors which you mention, poor old sci fi is really up against it. So I applaud you for trying to turn round this attitude!<br /><br />Ok, here are a couple of links I found interesting that can help flesh out what I mean by modernity (including in the comments thread of Placing the Future in South Korea?):<br /><br />http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822336162/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=1278548962&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0943852609&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1N1ZBGR7J3A8ZKJESYRH<br /><br />This pathbreaking study presents a feminist analysis of the politics of membership in the South Korean nation over the past four decades. Seungsook Moon examines the ambitious effort by which South Korea transformed itself into a modern industrial and militarized nation. She demonstrates that the pursuit of modernity in South Korea involved the construction of the anticommunist national identity and a massive effort to mold the populace into useful, docile members of the state. This process, which she terms “militarized modernity,” treated men and women differently. Men were mobilized for mandatory military service and then, as conscripts, utilized as workers and researchers in the industrializing economy. Women were consigned to lesser factory jobs, and their roles as members of the modern nation were defined largely in terms of biological reproduction and household management.<br />Moon situates militarized modernity in the historical context of colonialism and nationalism in the twentieth century. She follows the course of militarized modernity in South Korea from its development in the early 1960s through its peak in the 1970s and its decline after rule by military dictatorship ceased in 1987. She highlights the crucial role of the Cold War in South Korea’s militarization and the continuities in the disciplinary tactics used by the Japanese colonial rulers and the postcolonial military regimes. Moon reveals how, in the years since 1987, various social movements—particularly the women’s and labor movements—began the still-ongoing process of revitalizing South Korean civil society and forging citizenship as a new form of membership in the democratizing nation.<br /><br />The Cultural Politics of Remembering Park Chung Hee<br /><br />http://japanfocus.org/-Seungsook-Moon/3140Anselmo Quemothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09409052325497882321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705935382346558648.post-11797163204109704142011-02-11T15:09:56.396+11:002011-02-11T15:09:56.396+11:00I just successfully opened this link to her paper:...I just successfully opened this link to her paper:<br /><br />http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ekmFIpRzux4J:www.koreanfilm.or.kr/attach/4TheBirthof%2520theLocalFeministSphere.pdf+%22kim+soyoung%22+blockbusters&hl=en&gl=au&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh6BWPRYARWF3L9_xashE7B3482rdJoTJVsTgd3TjR2qO2Rj-DEedg98Tc7aXvjx0JhCSNGog_bcrDE68YAgxOWe2ax_BOf4df8yFCJUU9W1yAQS8NxL2XIJV_z86VaLWKN8LiL&sig=AHIEtbQ5tE6wSHIlzX2NiwLUilgZG2m3cA&pli=1Anselmo Quemothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09409052325497882321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705935382346558648.post-23926320808086466392011-02-11T13:58:47.846+11:002011-02-11T13:58:47.846+11:00Gord,
Hope to read your paper. I will try to find...Gord,<br /><br />Hope to read your paper. I will try to find the piece that has "gone dead" inexplicably, as I still think something can be made on the public sphere angle she develops (which surely need not be wholly incompatible with what you suggest).Granted, it may speak more to cinema than published works, but that remains to be seen, I guess.Anselmo Quemothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09409052325497882321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705935382346558648.post-67034736436308689832011-02-10T14:01:40.798+11:002011-02-10T14:01:40.798+11:00Anselmo,
Funnily enough, that link seems to be d...Anselmo, <br /><br />Funnily enough, that link seems to be dead... not just on your site, but at the actual site; it doesn't seem to be available (free) anywhere online. Have you a copy of the PDF? <br /><br />As for the issue of SF in Korean film, well, it's complex, and I'm actually working on revising a paper right now specifically about the general failure of Korean SF, which argues that there are a number of specific reasons for its failure: a poor grasp (among filmmakers and audiences alike) of what SF is and does, and how SF narratives work; a sense (among both filmmakers and audiences alike) that SF is kiddie fare or silly crap; a very weak local tradition of SF cinema and literature; and a lack of interest in the philosophical/speculative implications of scientific and technological change. <br /><br />A friend of mine is adapting one of my (published) stories into a webtoon for a competition in Korea, and he told me they'd have to add romance to it (to make it more manga-like) and more emotional stuff to it (to make Korean audiences interested). <br /><br />Also, the two SF films in Korea that I don't regard as trash (The Host and a Save the Green Planet) both were very unabashedly leftist in their politics, whether the filmmakers choose to admit it. (Bong Joon-ho pretends otherwise, but the film is unmistakably both nostalgic and utopian about the potential of the Korean people if they could only get their <i>minjung</i> on once again.) The funny thing is, The Host is very anti- many things: the current political status quo, the mainstream version of history, the neoliberal agenda... and it was a huge hit. I think it's actually got a very radical message in it, something about resurrecting the popular anti-dictatorship movements of the 80s today. Not many people grasp that, but it's in there. Yet the film was "permitted." The fact that most SF is nationalistic, right-wing dreck is simply a result of the fact that most film is nationalist (and to a Canadian, anyway, very right-wing) dreck. <br /><br />I'll save my spiel for the paper, though, and let you see that at some point. But I have to say, at least in SF, the relationship between film and books is the reverse of what you suggest: SF film is wholly dependent on books, and lags decades behind. Korean SF draws mainly on Hollywood SF (and to some extent Japanese), but I don't think this explains why so few Koreans are writing the stuff. They're not writing it for different cultural reasons altogether, as far as I can tell. <br /><br />Anyway, that's about three or four different discussions there, so I'll stop now.gordsellarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11465812613427778240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705935382346558648.post-10788822281712053552011-02-08T13:23:05.358+11:002011-02-08T13:23:05.358+11:00My latest reply is in the comments thread of the P...My latest reply is in the comments thread of the Placing the Future in South Korea post.Anselmo Quemothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09409052325497882321noreply@blogger.com