Thoughts on Han Kang? Should I start with The Vegetarian or Human Acts?
bumping for same question, my library has both of these and i might pick them up this month or next
Is it true the white woman translator botched the story to sit better with her nonsense white woman sensibilities?
>>25085869many such cases, no idea if it applies to kang though.
>>25085869The “translator” does not even know Korean lol
>>25085884based kek, cant even learn a language that only has 4 letters lmao
I am the guy that occassiomnaly makes Han Kang threads on this board just to get 0 (you)s.>>25085869Yes.>>25085745>>25085790Vegetarian is much harder to understand (if you are not reading the bastardized translation - which the original english translation is, idk about the bastardized version and idc about it). Vegetarian is very much about individual's place in confucian society - it may be hard to understand if you have not read the Analects of Confucius. It is very much about self-determination of individual (Kang intentionally picks repressed korean stay-at-home wife - for that is the most dependent individual to her). But it is not centered around women, it is about any individual living in a society (the confucian society is the most anti-individualist society so it is a great example). It is pretty fucking weird but it's chronological story centered around 1 character. I greatly enjoyed the book but I don't think it is (at least in czech translation which is not intentionally fucked) good at presenting it's ideas or rather it's 10/10 for two thirds of the book, then fails in the last third.On other hand Human Acts is a masterpiece and there is no book like it. It is about the psychology of crowd - it brings out both the worst and the best in the individuals who are part of it. For Kang crowd is extreme version of society. The book has no main character, it crosses many narrative rules (1st person narration after the narrator's death and IT WORKS holy fuck THE STUPIDEST SHLOCKIEST SHIT EVER WORKS) and it will 100% ruin your day. And just reminder - South Korean government's propaganda machine does NOT want you to know about the shit in the book.TLDR: Vegetarian = the meme (for western white women to misunderstand). Human Acts = the masterpiece that deserves Nobel prize.
>>25086069>THE STUPIDEST SHLOCKIEST SHIT EVER WORKSKorean media in general, people are too quick to dismiss it.
>>25086077Human Acts is very unlike other South Korean media. There is exactly 0 (zero) optimism and it fucking hates HATES south korean government.One of endearing quirks of Han Kang is that she blames USA for the Korean War and considers USA to be more evil than NK. Not that I agree with her, in fact I consider that opinion to be completely retarded - but retarded in very human poltard way.But I would recommend not looking up more about her life before reading Human Acts - only after. There's very much 'found out' moment to be had when looking her up after reading the book.
>>25086069>Vegetarian is very much about individual's place in confucian societyI read the English translation and this was completely obvious and I didn't read anything in it to contradict that point. Are we complaining here about the translation or the people who allegedly read it?
>>25086089>she blames USA for the Korean War and considers USA to be more evil than NKThen she's just a communist
>>25086069So which one do I read first?
She always looks like she needs a good five hour nap
>>25086103I've not read the english translation (czech language has greater translating tradition than english and czech translations mog english ones usually), but the state of it is well known. The czech translation comes with translator's notes which describes the story of how ithe book came to be and the story of the english translation how it is basically different book - not translation, but adaptation (wikipedia says the same)
>>25086121>czech language has greater translating tradition than english and czech translations mog english ones usuallyCute that you think that. Translator's notes, comparisons to other translations, all of that for a contemporary novel is overkill -- tryhard behavior. Anyway, I'm aware of the furor over the English translation but it seems vastly overstated if you actually read it and it is all probably animated by professional jealousy and industry in-fighting. That's what you should assume anytime you see "X complained in the Guardian, Y complained in the LA Times, Z responded in the LARB."
>>25086112No. I consider her humanist and individualist. Communism just like Confucianism is anti-individualist. Communism is also materialist, but Kang believes in human soul (another of her lovely quirks). And looking at her works practically - if there were any communist messaging in her books - she would be banned and imprisoned in SK. Communism is banned ideology there.>>25086118She's no Mieko Kawakami, but her smile is lovely. Definitely can imagine making it my life goal to make her smile.
>>25086112utterly retarded burger kek
why are they like this?
>>25086166south korea is a highly materialistic shallow society that values absolutely nothing other than looks and money and clout. anyone with even a slight penchant for meagre humanity will have a highly elevated suicide rate. it's the world's most glamorous concentration camp.
>>25086166That's funny. If you read Vegetarian and then google Han Kang you will find out she has one son. For readers of Vegetarian this says it all.
>>25086190Confucianism, everybody. A round of applause for Confucius.
Is she on the level of Fosse, Krasznahorkai, Sebald etc? I'm starving for "modern" literature fuck sake
Funnily enough I didn't discover Han Kang from the articles about her winning the Nobel or searching for literature, I was looking up one of the male leads in the kdrama 49 Days whose character had the same name, Han Kang.Start with a reincarnation melodrama about fate and unfinished business, end up reading Human Acts, which is about historical memory that refuses reincarnation. The dead don’t come back, they remain as absence.
>>25086069Juicy post.
>>25086112Typical fucking zipperhead.
>>25086159>let me punch down!
>>25086112both of those things are true
>>25086159>>25086279>>25086283There were loads and loads of communists all over Korea in the mid-20th cent. That was basically their stereotype in the 40s: commieland. And communist rhetoric about anti-Americanism and anti-imperialism, whether with a thin disguise of liberal humanism or not, has never changed. It's entirely reasonable to assume a Korean leftist spouting communist rhetoric is basically a communist. You'd be naive or disingenuous not to.
>>25086313Oh thats pretty much why I pretty much only like people that look and act like me. Which is primarily just other autistic men or adjacent.
>>25085745I find it hard to believe that she could get close to Murakami at his best (his few best short stories or novels). This is just my intuition, have never read her. Lol. Apparently they tend to be both subsumed under 'East-Asian surrealism'.
>>25086282It's more like accidentally stepping on an anthill
>>25086461Korean media operates on a different register you stupid weeb.
>>25086461>i have no facts to justify my fee-feesywnbaw
>>25085745Dont read female authors. Dont read diversity authors. Dont read feminist authors. Dont read marginalized voices.
>>25086069>>25086089Thanks. These are good notes on the OP's question . ..
>>25086988WTF? That should be fucking illegal.
>>25086988Don't have sexDon't get a jobDon't join a unionDon't read anything more complicated than a race realist's substack
>>25085745>>25086069>vegetarian = the memei take the confucian point seriously; the novel does assume a reader who understands what it costs to refuse a father in that structure, & smith's english softens that cost by making yeong-hye more internally articulate than kang wrote her. the korean is colder. the suppression is part of the meaning. fair.but the force-feeding scene doesn't need context. the father holds pork to her closed mouth. the brother pins her arms. the mother tries dressed oysters because yeong-hye liked them as a child -- weaponizing tenderness, which is worse. every person at that table has a different theory of what her refusal means & a different strategy for ending it. she has no theory. she has a mouth that won't open. every translation gets that right.smith's translation gave yeong-hye interiority the original withholds. the korean critics wanted the withholding preserved -- a faithful translator should disappear into service. the controversy isn't about accuracy. it's about whether a woman translating a woman's silence gets to decide how much silence to keep.human acts does formally what no other korean novel does. the vegetarian does something no formal innovation can protect you from: it makes the reader another interpreter standing over a woman's closed mouth, certain they understand.three translations deep & the jaw still holds. that's not a meme.
>>25087071Your insults are as meaningless as calling a thin person fat.
>>25086988>Dont read marginalized voices>There are more women than men worldwide>There are more asians than any other race worldwide
>>25087255Your arguments are as meaningless as calling a hoe a tim
human acts is much better
