Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok serious question, what is it about North Korea that causes a subset of HN commenters to leap to it's defense? Russia, China, Iran, etc receive a similar treatment sometimes but never to nearly the degree NK does, what's with that?
Practically everything you read on the western media about NK is completely made up. It's a country with a seemingly endless supply of fan fiction! My favourite kind of fan fiction about NK is... let me think... ah yes, when Kim Jong Un has had some family member executed... only for them to reappear a few months later.
My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
31–40 of 123 posts
Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Practically everything you read on the western media about NK is completely made up. It's a country with a seemingly endless supply of fan fiction! My favourite kind of fan fiction about NK is... let me think... ah yes, when Kim Jong Un has had some family member executed... only for them to reappear a few months later.
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Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#33High demand for stories from North Korea and no way to verify them makes me wary of what a fiction writer has written.
This author is also living in South Korea which by law bans you to speak positively about North Korea. Not to say NK isn’t bad, but you are unable to have an honest and balanced discussion about it in the media while you live in SK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Act_(South...
Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, it's published, 跳べない蛙, you can buy it on Amazon or wherever. But in Japanese.
Can ChatGPT translate a whole book now? Without too much inconvenience
Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#35This story reminds me that education is a privilege and I'm probably not enjoying it as much as I should.
I was a horrible college student when I was younger. For a variety of reasons. I quit school, got lucky, and fell into a good tech career. Many many years later after age 40 I was laid off, wanted a new career path / job, I took a few classes and eventually a bootcamp and changed careers. I was really nervous as far as how it would all play out knowing how terrible I was previously. It was completely different. The i…
Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#36It's always fascinating to hear about the cultural structures within North Korea. The image in my head is one where 5% are comfortable party officials and 95% are starving labourers. Of course that's not true: there are intellectuals and scientists in the middle, like in any other society. A related article was posted a few months ago regarding North Korean sci-fi. Also fascinating! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?…
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I lived through Communist Poland.
Comfortable life for officials meant that they could use stores with stuff from the west (to buy Levi's jeans, Marlboro cigarettes, or perhaps even a walkman - you can google Pewex to read about these stores). Many of them had also homes. Not as in villas, but as in plain homes that you see in american suburbs.
One of the country leaders in 1950s built himself a villa once, but he never got to live in it, because the rest of the leaders make it understandable to him that it will end badly. So he ended in one of the regular homes. (you can google Ochabówka - I've been inside, and again - it's like twice as big as a regular american home, nothing like a villa you would imagine).
You can also google how Gorbachev and other Soviet party leaders were living. It was better than common people but not much.
The main difference in quality of life was that the regular police couldn't just lock you up (secret police could though), and you wouldn't be beaten up by simply showing on a street during work hours, or doing some other crazy stuff like wearing colorful socks or long hair. I mean, no party official would dare to do it anyway, but regular police wouldn't stop them.
So on one hand - yeah, the societal divide was way lower. But it meant nobody was free and everybody was poor - as in no TVs, no meat, and even a toilet paper was a luxury. Nobody I know would want to get back to that.
Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm satirizing the Western industry of dehumanizing/patronizing North Koreans. They are human beings just like us, even if our governments hate each other.
They are human beings just like us. That doesn't make their society just like any other society.
Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#38Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#39I wish I could read the rest of the memoir, alas I do not speak Japanese. I'm unable to determine if the rest of it was published somewhere.
I mean, it's published, 跳べない蛙, you can buy it on Amazon or wherever. But in Japanese.
Re: My doomed career as a North Korean novelist
#40This story reminds me that education is a privilege and I'm probably not enjoying it as much as I should.
I was a horrible college student when I was younger. For a variety of reasons. I quit school, got lucky, and fell into a good tech career. Many many years later after age 40 I was laid off, wanted a new career path / job, I took a few classes and eventually a bootcamp and changed careers. I was really nervous as far as how it would all play out knowing how terrible I was previously. It was completely different. The i…
I asked him what changed, did you get smarter?
He laughed, and said no, this time I was willing to work.