Last Bit on This Discussion

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Who's Complaining in Korea

The wider discussion that The Korean and Rob have sparked off continues with two more recent posts on the subject, here and here. Along the way, a very interesting post was contributed by Matt, that reads almost like a “bitching expat blog” roundup, except all the complaints were made by foreigners in Korea a century or more ago, long before blogs ever existed. I loved this post, and I wanted to link it, but I had it in my head that I’d be posting it with another installment: that’s not going to happen, so I am posting the link as is. Go read it — it’s a wonderfully comforting feeling to know other people complained ages ago about the same things you may have complained about.

Jack London’s line, for me, resonated most with my own frustrations in trying to get anything done in Iksan:

“Upso,” was their invariable reply. “Upso,” cursed word, which means “Have not got.”

Which reminds me of the very neat fact that I’m far from the first Western SF author to come to Korea. Jack London is likely the first: his The Iron Heel (available free online here) is an early and apparently important radical dystopian SF novel (which, no, I have not read yet, but it’s in the list, and I’ll pop it into my ebook reader soon, since it’s downloadable and all). I’m very interested to read more of what Matt turned up among London’s works, which he hinted at in his post and mentioned to me when we met up last month.

I have to confess I simply don’t have time to make a decent contribution to this half of the discussion — why so so many Koreans seem to be so sensitive to criticism by foreigners. I have some observations to make, but no time in which to make them. Perhaps another time.

Series Navigation<< <i>NCC-1492</i> and <i>The Good Ship Daehan</i>

Comments

  1. Julia says:

    Sweet, you linked to the site I’ve been downloading stuff for my PDA from!

    (And yes, I have made a donation to the site. I really appreciate what they do and want to help them keep doing it!)

  2. gordsellar says:

    I haven’t donated yet, simply because the last month has been a glut of credit card charges, but I will eventually. Manybooks has been on my sidebar for quite some time, and I think they’re providing an excellent service.

    (Also, I’m told donating to foreign charities can never be written off in Korean taxes, so I suppose it might be wiser to wait till I can donate while living in the US, provided Manybooks has enough steam to keep going till then…)

  3. Julia says:

    The minimum recommended donation is $1; I gave more than that. If you want me to hold up your end for a couple of years, just let me know. :)

  4. gordsellar says:

    *grin* Aw, I’ll throw a bit more than that in, when I do donate. I love using that site.

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