On the afternoon of Thursday, July 22nd I spoke at a short SF-related seminar for KOFAC (The Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity) in Gangbyeon. I was asked to lay say a bit about how SF writers choose what to write about. Basically, to answer that question I felt I had to explain what I think SF is. So I put it this way: SF is how modern, industrialized culture digests the two shocks of technologically-imposed change on society, and the philosophical changes imposed on culture by science. That’s meaty — note that culture and society are …
Category: KOREA
Dear Lady at the Next Table in this Cafe
No, talking in baby talk when you are over 30 years old doesn’t make you seem younger, let alone sexier. He’s pretending. Trust me.
Tiny Thought…
So I’m reading this book — for the purposes of reviewing it — and the strange thought hit me: for those who have seen the Korean film 엽기적인 그녀 — known in English as My Sassy Girl, though the English title is meh. (The Korean title, “Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo” is more like, “That Weirdo Girl” or “That Bizarre Girl,” as I understand it. 엽기적인 hjas dictionary entries for “bizarre” and “grotesque” but the phrase is also used for, for example, “pulp fiction” or the Korean name for Mashimaro.) Anyway, the thing I noticed was this: the last word of the title …
A Notice That Was Should Have Been Up in the Laundry Room
Actually, it wasn’t. But it should be, except in English because Google Translate doesn’t work on non-digital texts and nobody would know what it says: Товарищи на жилье для чужих учителей: Ошибка пришло мое внимание. Ебаный в рот, который “фиксированной” из коммунальной стиральные машины убрали ручки. Без ручки, мы не можем изменить настройки температуры воды. Конечно, это не было преднамеренным. Может быть, Ебаный в рот были по приказу пьяного комиссара? Возможно, они были пьяными себя, и забыл, чтобы заменить ручки? Машины являются новыми. Я не верю, они могут быть настолько бесчеловечными, чтобы сказать: “Ах, эти животные, пусть вымоют одежды в …
Culture Bound Mental Illnesses in Korea — Bananaloft
I was poking around in Bananaloft, a website devoted to Asian-Canadian goofing-off and fun, and found an article on several, er, conditions that seem to be culture-bound to Korean society, as they say. Well, I would actually say it’s two mental conditions, and one folk-belief. Fear of Fan Death, absurd though it is, seems mainly to be the result of media talking crap; we don’t consider the belief in a higher suicide rate around Christmastime — or fear of the same — a “mental illness” but it’s quite disconnected from reality — a similar folk myth in the Western sphere. …
Genes and Culture: Ear Rice, Light Sweat, Red Faces, Drinking Places
There’s a few neat fact most people seem not to know, regarding genetic differentiations between East Asians and everyone else, and it they’re neat enough to post the going theories about… One particular trait that came into the news a few years ago (2006) is related to sweat and ear wax. (That there was the layperson’s link, but if you want the hard science and have access to Nature, look here.) Which one’s grosser? Ear wax? Okay. Well, there are two kinds of ear wax in humans: brown, wet, waxy stuff, and yellowish-white, drier, flaky stuff. If you’re a Northeast …
B.A.R.F….For Your Dog’s Health!
Found this image while cleaning out the drive for the videocamera I’m sending off to Miss Jiwaku. It was something I saw in, I think, Emart a year ago.The quality isn’t so great, but I can’t not post it: Yes, the Ultimate Diet for your dog. But it’s not what you might think… did you spot it? Yep, that logo, to the bottom left of the Ultimate Diet image packaging: Wow, I am sure someone out there thinks himself very, very clever! Of course, I can’t see myself buying that for any dog, myself, even if the bones and ambiguously …
“Where Did I Lose Marks?” & “I Got a C+, But I Expected a D+”: Conversations With Two Students
[Note: This is a coda to a series of posts titled “On Teaching Writing in a Korean University. You’ll probably get more out of this if you start at part 1.] I had an email exchange the other day with one student, and a phone conversation with another. Both threw some interesting light onto the problems I’ve discussed in this ongoing series and in other posts about teaching in Korea, so I figured I’d share. (And my next post, maybe later this week, will touch on the question of what I have to say about essays and alternative projects after having done …
Interlude: Reading Chamiseul, and Revisiting Gin Lane
So I was in the cinema waiting for a movie to start, and I saw this advertisement for 참이슬 soju. I found it both interesting and depressing. If you watch it, I’ll be you can see why: Basically, the ad suggests that all human social interactions that aren’t lubricated by alcohol suck. Alcohol is, of course, what prevents dates from being boring and timid: … and we all know office work is a true drudgery… … though with one’s little invisible ethanolic friends to entertain one… … it’s not so bad after all: (Is this an argument for drinking on …
“Beauty, Sleeping” & Thoughts on This Semester’s Creative Writing Class
I write this on Friday evening, at 10:30pm, in a coffee shop I’m likely to be kicked out of in half an hour. The only other people who’ve been here as long as I have are a couple who seem to be locked into one of those fights that involve no actual fighting, just a pretty woman sitting silently with a frown on her face, and a handsome, baffled-looking young man who is sitting across the table from her with a frustrated look on his face, learning that sometimes, a pretty woman is also the hardest sort of girlfriend to …