Book Epitomizes Jo’s 40-Year Writing Career
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
It is amazing that more than 1,200 characters appear in Jo Jung-rae’s epic historical trilogy ― ``Taebaek Mountain Range,’’ ``Han River’’ and ``Arirang.’’ Each of the epic masterpieces is over 10 volumes, and deals with different aspects of Korea’s turbulent history in the modern age.
How could the author create the fictional characters in these long epic stories? The veteran novelist Jo revealed his secret about writing the masterpieces in a new biographical essay, ``Thrilling Writing in Prison’’ published by Sisa In Book.
The 66-year-old author said that during the 20 years he wrote the three epic novels, he didn’t use any ``draft notes.’’ Instead, he had a sheet of paper in which he wrote down only the names of characters to avoid a repeated name.
Once he decides a subject matter for a novel, the composition is spontaneously constructed in his head. ``I am very poor at memorizing people’s names in real life and their faces too. But I have never made a mistake in dealing with even a small incident in the story composition and have never forgotten a small character. It’s a matter of interest and indifference, and carelessness and concentration,’’ he said.
He added that it’s because literature allows him to concentrate. ``I have never coveted other professions because I feel more than satisfied about the ability and even thrilled with it,’’ he said.
But he confessed that one reader pointed out the only repeated name Heo Jin both used in ``Arirang’’ and ``Han River’’ among more than 1,200 characters.
``It was the first time for me to feel embarrassed but at the same time, I felt thankful and sorry for the reader who made notes to remember numerous names appearing on my novels,’’ he said.
Consisting of 84 questions and answers selected from 5,000 questions asked by collegians and young readers, the book deals with literature, literary works, and life. The book is also to mark the 40th anniversary of his debut.
``I unveiled the stories of my writing career in detail for the first time through this book. Therefore, it could be read as a sort of biography,’’ he said.
For Jo, novels are the window to a nation’s tradition, emotion and customs. Thus, he thinks writing epic novels is one of his duties to deal with the turbulent modern history. ``Most of the world classic masterpieces portray the lives of their national agonies and lands. But the reason why the classic novels gained the worldwide sympathy is that they embrace the common values touching the human desires for happiness and decent lives,’’ he said.
The writer expressed his special attachment to the three epics. Although each features a separate characteristic of the times, they are interconnected with each other.
Among others, ``Taebaek Mountain Range’’ examines the five-year period between the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) to the outbreak of the Korean War (1950-1953). In order to characterize the deep ideological conflict that erupted in violence during this period, however, the writer goes back in history to the period of colonial rule as well as the last years of the Joseon Kingdom.
With meticulous research, he shows structural contradictions, such as those that arise from class conflict deeply embedded within Korean society, and makes it clear that Korean War resulted from intensification of such contradictions through ideology.
Such perspective and writing brought on Jo personal ordeal. When he released the third volume ``Taebaek Mountain Range” in 1988, he began to be afflicted by the midnight’s threatening phone calls that continued for about 10 years.
After finishing the novel in 1989, he was about to visit China to research for the next work ``Arirang.’’ His attempt to visit China was blocked by the government but the then culture minister, Lee O-young, helped him go to China. Lee also supported his work, saying the work has literary value and it is difficult to say whether it supports North Korea when the prosecution accused him of violating the National Security Law. After 11 years of reviewing and consulting with experts, he was cleared of the accusation in 2005.
The concern with socio-economic roots of Korean division and the search for ways to overcome this national tragedy characterize Jo’s shorter works of fiction as well.
``Sorrow, That Shaded Place,’’ ``Land of Exile,’’ ``Human Stairs’’ and ``The Soul of a Barren Land’’ all engage with these themes in various ways.
His earlier works, however, tend to reconstruct the space of traditional folk life and target absurdities of life in a more general fashion. ``A Woman from Cheongsan,’’ ``The Violent Instructor,’’ ``The Shaded Slope,’’ ``The Age of Geocentrism’’ and ``Foreign Land’’ provide good examples of these tendencies.
The biographical essay also unveiled his personal sides such as his high school photo showing his good body shape after weight lifting for a year and his interest in drawing painting from his youth.
Jo was born in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province in 1943. He majored in Korean Literature at Dongguk University, and worked as a high school teacher for several years after graduation.
He debuted in 1970 with the short story ``A False Charge.’’ In 1984 he took charge of the literary magazine, Korean Literature, and remained at the helm into the latter part of that decade.