Best Selling Author Imparts Harsh Reality of Life
By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
Kim Hoon has become one of the most significant novelists in South Korea since he first made his debut seven years ago upon ending a 27-year career as a newspaper journalist. With polished and unsentimental writing style, Kim won three prestigious literary awards and now is one of the best-selling novelists, injecting fresh air into the domestic literary scene which has been dominated by Japanese novels. His novels often investigate the intensity of human emotions in dire circumstances with subtlety and insight.
His latest history-inspired work, ``Namhan Fortress (Namhansanseong),’’ focusing on the 47 days King Injo of the Joseon Kingdom and his aristocrat subjects spent in isolation inside the fortress surrounded by the enemy, has maintained its top spot on best-seller lists for seven consecutive weeks since its publication in April.
He had just returned from a promotional event at a major bookstore when he sat down for an interview with The Korea Times last week.
Rejecting Nationalism, Romanticism
Asked why he thinks his novels are popular, Kim replied, ``it is because my novels do not have the nationalism nor romanticism familiar in other novels dealing with Korean history.’’
``Koreans have a long tradition of speaking from a nationalist’s or romanticist’s point of view when talking about disgrace of their country. However, I just wanted to show crude reality of life as it is,’’ said the 59-year-old.
Instead of criticizing King Injo’s surrender to the Ching Dynasty or distinguishing the right and wrong of the ruling class, Kim delves into portraying a futile war of words triggered by aristocrats along with the agony of ordinary people in Namhan Fortress, where King Injo (1595-1649) sought refugee when the Ching Dynasty invaded the Joseon Kingdom. In the novel, it is not only King Injo who seems to have his own justifiable reasons for his deeds, but also the enemy, the King of the Ching Dynasty.
He said that the characters in the novel are not ``nationalistic, nor patriotic,’’ saying that they are just ``individual existences who are strong enough to barge their way into future.’’
``For example, when King Injo and his aristocrat subjects come into Namhan Fortress, a blacksmith Seonalsoe asks them to leave, saying that he wants to live. That shows that he is not a person who has purposeless nationalism nor patriotism,” he said. ``In the fortress there were millions of kinds of people _ people who wanted to fight, people who wanted to surrender, people who wanted to fight but changed their minds, silent people, people who escaped and people who came in to seek refuge… I wanted to give justification for each one of them. The point of my novel is not to distinguish right from wrong but to show how life is a sacred thing even in disgraceful situations.’’
He describes ideological struggle amongst aristocrats and literati as meaningless and void. At the end of the novel, after King Injo’s surrender, blacksmith, Seonalsoe, goes back to his ordinary life, tending to the field.
``Although it is a weak hope, I could only suggest an alternative by showing continuity of everyday life of ordinary people like Seonalsoe, instead of siding with certain ideology,’’ he said.
He said that although he reads scriptures of various religions in order to understand the world of religion, he is not the kind of person who can be religious.
``In `Namhan Fortress,’ the situation in there is great for some God or Almighty to appear. If the writer believes in values of transcendence and religion, the God might have appeared in such desperate situations of humans. All the characters would have fought till the end without surrender as they can just die and go to heaven,’’ he said. ``However, I could not allow appearance of the Almighty in the most desperate situation of characters in the fortress. Rather than describing transcendence and religion, I am interested in delving into worldly values and lives of people who have their feet on earth.’’
A Flexible Conservative
Kim said that although he believes in conservative values and has conservative characteristics, he is not a person who worships conservatism as ideology and does not acknowledge existence of people of different opinions.
``I hope progressives will take more flexible attitude like myself too. I do not trust people who stick to consistency in their ideology or doctrines. Those who believe in consistent ideology may be less stressed due to their simple minds but in reality, they are barely able to solve problems,’’ he said. ``I believe both conservatism and progressivism can be curbed or adjusted in ways to solve real problems. Actually, I think it is absurd to name people as either conservatives or progressives in the first place as our reality is neither.’’
Women are Unfamiliar
Kim is often criticized for sidelining female characters. In his novels, female characters are most of the time objectified as pale-skinned with innocent faces, which have led some feminists to call him macho.
For example, in his 2004 award-winning short story ``Cremation,’’ the novelist uses women’s bodies as metaphors for both death and life while describing a married middle-aged man’s unrequited love for a young colleague.
Kim said that the lack of diversity in his female characters is simply because he does not know women very much.
``I just can’t write well when a woman appears as a protagonist. It’s just because I do not know them very much and I have not much experience with women. Women are just so unfamiliar to me,’’ he said. ``So I felt really at ease when I wrote `Namhan Fortress’ because there were no women characters except for a little girl, a daughter of the killed boatman.’’
He said that he understands those who criticize him for stereotyping women and not giving personality to them in his work.
``I am very well aware of my problem. Women comprise half of the world and as a writer I cannot exclude them from my work. But it’s still so hard to write about them. That is my big problem. That’s the problem that I have to solve,’’ he said.
Therefore, he said that it was such a pain for him to write his 2005 award-winning novel ``Sister’s Menopause’’ which features women in their fifties. His description of menstruation syndrome as well as details of lifestyle of middle-aged women is so delicate that even women writers have expressed their admiration.
Kim said that the novel was based on in-depth research.
``To write the novel, I had to collect various advertisements for women’s products and women’s magazines like ``Cosmopolitan’’ and ``Allure.’’ From them I got to know many details of women including menstruation, lingerie, fashion, handbags, hairstyles and makeup. My wife would pity me for doing such things, but that was the only way I could study women,’’ he said.
Kim said that his next work would deal with contemporary society.
``I know that it would be a hard task too. I am always worried about how to live up to readers’ expectations and show them a new world through my novel,’’ he said. ``Sometimes I just feel so worried and scared. On such days, I have to drink. There are many times I feel helpless as to how to go on as a novelist.’’
Kim thinks that the responsibility of a writer is to prove the beauty of humans through the beautiful language of humans.
``Beauty cannot exist alone. It always exists along with all the dirt, frustration, corruption, contradiction, devils and violence. It is always with them. Therefore, talking about beauty means talking about all the dirt of the world,’’ he said.