By Jung Joo-yang
Korea Times Intern
Yi Mun-yol, one of South Korea's most acclaimed authors, discussed ``Our Twisted Hero,'' one of his prominent works, with students at New Jersey Pennington High School on Tuesday.
The 59-year-old author, as an honorary guest of the school, responded to the students' questions by stating that through his book, he attempted to portray the flawed Korean society of the politically unstable 1980s, Yonhap news reported.
The then Korean president Chun Doo-hwan caused major outrage among Koreans in 1987, by refusing democratization.
Students showed high interest by asking various questions such as ``How did you first come up with the idea for the book?,'' ``If you could rewrite the book what would you change?'' and ``At the time of the publication were there any problems since it was such a controversial novel?''
Yi explained that his didactic novel was not written to teach readers a moral lesson, but to realistically depict the frustration Koreans had for the strict dictatorial government of that time.
Yi also said that while he would not change the conclusion, he would rewrite the novel in a more optimistic way based on the current conditions of Korea.
Gracia Rinera, 16, showed her gratitude to Yi since all her questions about the book were thoroughly answered by the author.
Michael Keo, the instructor of the class, recalled that he was referred to Yi's novel by a friend, and that this was a great educational opportunity for the students to discuss the book with the author.
After the discussion Yi noted that he was surprised at the students' accurate knowledge of the background and his hidden intentions immersed in his novel. Although the discussion session was originally planned to last about 40 minutes with a question and answer session, it went on for an hour since the questions kept being asked.
Currently Yi is studying at Harvard Korean Institute, and plans to remain in America to gather more funds for his future work. His plan to return to Korea is not finalized, and will be decided around September.