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| From left are cover images of "Summer, Speed," "Times and Mood" and "The 11th Young Writer Award Collection." The titles were translated from Korean. Courtesy of Changbi Publishers and Munhakdongne Publishing |
By Park Ji-won
The nation's leading publishers suspended publication of award-winning gay author Kim Bong-gon's books as they stirred up a controversy by revealing private information of acquaintances without their consent in his novels, even disclosing their sexual orientations.
Munhakdongne Publishing said Friday it will stop selling Kim's embattled "Summer, Speed" (2018) and "The 11th Young Writer Award Collection" (2020) over the complaints raised against the two books, while making apologies to the victims over the situation.
"We confirmed that there were complaints against author Kim Bong-gon's novel Summer, Speed on social media and Kim admitted it. To prevent further damage and take additional measures over the situation, we decided to stop publishing the book and The 11th Young Writer Award Collection… We apologize to anyone affected," the publisher wrote on Twitter Friday.
Changbi Publishers also said it will stop publishing "Times and Mood" in Korean, a collection of Kim's works, as there are similar problems with his story "Such Lives" (2020). It apologized to those affected and readers.
"Changbi takes the situation very seriously while listening to the voices of the victims. We decided to suspend publication of Kim's Times and Mood and will take further measures over the situation. We again apologize to the readers and those unfairly affected," Changbi Publishers tweeted, Friday.
Kim, an openly gay author who debuted in 2016, has been gaining popularity for his autofictional books as a gay man and for paving the way for queer literature in Korea. "Summer, Speed" is highly assessed among viewers as it depicts the mentality of gay men. Kim was also awarded by the publisher for "Such Lives," which also explores sexual identity.
The remarks came after two person claimed for breach of privacy because Kim cited private text messages with them in his two novels "Summer, Speed" and "Such Lives" without their consents and modification.
A man claimed on Twitter Friday that the book outed him as gay without his consent and detailed his personal information including text messages between him and Kim in the novel "Summer, Speed."
The person said the description of the character is pretty much the same as himself except for the character's name. The person said he felt embarrassed and insulted after reading the book and asked Kim to fix the novel but it didn't happen.
He expressed anger and questioned the legitimacy of the literacy by saying "Can we define it as literature only because it is titled as a novel even though it took advantage of a person's private text messages and life as materials, which ended up outing and hurting someone?... I want to publicly call it as an (Kim's) exploitation with full of personal desire under the name of 'autofiction' which hurts living individuals."
A woman earlier claimed that she asked Kim to modify the novel "Such Lives" over the quotes of intimate text messages between her and Kim, but her request was ignored by Kim and the publishers.
"As you can see in the novel, there are expressions that could show shame on sexuality and self-loathing. As the author writes something for living, an ordinary person has a life which should remain private for living," the person said on Twitter on July 10.
Even though the publishers released statement to apology, but multiple authors started boycotting the publishers, pledging not to publish their pieces with the companies.
Stressing that she was disappointed by Changbi, author Kim Cho-yeop said on Instagram she will not publish her next book with Changbi and she already told the publisher that she will not send her piece for its quarterly publication.
Jeong So-yeon, a lawyer and science fiction writer, also said on Twitter that she asked Changbi to cancel the contract with her and will take her intellectual rights back citing the publisher's inappropriate countermeasures against the controversy.
