Seoul Man

[Burns, Erik]

foax:
your Pynchon mention o' the day.
etb

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Painting a sinking ship.
745 Words
26 November 2003
The Korea Herald
English
(c) 2003 The Korea Herald

"When I was young I believed in social progress because I saw chances for
personal progress of my own. Today, at the age of 65, having gone as far as
I'm about to go, I see nothing but a dead end for myself, and for my society
as well." So began the recent confession a retired professor made to me
while chatting over lunch. The retired professor was deeply disillusioned
about the current situation in Korea where there is no sign of
reconciliation between Right and Left, North and South, and even East and
West. His bitter remarks reminded me of a similar passage in Thomas
Pynchon's superb but gloomy novel "V.""I worked very hard for this company
all my life, and now they kicked me out under the name of restructuring. I'm
only 45. What am I supposed to do now?" sobbed a middle-aged man in a bar
the other day, taking a few drinks alone. "This isn't normal. This society
forces me to get drunk." "I am terribly disillusioned with the quality of
education in this country.

The purpose of education in Korea is nothing but passing the college
entrance exam. The school system is ruining my children. I can't stand this
inhumane environment anymore. In fact, I am considering of immigrating to
Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, for my children's sake," complained a
businessman to me a few days ago. Indeed, we have numerous fathers in Korea
who live alone after sending their wives and children to the United States
or Canada to provide them with a better education. The number of so-called
"wild geese dads" who are migrating to the United States during vacations to
see their families has increased considerably lately. Some of these dads
even die alone due to overwork, strokes or heart attacks. And there are the
so-called "widow villages" throughout the United States, where Korean wives
gather to live for their children's education. Meanwhile, the "wild geese
dads" in Korea send all of their paychecks to their families in the "widow
villages." The amount of money that Korean husbands send to America is
reportedly astronomical. All of this indicates that something is not quite
right in Korea these days. Perhaps we can gain some insight once again from
Thomas Pynchon who repudiates both Right and Left: "We carry on the business
of this century with an intolerable double vision. Right and Left: the
hothouse and the street. The Right can only live and work hermetically, in
the hothouse of the past, while outside the Left prosecute their affairs in
the streets by manipulated mob violence. And cannot live but in the
dreamscape of the future." What, then, should we do about this sinking,
disintegrating society of ours? Abandon the sinking ship and immigrate to
another country? Or should we try to fix the damage and save the ship? At
the end of Thomas Pynchon's novel "V" there is a powerful metaphor about
what to do with a disintegrating society. A sailor is alone on the sea,
painting the side of a sinking ship at nightfall. "What're you doing here?"
people in another boat yell at him. "The master is gone, the crew is gone, I
am here and I am painting the ship," he answers feebly. "Come aboard. Night
is nearly on us and you cannot swim to land." People in another boat urge
him to stop the painting and return to the harbor. The ship is sinking
anyway. What's the use? The sailor merely continues dipping the brush in his
jar in silence and slapping it smoothly on the creaking sides of the ship.
Pynchon suggests that the sinking ship is our society. If so, are we
supposed to mock the sailor who is stupid enough to paint the sinking ship?
Or do we still need to give it a new coat of paint even though the ship is
sinking? Nobert Wiener once suggested that in a sense, we are the
unfortunate passengers in a sinking ship called the Earth. While going down
slowly, we should do our best to slow down the process and maintain the
integrity and dignity of human beings. That may be the least we can do for
this bleak world. Dr. Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English and the
executive director of the Language Education Institute at Seoul National
University. - Ed.