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Modern Korean Literature #91
The Wings
The three stories gathered in this volume display Yi, Sang's inventive manipulation of autobiographical elements, a method which expands his intensely private narratives into broader meditations on love, life, and death. "The Wings," a dark allegory of infidelity and self-deception, probes the ambiguities of perception and language through an unreliable narrator who bears an uncanny resemblance to the author himself. "Encounters and Departures," a tale of ill-fated love revolving around erotic passion and physical illness as metaphors presents a female protagonist modelled on the woman who was, in real life, the author's muse and femme fatale. Similarly, in "Deathly Child," Yi, Sang offers a witty, incisive examination of sexual mores through a fictional reenactment of his ambivalent feelings toward the woman he married toward the end of his life.
84 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
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About the author
Yi Sang
19 books35 followersKim Hae-Gyeong (hangul: 김해경, hanja: 金海卿, September 23, 1910 – April 17, 1937), also known as his pen name Yi Sang (hangul: 이상, hanja: 李箱) was a writer and poet who lived in Korea under Japanese rule.[1] He is well-known for his poems and novels, such as Crow's-Eye View (hangul: 오감도, hanja: 烏瞰圖) and Wings (hangul: 날개). He is considered as one of the most important and revolutionary writers of modern Korean literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
March 20, 2018
Taking all the time in the world, yet so efficient. Every word is breath taking. It is funny too. In its own way. Death and suffering are undisguised and explicit but somehow, there is a lack of morbidity. There is romance and tragedy without sentimentalism. And a cheeky meditation on irony and paradox, which I am not sure if I understand completely but Junot Diaz said that one does not have to understand every motivation behind a work of art in order to engage with it in a meaningful way or something to that effect and I agree with Junot. Junot speaks truths. Yi Sang teases truths. Read it. It takes a whole minute.
February 14, 2018
I can't speak to the quality of the translation, as this is the first version of this book I've read, and I can't read Korean. Typos are certainly present, at least 3 or 4 a story, but usually you can infer the meaning.
The book itself is a selection of stories all very similar-feeling, mostly about a young, unemployed 20-something year old man who feels himself a failure and morosely observes his wife's infidelity.
All the stories are very voice-driven, think Notes from the Underground or Hamsun's Hunger. The internal monologue and the technique of breaking the material of the story into pieces colored by the eyes of the narrator is deftly handled. A deep current of muted emotion is unmistakably felt throughout the stories, a stillness always on the point of breaking into either violence or revelation, but any moment of emotional catharsis is stifled under what is felt to be an inevitable inability to act.
Yi Sang captures this deeply complex emotion with narrative cuts that highlight the banality and material poverty of his days and contrast this with the almost reverential awe he has for the object of his desire, always a young woman, who is either married to another man or a prostitute (never explicitly said, but implied.) His portrayal of the female counterpart to his author stand-in is always well executed, she has the feeling of being a fully independent person in each story, and behaves realistically, growing resentful and fed up with his immobility and slothfulness. This is tempered with loving acts which hint at a protective care she feels for him, although in some stories it seems like this is all she gets out of the relationship, a feeling of giving and in return being admired. Which is perhaps realistic, another large theme is the confusion of being a human in a commodifying, automating culture. Where one goes for love when traditional systems are being either repressed, outlawed, or segmented into unrecognizability. Yi Sang is also writing out of a historical moment of brutal oppression and occupation by Japan.
The stories are sometimes used as an example of the Korean idea of "Han," a difficult concept that incorporates feelings of helplessness, oppression and isolation. I'm hardly an expert on that, but if you're interested it might be illuminating to look it up and gain an extra perspective on the work.
The best story is the first one, The Wings. The relationship between the author surrogate and his wife is rendered so precisely that each interaction is charged with pathos, from the coins she leaves him by his bedside, to his willful avoidance of her during the nights when she is entertaining her stranger guests. The implication of infidelity is allowed to linger and permeate, but it is always kept out of the center of the story, and the reader experiences the same willed blindness that the main character lives with. When he begins to rebel and "accidentally" passes through her room while she is "entertaining," we feel the same relief and happiness he does when his wife responds by caring for him more, and then immediately are born down by the shame of needing her to give us money so we may go out the next night and not disturb her. Maybe I see a lot of myself in the main character, and that's why identification comes so easily to me, but I feel that Yi Sang's writing style by itself does an incredible job, especially in this first story, of implicating the reader and getting them to inhabit the skin of his narrator. Bodily illness and anhedonia fill the pages, and this malaise passes from the book into the reader, so that moments of desperation strike more immediately. This is accomplished with sentence-by-sentence descriptions of rising and walking mixed with boredom and disorientation, leading into passages of protuberant emotion that never break into expression, but push against the skin.
I won't spoil the incredible climax, but the feeling of release and hope at the end is easily worth the price of the book and the time taken reading it. Yi Sang uses the epiphany ending popularized in Western literature around the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century for all of his short stories, which is perhaps why they feel so contemporary to me, because that is a style that has continued into present day. The ending of The Wings is a true epiphany however, and one can see why he is so influential for so many contemporary Korean writers.
The book itself is a selection of stories all very similar-feeling, mostly about a young, unemployed 20-something year old man who feels himself a failure and morosely observes his wife's infidelity.
All the stories are very voice-driven, think Notes from the Underground or Hamsun's Hunger. The internal monologue and the technique of breaking the material of the story into pieces colored by the eyes of the narrator is deftly handled. A deep current of muted emotion is unmistakably felt throughout the stories, a stillness always on the point of breaking into either violence or revelation, but any moment of emotional catharsis is stifled under what is felt to be an inevitable inability to act.
Yi Sang captures this deeply complex emotion with narrative cuts that highlight the banality and material poverty of his days and contrast this with the almost reverential awe he has for the object of his desire, always a young woman, who is either married to another man or a prostitute (never explicitly said, but implied.) His portrayal of the female counterpart to his author stand-in is always well executed, she has the feeling of being a fully independent person in each story, and behaves realistically, growing resentful and fed up with his immobility and slothfulness. This is tempered with loving acts which hint at a protective care she feels for him, although in some stories it seems like this is all she gets out of the relationship, a feeling of giving and in return being admired. Which is perhaps realistic, another large theme is the confusion of being a human in a commodifying, automating culture. Where one goes for love when traditional systems are being either repressed, outlawed, or segmented into unrecognizability. Yi Sang is also writing out of a historical moment of brutal oppression and occupation by Japan.
The stories are sometimes used as an example of the Korean idea of "Han," a difficult concept that incorporates feelings of helplessness, oppression and isolation. I'm hardly an expert on that, but if you're interested it might be illuminating to look it up and gain an extra perspective on the work.
The best story is the first one, The Wings. The relationship between the author surrogate and his wife is rendered so precisely that each interaction is charged with pathos, from the coins she leaves him by his bedside, to his willful avoidance of her during the nights when she is entertaining her stranger guests. The implication of infidelity is allowed to linger and permeate, but it is always kept out of the center of the story, and the reader experiences the same willed blindness that the main character lives with. When he begins to rebel and "accidentally" passes through her room while she is "entertaining," we feel the same relief and happiness he does when his wife responds by caring for him more, and then immediately are born down by the shame of needing her to give us money so we may go out the next night and not disturb her. Maybe I see a lot of myself in the main character, and that's why identification comes so easily to me, but I feel that Yi Sang's writing style by itself does an incredible job, especially in this first story, of implicating the reader and getting them to inhabit the skin of his narrator. Bodily illness and anhedonia fill the pages, and this malaise passes from the book into the reader, so that moments of desperation strike more immediately. This is accomplished with sentence-by-sentence descriptions of rising and walking mixed with boredom and disorientation, leading into passages of protuberant emotion that never break into expression, but push against the skin.
I won't spoil the incredible climax, but the feeling of release and hope at the end is easily worth the price of the book and the time taken reading it. Yi Sang uses the epiphany ending popularized in Western literature around the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century for all of his short stories, which is perhaps why they feel so contemporary to me, because that is a style that has continued into present day. The ending of The Wings is a true epiphany however, and one can see why he is so influential for so many contemporary Korean writers.
June 5, 2017
Acá hay algo de Dazai -maestro del quilombo suicida- y de ese ambiente tuberculoso y decadente de algunos escritores japoneses de la década del 10-20s. Tipos que leían traducciones de Zola, Flaubert, y las pequeñas novelas del yo. Esa unión deliciosa entre la pequeña forma realista, atenta a la descripción del detalle y la percepción, el juego de lo autobiográfico, lo sexual y lo decadente moderno.
Espero que en los próximos años aparezcan muchas más traducciones de este período, la literatura coreana escrita bajo la ocupación imperial japonesa,... se me cae un poco la baba.
Espero que en los próximos años aparezcan muchas más traducciones de este período, la literatura coreana escrita bajo la ocupación imperial japonesa,... se me cae un poco la baba.
December 22, 2024
As far as I know, this is the second Korean work I’ve read, the first being Han Kang’s. The story is quite absurd and vague, which I think is Yi Sang’s way of using metaphors to shape the narrative.
The wife’s profession is also unclear. I couldn’t help but wonder—like some readers probably do—if she might be a prostitute, and the husband simply chooses not to confront it.
But that’s the beauty of short stories. They leave room for interpretation, and I’m sure Yi Sang intended this one to spark plenty of discussion.
The wife’s profession is also unclear. I couldn’t help but wonder—like some readers probably do—if she might be a prostitute, and the husband simply chooses not to confront it.
But that’s the beauty of short stories. They leave room for interpretation, and I’m sure Yi Sang intended this one to spark plenty of discussion.
December 22, 2010
This translation is definitely superior to what was for far too long the most widely read one: Peter H. Lee's, included in several of the modern Korean literature anthologies he compiled for the University Press of Hawai'i. PHL's translation drops sentences (sometimes a whole paragraph) from several different locations in the text without ever explaining why or even acknowledging the abridgements.
For what is usually considered the best translation, however, check out the one by Walter K. Lew and Youngju Ryu that was published in the anthology MODERN KOREAN FICTION, coedited by Bruce Fulton and Kwon Youngmin (Columbia U. Press, 2005). Even just the first few paragraphs, previously deemed untranslatable by Korean scholars, should blow you away!
For what is usually considered the best translation, however, check out the one by Walter K. Lew and Youngju Ryu that was published in the anthology MODERN KOREAN FICTION, coedited by Bruce Fulton and Kwon Youngmin (Columbia U. Press, 2005). Even just the first few paragraphs, previously deemed untranslatable by Korean scholars, should blow you away!
July 19, 2022
Read The Wings again to refresh my memory. This time, after having traversed through many different pieces of Yi Sang's writing and analyzed them for my thesis I found the text much easier to parse through. Out of all of Yi Sang's short stories, The Wings might be one of the more easily accessible ones when it comes to style of writing and narrative flow. That might be one of the reasons why it's still so popular and the most well-known of his short stories.
The Wings precede Yi Sang's other short stories and maybe carry the least of the author in them. Don't be tricked - this story is still very autobiographical but much more dishonest than some others - quite a lot like our unreliable narrator here. While even in his later works, Yi Sang acknowledges his character (the I character) to be unreliable, here it is alluded to but not explicitly called out within the text. It's a tentative fantasy, a metaphorical step not quite as close to the deeply intimate works we can attribute to him later on.
/I will edit this and add my review of Bongbyeolgi once I find time to read it too/
The Wings precede Yi Sang's other short stories and maybe carry the least of the author in them. Don't be tricked - this story is still very autobiographical but much more dishonest than some others - quite a lot like our unreliable narrator here. While even in his later works, Yi Sang acknowledges his character (the I character) to be unreliable, here it is alluded to but not explicitly called out within the text. It's a tentative fantasy, a metaphorical step not quite as close to the deeply intimate works we can attribute to him later on.
/I will edit this and add my review of Bongbyeolgi once I find time to read it too/
December 2, 2023
to be honest, i think i may leave this book a changed man. (exaggeration, but still!) initially picked up for the wings, but decided to read the other two stories as well out of curiosity. i do love the writing and how down-to-life (if.. that's a term) it is. the autobiographical aspect of the stories really makes ya wonder. all 3 stories in my opinion are a quick read and absolutely something i think you should read if you're interested!
(bad at formal reviews orz i just wanted to put my thoughts here)
(bad at formal reviews orz i just wanted to put my thoughts here)
November 20, 2022
‘The Wings’ is a collection of short stories by a man who died too young. Heavily autobiographical, Yi Sang shamelessly bared his flaws for the world to see. Dead at 27 in a Japanese prison for a ‘thought crime’, this young Korean writer gave us a look into the despair and pressure of Korean life under Japanese occupation. Yet, he doesn’t write about the Japanese. In his stories, he is the villain. He was aware of his every flaw.
The episodes of love and heartbreak aren’t heroic, romantic, thrilling or any other positive adjective. What we see is a lens of honesty into a broken man’s life. The power of literature is great, and its scope is not limited to entertainment or education. Here literature has preserved a life and a period in time better than any biography could have. The sole problem is that Yi Sang seemed aware only of his negative traits.
The episodes of love and heartbreak aren’t heroic, romantic, thrilling or any other positive adjective. What we see is a lens of honesty into a broken man’s life. The power of literature is great, and its scope is not limited to entertainment or education. Here literature has preserved a life and a period in time better than any biography could have. The sole problem is that Yi Sang seemed aware only of his negative traits.
November 25, 2017
4 stars for Wings...
The theme of adultery is present in all three stories. The weak, sick protagonist is also in all three which leads me to think that the stories are somehow autobiographical in nature.
It is clear the Yi Sang was depressed for many reasons. I felt that he had poured his soul into these short stories and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
The theme of adultery is present in all three stories. The weak, sick protagonist is also in all three which leads me to think that the stories are somehow autobiographical in nature.
It is clear the Yi Sang was depressed for many reasons. I felt that he had poured his soul into these short stories and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
September 20, 2023
I'm not the biggest poetry reader so when my friend recommended me this I was on the fence. A few weeks and a lot of harassing later I finally picked this open and oh my god. This changed my life, like actually. I don't even know how to begin to put into words how well done this poetry is, Yi Sang is a wonderful author and I heavily recommend reading The Wings as well as his other works.
May 7, 2019
Similar to Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human but with a looser narrative, and more dreamlike than a traditional story.
May 24, 2023
the wings is about 40 pages all in all. it made me feel very unwell. please read it
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June 12, 2023Çok yakında Türkçe'ye çevirisiyle okuyacağınız Yi Sang'ın Kanatlar kitabının baskı öncesi okumasını yapmak çok keyifliydi. Fakat edebi bir metin olduğu için epey zorlandım diyebilirim. Üstüne Kore'nin ilk psikolojik romanı olmasını da eklersek içinde barındırdığı anlamlar daha da anlamlı geldi. Japon sömürge dönemine çok fazla atıfta bulunulmuş. Hatta bu dönemi metaforlarla anlatmışta diyebiliriz. Yi Sang'ın şair olduğunu da bildiğimden yazılanların şiirsel ahengini de yakalamak heyecan verici.
Çeviri çıktığında mutlaka okuyun derim😉
Çeviri çıktığında mutlaka okuyun derim😉
December 1, 2020
I found the beginning a bit odd; I can't quite figure out what the beginning is doing for the story -- and also the bolded words are confusing to me.
I found this analysis on Korean American Story to be quite accurate: "an unreliable, not necessarily likable narrator, who merely reacts to the moment and lacks the traditions of male ambition and desire." And I found another analysis of the story to say this: "an allegory of how an entire generation of intellectuals sought to survive in a colonial setting by becoming entirely private, shielding themselves with self-deceptions until even that became impossible."
I wondered why the narrator was unable to name his wife's profession...was this a commentary on something else he's unable to name? Why is he unable to break away from her? Why are they isolated from each other, from the world? Why is he so emasculated?
I want to read more of his work!
I found this analysis on Korean American Story to be quite accurate: "an unreliable, not necessarily likable narrator, who merely reacts to the moment and lacks the traditions of male ambition and desire." And I found another analysis of the story to say this: "an allegory of how an entire generation of intellectuals sought to survive in a colonial setting by becoming entirely private, shielding themselves with self-deceptions until even that became impossible."
I wondered why the narrator was unable to name his wife's profession...was this a commentary on something else he's unable to name? Why is he unable to break away from her? Why are they isolated from each other, from the world? Why is he so emasculated?
I want to read more of his work!
Currently reading
July 20, 2022KBS Korea 24 @KBSKorea24
"#KoreaBookClub 📚, literary critic @barrywelsh brings us one of the most significant works by one of Korea’s most influential writers: “Wings (#날개)” by Yi Sang (#이상).
First published in 1936, the short story centers around a man who is living with his wife in the brothel where she works. He is jaded with life and society and losing the ability to understand the world around him meaningfully.
Many interpretations of the work have emerged over the years, from a colonial reading of life under Japanese rule, to Marxist, feminist and even queer intereperations.”
#KBSWORLDRadio #KBS월드라디오 #Korea24 #코리아24 #책추천 #책스타그램 #북스타그램 #bookstagram #book #reading #KoreanLiterature #한국문학 #asiapublishers #아시아출판사
19:10-20:00 KST, Mon-Fri on KBS WORLD Radio.
Download the KBS Kong / KBS WORLD Radio Mobile apps or subscribe to the Korea 24 podcast for your daily updates!
http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/progra...
"#KoreaBookClub 📚, literary critic @barrywelsh brings us one of the most significant works by one of Korea’s most influential writers: “Wings (#날개)” by Yi Sang (#이상).
First published in 1936, the short story centers around a man who is living with his wife in the brothel where she works. He is jaded with life and society and losing the ability to understand the world around him meaningfully.
Many interpretations of the work have emerged over the years, from a colonial reading of life under Japanese rule, to Marxist, feminist and even queer intereperations.”
#KBSWORLDRadio #KBS월드라디오 #Korea24 #코리아24 #책추천 #책스타그램 #북스타그램 #bookstagram #book #reading #KoreanLiterature #한국문학 #asiapublishers #아시아출판사
19:10-20:00 KST, Mon-Fri on KBS WORLD Radio.
Download the KBS Kong / KBS WORLD Radio Mobile apps or subscribe to the Korea 24 podcast for your daily updates!
http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/progra...
April 13, 2020
Losing a wife is like losing a wallet.
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April 18, 2024Fly perfect wings
June 17, 2022
Will definitely need to read an analysis of this at some point because I'm not sure about what I even read at some parts and whether I understood some metaphors or not, but I still felt engaged and intrigued every time I picked it up, so for that I'm giving it 4 stars.
(The English translations at times were oof, I think I even found some gramatical errors that made the already confusing text even more puzzling... Or maybe that was the author's intention?)
(The English translations at times were oof, I think I even found some gramatical errors that made the already confusing text even more puzzling... Or maybe that was the author's intention?)
August 12, 2020
First adult book I read in Korean...but the English translation running alongside the Korean text in this edition helped a lot.
I understand and respect the significance of this book, ahead of its time and written in the 30s by a man who ended up dying at age 27 in Tokyo after being imprisoned by the police of the country that had colonized his own.
However, this is not a pleasant book. The language is sparse, absurdist, and crude, and of course the highly symbolic plot (tragedy of the modern man, desperation of a colonized nation) is depressing and could offer no redemption. Of course, that was kind of the point.
I understand and respect the significance of this book, ahead of its time and written in the 30s by a man who ended up dying at age 27 in Tokyo after being imprisoned by the police of the country that had colonized his own.
However, this is not a pleasant book. The language is sparse, absurdist, and crude, and of course the highly symbolic plot (tragedy of the modern man, desperation of a colonized nation) is depressing and could offer no redemption. Of course, that was kind of the point.
November 10, 2020
While the translation does not fully capture the liberties and experiments Yi Sang took with grammar, rhythm, and repetition (for which his work is so acclaimed today), the pieces compiled here demonstrate the author's skill for describing internal suffering through concise prose.
In a trim 34 pages, Yi's stream of consciousness can be read as an allegorical protest against colonialism and subservience to the 'Other;' an analysis of alienation, psychological torment, and manipulation; an exploration of the ambiguity of perception, and/or; a complaint levelled against modernization and the centrality of currency.
In a trim 34 pages, Yi's stream of consciousness can be read as an allegorical protest against colonialism and subservience to the 'Other;' an analysis of alienation, psychological torment, and manipulation; an exploration of the ambiguity of perception, and/or; a complaint levelled against modernization and the centrality of currency.
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October 17, 2021I can't rate this book because the English translation was so bad that I am not able to "judge" the book.
I bought the Ebook on Amazon. It is only 20 pages long (according to goodreads, it should be 80-ish pages long). The sentencing was weird, the spelling (large and lower case) were often wrong and sometimes even parts of sentences were missing.
If I should rate the parts that I was able to read, I would give the story a 2-3 stars rating.
I bought the Ebook on Amazon. It is only 20 pages long (according to goodreads, it should be 80-ish pages long). The sentencing was weird, the spelling (large and lower case) were often wrong and sometimes even parts of sentences were missing.
If I should rate the parts that I was able to read, I would give the story a 2-3 stars rating.
February 24, 2024
I read it once. I didn't understand a thing. I read it again. "I get it now. He is like me fr. He is like Gregor if he wasn't a bug. I too, want to fly my wings" I whispered before eating the paper so we would never, ever part.
Good shit. Too bad Yi Sang is dead and can't pay for the therapy I now need after reliving traumas I didn't even know I had.
Good shit. Too bad Yi Sang is dead and can't pay for the therapy I now need after reliving traumas I didn't even know I had.
January 3, 2023
I stopped my pace and wanted to shout. Wings, spread out again! Fly, Fly, Fly. Let me fly once more.
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June 13, 2024this guy cannot pull 😭😭
January 26, 2025
The main character's thoughts are fragmented and chaotic; his innocence blinds him from such truths and acknowledgement about his own wife, along with the theme of alienation where one feels hopeless forlorn.
The writing style is experimental, thus is compelling to me. it pulls the reader into his claustrophobic mental space where thoughts are all shattered and lost.
Yi Sang used this as a metaphor about Korea during that time which is under an oppressive Japanese regime. Overall, "The Wings" displays the author's inner turmoil and societal disarray caused by the colonial oppression.
The writing style is experimental, thus is compelling to me. it pulls the reader into his claustrophobic mental space where thoughts are all shattered and lost.
Yi Sang used this as a metaphor about Korea during that time which is under an oppressive Japanese regime. Overall, "The Wings" displays the author's inner turmoil and societal disarray caused by the colonial oppression.
February 3, 2021
Three short stories by Yi Sang, who's regarded as one of the avant-garde writers of Korea's colonized period. The title story "The Wings" tells the story of a man who lives in a house with his wife, one room his room, the other room hers, and he's not really allowed in her room, though it seems to be an unstated agreement between the couple that his wife is entertaining guests in there for money. All the while, it eats away at him. Sometimes she leaves him tips. This is such an interesting premise for her story that I wished I had seen it better executed.
In the second story "Encounters and Departures," the narrator marries a prostitute, but then seems to grow to resent his new wife, unconcerned when she finally leaves him. And that's just the half of it.
In "Deathly Child," there is an interesting image where a male narrator visits a prostitute (I'm sensing a pattern to these stories) and to make their relations official, she asks that he marry her by placing a ring on her finger. As with the title story, it is these kinds of interesting starts for stories that make their disappointing executions so frustrating, which is why this book didn't really catch me. That said, it wouldn't turn me away from another story by Yi Sang were someone to be really insistent that that recommended story is one to read.
In the second story "Encounters and Departures," the narrator marries a prostitute, but then seems to grow to resent his new wife, unconcerned when she finally leaves him. And that's just the half of it.
In "Deathly Child," there is an interesting image where a male narrator visits a prostitute (I'm sensing a pattern to these stories) and to make their relations official, she asks that he marry her by placing a ring on her finger. As with the title story, it is these kinds of interesting starts for stories that make their disappointing executions so frustrating, which is why this book didn't really catch me. That said, it wouldn't turn me away from another story by Yi Sang were someone to be really insistent that that recommended story is one to read.
October 19, 2018
The MA thesis on surrealism in The Dwarf by Forsyth which I read last week mentioned this as one of the first important modern works of Korean literature and an example of Korean surrealism; it is certainly both. The free pdf version I read, in the Portable Library of Korean Literature, actually contained two other short stories by Yi Sang as well as this novella, "Encounters and Departures" and "Deathly Child." All three works, written in the 1930's, are much more closely related to the surrealist tradition than the novel by Cho. They all deal with a narrator (probably based on Yi Sang himself) and his relationship with his wife; traditional Korean gender roles are reversed in that the wife works and supports the idle husband (and in the novella "Wings" he is essentially enclosed in the "inner room" which is where the wife is kept secluded in the traditional home). The distinction between the outside "real" world and the imaginary world in the mind of the narrator is blurred as it is in European surrealist works, and the language is filled with absurd metaphors and comparisons. Yi Sang died at the age of 27 of tuberculosis after a period of imprisonment for "thought crimes" against the Japanese colonial government; a major Korean literary prize is named for him.
April 17, 2024
The Wings is my favourite book of all time, When I first read it alot of it made little to no sense other than the fact that the protagonist was an odd, physically frail man and that his wife was a prostitute/call girl but with its enticing language and absurd way of portraying the protagonists thoughts I did some research on Yi Sang and the cultural context in which the book was written, doing this opened my eyes to the true brilliance of this book and its realistic portrayal of how the Korean population felt during the Japanese occupation at the time while also showing the tragic display of a "stuffed genius" longingly wishing for his "wings" to return to him.
The book is quite similar to stories such as Kafkas "Metamorphosis" with its depiction of a disenabled man but unlike in Kafkas book the character has an indifferent attitude throughout most of the book similar to Meursault from Camus's "The Outsider" and ontop of that presents itself in an almost autobiographical manner which altogether makes the book appear as an absurd dream in written format.
In short I love this book and it has easily become my favourite book ever written 10/10, 3 Michelin Stars and whatnot
The book is quite similar to stories such as Kafkas "Metamorphosis" with its depiction of a disenabled man but unlike in Kafkas book the character has an indifferent attitude throughout most of the book similar to Meursault from Camus's "The Outsider" and ontop of that presents itself in an almost autobiographical manner which altogether makes the book appear as an absurd dream in written format.
In short I love this book and it has easily become my favourite book ever written 10/10, 3 Michelin Stars and whatnot
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January 1, 2016"I do not have dealings with anyone in this world, so I feel that God can neither reward nor punish me in any way."
Although I read a more recent translation of the same story in a better-funded-seeming collection where this sentence and all of the quotes I liked best were totally different and, imo, worse. Is it a good rule of thumb that a more recent translation that looks like more resources went into it is usually better? If so, I have no idea how much I like Yi Sang. I like his poems too. All these books are overdue at the library but I'm not gonna return them until I read a little more from them.
Although I read a more recent translation of the same story in a better-funded-seeming collection where this sentence and all of the quotes I liked best were totally different and, imo, worse. Is it a good rule of thumb that a more recent translation that looks like more resources went into it is usually better? If so, I have no idea how much I like Yi Sang. I like his poems too. All these books are overdue at the library but I'm not gonna return them until I read a little more from them.
August 2, 2020
For all the unique distortion Yi Sang brings early 20th century Modernism, It is very much 20th century modernism. While I haven't researched it yet (this isn't gospel) my immediate thought was Yi was deeply inspired by Baudelaire and French Symbolism more broadly. It's got that pro-anti civilization bent.
Very quick read, very classic style. Would definitely recommend for people who love Modernist literature. Also check out Lu Xun's A Madman's Diary , which has the same energy.
Very quick read, very classic style. Would definitely recommend for people who love Modernist literature. Also check out Lu Xun's A Madman's Diary , which has the same energy.
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