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English(English) Article

Standing Alone Like a Rhino’s Horn: An Introduction to Writer Bok Geo-il | LIST

About the Article

Article: http://list.or.kr/content/standing-alone-rhino%E2%80%99s-horn-introduction-writer-bok-geo-il
Journal: list_Books from Korea
Issued Date: -
Page: -
Language: English(English)
Country: SOUTH KOREA
City: Seoul
Book: -
Writer: Bok Geo-il

About the Author

Bok Geo-il
Birth : 1946 ~ Unknown
Occupation : Novelist
First Name : Geo-il
Family Name : Bok
Korean Name : 복거일
ISNI : 0000000048792861
Works : 5

Descriptions - 1 Languages

English(English)

Standing Alone Like a Rhino’s Horn: An Introduction to Writer Bok Geo-il By Park Sang-joon on Oct 25 2014 03:05:34 Vol.24 Summer 2014 Bok Geo-il, as a novelist and social critic, holds a distinct and unique position in Korean society. He has mostly published science fiction, an unpopular literary genre among Korean readers, and has been well known for his outspoken comments on a variety of controversial social issues. There are several elements that clearly distinguish him from other Korean writers. And these elements are intimately connected. First, Bok debuted as a writer after going through a fairly unusual process and then instantly established himself within the literary community in Korea. Bok debuted in his early 40s, a relatively older age for a new writer to enter the scene. He worked as a salaryman for many years before starting his career as a novelist. His first novel In Search of an Epitaph was published in 1987. His debut work came out in book form from Moonji Publishing Co., Ltd., a leading publisher of literature in Korea. In most cases, new writers start their professional writing careers by publishing a short story in a newspaper or literary magazine. However, the writer as newcomer received exceptional treatment from Moonji; in turn, the publisher’s bold attempt was a huge success. What made this exceptional treatment and process possible is that Bok Geo-il had long built extensive knowledge in the social and natural sciences as well as literature, and trained himself to be a writer. Second, although his first work In Search of an Epitaph is an SF novel that takes the form of an alternate history, his book was highly received by the mainstream literary establishment. In Search of an Epitaph is set in an imaginary history. The story of this novel develops under a hypothesis that Japan was not defeated in the Second World War and accordingly Korea is still under Japanese colonial rule until the late 1980s. As the author mentions in the novel’s preface, such an alteration of a historical event is a literary device frequently used in science fiction. However, at that time, Korean society had little awareness and understanding of the SF genre, and so In Search of an Epitaph was widely regarded only as lowbrow genre fiction. As a result, the general public paid more attention to the writer and his work rather than to the SF genre itself, which has remained relatively underdeveloped in Korea.

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