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The Journey of a Science Fiction Writer: Novelist Bok Geo-il | LIST

About the Article

Article: http://list.or.kr/node/1181
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)

The Journey of a Science Fiction Writer: Novelist Bok Geo-il Author's Profile BY KO DOO HYUN ON NOV 12 2014 09:24:22 VOL.24 SUMMER 2014 Bok Geo-il is widely considered to be a writer who has ushered in a new epoch in the Korean SF genre. Having made a spectacular debut with the novel In Search of an Epitaph, Bok has continued to expand the horizons of Korean SF by making use of distinctive literary devices such as time reversal or the reverse of history. Ko Doo Hyun: You debuted as a writer at age 41 with the novel In Search of an Epitaph published in 1987 after you quit a pretty decent job. At the time of your debut, you were an obscure writer. What made you choose to write a science fiction novel using the literary device of a so-called “alternate history” for your debut? A lot of people wonder why you chose the SF genre among others. Bok Geo-il: At the time when I started to work on my first book, Korean society was in an extremely oppressive atmosphere. My first book was published in 1987. At that time, the Fifth Republic of Korea had been established by a new military group, which lasted from 1981 to 1988. Under the authoritarian regime, which was established as a result of a military coup, it was very difficult to depict Korean society as it was. I thought that under such circumstances it would be unwise to opt for a mainstream literary technique to reflect and portray the reality of Korea. So I decided to reverse the concept. That is, I attempted to draw attention to the fact that the era of the Fifth Republic shared something in common with the Japanese Imperialist era. Ko: If your debut novel In Search of an Epitaph can be taken as a “reverse of history,” then A Traveler in History published in 1991, four years after your first book, could be a “reverse of time.” It was first published in three volumes. Now more than 20 years later, you are going to publish the fourth volume. What has driven you to follow up with this sequel? I was told that after you were diagnosed with liver cancer, the first thing that came to your mind was to finish this series.

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