Hoi, my name is Sanne!
Welcome back.
We are once again today talking about translation.
I've made many a translation themed video in the past.
I think I actually have a full playlist on my channel so in case you don't know,
I studied English language and culture in the Netherlands for my bachelors and for my masters
I studied translation.
Dutch,
English / English Dutch with a focus on literary translation.
It's not something that I actively do something within my day to day
job but it's always been a huge interest.
And from time to time I toy with the idea of going back and doing
another maybe more practical course as well.
I also have a few videos with translators up on my channel which I'll link below.
And more recently I talked about some dystopian and apocalyptic books
in translation.
But today we are going to be talking about Korean translated fiction
especially with a focus on how to get started and how to make translated fiction
less daunting today.
I have three recommendations in particular,
all under 200 pages.
So I know that some of you probably already read lots of translated fiction.
I've read some but definitely not enough.
I'm not very intimidated by the idea of it except for maybe with translated fiction.
That's one big literary prizes.
Which is weird because that often means that is quite good.
And also I can't believe that I'm making this video with support of the Literature Translation
Institute of Korea to celebrate the release of The Disaster
Tourist.
When I received the pitch for this book,
I immediately said yes and I was so excited because I have definitely been trying to read more
climate and environment related fiction and there seems to be more and more of that
coming out now as well.
This book could be described as an eco thriller.
I've also heard people talk about climate related fiction as cli-fi. I'm
not sure if I'm entirely on board with that term.
The story follows a woman named Yona who works for a company called
Jungle based in Seoul and they are travel agency and they organized
trips to sites of natural disasters.
Obviously that already sounds kind of shady.
Disaster tourism is obviously a thing.
People visit sites of nuclear disasters or other things like that.
And in this case there is a travel company that helps people do that.
She's in her 30s,
she's been working at the company for I think about 10 years.
She has been doing her work well,
but sometimes find that like she doesn't get the credit for what she does.
Then she gets sexually harassed by her boss and she is in despair done with
it doesn't know what to do and then her boss suggests that she takes a break.
But actually she's going on one of the trips organised by the company and she can judge
whether they want to keep that trip or ditch it because she goes to
this very small island off the coast of Vietnam where they're famously is a
sinkhole related to a historical event and that is what they're going to visit.
There is also a brand new resort that is built there and she goes with a group of tourists and
blends in and does the tour.
But as she gets there and goes through the motions,
she very quickly finds out that there is a few different things going
on. Things don't entirely make sense.
She also realized that there's something bigger going on on the island and she
is being dragged into it or she willingly participating.
I think I'll stop describing the plot there because I don't want to give too much away.
Absolutely loved all the different themes that came together in this book.
An obvious one,
of course,
being like big corporations, capitalism,
What is it that brings you happiness?
What is it that you want out of a job if you work for a company?
In what way are you complicit with what the company is doing?
But also like the bigger theme of just being disillusioned with companies and tied
in with that is also the tourism industry and the environment,
but also how tourism affects certain areas and the push and pull of
people relying on tourism and then the obvious negative effects that it can
have on the environment.
But then the fact that they're also visiting these areas that have already been so negatively affected
and they're going there kind of under the guise of oh,
we're helping we're here to help.
But are they just there to kind of get enjoyment or like a thrill out of seeing what's
happened?
But what I think is so special about this book as well is that it has a lot of
black humor and satire is very plot driven,
but there's so many discussion points that come up.
Parts of it almost read like a bit of the fever dream like to you and
to the main character,
there's some really unexpected developments as well and I absolutely could not put
this down.
I also love the tag line which is I wish you weren't here.
I thought this was so unexpected in the best way and also
delivers exactly what it promises.
Felt really unique.
I don't think I've ever read anything like this.
So I have been talking to friends about my reading experience and whenever I read a book,
I'm always talking to my boyfriend and giving him the play by play.
But I haven't really had a chat with anyone else that's read this yet.
So Very keen to do that too.
And this one comes in at 184 pages.
Then we've got Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982.
So how I came across this one is that I initially read If I Had Your Face with one of my
book clubs,
which is also my Korean author but was written in English and in this you follow
multiple women through their lives there in very different walks of life but they're all
somehow related to each other and you get to discover how they're related to each other as you keep reading it.
I thought this was really really interesting.
It's almost read short stories but but not quite talks about wealth,
Sexism,
cosmetic surgery,
lots of different topics.
Then one of my friends in the book club said well if you like this,
you should also read Kim JiYoung, Born 1982.
So that was my next read.
And then actually one of the other book clubs that I'm in read this for the Book Club.
So it's all connected.
So in this book you get a description of the life of a woman starts out when she
is in her thirties and then tracks back to her childhood and takes you through her life and also
covers kind of multiple generations,
talks about her mother's life as well.
But the idea is kind of that this could be every woman.
And it was published in 2016 around the #metoo movement made a big splash in Korea was
quite controversial and it is very clearly meant to depict
all the different kinds of discrimination and gender inequality
and sexual harassment that a lot of women encounter throughout their lives has a lot of
historical and research references at the bottom when you're reading it,
you do kind of feel like is this fiction?
Is it not?
It kind of feels like something in between.
Again, I won't quite give away like the framing device that sort of happens at the end.
But I do feel like I almost had wanted it to be either like more
fiction or more nonfiction.
It seems like it's a bit in the middle.
But I do think that this is a very effective way for it to be
shaped and also makes it very accessible.
Because I think maybe if it had been framed even more as fiction than people be like,
oh well it's not a year old doesn't really happen.
And if it had been more nonfiction,
maybe people wouldn't have picked it up as easily.
So I can very much see why it is the way it is.
It covers anything from being harassed on public transport and difficult decisions that need to be
made throughout life,
that then have all these different ramifications,
decisions about having a child or not.
And at work again,
like a sexual harassment being quiet about it or not,
and the feeling of not being able to climb the ranks or you have to be like a very specific
way to be able to do that.
So yeah,
a lot about choices and also about choices that maybe are being made
for you that you don't get a say.
And think I read this in a single day also because it was do that evening for the book club,
but really,
really interesting and there's 162 pages and then finally there is
and I don't think this will be a surprise for many people.
The Vegetarian.
This book has been on my shelves.
I don't know how long many,
many years.
So this is one that I was a little bit scared by has won the Man Booker International Prize in
2016.
So I guess it can't have been on my shelves for that long because the original book came out in 2000 and
seven and the translation came out In 2015.
So I guess I can only have had it for about six years,
but I think I probably bought it around that time.
I definitely felt intimidated by it.
I knew kind of the general concept of the book but I thought maybe it was going to be a bit
too surreal for me.
I very often don't get on with books when they have too many dreams and
visions and things like that in it.
And I wasn't sure it was the case with that.
But after reading The Disaster Tourist and really enjoying the like surreal-ness
aspect of that,
I thought okay,
I'm going to read this next.
I would describe The Vegetarian is like raw and gentle and
dark and violent and shocking.
Maybe the best description to me is that it reads like a dark fairy tale.
It's about a woman who becomes a vegetarian because of a dream she's had,
and me it's just kind of repulsive to her.
And there are a lot of mentions of like food and weight and things like that,
but she goes through a breakdown that's quite similar to what happens to Kim
Jiyoung in the beginning of this,
because that's kind of what kicks off the story is her living her normal life and then having a sort
of breakdown.
And this happens in The Vegetarian as well,
and it feels like it kind of revolves around the moment when she no
longer is able to kind of live what's expected of
her and like go through the motions and do what's obligated and especially in
her role as wife.
So the first part of the story is from the point of view of her husband,
then it switches to her brother in law and then to her sister and you never
truly,
I feel like I get to be in her head.
A lot of the book is about trying to figure that part out.
She gets taken to a mental health facility,
there's a few time jumps as well at the same time,
you're seeing people kind of Using her,
trying to understand her or alienating her.
And I thought it was very beautiful,
like I said,
very raw and so,
so interesting.
So I'm so glad about that.
It is 183 pages.
So those were my three recommendations.
I hope that at least one of them or maybe several could potentially be on your TV are.
Now.
I love thinking about what a book or a collection of books can say
about a culture in a country and how they represent it,
but at the same time also thinking about,
you know,
not all books are translated.
So you definitely get a specific selection of books that make it across and what does that
mean?
It's been so fascinating to read multiple books from the same country.
And I don't think it's something that I've done that much over the years and so really looking forward to
doing more of that.
Also, if you're looking for more Korean book recommendations,
I'd like to highly recommend Monica Kim's BookTube channel.
We actually got to meet,
I think it was the summer before Covid when she came and visited London.
I've been watching her videos for years and it was so nice to meet in person and she has an excellent video
recommending Korean fiction,
including some of these books as well,
which I'll link in the description earlier this week,
I also posted a video,
an ode to book maps.
We have talked about world building and maps and fantasy books which you can watch here.
My next video which I filmed six months ago but I'm editing now is my favourite
books Of 2020.
So that is finally coming to you as well.
Thanks so much for watching and massive thanks to the Literature Translation Institute of
Korea for sponsoring this video.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Doei!