[Jeon Chan-il's Cultural Talk] Imagining a President Who Shares and Practices a Unique Vision for Culture and the Arts

On the 22nd, at the Park Doo-jin Literature Museum in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, I gave a special lecture titled ‘Hallyu Culture and Literature 2022’ at a modest but very meaningful event. It was at the New Year’s meeting of the literary club ‘Shinsegae Literature,’ which publishes the semiannual magazine ‘Wunyulmasil.’ Among the nine participants in the program, however, the highlight was not my lecture. The true highlight, I can say without hesitation, was the brief self-introductions and reflections on participation by seven members, moderated by CEO Im In-ho, who is also a poet. Currently, I am deeply immersed in the profound and lasting resonance left by their short but incisive words. This very column is the proof.

Among them, a woman in her early 40s who is in charge of proofreading ‘Wunyulmasil’ moved the entire venue into what one might call a furnace of emotion with feelings she said she would never forget in her lifetime. She even shed tears just thinking about the word ‘literature’! Beyond being moved, it was a shock. Not a particular work, but the very thought of the genre of literature made her heart swell and tears flow.

Having lived nearly 30 years as a film critic, I majored in German language and literature during my undergraduate and master’s studies. The series of representative works I avidly read in the second year of middle school?Hermann Hesse’s ‘Beneath the Wheel,’ ‘Wolf of the Steppes,’ ‘Demian,’ ‘Siddhartha,’ and Fyodor M. Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’?shook the life of a teenage boy and ultimately determined the direction of my future. That is why in 2018, I featured ‘Narcissus and Goldmund’ (Wisdom and Love) as the first of ‘Five Books of My Life’ in the Kyunghyang Shinmun, and in 2019, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of ‘Demian,’ I planned and published ‘Hesse in My Life’ (Roundabout). These novels have lived with me for decades and still make my heart flutter.

Nevertheless, the word ‘literature’ itself has never brought me to tears. The same goes for movies, which I have watched for over 50 years since early elementary school. Personally, there are many films that have made me wipe my eyes or left my whole body numb, such as Ken Loach’s ‘I, Daniel Blake’ (2016), one of the greatest living directors; Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Incendies’ (2010); and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Drive My Car’ (2021) and ‘Happy Hour’ (2015), who reached mastery in his early 40s. However, I have never wiped tears just by thinking of the word ‘film.’ The same applies to classical music, which I have listened to continuously for over 40 years and still listen to on YouTube while writing manuscripts; modern dance, which I have habitually called my favorite art since my first year of university when I vowed “If I were born again, I would become a dancer”; and visual arts, which I have had a considerable interest in historically despite being poor at practical skills.

Some might dismiss the tears of the aforementioned literary club member as a momentary sentimentality. I also understand that I might be criticized for being overly sentimental. But the sensitivity she showed at that moment was so precious and beautiful that it is hard to simply dismiss it. As expected, she left a comment saying it was “a day when I decided to become a magnificent whale freely swimming in the sea.” Humanity has, at some point, become excessively unfeeling and inhuman, rushing toward post-humanism and the like. The urgent need to recover such sensitivity is what is required to live a ‘beautiful life,’ as recommended by Oh Young-soo, the first Korean actor to win the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor through ‘Squid Game.’

With about 50 days left until the presidential election, I suddenly have this wish: how wonderful it would be if a candidate who shares and practices a unique vision for culture and the arts becomes president. There is no need to emphasize the importance of reading again, but I would like to recommend a recently translated and published cool book related to this. It is one of five books recommended by a YouTuber for people in their 50s and 60s, and just the table of contents and introduction, composed of 25 chapters, are enough to captivate anyone. The book is We Need Literature Now ? 25 Inventions Hidden in Literary Works [by Angus Fletcher, translated by Park Mi-kyung, Being, 2021-12-22 / original title: Wonderworks: The 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature (2021)].

Starting with Homer (‘Iliad’), Shakespeare (‘Hamlet’), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’), Franz Kafka (‘The Metamorphosis’), Mario Puzo (‘The Godfather’), and other revered authors, the book explains that “while reading their works, you may not learn how to make fire or build a smartphone, but you will learn how to live and love, how to maintain courage in the face of death, how to overcome the pain of loss and failure, and how to dispel doubts about finding joy, hope, and purpose” (publisher’s introduction). No wonder Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of ‘The Tipping Point,’ ‘Outliers,’ ‘David and Goliath,’ and ‘Blink,’ praised it as “fantastic. This book is amazing!” The author explains “why literature was invented” (p.19), emphasizing that literature’s “first great power was narrative. In common terms, story,” and that “literature could stimulate emotions like love, wonder, and faith. This is literature’s second great power. These emotions were so powerful they could ward off the demons that torment life” (p.20). While at it, I also highly recommend Hamaguchi’s films. It is rare to encounter texts that offer such profound understanding of humanity. This is no exaggeration. I guarantee you will find considerable stimulation and inspiration even for election campaigning.

I know it might be greedy. Still, someday I want to meet such a president?one who not only reads steadily but also visits the theater at least once a year to watch films, and who possesses the sensitivity and cultural literacy to attend performances of any genre?be it plays, musicals, classical concerts, opera, or Korean traditional music?as well as art exhibitions...

Jeon Chan-il, Film Critic · Adjunct Professor, Department of Global Arts, Chung-Ang University