@flying_tool,
You said this re my post on Hotel del Luna: The Return of the King
Love it! Much better explanation for the episode.
I was about to tease you not to get carried away and remind you that this is only my interpretation. Some people will choose to attack me rather than rebut my points or come up with a better interpretation themselves. Penis-envy isn’t just about penises.
But I ended up writing a long comment which I think I should share out here in the blog and file under Bitchcraft.
If textualist scholars or “Originalists” are those who insist on a strictly text-based approach to the interpretation of US constitution, then consider me a Living Constitutionalist. I think kdramas have a relevant meaning BEYOND the original screenplay. If I were the writer or director I’d be proud to produce a work that inspires people to think on their own and to gather a personal meaning from it. That way, I can say that my work is evolving and dynamic.
But then, for a work to be “evolving and dynamic,” it will require viewers who are willing to discuss the work in-depth — beyond the “Oooohhh. My Feels” kind of in-depth.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not dissing the “Feelings” viewers. These viewers are important, too. (cough. cough. Ratings, hits-per-page, ad revenues, salaries, etc., you get the point?) Plus, we’re emotional animals so a kdrama must touch our hearts, tickle our funny bone, or move us. Otherwise, it fails at First Contact.
But these “Feelings” viewers can be taught to react to kdramas beyond their emotions and learn to observe and think through a scene, a dialogue, a hug. Analysis is an over-rated word for criticism, and ever since Eve ate that apple in the Garden of Eden, we have been good at criticism. (Hey Adam!!! Why are you naked?? Wear a god-damned fig leaf, will you?)
If anything, I would like my readers here to feel comfortable interpreting kdramas on their own because that means that their minds, not just their emotions, are getting a two-hour work-out every week. I don’t care if they can’t speak English well. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve a soft spot and admiration for non-English speakers because I know that they’re reading my English blog because they’re as obsessive as I am. They don’t let the language barrier get in the way.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
For starters, I want the readers here to dare go beyond the mainstream and question their emotional responses to visual stimuli. Why does this scene make them feel this way? Why does it feel suspicious? Why does it feel heart-fluttering? Why?
Then they should start reading. It’s harder for them to see connections if they don’t read and at least strive to attain the reading level of the writer. And when I say “read” I don’t mean read this blog. Really. Sometimes I see my stats and I see my old posts getting views. Like why, bitches??!!! Please don’t waste your nice Saturday mornings on old posts by recappers and bloggers like me. Read a classic. Read Shakespeare! Read “Catholicism for Dummies” if you intend to watch shows on angels, demons and exorcists.
If kdrama viewers read MORE books than the writer, then it’ll be easy for them to tell and predict where the writer is getting her thoughts from, her philosophy, her biases, her worldview. Viewer who read books can talk about ideas and concepts, instead of merely droning on and on about their “feels” and oppa’s pulchritude.
After they’ve honed their minds with great books, then they can acquire insights of their own. (hahaha. I say some insights are wittier, naughtier and funnier than others. You know which I prefer, of course.) They won’t just spew out ridiculous facts. They can see how a certain plot doesn’t jive with their moral values and how some characters are noble while others are not.
Their comments will have become seasoned with time, maturity and their own point-of-view. They can understand better the message the writers are trying to communicate to the audience.
Because I tell you this: NOTHING that kdrama writers have written, hasn’t been written before in great detail by great dead writers. It’s hubris of these writers to think that they’ve come up with a new angle or perspective on the meaning of life.
They’re recycling stories and making them great again…errr… relevant again for this generation. But when you strip a kdrama bare of the convoluted plot, the impressive CGI, the 360-degree kisses in the rain, and the zany dialogues, you’ll find that the underlying themes are the same.
You see, the human soul hasn’t changed at all.
@packmule3:
I re-read that post three times – I liked it so much! 🙂 As a bibliophile myself, I cannot tell you how much I agree with your lines:
“If k-drama viewers read MORE books than the writer, then it’ll be easy for them to tell and predict where the writer is getting her thoughts from, her philosophy, her biases, her worldview.”…
“You see, the human soul hasn’t changed at all.”
I’ve always felt that all stories of the world are at heart the same, they talk about the same emotions and conflicts, because human motivations and emotions are the same today as they have been since time immemorial – love, greed, lust, power, loss – all stories of human beings rehash these underlying themes over and over again, only the wrappings change.
I had once read a quote by some author on books which I liked so much that I noted it down:
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”
I couldn’t have put it better. No feeling that we think only we are experiencing is unique to us – it has been felt before and in all probability, written by some author long before. Similarly, nothing that dramas show us is actually new – innovation lies only in the presentation and the mixing of the concepts.
I think I identify most with books and dramas which I can dissect at some level – where I can understand the motivations and thought processes of the characters (and thus the writer’s). I recently saw one of the most beautiful k-dramas I have ever watched – “Just Between Lovers”, and I re-watched it just to draw parallels with books I have read about people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and how they pass through different stages of grief before they can overcome it.
So I always love a drama which makes me think, just like I like a book where I can’t skim through the pages but need to often re-read lines to understand the hidden meanings or clues I had missed before.
That being said, I do like my dramas with kisses, and Oppa’s pulchritude (like our Xiao Nai) doesn’t hurt either 🙂 I’m not sure if I would want to watch a thinking drama with no eye candy hero or kisses thrown in – I’m shallow that way 😉
But is the opposite true? Would I watch a drama with super hot hero and lots of kisses but no challenge to my thinking whatsoever? No, no and no. I know this because I have tried this before and been spectacularly bored 😛
So true. We love dramas that make us think in a different way. And yes, I think it’s from reading books that we’re trained to look for nuance. What’s NOT being said is just as important as what IS said out loud.
I once challenged my sons to tell me what they thought of this line from Charles Darwin, “We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man.”
The name Charles Darwin should immediately bring to mind his book, “On the Origin of Species.” Even if they hadn’t read the entire book, I expected them to know that Darwin was a major proponent of natural selection. And from that, they should be able interpret that line. Basically, it means that in the natural world, even simple creatures like a scallop or an oyster, can evolve without a Supreme Being designing it. It must change and adapt in order to survive in the wild and not be eaten by other aquatic animals.
And so? What does it mean then? What does it mean, for instance, when you say your world is an oyster? Shakespeare said that, and he lived 300 years before Darwin. But the point is the same: The ability is within you to change and accomplish something great. lol. Same thought, different centuries, different application.
To me, that’s how it should be when watching kdrama with brains. Screenwriters aren’t neanderthals. They’re well-read, especially in Western great books. A well-read viewer will recognize what life philosophy, Confucian teaching and Michelin guide menu have influenced their writing.
The interpretation is fun when you know what you’re looking for.
Pathos, ethos, logos. All 3 have to be there for me to thoroughly enjoy a drama.
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 1:9
And kairos too.
Sometimes I’m simply not in the mood for anything but variety shows.
Cure yourselves of any taste for literature. Do a graduate degree. I’ve had no taste for anything serious, that feels like work, since. Hence, the k drama rom com and lots of historical romances and fantasy novels.
But writers can’t help themselves. The literary does insinuate its way into the most candy-coated escape literature. Writers themselves get better at writing as they age, and they gain more experience, so it’s a fight to stay on formula.
Every now and then, in my enjoyable low literature slumber, a kdrama or show or novel wakes me up, and without losing the escape, I get to engage in light criticism of the old-fashioned fun kind. Hotel del Luna has enough symbolism, allusions, “tricksiness” to wake me up. Not only did they plumb the Golden Bough for structural inspiration, they are also using conventions from gothic literature, such as mirroring, othering, the heroine as house with rooms and characters echoing her psychologically.
It’s a blast to do this when no one is marking you, just for fun.
Very much enjoyed the essay, pkm3.
Yeah…and topos if you really want to be finicky 😂 I think Aristotle only mentioned 3 so I was quoting him.
Hi there, @barbrey. I got your post this time before it went to the spambox.
True, I like the mature, established kdrama writers. I can’t stand the kdramas built around the comic strips…what do they call in manwhas? Those are badly written. And the writers cater to action-oriented readers with less character exposition than a novel. In a novel, the writer can go deeper into the mental state of the characters but a manwha writer can’t spend the whole cartoon page (or whatever they call it) with just all internal monologue. lol.
Hmmm…tell us more about this Golden Bough of yours. 🙂
Interesting post. I’ve known this site for about two weeks but it surprises me in a good way. Even if they are polite, some fellow k-drama watchers doesn’t think thoroughly their answers.
I personally think that all cultures drink from the same well that is existence, but also there have been just a small set of answers to the same questions over and over again. This is not because laziness (but we can still copy the best answers and apply them into our lives, that is why we have this thing called “Culture” ;D ) but because these are the answers more attuned to our “human nature”.
Hey, even our fairy tales are thousands of years old:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35358487
Imagine stories so attuned to our human nature, our existence, that have been relevant since at least the bronze age!
And @Barbrey, thanks for the original discussion on “Chang-Sung”‘s leaves, that brought me to this place.