I was about to write about Episode 8 when I realized that I couldn’t proceed without explaining the concept of “eternal recurrence” that was introduced in the epilogue of Episode 7.
This will be quick and painless, because I know this isn’t philosophy class.
The epilogue was a flashback to Ung and Yeonsu’s high school days. They accidentally met each other at the library when they should have been in class. He didn’t show for school that day, while Yeonsu asked permission to leave school early.
I took it for granted that she was missing him, so she took time off.
Ung: Hi.
Yeonsu: What are you doing here?
Ung: Getting a book?
Yeonsu: You skipped school to come here?
Ung: No one would know that I’m here. What about you?
Yeonsu: I got off school early. (seeing his book) Are you going to read that?
Ung: Mmm.
Yeonsu: Well, it might be a bit difficult for you. Are you sure you can? It won’t be easy to understand Nietzsche’s philosophical ideology.
Ung: (looking at the book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”)
Yeonsu: So just give it to me. It’ll be better if I read it.
Ung: Eternal return. It’s the concept that the universe is recurring infinitely. And in its eternal recurrence, our existence also recurs infinitely and continues to do so. I got curious about the eternity of time. So, I’m reading it again.
Yeonsu: (at a loss for words) Okay. Return it when you’re done. (walking away)
Ung: (sidestepping) About yesterday, I guess I was a bit harsh.
I’m guessing this was the day after the interview about the things they hated. Ung apologized first. Since I’m only at Episode 8 however, Ung could be referring to another incident.
Yeonsu: Is that why you ran away?
Ung: Yes. I thought you’d be uncomfortable.
Yeonsu: (walks away) I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.
Ung: (follows her happily because he knows he’s been forgiven)
My notes:
1. This is yet another one of Ung’s reasons for running away. Earlier in the episode, he said that he ran away to give the other person time to calm down and think clearly. In other words, it’s an act of consideration.
Now, he was adding disgrace as a reason for running away. He ran away because he felt he did her wrong. He was isolating himself to spare her discomfort.
2. Ung was a creature of habit so if his manager EunHo really wanted to find him, he could have checked out the library.
3. The theme of eternal recurrence was unfolding in this library scene.
a. They kept meeting at the library. Not only was their second meeting at the library, but they also seemed fated to encounter each other at the library whenever they ran away from the world.
b. They both hadn’t forgotten how they ran away from filming crew 10 years ago.
Ung: It feels like I’ve come back only three hours after I’ve run away.
Yeonsu: I ended up in front of Ung again.
I like how Ung was conscious of the time. This was an eternal recurrence, in action. He was reliving their previous library encounter, and was aware that tiny details were being repeated.
4. What were these details?
a. Back in high school, Ung greeted her with a nonchalant “hi.” In the present time, he also said hi. He realized that this was déjà vu and scolded himself.
b. Yeonsu also asked same question.
Yeonsu: Hey. What are you doing here?
Ung: (avoided saying “Getting a book” but showed her the book)
5. But there was also a slight variation occurring in this moment.
Back in high school, Ung didn’t want Yeonsu to feel uncomfortable or awkward. This time around, Ung disregarded her feeling of awkwardness and forced her to admit the truth.
Yeonsu: I thought…I heard you were having a celebration party today.
Ung: What about you?
Yeonsu: I just wanted to get some rest.
Ung: You know this feels awkward, right?
Yeonsu: (in denial) Really? I feel fine though.
Ung: Really?
Yeonsu: Yes, I’m totally fine. Why would we be awkward?
Ung: I see. You must have decided to pretend not to remember anything.
Back in high school, Ung wouldn’t have the guts to tell this to Yeonsu.
Yeonsu: I don’t know what you’re saying.
Ung: Yah. Kook Yeonsu.
Yeonsu: (sigh) All right. Fine. It’s awkward. I got drunk and cried in front of my ex. So I feel really embarrassed. Happy now?
Ung: (inwardly) Like I said, running away is a reasonable decision for me. But at times, the choice hasn’t always been mine.
True. At first glance, it seems that Ung didn’t really have a choice in the matter since it was fate that threw them together. His existence is endlessly repeating; he was merely reliving the past, right? It’s eternal recurrence, after all.
6. “Amor fati”
And that is where Nietzsche’s concept of “amor fati” comes in, or “love of one’s fate.” This wasn’t mentioned in the script but it goes hand-in-hand with the concept of eternal recurrence.
Nietzsche believed that everything is cyclical and interconnected – actions, experiences, past and present, and so on. But rather than view this never-ending cycle as a curse (like I would, lol), he saw it as a chance to live a life that’s worth living, and to live life to the fullest.
How?
You see, when an individual relives his actions and experiences, he’ll eventually figure out what’s important, vital, essential, invaluable, precious, and profound to him. Unless he’s an idiot or a lotus-eater, he’s bound to gain self-awareness and learn something new with each cycle.
Once he discovers these things, then these things will follow:
One, he won’t ever want to lose these important things. He’ll want to keep them forever.
Two, he’ll realize that these things he treasures cannot be separated from the miseries that led up to them.
Three, he’ll willingly go through the pain again for those precious things.
lol.
Four, “eternal recurrence” makes sense with “amor fati.”
Here’s what Nietzsche said about it in “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,”
“Have you ever said Yes to a single joy? O my friends, then you said Yes to all woe. All things are entangled, ensnared, enamored; if ever you wanted one thing twice, if ever you said, “You please me, happiness! Abide, moment!” then you wanted all back.
But if you want a simplified version, here’s Rascal Flatts’ “Bless the Broken Road.”
Every long-lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you
Or if you want a ballad version, here’s Nancy LaMott’s singing, “On My Way to You.” I love its composer Michel Legrand.
So often as I wait for sleep,
I find myself reciting
The words I’ve said or should have said
Like scenes that need rewriting
The smiles I never answered –
Doors perhaps I should have opened –
Songs forgotten in the morning
I relive the roles I’ve played,
The tears I may have squandered,
The many pipers I have paid
Along the roads I’ve wandered
Yet all the time I knew it,
Love was somewhere out there waiting,
Though I may regret a kiss or two
If I had changed a single day,
What went amiss or went astray,
I may have never found my way to you
If I had changed a single day,
What went amiss or went astray,
I may have never found my way to you
I wouldn’t change a thing that happened
On my way to you
Do you see it now?
In our hero Ung’s case, he has yet to totally grasp what Nietzsche was saying because he was only focused on the eternal recurrence. He missed the other half.
…which I think is the whole point of this drama.
Although it seems that their relationship is on a tiresome “repeat” mode of breaking up/making up, there’s a reason they aren’t getting off the perpetual loop. Sooner or later, they’ll have to accept, even embrace, the consequences, both good AND bad, of their decision to love each other.
Because if life is an eternal recurrence, then their problems are self-repeating. It’s up to them to determine, each and every single time they encounter a problem, that their relationship is worth it. They can’t run away. They’ll have to come full circle.
7. To complete the circle, Ung invited ordered Yeonsu to have lunch with him, just like she did years ago.
Obviously, he was going for the “cool” look. But he forgot to check his books out and triggered the alarm. And his bag snagged on the turnstile gate. He didn’t look as cool as Yeonsu probably did when she ordered him to have lunch with her.
But note the books that he left behind.
I can’t read Korean and I’m too lazy to google-translate them. But judging from the colors of the spines of the books, these were the same books that Yeonsu borrowed back when they were in 10th grade.
Lol.
So, there you have it, my explanation of eternal recurrence as it’s depicted in this drama.
I can move on then to Episode 8. I don’t know if you noticed, but this topic was resumed there…errr…recurred there, too. That’s why I had to explain it here.
Hello. My first time here. Thanks pm3 for womderful explanation.
The first syllables of the books can be read 초 여름이 좋아 ((I) like early summer). Yes indeed they were the same books that Yeonsoo borrowed.
Thanks for this post, @pm3. What a treat!
I don’t know what to say to avoid being a spoiler lol but you said it perfectly that this is the whole point of the drama. And something that a lot of the characters in the drama had said at one point.
I wish I am as detailed and say which episodes and scenes, but it would be pointed out by many in the show that Ung and Yeonsu are really the one for each other, despite all their breaking up and making up the past ten years. I didn’t realize that there is a concept that perfectly encapsulates it!
I now want to rewatch the series just to read your posts again after each episode. So many details I missed and didn’t understand like this one. 🙂
@packmule3, I have just finished the drama and want to say that your explanations of eternal recurrence and amor fati are prescient and spot on. No spoilers here but we do see how most characters in this drama repeat and change. You’ll see how well your insights have been as you watch the drama. I am purposely being vague but you have hit the nail on the head. @pm3 as Nostradamus…
My one thought on the library incident was how surprised YS wastolesrn that Ung was not only well read but that he understood what he was reading. She underestimated him because she only saw his class rank. It is one stage of eternal recurrence for her. She could no longer view him as ignorant. Lesson learned.
YS will also ask him the same questions over again and again. You will see how that evolves and see the changing dimensions of her angst.
Anyway, my favorite repeat remark-Bottom Line @pm3, You hit it out if the ball park here-brava!
Thanks @pkml3 for going into more detail about Eternal Recurrence and Nietzsche’s concept of ‘amor fati’. I like that concept of learning from the past and getting better at each recurrence. Actually I think that’s what we see at the end of the Show. There is a big recurrence and choices have to be made, but this time, they are made not in a vacuum.
If I were to play the game of spot the recurrence in Episode 8, there’s the biggie at the end where even Yeon Su felt it was déjà vu. The circumstances were similar and yet different. There was a flat battery, rain, YS waiting under shelter, YS holding out her hand to the rain, CU arriving and a kiss, (once again). CU was also once again wondering what he was doing with YS, and YS was once again asking him questions. But this time they had an umbrella, and the questions were slightly different. They were not about whether he liked her or not, but whether she was once again at fault for the state he was in, and if she should stay or leave.
The main recurrence was the fact that they were on a trip again. YS had promised that the next time, they’d go on a trip that was longer and farther away. CU noted that this had actually come to pass. It was however an inadvertent trip for both of them, since they’d be ‘kidnapped’ after having run away. But once again they were on a trip together, after one of them had walked away and the other thought that they were on bad terms.
On that first trip of theirs, YS had promised that they’d not break up, that he only had to return to her and that she’d grab his hand and not let go. In the rain CU was referring to this, I believe, when he said: “You shouldn’t have said that then.”
YS : “Is it me again? Is it my fault?”
CU : “Yes. It’s you again. I’m sick of it, but it’s you again.”
To CU it was the eternal recurrence of him going back to her, knowing it was going to hurt. I guess he wanted to see if she’d grab his hand this time.
When he kissed her, he thought [[Am I really cursed?]] [[Or has this ridiculous trip bewitched me?]] [[Or maybe… I knew all along that this would happen from the very moment we met again.]]
This seems to indicate that he guessed from their beginning of their seeing each other again, that this wanting to be with her would recur. At the end of the first trip, the kiss led to a reunion. It was probably this result that CU wanted to make recur. Those who’ve watched Episode 9 will know the results.
The other recurrences in smaller details:
CU’s thoughts about YS [[She never listened to me and had her way with me.]]
CU sighs : “I feel like I’m talking to a wall.”
As in all their break ups, YS refused to explain why. On this trip, although it was not a farewell trip, YS behaved in the same way, never explaining why until the end. Poor CU spent the whole day in a recurrence of anxiety, never knowing the status of their relationship.
There’s a recurrence of what she does when she sees him frown in his sleep.
On their first trip, when she finds him sleeping, she touches his forehead to remove the frown, and he wakes up.
YS : “You always frown when you sleep.”
On their second trip, she sees him sleeping with a frown and also touches his forehead. We saw in the past, that this tended to wake him. This time his eyes remained closed, however his free hand moved to cover her hand. When she withdrew her hand, he seemed to hold on to her fingers for a while. He only opened his eyes when she left the room. She was left wondering if he had been awake or not. We recall that in Ep 6, CU noted that he had slept well before the live drawing day, and wondered why. He had finally remembered that YS had been with him. She had also touched his forehead while he was in a half drugged state, and he had awoken.
@Packmule3, you’re so on target with this analysis, sussing out the concept of amor fati, that you might as well do a link to this thread when you get to Episode 16 and call it a day!
@Welmaris, well said!
I receive The Daily Mutts by email, Mutts being a comic strip by Patrick McDonnell. Every day the email includes a quote to ponder. Today’s quote seemed to fit well with this discussion: “There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.” It was spoken by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, and I’ve just read he passed away on January 22nd. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/21/1074977884/thich-nhat-hanh-dead
I love this! 🙂 You got everything connected and I am enjoying this drama very much especially after I saw the kiss scenes in episode 9. LOL!