The author has taken the side of Korea. Is it justifiable?

Use this forum to discuss the January 2021 Book of the month, "The Vanished" by Pejay Bradley
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Albaou Amira
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Re: The author has taken the side of Korea. Is it justifiable?

Post by Albaou Amira »

Yes, it might be a little biased but at the same time, it's all about perspective. The stories he might have been told must have been against Japan and for Korea and I respect that. I believe that we all villains in someone else's story even if we are heroes in ours.
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Sushan Ekanayake
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Krienkie wrote: 30 Jan 2021, 11:33 Each story has it's villain and is written from a perspective. I think if the reader changes their opinion about a country based on a novel without doing proper research that are based on facts, they are foolish. Every war has two sides and every fight has a motive.
Readers are of various types. Some read books with open minds but some are not. Some get deeply involved into the books and get to like and dislike the characters. It is not simply their foolishness, but merely the human nature. Having said that, there can be such readers for this book as well. With the facts given in the book, some might be driven to hate Japan.

On the other hand, who will go on to research about the facts presented in a book, especially when it comes under the category of historical fiction?
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Sushan Ekanayake
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Albaou Amira wrote: 31 Jan 2021, 01:04 Yes, it might be a little biased but at the same time, it's all about perspective. The stories he might have been told must have been against Japan and for Korea and I respect that. I believe that we all villains in someone else's story even if we are heroes in ours.
History is written by the heroes and winners, and we are heroes in our own stories. I agree to that. But when it comes to mass media like books, I believe that there has to be ethical and moral values. A book can be biased and written in the own perspective of the author. But a book should not spread hatred among the readers.

As this book is too biased towards Korea, it might unfairly drive the readers against Japan, which is a peaceful country today, regardless of what they did in the past. Do you think it is fair to vilify an entire nation for what their ancestors did?
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Post by jamespotter »

Sushan wrote: 29 Jan 2021, 01:32
jamespotter wrote: 23 Jan 2021, 02:56 I'm definitely biased as a Korean person myself, but Bradley's description is absolutely justified. Imagine if someone writing a novel that takes place in Nazi Germany wrote the Nazis as mild-mannered and gentle; it'd be ridiculous. This doesn't mean that we still hate Germany for what happened, or that all Germans are Nazis. It's simply doing justice to the horrifying history that must be told. Most people don't know about Japan's occupation of other countries, or the depth of how awful their occupations were. Books like these give insight into these moments so that it cannot be repeated, and so that the victims of history are acknowledged.
I agree with your point. If we write about Nazis, we cannot describe them as mild mannered. Yet we can just mention that they were purely evil instead of describing the villainous acts that they performed. Through that way we can mention the truth but not driving the reader to develop any hatred towards the Germans. When the descriptions goes on and on, an average reader will definitely forget the discrepancy between Nazis and normal Germans.

I am thinking of this book in the similar manner. What do you think?
I'm a little confused as to what you said, but I think given the assumption that the average reader has the ability to discern fiction (historical or not) and real people, the author doesn't have to take into account whether the reader won't be able to distinguish the two. I'd agree if this was a children's novel because children are more naive, but the target audience for 'The Vanished' is adults. If a reader finds themselves hating the Japanese, or Germans in our shared example, then I think the reader needs to take it upon themselves to check where their hatred is directed, and not the author.
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Post by Serenity2010 »

Sushan wrote: 29 Jan 2021, 22:59
Serenity2010 wrote: 24 Jan 2021, 17:32 I think the author was giving the reader an overall description of Korea at the time based on the storyline. The story is fiction so if the author decided to put Embon in another time period of Korean history then the villain might be another country or another entity altogether so that the reader can have the accurate context of the character's journey. Accuracy in a historic fiction novel like this grounds the reader to the real world with accurate historic context. Japan's atrocities towards Korea of the time period made Japan the villain. However, that does not make Japan a bad country overall. The author was justified.
The author has chosen a period and developed some fictional characters in it, as it always happen in any other fiction. And since this is a historical fiction, she has chosen the era of Korean freedom struggle. There she has described the villainous acts that were done by the Japanese towards the Koreans. If her sole idea was development of the characters, she could have remained for less background details. But by providing such details, maybe unintentionally, she has vilified Japan. It is true that it doesn't make Japan a bad country overall. But ultimately it is according to the reader's opinion, isn't it?
I politely disagree. If the Japanese committed bad acts towards Korean's during this time period. Then Japan made themselves the villian. The author simply added that to her story to help develope her story. She may have added such detail for story development, because she wanted to highlight her culture or any other reasons we might not know as readers. I think adding those instants when Japanese treated Korean's badly simply added too overall contexts of Embon's Journey. Without that information readers might have been left clueless because Korean culture and history is not universal information.
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Post by Dimi1 »

It's an angle adopted and the author's perspective. Objectivity has no place in literature, it's personal experiences and where we come from that define what we are writing about.
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Post by mmm17 »

That is a good point, but I think it is just his point of view, though. It is a little biased, if you ask me, but it isn't easy to keep oneself completely neutral, is it? :wink:
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Post by Intuitive Catalyst »

Pejay Bradley is Korean. Is she supposed to love the aggressors? Japan imposed their imperialistic mores on an entire nation going as far as to forbid the speaking and writing in Korean. And what? One is supposed to embrace that. No matter the decades long past, events such as these leave a stain on the psyche of a nation. The author is not standing on a pulpit screaming "Hate the Japanese". What she is saying is 'This is my country; I am Korean; this is our story'. That much is clear in Embon's cry at the end of the book!

The book also contains factual details that are easily researched. It's a new, fascinating and unknown story that persuaded me to do some research. The fact is Japan was the villain. I also did not get any sense of deliberately driving readers to hate a country. The dislike of injustice is a given.
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Post by zulfiyya »

Sushan wrote: 29 Jan 2021, 01:26
zulfiyya wrote: 20 Jan 2021, 14:35 It could possibly be deemed inappropriate or even considered propaganda if it was labelled as non-fiction, but given that it is fiction, it's not spreading false information because the readers are made known that the story is not real.
You have a valid point. But this is not just fiction, but historical fiction. So the content of this book has more weight than a just fiction. Historical fiction are based on historical facts, so the reader can think of any part as absolute truth. In that context, it is not a good thing to totally vilify a country for their actions in the past
Given that the author is Korean and went to a Korean university, some bias is expected. That being said, I personally did not recognize her writing as vilifying Japan but more so just realistically depicting Koreas' mindset during that time period. Also, I believe the characters of the story vilified the actions of the Japanese authority more than Japan itself, which is perfectly reasonable given the crimes they committed against them. It's a touchy subject, and there is probably no perfect way of approaching it, but I think Pejay Bradley did a great job in providing an authentic perspective of Korean victims without attacking Japanese people as a nation.
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Post by Owen John »

I don't think so. I think that was the direction the narration had to take.
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Post by Owen John »

To add a little clarification on my earlier comment, in my Literature lessons we were taught something about intentional fallacy and affective fallacy. In intentional fallasy, the point that the interpretation of a text is tied to the author's intention while affective fallasy claims that interpretation should be independent of reference to the author's emotions. I therefore free the author here. There were no side taking but simply narration.
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Post by Owen John »

Bertha Jackson wrote: 07 Jan 2021, 18:45 I think this is just the author's point of view. I am sure there are books out there that are from Japan's point of view. Everyone is entitled to their own point of view.
Exactly. It is none of the author's intention to take sides. It was the narration that took its course.
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Post by dcruzsammy »

It's all about perspective. This book is from the point of view of someone who has experienced the struggle for freedom of her nation. It is only natural that they would stand with their own country. Though it is understandable that such might not be a very ideal thing to do as presently the two countries are striving for peace between two nations.
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Post by Iris Marsh »

It's been said before, but it's a story, and stories are always told through a certain perspective. There's a villain/antagonist in every story we read because we read it from the perspective of the narrator. I think more often than not the points of view in a story are biased. And, for most stories, if you would shift the perspective and write it from the villain's point of view, they would no longer be the villain of the story. So, this story would have been very different if it had been written from a Japanese point of view. But since the author is Korean it makes sense that she would write it from that viewpoint. I don't think it would make readers suddenly hate Japan.
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Post by Joy Phill »

I think the narrative is definitely one sided. I believe Koreans might have their own flaws too. However, I still sympathize with the Koreans.
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