Does the author give more emphases on politics then its Historical or other significance?

Use this forum to discuss the January 2021 Book of the month, "The Vanished" by Pejay Bradley
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Sushan Ekanayake
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Re: Does the author give more emphases on politics then its Historical or other significance?

Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

cd20 wrote: 04 Jan 2021, 15:24 I think the author is giving a glimpse of what is going on in other parts of the world, while focusing on her Korean heritable. I did not get that it was a hint toward colonization.
Was colonization happening around that time? I am not sure. I am not very thorough about history. What is obvious in this book is that the author has not limited his book to Japan and Korea, but he has expanded it to whole world, at least the politically important parts of the world. America, Russia, China were giants in global politics even in that era. So how can a story related to politics keep them out?
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

raluca_mihaila wrote: 12 Jan 2021, 14:56 The history of every country is linked with the history of others. So I don;t think you can talk about history without getting into politics. They go hand in hand. I don't think there is any ulterior motive.
I agree with you. History of every country is linked to the other countries as well. And in this particular era, the connections were more intense as well as important as the world wars were going on. Actually this Japanese invasion was not an isolated one, but another attempt in expanding Japanese rule in the world war.

On the other hand, as you mentioned, how can one talk about history without talking about politics? Ultimately, human is a political being
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Serenity2010 wrote: 24 Jan 2021, 11:26 I think the author just wanted to use as much realism as possible, share her heritage because she is from Korea. The politics and culture go together well for the overall plot of the story.
I agree. When we look into the big picture, the Japanese invasion of Korea was not an isolated move against Korea, but it was another invasion of Japan to increase their empire. We all know that Japan was building an empire in this world war era. So, the author has made her plot more realistic and relatable my mentioning the actual political situation and the interconnections between big and powerful countries of that era
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Post by Josephe-Anne »

I didn't really get the impression that the author was referring to colonization in the book. The story was set during the time just before colonialism was about to end.

I think she mentioned countries like the U.S. and Russia to show how they were influencing Korean society.
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Post by Dimi1 »

The historical reference probably works as the context to understand the era. Given this and since history always repeats itself, politics always play an important part.
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Post by zulfiyya »

I thought the author mentioned those countries mainly to describe the geopolitical climate at the time. I did not think too much of it because it didn't seem to be a key aspect of the book.
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Post by ReaderAisha2020 »

The book did seem quite political to me, however, it was interesting that she mentions different countries throughout the book
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Post by Zwelakhe_mkhatshwa »

I also don't see an alternative motive because every war goes in hand with the involvement of politics. Trying to unveil the author's intentions is of no use.
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Post by Lunupine »

History and politics go hand in hand. I have yet to find a history book that did not refer to politics. Sometimes though it is a mention here and there. Depending on what time period and which counties it involves there will be more focus on it.
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Post by jaym_tan »

In my opinion, the author does not have any ulterior motive. It's really impossible to talk about history without involving politics because these two are pretty much connected ever since. The history of other countries do indeed have parallels with each other.
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Post by Obi Egbuniwe »

The links to other despotic regimes of the mentioned countries were only for the purpose 9f context. Histories are linked and intertwined.
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