Saturday at the Y, I mentioned to a friend that the kiddie concentration camps on the border reminded me of Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” [full text at www.miafarrow.org/…].
A few minutes later, my 22-year old Filipina caregiver told me she had heard of it because of BTS (yes, the K-pop boy band). Here’s why.
In April, 2014, 304 passengers and crew members died when the ferry MV Sewol sank. This Wikipedia article thoroughly covers the staggering greed, utter incomptence and dereliction of duty involved. en.wikipedia.org/...
The sinking of MV Sewol resulted in widespread social and political reaction within South Korea. Many criticized the actions of the captain and most of the crew.[23] Also criticized were the ferry operator and the regulators who oversaw its operations,[24] along with the administration of President Park Geun-hye for its disaster response (including the poor showing of the coast guard) and attempts to downplay government culpability.
/very long snip
The sinking contributed to the political downfall of [President} Park. As criticism of her handling of the disaster grew stronger, the Park administration established a commission to monitor and prosecute her critics.[298] Tatsuya Kato, a Japanese journalist, was indicted on charges of defamation for reporting that Park had responded to the disaster by meeting with fringe religious leader Choi Soon-sil.[299][300] In 2016, the full extent of Choi's ties to Park emerged in South Korean media, which caused a corruption scandal that ultimately resulted in Park's impeachment by the National Assembly on 9 December 2016. A unanimous Constitutional Court ruling on 10 March 2017 upheld the impeachment vote, ending her presidency.[301]
After Park was removed from office, documents revealed that she had made a secret blacklist of artists to be barred from receiving any sort of government acknowledgement or sponsorship. It was further discovered that the initial purpose of this blacklist was to censor those who commemorated the Sewol victims in their artwork.[302] In July 2017, members of the Park administration were imprisoned for up to three years for their role in creating the illegal blacklist. [bold added]
Apparently BTS were among the blacklisted. At least one reason was their song “Spring Day”. Here is a video (with someone’s theorizing in the subtitles):
Note the name of the motel in the background. Here is a link to an article that explains the connection. www.allkpop.com/…
Excerpt:
Today, we, the publishing company, will tell you a little different story regarding . Last year, the publishing industry paid a huge attention to BTS since they borrowed the overall album concept from Hermann Hesse’s classic . The literary inspiration wasn’t the one-time event. BTS completed a surprisingly magnificent metaphorical message through the music video of <Spring Day>.
You probably guessed it already. As many BTS fans said after watching the MV, the music video concept is deeply related to Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, the short story in “The Wind’s Twelve Quarters”. Not only the music video, but also the message that BTS try to deliver through the song exactly corresponds to this story.
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1974, which is the most prestigious award for science fiction and fantasy genres. Although it is short, it is a masterpiece that you can feel Le Guin’s strong and bold writing style and message. Ursula K. Le Guin is considered as one of three greatest fantasy writers with J. R. R. Tolkien of ” The Lord of the Rings” and C. S. Lois [sic] of ” The Chronicles of Narnia”.
I was amazed when my caregiver was explaining how she heard about “Omelas”. As I listened, I felt a resonance and reverberations between the atrocities on the border and the ferry sinking and I thought someone here might be interested.
One thing I’ve learned from my caregiver is that BTS is something way beyond a simple boys’ band. (One day I was correcting her pronunciation of something and double-checked that I wasn’t offending her. She said appreciated my help and that getting offended would be a “refusal to grow”. That’s an expression she picked up from one of the band members, who in turned apparently picked it up through reading Carl Jung.)
Another metaphor in the video refers to the movie Snowpiercer) . Roger Ebert’s comprehensive review here. www.rogerebert.com/…
His last paragraph probably doesn’t relate to any of the above, except tenuously, but somehow maybe it does.
Speaking of simultaneous triumph and terror, the mere act of seeing "Snowpiercer" may prove to be a bit difficult. As some of you may have heard, the film has been at the center of a feud between its director and Harvey Weinstein, the film's distributor. According to reports, Weinstein disliked Bong's 126-minute cut and allegedly demanded the removal of 20 minutes before he would release it. Eventually, Weinstein relented and kept the film at its full length but decided to instead slash its distribution plan to what the kids refer to as a "limited release," which means that unless it becomes a surprise smash warranting a bigger run, there is an excellent chance that many people will never even get the chance to see it on the big screen where it really needs to be viewed in order for it to have maximum impact. Yes, this is how Hollywood really works these days and no, I don't get it either.
