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ljwritesMy heroine, the Lady Soseono, is a famous figure in Korean history and one of the most prominent women from ancient Korean history. She has appeared in numerous works of historical fiction, usually as a supporting character by her second husband's side but more rarely as a protagonist in her own right. Obviously I couldn't neglect the market research in this area, and I felt a combination of trepidation and anticipation as I searched for novels starring Soseono for comparison with my own ideas.
What I found, to my disappointment and admittedly a small thrill of delight, was that these novels did not in any way do her justice. Some combination of the words trashy, offensive, and pointless applied to all of them, and none of them showed the depth of linguistic and historical research that I was hoping for. Here are some of the works I've looked at, or at least skimmed because my patience only goes so far. I did get some ideas for my own novel from these, mostly in terms of what not to do, so at least it wasn't a complete waste of time.
Soseono, the Woman Who Founded Goguryeoh
2006 by Lee Gee-dam
Pros: Believable emotions and character development, fidelity to history
Cons: Pointless ending, highly offensive rape tropes
This was the first Soseono novel I ran across. My own novel was still a seed of an idea in my mind then and I was actively interested in her by this time though I had no firm ideas for what I would write. That's why I was delighted to catch sight of this two-volume set in an used bookstore. I brought the books home in a flurry of anticipation and read them, and...
Well actually, this book is the best of the Soseono novels I've seen so far though that's sadly not saying much. The narrative followed the recorded historical events for the most part while giving Soseono, the protagonist and viewpoint character, a believable inner life and plenty of character development. The part where Soseono was betrayed by her husband was genuinely wrenching.
Though I was disappointed that the novel started after her second marriage to Jumong and said very little of her life prior to that, I could also understand the decision since nothing of her life is recorded before she met Jumong. For most of the run this was a fair-to-middling historical novel that I might have liked a whole lot if it weren't for the weak ending and some freakin' offensive choices in plot and character.
As mentioned, I enjoyed the narrative fairly well until the end. And then the heroine died, and that was it. She attacked her son's palace for reasons that weren't completely clear to me, and her body was discovered among the armored corpses. The end. What? But... but... what about all the buildup up to that point? What about the way she was revered by the people she had led south? What about her relationships with her sons and and... she died, the end? There's no closure? No point?
I felt like I'd been the victim of a fraudulent investment scheme. Not the bit of money I'd paid for the books, of course, but the emotions I'd invested in the characters and the story. They just swirled around with nowhere to go. What just happened? How could the book end on such a disappointing note?
Maybe the author was trying to be faithful to the historical record, since this is more or less how Soseono's life ended. But even the sparse record hints at a much greater legacy for Soseono than simply dropping dead. What about the fact that her son built a temple to honor her memory, for instance, or that her death was such a traumatic event that it occasioned a movement of the capital for a fresh start, or that she was one of three major ancestral spirits worshiped in Baekje? It didn't make sense for her story to end like that, with no payoff whatsoever.
Also, the book's treatment of rape bothered me. Not that it happened, but rather that there was one particular character whose sole purpose appeared to be that of designated rape victim. I get that someone can unfortunately be a rape victim multiple times, and that once a person is attacked in this way it makes her vulnerable socially and psychologically. However, I really could have done without the way events were elaborately constructed so that this character was always in the position of seducing men, being captured and so on. It was like the author really really wanted her to be in these situations and it was creepy as hell. I was also not in love with the way she was described as being "dead in spirit," had no personality or life outside of what was done to her, and ultimately died a tragic death.
More instances of creepiness: When Lady Yeh, the wife Jumong had abandoned back in the home country when he fled it, came to Goguryeoh to join him, one way the author showed that Jumong favored his first wife and would name her son heir was that he completely ignored Soseono from then on and would shag Lady Yeh all the damned time. Like, taking her off at all times, day and night, and just doing it. Not only was it a complete 180 from the way he'd seemed to be in love with Soseono before, it was disturbing because Lady Yeh wasn't described as being particularly passionate or into it and demurred at times, citing the fact that her lord had another wife now. So Jumong's "love" shows itself in abandoning his wife for twenty years and then having sex with her constantly the moment he sees her again, whether she likes it or not. How nice.
From these character inconsistencies and creeptastic behavior it seems Jumong is some kind of psychopath who has no genuine feelings, or has some serious guilt issues that he's dealing with horribly. However the story doesn't explore his character at all, and he drops dead soon afterward just as Soseono decides she's had enough of this loser and heads south. Why would a seemingly healthy forty-year-old man die so suddenly? Who knows, the historical record said so and the novelist didn't care enough to explain. Or maybe the author was trying to imply that Jumong, ahem, overexerted himself into an early grave. Good riddance, because as depicted in this novel the guy had no redeeming characteristics whatsoever.
This disturbing attitude about sex is disappointing because author Lee Gee-dam is capable of much better--the novel actually opens with an enjoyable outdoor sex scene between Soseono and Jumong, where they're both enjoying themselves and are filled with plans and dreams for the future. I remember in particular that her breasts were compared to grapes--which, ew, sounds more like a diseased breast to me than a healthy one, and why would Sosoeno as the viewpoint character take so much notice of her own breasts anyway (ohhhh yeah, the male gaze, I get it), but still it was a healthy and consensual sex scene that did much to endear me to the characters and story. And then it all went downhill from there through the valley of creepiness to the pointless ending.
Lessons learned: I decided that I would definitely explore Soseono's life before she met Jumong, and that her life after breaking up with him would be much more than a bookend capped with a pointless death. The beginning and end of her story needed to have meaning as well as the middle. Also I decided I was going to handle rape in a much more nuanced way, or at least not in the offensively objectified and stereotyped way Lee did.
It appears that Soseono was adapted in 2007 into a comic book seemingly for younger audiences. At least Lee is listed as the author and someone else in charge of the art. I hope the story has been changed to to suit the audience, and for God's sake I hope Lee took the time to retool that ending.
Soseono, the graphic novel
Soseono, the Foundress of Goguryeoh and Baekje / Jumong's Lover Soseono
2006 by Choi Jeong-ju
Pros: Pretty cover
Cons: Boring start, pointless ending. Soseono does not seem to be actual protagonist.
My school library gives one title for this book (the "Jumong's Lover" bit) while an online bookstore gives another ("Foundress"), but since the books have the same cover, author, and year of publishing I'm guessing they're the same work. I flipped through this at random in a bookstore and was immediately weirded out by the beginning. It began with Soseono talking about how much she was in love with this guy Jumong, and then went on describing his family background and past. Which wasn't even in the form of a narrative, but basically a rehash of the myth and history surrounding Jumong.
I pretty much disengaged with the book at this point. Not only was this a boring way to do exposition, the book was also starting off with stuff about Jumong while paying only the barest lip service to the idea that Soseono was its heroine. If this was a story where Soseono's character rotated around Jumong without her even being a strong supporting character but a fake protagonist, then I wasn't interested.
I flipped through to the ending just in case it was better than the earlier Soseono novel I had read. Nope. The very last paragraph had her dropping dead of an arrow through her throat, her last thought being "Onjo, you have killed your own mother." The end. Yeah, yet another ending where she dies and that's it without any larger meaning, no thanks.
In sum, with a boring beginning and boring end, I figured even a brilliant middle couldn't save this book. And from my brief perusal even the midparts didn't look that interesting. I decided to pass on this one. Is it just me, or do these Soseono novels show a low-grade hostility toward proactive female characters?
Lessons learned: If I'm going to write a book with Soseono as the protagonist, then by Jove she will be the protagonist. She shouldn't revolve around Jumong and should have a life away from him. Also her life and death should have some sort of meaning beyond the physical act of dropping dead at the end.
Empress Soseono
2006 by Yun Seon-mi
Pros: Soseono has a life outside of being Jumong's wife, imaginative additions to the history
Cons: Overwrought and sensational plot, far too much rape
Empress Soseono began rather well, giving Soseono an inner life and romantic life prior to meeting Jumong. It presented Soseono as an ambitious and intelligent young woman, and gave her a convoluted yet heartfelt love story with her first husband, Utae. It really says something that this was the first and only novel where Utae was an actual character as opposed to long-dead former husband.
I liked how the author Yun Seon-mi exercised actual creative license. The characters Soseono, Utae, and a host of original characters all had adventures, motivations, and flaws instead of being pale facsimiles from the historical record. There was Utae, driven from his homeland due to a power struggle in the court and seemingly a magnet for all sorts of trouble and intrigue. Yeonjeong, Soseono's companion from youth, was a beautiful young swordsman who harbored secret feelings for her all along (of course). Soseono's stepmother Yeo-wa had Soseono's father enthralled and schemed to take the throne away from Soseono.
Okay, I didn't say the additions were all original or good. But at least there were some creative additions, all right? It's a sadly low bar, I know.
The upshot of all this creative freedom was unfortunately a sort of soap-operaish plot, with dizzying reversals, intrigue, espionage, people jumping out of shadows all over the place. I'm afraid I wasn't reading very closely past the first fourth or fifth of the novel, because I was having a hard time taking it seriously and there were so many gratuitous sex scenes, much of it rape.
I'll say this for the book, at least it acknowledged the existence of female-on-male rape. There was a scene where Soseono's stepmother forced herself on her stepdaughter's companion Yeonjeong, totally pulling rank on him and clearly showing that Yeonjeong was not only unwilling but disgusted at the whole situation. So there was a bright spot there, but otherwise, the rape scenes were so numerous they had a numbing effect and distracted from the story.
Another good thing I'll say about this novel is, it didn't just end with Soseono dying but actually showed her legacy and influence. Among other things her son had some kind of epiphany after her death and vowed to fight back against her antagonist, who was evidently some sort of evil priest/serial rapist. I don't even know anymore, okay?
Lessons learned: Follow this book's example in giving Soseono a life before and after Jumong, and make Utae an actual character. Don't follow this book's example with the soap-opera complications and gratuitous sex and rape. Write something I could describe to adults with a straight face.
If you noticed a certain trend in the publication dates of these novels, the year of publication (2006) coincides with the airing of MBC's hit historical/fantasy series, Jumong, where Soseono was a prominent supporting character. My guess is that the hurried nature of these novels is due to the authors' and publishing houses' rushing to cash in on a hot property. To my knowledge there were no novels published since with Soseono as the protagonist.
Even aside from quality issues, these books don't accurately portray the language or society of ancient Korea. "Soseono," for instance, was unlikely to be her given name but was probably a place name or title. Then again this lack of research is a flaw in all Korean historical fiction, not just these three novels, and that's something I hope to correct with my own work. These novels taught me what to do and especially what not to do along the way.
What I found, to my disappointment and admittedly a small thrill of delight, was that these novels did not in any way do her justice. Some combination of the words trashy, offensive, and pointless applied to all of them, and none of them showed the depth of linguistic and historical research that I was hoping for. Here are some of the works I've looked at, or at least skimmed because my patience only goes so far. I did get some ideas for my own novel from these, mostly in terms of what not to do, so at least it wasn't a complete waste of time.
Soseono, the Woman Who Founded Goguryeoh
2006 by Lee Gee-dam
Pros: Believable emotions and character development, fidelity to history
Cons: Pointless ending, highly offensive rape tropes
This was the first Soseono novel I ran across. My own novel was still a seed of an idea in my mind then and I was actively interested in her by this time though I had no firm ideas for what I would write. That's why I was delighted to catch sight of this two-volume set in an used bookstore. I brought the books home in a flurry of anticipation and read them, and...Well actually, this book is the best of the Soseono novels I've seen so far though that's sadly not saying much. The narrative followed the recorded historical events for the most part while giving Soseono, the protagonist and viewpoint character, a believable inner life and plenty of character development. The part where Soseono was betrayed by her husband was genuinely wrenching.
Though I was disappointed that the novel started after her second marriage to Jumong and said very little of her life prior to that, I could also understand the decision since nothing of her life is recorded before she met Jumong. For most of the run this was a fair-to-middling historical novel that I might have liked a whole lot if it weren't for the weak ending and some freakin' offensive choices in plot and character.
As mentioned, I enjoyed the narrative fairly well until the end. And then the heroine died, and that was it. She attacked her son's palace for reasons that weren't completely clear to me, and her body was discovered among the armored corpses. The end. What? But... but... what about all the buildup up to that point? What about the way she was revered by the people she had led south? What about her relationships with her sons and and... she died, the end? There's no closure? No point?
I felt like I'd been the victim of a fraudulent investment scheme. Not the bit of money I'd paid for the books, of course, but the emotions I'd invested in the characters and the story. They just swirled around with nowhere to go. What just happened? How could the book end on such a disappointing note?
Maybe the author was trying to be faithful to the historical record, since this is more or less how Soseono's life ended. But even the sparse record hints at a much greater legacy for Soseono than simply dropping dead. What about the fact that her son built a temple to honor her memory, for instance, or that her death was such a traumatic event that it occasioned a movement of the capital for a fresh start, or that she was one of three major ancestral spirits worshiped in Baekje? It didn't make sense for her story to end like that, with no payoff whatsoever.
Also, the book's treatment of rape bothered me. Not that it happened, but rather that there was one particular character whose sole purpose appeared to be that of designated rape victim. I get that someone can unfortunately be a rape victim multiple times, and that once a person is attacked in this way it makes her vulnerable socially and psychologically. However, I really could have done without the way events were elaborately constructed so that this character was always in the position of seducing men, being captured and so on. It was like the author really really wanted her to be in these situations and it was creepy as hell. I was also not in love with the way she was described as being "dead in spirit," had no personality or life outside of what was done to her, and ultimately died a tragic death.
More instances of creepiness: When Lady Yeh, the wife Jumong had abandoned back in the home country when he fled it, came to Goguryeoh to join him, one way the author showed that Jumong favored his first wife and would name her son heir was that he completely ignored Soseono from then on and would shag Lady Yeh all the damned time. Like, taking her off at all times, day and night, and just doing it. Not only was it a complete 180 from the way he'd seemed to be in love with Soseono before, it was disturbing because Lady Yeh wasn't described as being particularly passionate or into it and demurred at times, citing the fact that her lord had another wife now. So Jumong's "love" shows itself in abandoning his wife for twenty years and then having sex with her constantly the moment he sees her again, whether she likes it or not. How nice.
From these character inconsistencies and creeptastic behavior it seems Jumong is some kind of psychopath who has no genuine feelings, or has some serious guilt issues that he's dealing with horribly. However the story doesn't explore his character at all, and he drops dead soon afterward just as Soseono decides she's had enough of this loser and heads south. Why would a seemingly healthy forty-year-old man die so suddenly? Who knows, the historical record said so and the novelist didn't care enough to explain. Or maybe the author was trying to imply that Jumong, ahem, overexerted himself into an early grave. Good riddance, because as depicted in this novel the guy had no redeeming characteristics whatsoever.
This disturbing attitude about sex is disappointing because author Lee Gee-dam is capable of much better--the novel actually opens with an enjoyable outdoor sex scene between Soseono and Jumong, where they're both enjoying themselves and are filled with plans and dreams for the future. I remember in particular that her breasts were compared to grapes--which, ew, sounds more like a diseased breast to me than a healthy one, and why would Sosoeno as the viewpoint character take so much notice of her own breasts anyway (ohhhh yeah, the male gaze, I get it), but still it was a healthy and consensual sex scene that did much to endear me to the characters and story. And then it all went downhill from there through the valley of creepiness to the pointless ending.
Lessons learned: I decided that I would definitely explore Soseono's life before she met Jumong, and that her life after breaking up with him would be much more than a bookend capped with a pointless death. The beginning and end of her story needed to have meaning as well as the middle. Also I decided I was going to handle rape in a much more nuanced way, or at least not in the offensively objectified and stereotyped way Lee did.
It appears that Soseono was adapted in 2007 into a comic book seemingly for younger audiences. At least Lee is listed as the author and someone else in charge of the art. I hope the story has been changed to to suit the audience, and for God's sake I hope Lee took the time to retool that ending.
Soseono, the graphic novel
Soseono, the Foundress of Goguryeoh and Baekje / Jumong's Lover Soseono
2006 by Choi Jeong-ju
Pros: Pretty cover
Cons: Boring start, pointless ending. Soseono does not seem to be actual protagonist.
My school library gives one title for this book (the "Jumong's Lover" bit) while an online bookstore gives another ("Foundress"), but since the books have the same cover, author, and year of publishing I'm guessing they're the same work. I flipped through this at random in a bookstore and was immediately weirded out by the beginning. It began with Soseono talking about how much she was in love with this guy Jumong, and then went on describing his family background and past. Which wasn't even in the form of a narrative, but basically a rehash of the myth and history surrounding Jumong.I pretty much disengaged with the book at this point. Not only was this a boring way to do exposition, the book was also starting off with stuff about Jumong while paying only the barest lip service to the idea that Soseono was its heroine. If this was a story where Soseono's character rotated around Jumong without her even being a strong supporting character but a fake protagonist, then I wasn't interested.
I flipped through to the ending just in case it was better than the earlier Soseono novel I had read. Nope. The very last paragraph had her dropping dead of an arrow through her throat, her last thought being "Onjo, you have killed your own mother." The end. Yeah, yet another ending where she dies and that's it without any larger meaning, no thanks.
In sum, with a boring beginning and boring end, I figured even a brilliant middle couldn't save this book. And from my brief perusal even the midparts didn't look that interesting. I decided to pass on this one. Is it just me, or do these Soseono novels show a low-grade hostility toward proactive female characters?
Lessons learned: If I'm going to write a book with Soseono as the protagonist, then by Jove she will be the protagonist. She shouldn't revolve around Jumong and should have a life away from him. Also her life and death should have some sort of meaning beyond the physical act of dropping dead at the end.
Empress Soseono
2006 by Yun Seon-mi
Pros: Soseono has a life outside of being Jumong's wife, imaginative additions to the history
Cons: Overwrought and sensational plot, far too much rape
Empress Soseono began rather well, giving Soseono an inner life and romantic life prior to meeting Jumong. It presented Soseono as an ambitious and intelligent young woman, and gave her a convoluted yet heartfelt love story with her first husband, Utae. It really says something that this was the first and only novel where Utae was an actual character as opposed to long-dead former husband.I liked how the author Yun Seon-mi exercised actual creative license. The characters Soseono, Utae, and a host of original characters all had adventures, motivations, and flaws instead of being pale facsimiles from the historical record. There was Utae, driven from his homeland due to a power struggle in the court and seemingly a magnet for all sorts of trouble and intrigue. Yeonjeong, Soseono's companion from youth, was a beautiful young swordsman who harbored secret feelings for her all along (of course). Soseono's stepmother Yeo-wa had Soseono's father enthralled and schemed to take the throne away from Soseono.
Okay, I didn't say the additions were all original or good. But at least there were some creative additions, all right? It's a sadly low bar, I know.
The upshot of all this creative freedom was unfortunately a sort of soap-operaish plot, with dizzying reversals, intrigue, espionage, people jumping out of shadows all over the place. I'm afraid I wasn't reading very closely past the first fourth or fifth of the novel, because I was having a hard time taking it seriously and there were so many gratuitous sex scenes, much of it rape.
I'll say this for the book, at least it acknowledged the existence of female-on-male rape. There was a scene where Soseono's stepmother forced herself on her stepdaughter's companion Yeonjeong, totally pulling rank on him and clearly showing that Yeonjeong was not only unwilling but disgusted at the whole situation. So there was a bright spot there, but otherwise, the rape scenes were so numerous they had a numbing effect and distracted from the story.
Another good thing I'll say about this novel is, it didn't just end with Soseono dying but actually showed her legacy and influence. Among other things her son had some kind of epiphany after her death and vowed to fight back against her antagonist, who was evidently some sort of evil priest/serial rapist. I don't even know anymore, okay?
Lessons learned: Follow this book's example in giving Soseono a life before and after Jumong, and make Utae an actual character. Don't follow this book's example with the soap-opera complications and gratuitous sex and rape. Write something I could describe to adults with a straight face.
If you noticed a certain trend in the publication dates of these novels, the year of publication (2006) coincides with the airing of MBC's hit historical/fantasy series, Jumong, where Soseono was a prominent supporting character. My guess is that the hurried nature of these novels is due to the authors' and publishing houses' rushing to cash in on a hot property. To my knowledge there were no novels published since with Soseono as the protagonist.
Even aside from quality issues, these books don't accurately portray the language or society of ancient Korea. "Soseono," for instance, was unlikely to be her given name but was probably a place name or title. Then again this lack of research is a flaw in all Korean historical fiction, not just these three novels, and that's something I hope to correct with my own work. These novels taught me what to do and especially what not to do along the way.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-11 09:23 pm (UTC)I know that in the US, books taking place in "ye olde days" often presumes that there's rape everywhere. Is this a thing in Korean literature too? I was kind of hoping it to be a local problem.
--Rogan
no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:23 am (UTC)I think it's definitely a thing in Korean literature, partly as Truth in Television. It's when it's used gratuitously and as entertainment that I get actively creeped out.
no subject
Date: 2015-01-11 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:24 am (UTC)