L.J. Writes

This article about different perceptions of color by culture, jumping off from the Homeric texts that describe wine-dark seas and cornflower hair, got me thinking about the language and perceptions of color in Korean culture that I had almost given up on expressing in English. Korea has no native word for "green," you see, but rather uses "blue" to describe the sky, the forests, and the ocean alike. We had to borrow the Chinese word for green in order to separate it out linguistically, so it felt weird to have Korean characters who don't even know Chinese to think of and use the word "green." On the other hand, I thought, it would feel odd for English-language readers to see forests and leaves described as "blue." For that matter, Koreans call hair with a slight brown/yellowish sheen "yellow" which would call to mind blond hair for many English speakers but is actually still dark brown hair. But hey, if Homer can get away with wine-colored seas, why can't I ha ve blue forests and brown yellow hair, right?

Now listening to: The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, the third book in her The Queen's Thief series. Eugenides is dealing with being the king of a court that hates him and the threat of the Mede Empire hangs in the background, while the royal guard Costas is swept into the middle of it all. So far I don't find this book as suspenseful as the previous ones and the pacing is somewhat lagging. Costas seems way more of a bystander than a protagonist thus far, diminishing my interest in him, though I do enjoy the look into the rigors of guard life and the complexities of court life. It's still an OK listen to cook or commute to.

Now reading: The King of the Light in the East as a Work of Epic Poetry by Hwang Sun-gu. (Kings are a theme of this week I guess?) I'm not much for literary studies unless you count fandom meta, but The King of the Light in the East is crucial research for my WIP in depicting the life of my heroine's second husband Jumong and the rise of his son (her stepson) Yuri. This poem also goes into more detail than any other source about the rivalry and eventual war between Jumong and Song-yang, a local lord that Jumong would eventually prevail over and make his vassal. In my story Song-yang is both my heroine's and Jumong's ex-boyfriend, so he's a pivotal figure in many ways. The poet, Lee Gyubo, also happens to be an ancestor and it feels sometimes like I'm just taking up a family obsession.

The volume by Hwang Sun-gu presents Lee Gyubo's text in the original Hanja (Chinese characters) and the Korean translation, together with a lot of background analysis. In fact, I'm a little past half done and the excerpts have only just started. The background analysis was... mildly helpful? A lot of it consists of frothy praise about how Lee Gyubo's poem is a literary and historical achievement. Which is correct, as far as it goes, but I like less the whiff of empire-worship from the discussions of how Goguryeoh (modern day North Korea + parts of Northeast China) had a vast continental territory etc. etc. It wasn't like super-heavy analysis or anything and I skimmed through a lot of it. Maybe the textual analysis will be more helpful, and if not it'll be a chance to re-read the text of the poem in more depth.

( Rape discussion and super creepy description, why are you talking about frogs that way D: )

I spent Monday afternoon last week researching clothing from the time period I'm writing in, that is 1st century B.C. mostly to the north of the Korean peninsula. The dudes' feathered hats came up again, but I went through more comprehensive treatments of fashion in that era that were not focused exclusively on noblemen's hats. One of the books I took copious notes on agrees with me that the feathers were definitely real bird feathers early on but that feather-shaped or deer ear-shaped decorations also came into use later on.

All the books that I took a look at on this subject seem to discuss the Xiongnu(1) clothing uncovered at the Noin-Ula burial site in Mongolia, pointing out the similarities to Korean clothing in the basic structure of articles like form-fitting pants, wraparound tunic bound with a belt, and outer coat. A red tunic found in Noin-Ula shows traces of being trimmed with fur, which is a great distinctive look I could use since the ancient connection between the Xiongnu and Koreans seems inescapable.

( More ancient Korean fashion, plus pictures! )

I've been spending the past couple of days trying to set up a DW queue from my local machine and it's been a lot of fun, though hard because I knew practically nothing about the Mac OS X shell going in. Now I think I know even less--like why is it so hard to set up a variable lol. I've been documenting the process as I went along and will post it when I get it working. If all goes well this post should be posted with that script. Update: It worked! It's showing unexpected behavior that I need to figure out, but so far it's not affecting anything visible.

Two days of this week were taken up in an INTENSIVE deadline that got me some much-needed dough but took a physical toll. I have the beginning of a head cold and a persistent lower-back ache that I am trying to relieve with rest and stretching. My tot has a runny nose, too, a recurring occurrence for him: Poor kid never stood a chance with both his parents' history of sinus infections.

I've been listening to The Queen's Thief audiobooks and am almost done with the second book The Queen of Attolia. The audiobooks are well-acted and enjoyable in their own right. I'll have more to say about the books later on, but for now here are my Mastodon threads from Book 1 The Thief and from Book 2, with rampant spoilers obviously.

Writing has fallen by the wayside while I was distracted, but I'm hoping to get back on that wagon this weekend. At this point I don't think I'll meet my goal of completing a first draft (well, third first draft) of the WIP by my birthday this June. :( Oh well, at least the goal will push me to keep writing.

I learned yesterday that evidently a bunch of jingoistic pseudo-historians (let's call them JiPHs for short) who claim to be "patriots" helped put a halt to the Early Korea Project, a joint publication project by Harvard University and (actual) historians of ancient Korea. The JiPHs' complaint? That the project put the site of one of the major Chinese colonies, Nakrang, in the Korean peninsula, as opposed to the Chinese continent where the JiPHs insist Nakrang was located.


Different theories on the location of Nakrang: Most South Korean scholars (green), North Korean scholars (blue), so-called "irregular" scholars, i.e. JiPHs (red)

The JiPHs' argument, as always, is total baloney. The historical and most crucially the archeological evidence points to Nakrang being on the peninsula, around what is now Pyeongyang, North Korea. (Green area of map above) The JiPHs, however, insist that Nakrang was in modern China to the west of the Liao River (Red area of map) because Reasons because Korea wasn't centered on the Korean peninsula we were a continental power dammit and the Chinese could never have had a presence on the Korean peninsula and it's colonialist to say otherwise and wahhhhh why are their dicks so small.

That's their entire thing, that ancient Korea has to have been a continental power, no, a continent-spanning empire in order for our history to have any worth, the evidence must only be interpreted to support this conclusion, and any scholarship that says otherwise is imperialist treason to the Korean people and ughhhh I feel slimy just typing this wanky nonsense.

Like mainstream historical scholars tend to, I've regarded the JiPHs with amused tolerance because I assumed they were harmless though annoying cranks. But now, realizing they can get valuable, serious research shut down with their pseudoacademic crap and get members of the national legislature on their side, I realize they are a serious threat and need a stompdown.

This gives me more incentive than ever to finish and publish my novel which places Nakrang, obviously, squarely in the Korean peninsula where it belongs. I want with all my heart for this novel to gain enough influence that the idea of Nakrang in Pyeongyang becomes popularized and the JiPHs can only scream and cry while their "theory" goes down the toilet where it belongs. That's not the only JiPH sacred cow I'm slaughtering, so may their cryfest be bitter and long.

And sure, if that happens they'll start their usual campaigns of smears and harassment, tactics that people with actual proof and logic on their side don't have to resort to. And you know what? Bring it. I am so ready for these liars and cowards. They have gone too far and this means war.