Dispatches from South Korea
February 1, 2014
I’ve been in South Korea for just over a week, and have been honoured to have participated in my Korean family’s Lunar New Year (Sollal) celebration, which included the sacrifices to the ancestors (which was fruit and prepared food we later ate . . . so not really sacrifices), kowtows to the elders (which included my nieces and nephews kowtowing to my wife and I), and a huge lack of internet. I’m at my sister-in-law’s place now with some internet, so I hope to have some time to compose some posts. Then again, there’s talk of visiting the East Sea (to heck with your Sea of Japan nonsense), which – I’m sorry – wins out over writing some posts. However, here are some previews.
Prince of Wolves? Delivers exactly what I expected and makes me excited to read King of Chaos. If you liked Master of Devils and dig old Hammer horror films, do yourself a favour and check this out.
Yellow Sea? An amazing South Korea neo-noir which packs a lot of tension and action into two-and-a-half hours.
River of Stars? Another outstanding novel from Guy Gavriel Kay, though I consider Under Heaven better. I’ll try to figure out why.
How often do you get to go to a country with as much flavor and interesting locations as Korea? internet be damned, it’ll still be here when you get back. Enjoy the sites and take some of that back with you as fuel for your writing!
Cheers,
Walt
You are a wise, wise man.