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Modern Korean Literature #91
The Wings
The three stories gathered in this volume display Yi, Sang's inventive manipulation of autobiographical elements, a method which expands his intensely private narratives into broader meditations on love, life, and death. "The Wings," a dark allegory of infidelity and self-deception, probes the ambiguities of perception and language through an unreliable narrator who bears an uncanny resemblance to the author himself. "Encounters and Departures," a tale of ill-fated love revolving around erotic passion and physical illness as metaphors presents a female protagonist modelled on the woman who was, in real life, the author's muse and femme fatale. Similarly, in "Deathly Child," Yi, Sang offers a witty, incisive examination of sexual mores through a fictional reenactment of his ambivalent feelings toward the woman he married toward the end of his life.
84 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
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About the author
Yi Sang
20 books47 followersKim Hae-Gyeong (hangul: 김해경, hanja: 金海卿, September 23, 1910 – April 17, 1937), also known as his pen name Yi Sang (hangul: 이상, hanja: 李箱) was a writer and poet who lived in Korea under Japanese rule.[1] He is well-known for his poems and novels, such as Crow's-Eye View (hangul: 오감도, hanja: 烏瞰圖) and Wings (hangul: 날개). He is considered as one of the most important and revolutionary writers of modern Korean literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
March 20, 2018
Taking all the time in the world, yet so efficient. Every word is breath taking. It is funny too. In its own way. Death and suffering are undisguised and explicit but somehow, there is a lack of morbidity. There is romance and tragedy without sentimentalism. And a cheeky meditation on irony and paradox, which I am not sure if I understand completely but Junot Diaz said that one does not have to understand every motivation behind a work of art in order to engage with it in a meaningful way or something to that effect and I agree with Junot. Junot speaks truths. Yi Sang teases truths. Read it. It takes a whole minute.
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April 18, 2024Fly perfect wings
February 14, 2018
I can't speak to the quality of the translation, as this is the first version of this book I've read, and I can't read Korean. Typos are certainly present, at least 3 or 4 a story, but usually you can infer the meaning.
The book itself is a selection of stories all very similar-feeling, mostly about a young, unemployed 20-something year old man who feels himself a failure and morosely observes his wife's infidelity.
All the stories are very voice-driven, think Notes from the Underground or Hamsun's Hunger. The internal monologue and the technique of breaking the material of the story into pieces colored by the eyes of the narrator is deftly handled. A deep current of muted emotion is unmistakably felt throughout the stories, a stillness always on the point of breaking into either violence or revelation, but any moment of emotional catharsis is stifled under what is felt to be an inevitable inability to act.
Yi Sang captures this deeply complex emotion with narrative cuts that highlight the banality and material poverty of his days and contrast this with the almost reverential awe he has for the object of his desire, always a young woman, who is either married to another man or a prostitute (never explicitly said, but implied.) His portrayal of the female counterpart to his author stand-in is always well executed, she has the feeling of being a fully independent person in each story, and behaves realistically, growing resentful and fed up with his immobility and slothfulness. This is tempered with loving acts which hint at a protective care she feels for him, although in some stories it seems like this is all she gets out of the relationship, a feeling of giving and in return being admired. Which is perhaps realistic, another large theme is the confusion of being a human in a commodifying, automating culture. Where one goes for love when traditional systems are being either repressed, outlawed, or segmented into unrecognizability. Yi Sang is also writing out of a historical moment of brutal oppression and occupation by Japan.
The stories are sometimes used as an example of the Korean idea of "Han," a difficult concept that incorporates feelings of helplessness, oppression and isolation. I'm hardly an expert on that, but if you're interested it might be illuminating to look it up and gain an extra perspective on the work.
The best story is the first one, The Wings. The relationship between the author surrogate and his wife is rendered so precisely that each interaction is charged with pathos, from the coins she leaves him by his bedside, to his willful avoidance of her during the nights when she is entertaining her stranger guests. The implication of infidelity is allowed to linger and permeate, but it is always kept out of the center of the story, and the reader experiences the same willed blindness that the main character lives with. When he begins to rebel and "accidentally" passes through her room while she is "entertaining," we feel the same relief and happiness he does when his wife responds by caring for him more, and then immediately are born down by the shame of needing her to give us money so we may go out the next night and not disturb her. Maybe I see a lot of myself in the main character, and that's why identification comes so easily to me, but I feel that Yi Sang's writing style by itself does an incredible job, especially in this first story, of implicating the reader and getting them to inhabit the skin of his narrator. Bodily illness and anhedonia fill the pages, and this malaise passes from the book into the reader, so that moments of desperation strike more immediately. This is accomplished with sentence-by-sentence descriptions of rising and walking mixed with boredom and disorientation, leading into passages of protuberant emotion that never break into expression, but push against the skin.
I won't spoil the incredible climax, but the feeling of release and hope at the end is easily worth the price of the book and the time taken reading it. Yi Sang uses the epiphany ending popularized in Western literature around the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century for all of his short stories, which is perhaps why they feel so contemporary to me, because that is a style that has continued into present day. The ending of The Wings is a true epiphany however, and one can see why he is so influential for so many contemporary Korean writers.
The book itself is a selection of stories all very similar-feeling, mostly about a young, unemployed 20-something year old man who feels himself a failure and morosely observes his wife's infidelity.
All the stories are very voice-driven, think Notes from the Underground or Hamsun's Hunger. The internal monologue and the technique of breaking the material of the story into pieces colored by the eyes of the narrator is deftly handled. A deep current of muted emotion is unmistakably felt throughout the stories, a stillness always on the point of breaking into either violence or revelation, but any moment of emotional catharsis is stifled under what is felt to be an inevitable inability to act.
Yi Sang captures this deeply complex emotion with narrative cuts that highlight the banality and material poverty of his days and contrast this with the almost reverential awe he has for the object of his desire, always a young woman, who is either married to another man or a prostitute (never explicitly said, but implied.) His portrayal of the female counterpart to his author stand-in is always well executed, she has the feeling of being a fully independent person in each story, and behaves realistically, growing resentful and fed up with his immobility and slothfulness. This is tempered with loving acts which hint at a protective care she feels for him, although in some stories it seems like this is all she gets out of the relationship, a feeling of giving and in return being admired. Which is perhaps realistic, another large theme is the confusion of being a human in a commodifying, automating culture. Where one goes for love when traditional systems are being either repressed, outlawed, or segmented into unrecognizability. Yi Sang is also writing out of a historical moment of brutal oppression and occupation by Japan.
The stories are sometimes used as an example of the Korean idea of "Han," a difficult concept that incorporates feelings of helplessness, oppression and isolation. I'm hardly an expert on that, but if you're interested it might be illuminating to look it up and gain an extra perspective on the work.
The best story is the first one, The Wings. The relationship between the author surrogate and his wife is rendered so precisely that each interaction is charged with pathos, from the coins she leaves him by his bedside, to his willful avoidance of her during the nights when she is entertaining her stranger guests. The implication of infidelity is allowed to linger and permeate, but it is always kept out of the center of the story, and the reader experiences the same willed blindness that the main character lives with. When he begins to rebel and "accidentally" passes through her room while she is "entertaining," we feel the same relief and happiness he does when his wife responds by caring for him more, and then immediately are born down by the shame of needing her to give us money so we may go out the next night and not disturb her. Maybe I see a lot of myself in the main character, and that's why identification comes so easily to me, but I feel that Yi Sang's writing style by itself does an incredible job, especially in this first story, of implicating the reader and getting them to inhabit the skin of his narrator. Bodily illness and anhedonia fill the pages, and this malaise passes from the book into the reader, so that moments of desperation strike more immediately. This is accomplished with sentence-by-sentence descriptions of rising and walking mixed with boredom and disorientation, leading into passages of protuberant emotion that never break into expression, but push against the skin.
I won't spoil the incredible climax, but the feeling of release and hope at the end is easily worth the price of the book and the time taken reading it. Yi Sang uses the epiphany ending popularized in Western literature around the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century for all of his short stories, which is perhaps why they feel so contemporary to me, because that is a style that has continued into present day. The ending of The Wings is a true epiphany however, and one can see why he is so influential for so many contemporary Korean writers.
December 22, 2024
As far as I know, this is the second Korean work I’ve read, the first being Han Kang’s. The story is quite absurd and vague, which I think is Yi Sang’s way of using metaphors to shape the narrative.
The wife’s profession is also unclear. I couldn’t help but wonder—like some readers probably do—if she might be a prostitute, and the husband simply chooses not to confront it.
But that’s the beauty of short stories. They leave room for interpretation, and I’m sure Yi Sang intended this one to spark plenty of discussion.
The wife’s profession is also unclear. I couldn’t help but wonder—like some readers probably do—if she might be a prostitute, and the husband simply chooses not to confront it.
But that’s the beauty of short stories. They leave room for interpretation, and I’m sure Yi Sang intended this one to spark plenty of discussion.
June 5, 2017
Acá hay algo de Dazai -maestro del quilombo suicida- y de ese ambiente tuberculoso y decadente de algunos escritores japoneses de la década del 10-20s. Tipos que leían traducciones de Zola, Flaubert, y las pequeñas novelas del yo. Esa unión deliciosa entre la pequeña forma realista, atenta a la descripción del detalle y la percepción, el juego de lo autobiográfico, lo sexual y lo decadente moderno.
Espero que en los próximos años aparezcan muchas más traducciones de este período, la literatura coreana escrita bajo la ocupación imperial japonesa,... se me cae un poco la baba.
Espero que en los próximos años aparezcan muchas más traducciones de este período, la literatura coreana escrita bajo la ocupación imperial japonesa,... se me cae un poco la baba.
December 2, 2023
to be honest, i think i may leave this book a changed man. (exaggeration, but still!) initially picked up for the wings, but decided to read the other two stories as well out of curiosity. i do love the writing and how down-to-life (if.. that's a term) it is. the autobiographical aspect of the stories really makes ya wonder. all 3 stories in my opinion are a quick read and absolutely something i think you should read if you're interested!
(bad at formal reviews orz i just wanted to put my thoughts here)
(bad at formal reviews orz i just wanted to put my thoughts here)
July 19, 2022
Read The Wings again to refresh my memory. This time, after having traversed through many different pieces of Yi Sang's writing and analyzed them for my thesis I found the text much easier to parse through. Out of all of Yi Sang's short stories, The Wings might be one of the more easily accessible ones when it comes to style of writing and narrative flow. That might be one of the reasons why it's still so popular and the most well-known of his short stories.
The Wings precede Yi Sang's other short stories and maybe carry the least of the author in them. Don't be tricked - this story is still very autobiographical but much more dishonest than some others - quite a lot like our unreliable narrator here. While even in his later works, Yi Sang acknowledges his character (the I character) to be unreliable, here it is alluded to but not explicitly called out within the text. It's a tentative fantasy, a metaphorical step not quite as close to the deeply intimate works we can attribute to him later on.
/I will edit this and add my review of Bongbyeolgi once I find time to read it too/
The Wings precede Yi Sang's other short stories and maybe carry the least of the author in them. Don't be tricked - this story is still very autobiographical but much more dishonest than some others - quite a lot like our unreliable narrator here. While even in his later works, Yi Sang acknowledges his character (the I character) to be unreliable, here it is alluded to but not explicitly called out within the text. It's a tentative fantasy, a metaphorical step not quite as close to the deeply intimate works we can attribute to him later on.
/I will edit this and add my review of Bongbyeolgi once I find time to read it too/
December 22, 2010
This translation is definitely superior to what was for far too long the most widely read one: Peter H. Lee's, included in several of the modern Korean literature anthologies he compiled for the University Press of Hawai'i. PHL's translation drops sentences (sometimes a whole paragraph) from several different locations in the text without ever explaining why or even acknowledging the abridgements.
For what is usually considered the best translation, however, check out the one by Walter K. Lew and Youngju Ryu that was published in the anthology MODERN KOREAN FICTION, coedited by Bruce Fulton and Kwon Youngmin (Columbia U. Press, 2005). Even just the first few paragraphs, previously deemed untranslatable by Korean scholars, should blow you away!
For what is usually considered the best translation, however, check out the one by Walter K. Lew and Youngju Ryu that was published in the anthology MODERN KOREAN FICTION, coedited by Bruce Fulton and Kwon Youngmin (Columbia U. Press, 2005). Even just the first few paragraphs, previously deemed untranslatable by Korean scholars, should blow you away!
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October 4, 2025Watch my review on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfcLi...
KBS Korea 24 @KBSKorea24
"#KoreaBookClub 📚, literary critic @barrywelsh brings us one of the most significant works by one of Korea’s most influential writers: “Wings (#날개)” by Yi Sang (#이상).
First published in 1936, the short story centers around a man who is living with his wife in the brothel where she works. He is jaded with life and society and losing the ability to understand the world around him meaningfully.
Many interpretations of the work have emerged over the years, from a colonial reading of life under Japanese rule, to Marxist, feminist and even queer intereperations.”
#KBSWORLDRadio #KBS월드라디오 #Korea24 #코리아24 #책추천 #책스타그램 #북스타그램 #bookstagram #book #reading #KoreanLiterature #한국문학 #asiapublishers #아시아출판사
19:10-20:00 KST, Mon-Fri on KBS WORLD Radio.
Download the KBS Kong / KBS WORLD Radio Mobile apps or subscribe to the Korea 24 podcast for your daily updates!
http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/progra...
KBS Korea 24 @KBSKorea24
"#KoreaBookClub 📚, literary critic @barrywelsh brings us one of the most significant works by one of Korea’s most influential writers: “Wings (#날개)” by Yi Sang (#이상).
First published in 1936, the short story centers around a man who is living with his wife in the brothel where she works. He is jaded with life and society and losing the ability to understand the world around him meaningfully.
Many interpretations of the work have emerged over the years, from a colonial reading of life under Japanese rule, to Marxist, feminist and even queer intereperations.”
#KBSWORLDRadio #KBS월드라디오 #Korea24 #코리아24 #책추천 #책스타그램 #북스타그램 #bookstagram #book #reading #KoreanLiterature #한국문학 #asiapublishers #아시아출판사
19:10-20:00 KST, Mon-Fri on KBS WORLD Radio.
Download the KBS Kong / KBS WORLD Radio Mobile apps or subscribe to the Korea 24 podcast for your daily updates!
http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/progra...
November 20, 2022
‘The Wings’ is a collection of short stories by a man who died too young. Heavily autobiographical, Yi Sang shamelessly bared his flaws for the world to see. Dead at 27 in a Japanese prison for a ‘thought crime’, this young Korean writer gave us a look into the despair and pressure of Korean life under Japanese occupation. Yet, he doesn’t write about the Japanese. In his stories, he is the villain. He was aware of his every flaw.
The episodes of love and heartbreak aren’t heroic, romantic, thrilling or any other positive adjective. What we see is a lens of honesty into a broken man’s life. The power of literature is great, and its scope is not limited to entertainment or education. Here literature has preserved a life and a period in time better than any biography could have. The sole problem is that Yi Sang seemed aware only of his negative traits.
The episodes of love and heartbreak aren’t heroic, romantic, thrilling or any other positive adjective. What we see is a lens of honesty into a broken man’s life. The power of literature is great, and its scope is not limited to entertainment or education. Here literature has preserved a life and a period in time better than any biography could have. The sole problem is that Yi Sang seemed aware only of his negative traits.
November 25, 2017
4 stars for Wings...
The theme of adultery is present in all three stories. The weak, sick protagonist is also in all three which leads me to think that the stories are somehow autobiographical in nature.
It is clear the Yi Sang was depressed for many reasons. I felt that he had poured his soul into these short stories and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
The theme of adultery is present in all three stories. The weak, sick protagonist is also in all three which leads me to think that the stories are somehow autobiographical in nature.
It is clear the Yi Sang was depressed for many reasons. I felt that he had poured his soul into these short stories and I couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
September 20, 2023
I'm not the biggest poetry reader so when my friend recommended me this I was on the fence. A few weeks and a lot of harassing later I finally picked this open and oh my god. This changed my life, like actually. I don't even know how to begin to put into words how well done this poetry is, Yi Sang is a wonderful author and I heavily recommend reading The Wings as well as his other works.
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June 13, 2024this guy cannot pull 😭😭
December 1, 2020
I found the beginning a bit odd; I can't quite figure out what the beginning is doing for the story -- and also the bolded words are confusing to me.
I found this analysis on Korean American Story to be quite accurate: "an unreliable, not necessarily likable narrator, who merely reacts to the moment and lacks the traditions of male ambition and desire." And I found another analysis of the story to say this: "an allegory of how an entire generation of intellectuals sought to survive in a colonial setting by becoming entirely private, shielding themselves with self-deceptions until even that became impossible."
I wondered why the narrator was unable to name his wife's profession...was this a commentary on something else he's unable to name? Why is he unable to break away from her? Why are they isolated from each other, from the world? Why is he so emasculated?
I want to read more of his work!
I found this analysis on Korean American Story to be quite accurate: "an unreliable, not necessarily likable narrator, who merely reacts to the moment and lacks the traditions of male ambition and desire." And I found another analysis of the story to say this: "an allegory of how an entire generation of intellectuals sought to survive in a colonial setting by becoming entirely private, shielding themselves with self-deceptions until even that became impossible."
I wondered why the narrator was unable to name his wife's profession...was this a commentary on something else he's unable to name? Why is he unable to break away from her? Why are they isolated from each other, from the world? Why is he so emasculated?
I want to read more of his work!
February 24, 2024
I read it once. I didn't understand a thing. I read it again. "I get it now. He is like me fr. He is like Gregor if he wasn't a bug. I too, want to fly my wings" I whispered before eating the paper so we would never, ever part.
Good shit. Too bad Yi Sang is dead and can't pay for the therapy I now need after reliving traumas I didn't even know I had.
Good shit. Too bad Yi Sang is dead and can't pay for the therapy I now need after reliving traumas I didn't even know I had.
May 7, 2019
Similar to Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human but with a looser narrative, and more dreamlike than a traditional story.
April 13, 2020
Losing a wife is like losing a wallet.
May 24, 2023
the wings is about 40 pages all in all. it made me feel very unwell. please read it
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June 12, 2023Çok yakında Türkçe'ye çevirisiyle okuyacağınız Yi Sang'ın Kanatlar kitabının baskı öncesi okumasını yapmak çok keyifliydi. Fakat edebi bir metin olduğu için epey zorlandım diyebilirim. Üstüne Kore'nin ilk psikolojik romanı olmasını da eklersek içinde barındırdığı anlamlar daha da anlamlı geldi. Japon sömürge dönemine çok fazla atıfta bulunulmuş. Hatta bu dönemi metaforlarla anlatmışta diyebiliriz. Yi Sang'ın şair olduğunu da bildiğimden yazılanların şiirsel ahengini de yakalamak heyecan verici.
Çeviri çıktığında mutlaka okuyun derim😉
Çeviri çıktığında mutlaka okuyun derim😉
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October 14, 2025I stopped my pace and wanted to shout. Wings, spread out again! Fly, Fly, Fly. Let me fly once more.
December 9, 2024
It is not ideal. It is not odd. That's all. Goodbye.
January 10, 2026
I read critical acclaim and reviews of the book but I just can’t help interpreting this in the milieu of historical context and analysis hehe!!!! This absurd little short story reads to me as a modern man isolated and hidden away from society, barred from any real intellectual work, given a pittance to aimlessly wonder about with, devoid of desire and confused at his existence.
But the character of his abusive and manipulative wife he can’t help but crawl back to just reads to me as well like the experience of man under Japanese colonial rule. She hides him away when collaborating with mysterious suitors who give her money, in turn she gives just a tiny allowance to the man who is stuffed, essentially, in a closet, she prevents him from leaving for a lot this book, he doesn’t work and can’t, having to hide under a quilt to do his “research” and intellectual work which he knows will amount to nothing and is ultimately futile, she poisons him and then tries to make him the villain when she’s caught cheating! All of these built for me a metaphor of Japanese colonial rule over Korea. You must go to the colonial motherland to get an education (university that is), they completely control the economy and land and whatever remains for you is a mere allowance, any intellectual work or creative work is massively censored and controlled, they portray their rule as benevolent helper while poisoning you, then punish you for calling it out. I understand the modernism and absurdity, the fright at modernity and its isolating and limiting powers. But man. This felt like a powerful creative work on the life of a Korean under the colonial government in Korea
I absolutely love Yi sang, and alongside Kim Dong-in they reign as my favorite Korean authors!
Quotes time!!!!!:
“My intellectual life under the quilt brings no positive outcomes. There is no necessity for them,
Were there positive outcomes, I would have to discuss them with my wife, which means I would certainly get an earful from her.”
“I have neither desire nor aspiration: I simply drop the silver coins through the button shaped slot…I am filled with feelings of futility. I figure our bustling world will make me dizzy and I want to get off right now.”
Another interesting aspect of the life under the emperor: the complete lack of desire, futility, and sentiment of “laziness,” that you feel as though you shouldn’t do anything because the Japanese government will shut you down at the first sign of ambition.
“Next moment something really shocking caught
my eye abox of Adalin sleeping pills. found them under my wife’s dressing table. They looked just
like aspirin. I opened the box. Four gone…
Why did she want me to sleep all the time?
While she had me asleep, what was she doing?
Was she trying to kill me little by little?”
“My wife was very abusive, she accused me of being out all night robbing people and whoring. This
was too much! I was so shocked I couldn't say any-thing. I wanted to shout, "You're the one who tried to
kill me,"
“Erased pages of hope and desire flashed through my head…I stopped. I wanted to cry out:
Wings, sprout again!
Let me fly, fly, fly; one more time let me fly.
One more time, let me try to fly!”
But the character of his abusive and manipulative wife he can’t help but crawl back to just reads to me as well like the experience of man under Japanese colonial rule. She hides him away when collaborating with mysterious suitors who give her money, in turn she gives just a tiny allowance to the man who is stuffed, essentially, in a closet, she prevents him from leaving for a lot this book, he doesn’t work and can’t, having to hide under a quilt to do his “research” and intellectual work which he knows will amount to nothing and is ultimately futile, she poisons him and then tries to make him the villain when she’s caught cheating! All of these built for me a metaphor of Japanese colonial rule over Korea. You must go to the colonial motherland to get an education (university that is), they completely control the economy and land and whatever remains for you is a mere allowance, any intellectual work or creative work is massively censored and controlled, they portray their rule as benevolent helper while poisoning you, then punish you for calling it out. I understand the modernism and absurdity, the fright at modernity and its isolating and limiting powers. But man. This felt like a powerful creative work on the life of a Korean under the colonial government in Korea
I absolutely love Yi sang, and alongside Kim Dong-in they reign as my favorite Korean authors!
Quotes time!!!!!:
“My intellectual life under the quilt brings no positive outcomes. There is no necessity for them,
Were there positive outcomes, I would have to discuss them with my wife, which means I would certainly get an earful from her.”
“I have neither desire nor aspiration: I simply drop the silver coins through the button shaped slot…I am filled with feelings of futility. I figure our bustling world will make me dizzy and I want to get off right now.”
Another interesting aspect of the life under the emperor: the complete lack of desire, futility, and sentiment of “laziness,” that you feel as though you shouldn’t do anything because the Japanese government will shut you down at the first sign of ambition.
“Next moment something really shocking caught
my eye abox of Adalin sleeping pills. found them under my wife’s dressing table. They looked just
like aspirin. I opened the box. Four gone…
Why did she want me to sleep all the time?
While she had me asleep, what was she doing?
Was she trying to kill me little by little?”
“My wife was very abusive, she accused me of being out all night robbing people and whoring. This
was too much! I was so shocked I couldn't say any-thing. I wanted to shout, "You're the one who tried to
kill me,"
“Erased pages of hope and desire flashed through my head…I stopped. I wanted to cry out:
Wings, sprout again!
Let me fly, fly, fly; one more time let me fly.
One more time, let me try to fly!”
June 17, 2022
Will definitely need to read an analysis of this at some point because I'm not sure about what I even read at some parts and whether I understood some metaphors or not, but I still felt engaged and intrigued every time I picked it up, so for that I'm giving it 4 stars.
(The English translations at times were oof, I think I even found some gramatical errors that made the already confusing text even more puzzling... Or maybe that was the author's intention?)
(The English translations at times were oof, I think I even found some gramatical errors that made the already confusing text even more puzzling... Or maybe that was the author's intention?)
August 12, 2020
First adult book I read in Korean...but the English translation running alongside the Korean text in this edition helped a lot.
I understand and respect the significance of this book, ahead of its time and written in the 30s by a man who ended up dying at age 27 in Tokyo after being imprisoned by the police of the country that had colonized his own.
However, this is not a pleasant book. The language is sparse, absurdist, and crude, and of course the highly symbolic plot (tragedy of the modern man, desperation of a colonized nation) is depressing and could offer no redemption. Of course, that was kind of the point.
I understand and respect the significance of this book, ahead of its time and written in the 30s by a man who ended up dying at age 27 in Tokyo after being imprisoned by the police of the country that had colonized his own.
However, this is not a pleasant book. The language is sparse, absurdist, and crude, and of course the highly symbolic plot (tragedy of the modern man, desperation of a colonized nation) is depressing and could offer no redemption. Of course, that was kind of the point.
November 10, 2020
While the translation does not fully capture the liberties and experiments Yi Sang took with grammar, rhythm, and repetition (for which his work is so acclaimed today), the pieces compiled here demonstrate the author's skill for describing internal suffering through concise prose.
In a trim 34 pages, Yi's stream of consciousness can be read as an allegorical protest against colonialism and subservience to the 'Other;' an analysis of alienation, psychological torment, and manipulation; an exploration of the ambiguity of perception, and/or; a complaint levelled against modernization and the centrality of currency.
In a trim 34 pages, Yi's stream of consciousness can be read as an allegorical protest against colonialism and subservience to the 'Other;' an analysis of alienation, psychological torment, and manipulation; an exploration of the ambiguity of perception, and/or; a complaint levelled against modernization and the centrality of currency.
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October 17, 2021I can't rate this book because the English translation was so bad that I am not able to "judge" the book.
I bought the Ebook on Amazon. It is only 20 pages long (according to goodreads, it should be 80-ish pages long). The sentencing was weird, the spelling (large and lower case) were often wrong and sometimes even parts of sentences were missing.
If I should rate the parts that I was able to read, I would give the story a 2-3 stars rating.
I bought the Ebook on Amazon. It is only 20 pages long (according to goodreads, it should be 80-ish pages long). The sentencing was weird, the spelling (large and lower case) were often wrong and sometimes even parts of sentences were missing.
If I should rate the parts that I was able to read, I would give the story a 2-3 stars rating.
January 26, 2025
The main character's thoughts are fragmented and chaotic; his innocence blinds him from such truths and acknowledgement about his own wife, along with the theme of alienation where one feels hopeless forlorn.
The writing style is experimental, thus is compelling to me. it pulls the reader into his claustrophobic mental space where thoughts are all shattered and lost.
Yi Sang used this as a metaphor about Korea during that time which is under an oppressive Japanese regime. Overall, "The Wings" displays the author's inner turmoil and societal disarray caused by the colonial oppression.
The writing style is experimental, thus is compelling to me. it pulls the reader into his claustrophobic mental space where thoughts are all shattered and lost.
Yi Sang used this as a metaphor about Korea during that time which is under an oppressive Japanese regime. Overall, "The Wings" displays the author's inner turmoil and societal disarray caused by the colonial oppression.
May 13, 2025
I will need to re-read this to fully comprehend. However, it was darkly beautiful and mesmerizing. I would describe it as an anti - In The Mood For Love(2000), which is a good thing for clarification.
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September 20, 2025This was quite deep. There are a lot of allegory in it and it’s not just about one theme but rather it depicts themes from desiring for freedom, gender dependency, and alienation. To me this is somehow like diving into someone else’s mind, it’s chaotic, it yearns for something he keeps looking for, and it’s heavily psychological.
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