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The General's Beard
Two stories by a leading Korean thinker explore the ambiguities of a rapidly changing culture. In The General’s Beard, a journalist tries to solve the mystery of a young photographer’s death. He explores hints from the dead man’s journal and interviews his former girlfriend but remains far from an explanation. In Phantom Legs, a young girl studying French literature meets a student wounded during demonstrations and begins an ambiguous relationship with him. An ironic commentary is provided by extracts from Stendhal’s romantic story Vanina Vanini, in which a countess saves the life of a rebel outlaw, with whom she falls in love.
186 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
November 24, 2018
I read the book, "The General's Beard" in my youth, which means thirty or forty years ago in Korean.
Oyoung Lee is far from my favorite author even though he was a well known professor and author in Korea. When I was a high school girl, one of my teachers used to bring his book to my class to read aloud to us. Oyoung Lee sounded very sarcastic and criticizing Korean culture mercilessly. I decided that I would never read his book. When Korea began to develop, I found he spoke about Korea differently in the seminar held in the U.S. and I felt laughing at him since I got the impression he changed his opinion on his own country, Korea, based on the opinions of the scholars or politicians of other countries, especially the western countries as they began to pay attention to Korea's development. Lee, Oyoung highly praised Korea's mental flexibility that robots in the future would never be able to control.
Lee, Oyoung usually writes only essays, but I came across a book which is not the collection of essays. I was curious about his play(the copy I read),'The General's Beard.' I don't remember even a bit what it was about now. But I remember very vividly I loved the play. It was interesting in spite of my bad opinion of him.
When I found there is no review for the work at Goodreads.com, I felt bad and I looked for the one. I will introduce what I found on the website.
"Two stories by a leading Korean thinker explore the ambiguities of a rapidly changing culture. In The General’s Beard, a journalist tries to solve the mystery of a young photographer’s death. He explores hints from the dead man’s journal and interviews his former girlfriend but remains far from an explanation. In Phantom Legs, a young girl studying French literature meets a student wounded during demonstrations and begins an ambiguous relationship with him. An ironic commentary is provided by extracts from Stendhal’s romantic story Vanina Vanini, in which a countess saves the life of a rebel outlaw, with whom she falls in love."
Oyoung Lee is far from my favorite author even though he was a well known professor and author in Korea. When I was a high school girl, one of my teachers used to bring his book to my class to read aloud to us. Oyoung Lee sounded very sarcastic and criticizing Korean culture mercilessly. I decided that I would never read his book. When Korea began to develop, I found he spoke about Korea differently in the seminar held in the U.S. and I felt laughing at him since I got the impression he changed his opinion on his own country, Korea, based on the opinions of the scholars or politicians of other countries, especially the western countries as they began to pay attention to Korea's development. Lee, Oyoung highly praised Korea's mental flexibility that robots in the future would never be able to control.
Lee, Oyoung usually writes only essays, but I came across a book which is not the collection of essays. I was curious about his play(the copy I read),'The General's Beard.' I don't remember even a bit what it was about now. But I remember very vividly I loved the play. It was interesting in spite of my bad opinion of him.
When I found there is no review for the work at Goodreads.com, I felt bad and I looked for the one. I will introduce what I found on the website.
"Two stories by a leading Korean thinker explore the ambiguities of a rapidly changing culture. In The General’s Beard, a journalist tries to solve the mystery of a young photographer’s death. He explores hints from the dead man’s journal and interviews his former girlfriend but remains far from an explanation. In Phantom Legs, a young girl studying French literature meets a student wounded during demonstrations and begins an ambiguous relationship with him. An ironic commentary is provided by extracts from Stendhal’s romantic story Vanina Vanini, in which a countess saves the life of a rebel outlaw, with whom she falls in love."
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review