Anastasia > Recent Status Updates

Not a standard work of non-fiction but a stream-of-consciousness account of life as a temporary outsider in rural Texas. I look forward to comparing with the journal.

I read it in the original and look forward to reading Shanna Tan’s translation. It’s an omnibus with characters that are relatable to a lot of people living in today’s Seoul with some universal themes. Laundromat culture is a new phenomenon in Korea, where people have mostly had a washing machine at home and hung up their clothes on a line.

Reading it 20 years after it came out and it seems hopelessly outdated, like before polyamory and open relationships became a thing? Not to mention it’s too all over the place to catch any point. This is one of a very few books I actually didn’t finish, not because I hated it but because it was so forgettable *shrug*

It’s a classic and still rings true, but as someone living in East Asia, I am still looking for more on the Orientalism specific to this region. Also, up until the last part, most of the sources focus on academic Orientalism and not how it manifests in real life.