1 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:07,680 Speaker 1: Okay, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome STEFFI never 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:09,040 Speaker 1: told you production of iHeartRadio. 3 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:21,239 Speaker 2: And we have entered My month. Yeah I called it 4 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:28,720 Speaker 2: my month. So first celebrate me AAPI month. Just kidding, 5 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:33,000 Speaker 2: but for real, it is Asian, American and Pacific Islander 6 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 2: Heritage Month. And as a Korean woman, I wanted to 7 00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 2: jump in celebrating the works and accomplishments of a fellow Korean. 8 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 2: Han King, the Nobel Peace Prize winner for Literature of 9 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,239 Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. King is a South Korean author who 10 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,559 Speaker 2: has published quite a lot of books and poetry and 11 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,000 Speaker 2: short stories. And in October of twenty twenty four, she 12 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 2: made history as the first Korean author to become a 13 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:02,240 Speaker 2: Nobel Laureate and with that the eighteenth woman to be 14 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 2: awarded in this specific category. And yeah, it's for a 15 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 2: kind of a perspective. That's eighteen people out of one 16 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 2: hundred and twenty one people since nineteen oh one, so 17 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 2: it's great, but why anyway? Moving on? And but on 18 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:23,319 Speaker 2: top of that, most of the winners, award winners, or 19 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 2: the most of the laureates for the last twenty years 20 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:31,080 Speaker 2: have been white authors as well. So from an NPR 21 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:35,199 Speaker 2: article written about her accomplishments they write. For the past 22 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:39,039 Speaker 2: few decades, the Nobel Literature category has been dominated by 23 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,600 Speaker 2: white authors. Between twenty and twenty twenty three, only seven 24 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:45,960 Speaker 2: people of color have won. That's a significant change from 25 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 2: the Nobel Literature Awards of the nineteen eighties and early 26 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:53,840 Speaker 2: nineteen nineties, when the authors of color from Egypt, Nigeria, Mexican, Japan, 27 00:01:54,080 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 2: Saint Lucia, and the US all won within the same decade. Again, 28 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 2: feels like we're backtracking, Yeah, anyway, but that's okay. We 29 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 2: were celebrating King and she has been a writer for 30 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 2: years and began with poetry in the early nineties, and 31 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 2: her first novel, Love Anyway Sue was written thirty years ago, 32 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 2: and I think she has written like eleven more novels 33 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,079 Speaker 2: since then. I'm gonna have to go back in a look, 34 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 2: but around that number. She immediately jumped into her writing 35 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 2: career after graduating from the university as a reporter for 36 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 2: a monthly magazine, and soon published her first works again 37 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:34,240 Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety three, the Poems, which included Winter in Seoul, 38 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,240 Speaker 2: and soon after that published her first short story, The 39 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 2: Scarlet Anchor, which won the New Year's Literature Contest, so 40 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 2: she came out with a bang, Like all of her 41 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 2: writing apparently were just hits. We're gonna have to check 42 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:49,600 Speaker 2: him out. And as she began her writing career, she 43 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 2: would even experiment with publishing a book with an accompaniment 44 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,399 Speaker 2: music album which features her singing on it as well. 45 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,640 Speaker 2: So multi talented, gotta love it. The book was titled 46 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 2: A Song to Sing Calmly. I really like that. Her 47 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 2: love of books and writing was a part of her 48 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:09,320 Speaker 2: childhood and upbringing. Her own father quit his teaching job 49 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 2: to become a full time writer and novelist, and according 50 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 2: to her Wikipedia page, they use one of her quotes 51 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:17,800 Speaker 2: about her childhood quote. Han later describes her childhood as 52 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 2: quote too much for a little child. However, being surrounded 53 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:22,920 Speaker 2: by books gave her comfort, Like she talks about all 54 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:24,840 Speaker 2: of that, and we'll talk a little bit about that 55 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:27,359 Speaker 2: history in a minute, but she's talked a lot about 56 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,359 Speaker 2: her experience during that time and how it has influenced 57 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 2: her writing quite a bit. From Guardian dot Com, they 58 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 2: write her childhood was overshadowed first by the loss of 59 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 2: her elder sister, born prematurely on the kitchen floor. I'd 60 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 2: been born and grown up in the place of that death, 61 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 2: she writes in the White Book, and ten years later, 62 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 2: by the public tragedy of the Guangju massacre in January 63 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty, when Han was nine, four months before the protests, 64 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 2: her father gave up his teaching job and the family 65 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:58,600 Speaker 2: moved to Seoul, and when she was twelve, she discovered 66 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 2: an album of photograph of the massacre taken by foreign 67 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 2: journalists on bookshelves, with the spine turned the wrong way. 68 00:04:05,480 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 2: My parents wanted to protect me, but I was curious, 69 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 2: she says, How could humans do this? And they go on. 70 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 2: It seems almost impossible that the softly spoken writer should 71 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:16,880 Speaker 2: be the author of such deeply disturbing body of work. 72 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,479 Speaker 2: All my novels are variations on the theme of human violence, 73 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:23,520 Speaker 2: she says. As the foremost chronicler of South Korea's bloody 74 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 2: twentieth century, she has come to be regarded as her 75 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 2: country's spokesperson and conscience, shedding light on some of its 76 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:33,720 Speaker 2: darkest periods in its struggle for democracy. Her twenty sixteen 77 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,679 Speaker 2: novel Human Acts is a harrowing account of the brutally 78 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:40,840 Speaker 2: suppressed student protests against the authoritarian government in May nineteen 79 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 2: eighty in the city of Guangxu, where Han grew up. 80 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:47,760 Speaker 2: After ten days of demonstrations and estimated two thousand people, 81 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 2: mainly civilians, were shot, beaten, and tortured by the military forces. 82 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 2: Her new novel We Do Not Part looks back to 83 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 2: an earlier uprising against newly imposed martial law, this time 84 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:02,200 Speaker 2: on Jju Island in the aftermath of the Second World War. 85 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:06,760 Speaker 2: As many as thirty thousand inhabitants were murdered. Both massacres 86 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:09,279 Speaker 2: were denied or downplayed by the government and right wing 87 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:13,279 Speaker 2: groups for years, and they continue. Hans works gives voice 88 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,600 Speaker 2: to those national traumas, but it's reached as universal. What 89 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 2: is humanity? She asks in Human Acts? What do we 90 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,160 Speaker 2: have to do to keep humanity as one thing and 91 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 2: not another? Her novels are not just the literature of witness, 92 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 2: but acts of radical empathy. So it isn't surprising to 93 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,240 Speaker 2: understand how her work has influenced so many and is 94 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,840 Speaker 2: able to reach so many others. One of her more 95 00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 2: famous works, her first book to be translated into English 96 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:40,160 Speaker 2: as in Fact, The Vegetarian, was a catalyst to her 97 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 2: being recognized internationally and Yeah. She's been celebrated for her honesty, empathy, 98 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 2: and works of love and pain, so from a Nobelprize 99 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 2: dot Org. In her ouvra, she confronts historical traumas and 100 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 2: invisible sets of rules, and in each of her works 101 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 2: exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique 102 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 2: awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living 103 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:04,599 Speaker 2: and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style, 104 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 2: has become an innovator in contemporary pros. Among her works 105 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 2: are The Vegetarian Human Acts and We Do Not Part. 106 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,239 Speaker 2: And in an interview with NPR, she said, I always 107 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:18,039 Speaker 2: feel I am questioning when I write novels, and I 108 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 2: wanted to deal with my long lasting question about human 109 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,479 Speaker 2: violence and the possibility or impossibility of refusing it, she said, 110 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:26,920 Speaker 2: And I will be happy if the readers could share 111 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:29,159 Speaker 2: my questions. I think she's done a great job, and 112 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:33,120 Speaker 2: I know, like with everything that has happened in South Korea, 113 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,880 Speaker 2: she has been kind of a vital point and seeing 114 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 2: what's happening. But she has been very calm and I 115 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,800 Speaker 2: think reserved to wait and see what's happening before she 116 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:47,360 Speaker 2: actually speaks out, which is smart, honestly, but yeah, really 117 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 2: excited to get into her works, but at the same 118 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,279 Speaker 2: time scared because it seems really intense. 119 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:55,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we should definitely check it out, check some 120 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: of them out. Yes, I'm into it. You know. We 121 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: love good works of poetry and writing over here. As always, listeners, 122 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: If you have any suggestions for this segment, please let 123 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:08,720 Speaker 1: us know. You can email us at Hello at stuff 124 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:11,440 Speaker 1: onevertold You dot com. You can find us on Blue 125 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 1: skyte also podcasts, or in Instagram and TikTok at stuff 126 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: We Never Told You for us on YouTube. We have 127 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: a tea public store, and we have a book you 128 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always 129 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,640 Speaker 1: to our super producer, Christina Executi, producer my Inder Trip. 130 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 2: For Joey, Thank you and I'm Savvy, and. 131 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 1: Thanks to you for listening. Steff one Ever told you 132 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: his projection of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts on my heart Radio, 133 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:33,240 Speaker 1: you can check out the heart Radio app Apple Podcast 134 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:35,040 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.