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PEN & BRUSH Sung Suk-je ng’s taste for fun and interesting subject matter can also be seen in his essays. ‘I easily laugh. During my years in uni
DEEP INTO THE WORLD OF EVERYDAY LIFE Sung Suk-je’s novels are entertaining, even touching. His stories are like a cheerful folk dance. Spectators unknowingly follow the beat and start dancing. However, as one excitedly follows his stories, one suddenly flinches into an abrupt silence. Excitement is suddenly transformed into tears, enlightening the reader with a sudden intuition that the source of laughter and grief is one and the same. Drawing pathos from everyday life, this is why we believe in his writing. by Lee Se-mi | photographs by Kim Hong-jin For 24 years, Sung Suk-je has brought his readers laughter and tears with a writing style that encompasses both his strong personality and quick plot pacing. Although he has built a strong resume based on his novels, he first appeared on the literary scene as a poet. In 1986, Sung entered the field with his poem Window Washing Person, which won a prize at Munhaksasang. He went on to write his first novel, The Last 4.5 Seconds of My Life, in 1994. Since then, his works have continued to win numerous awards, including the Oh Yeong-soo Literary Award in 2005. Sung has procured a steady reader base with his prolific published writings of two collections of poetry, 10 short novels, essay collections and four novels. Sung’s literary works are easily accessible for most readers. He does not seek to affirm his own innocence nor does he bask in novelty. He also does not tease readers with ostentatiously complex questions. In his youth, Sung admired colorful patchwork quilts, and his literary career is often compared to the eclectic works that were once so impressed upon him. “I like mixing it up. I’d rather have people than one person in my stories. I’ve written about whatever my mind shows, like a patchwork quilt, and that is what I believe my literary world to be. Literature is communication between author and readers. Literature is conveying stories I’ve heard and made. Literature is an inanimate object that springs to life with human interaction. Unless awoken by human touch, a literary work will just be an ordinary marker left at a specific location.” Though Sung is happy with the self-reflection poetry induces, he also enjoys the interaction that novels bring. Happiness can be a personal, one-sided emotion but, comparably, when something is entertaining it must be shared and is hardpressed to be kept secret. The writer also found new ways of interacting with the audience with his essays, which, like his novels and poems, portray his personal side. “Writing sentences means the domain of fiction has started, and essays are also kind of a fabrication of fiction. But essays are usually written with some sort of fact or phenomenon. You cannot write an essay without them. With these in hand, I have to magnify and characterize a specific portion to get my point across clearly. Essays have a different fun to them.” KOREA FEBRUARY 2010 17
Page 1 and 2: FEBRUARY 2010 FEBRUARY 2010 www.kor
Page 3 and 4: PRELUDE The Beauty of Korea Located
Page 5 and 6: TRAVEL 26 Inje, which lies on the e
Page 7 and 8: When a massive tsunami approached t
Page 9 and 10: Joon-ho’s The Host (2006) was als
Page 11 and 12: efore after before after Still and
Page 13 and 14: other such movies, with companies a
Page 15 and 16: Q How did you end up working overse
Page 17: Zip Cinema Stills from the recently
Page 21 and 22: into obscurity again, the point is
Page 23 and 24: THE ART OF SHARING A cafe can serve
Page 25 and 26: As soon as “Art for Life” opene
Page 27 and 28: Art for Life COOKING CULTURE One of
Page 29 and 30: The Road to Baekdamsa temple
Page 32 and 33: 18 KOREA FEBRUARY 2010
Page 34 and 35: MY KOREA Singin’ in the ROOM ----
Page 36 and 37: less singing at one. After much pro
Page 38 and 39: SUMMIT DIPLOMACY KOREA TO BUILD NUC
Page 40 and 41: NEW REACTOR TECHNOLOGY The APR 1400
Page 42 and 43: GLOBAL KOREA INDIA’S MAMMOTH MARK
Page 44 and 45: KOREA-INDIA BILATERAL TRADE (Unit:
Page 46 and 47: NOW IN KOREA
Page 48 and 49: AP Photo / The Canadian Press, Darr
Page 50: while holding hands with his sons C

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