It’s always hilarious introducing stories (in general, not just SF) from another culture to people outside that culture. You hardly ever get someone who pauses to think about how weird their own stories may seem to outsiders. And nobody ever seems to grok that other nations’ people might have pride in their own nation. So to American eyes, American patriotism is natural and normal but Chinese patriotism is obviously the product of propaganda, or as in the story mentioned at the beginning of this article, that a North Korean writer may actually want to write good things about their own country, even if the patriotism is aspirational, say, instead of saying what it is now.
I’m a norwegian, and part of growing up is learning about the folk stories of Askeladden. There are a lot of them, and quite a few involves an encounter with a Troll.
In one of these stories Askeladden and the Troll agree on an eating contest where the Troll will let him go if he loses. Askeladden wins by faking it all, sticking the “eaten” food in a small bag in his lap. When the troll asks how Askeladden can eat that much, Askeladden convinces the troll that it’s easy - he just has to take a knife and slice open his stomach. Of course the troll does it and dies.
I never thought much of it until the topic of these kinds of stories came up while I was living in Czech Republic quite a few years ago. “This is the kind of stuff youbtell kids??”
The takeaways are:
- Norwegian stories for children are grotesque for anyone who didn’t grow up with them.
- Trolls are stupid.
That sounds about par for any European children’s story from anytime prior to 1960.
Exactly. Just read any Grimm brothers’ fairy tale… Live grandmas popping out a sliced wolf’s stomach, witches pushed in the oven…
Not sure about kids nowadays, but this is how Gen X (and those before them) grew up.
I was fortunate enough to be brought up on stories from all over. LOADS of people have folk stories that are “grotesque” to those not brought up with them, and once you get over that, you begin to look at your own folk tales and seeing how foolish and/or grotesque and/or problematical they are. I mean talking snakes with legs? Daughters getting their own father to impregnate them? Fathers offering their own daughters for rape to protect guests? Yeah, Christian-sphere mythology has a lot of grotesque bits as well and there it’s considered holy writ!
Eh. knowing it’s a NK film, i wouldn’t find it strange seeing the NK’s as the good guys. it all depends on who the audience is. (or the censors,).
and lets be honest, the accusations that we (the US) weaponize technology for global domination isn’t as far off as I might like. We’re not going to go invading NK anytime soon… at least, not without some incident to serve as “just” cause… but… we aren’t exactly the most peaceful of nations.
You are the exception, however, not the norm. Look at the huge kerfuffle that brewed up over The Battle at Lake Changjin, for example. It’s been derided as pure propaganda (unlike, say, almost any American war film!) that is full of historical inaccuracies (unlike, say, almost any American war film!) and that shows Chinese soldiers as unequivocally good (unlike what, say, almost any American war film does for American soldiers!) and that shows American soldiers as incompetent and/or evil (unlike what, say, almost any American war film does for whoever the enemy is!).
Basically it’s the same old “othering” that dominates all public discourse anywhere. And it amuses the everloving fuck out of me.
Eh. It is. And there’s more people that recognize it for what it is. It’s also primarily entertaining. Nobody wants to be on the wrong side, so a film made for any given country is going to paint that country in a positive light.
I think it’s a bit different when a government won’t allow the publication of anything that makes it look bad.
You mean like how the US military has a stated policy of wanting final approval on any film that uses their equipment? And of later blacklisting film-makers who make movies critical of the US military?
Or like how very few films (like ‘zero’) called out, say, the abuses of Harvey Weinstein before he got jailed, despite them being open knowledge for decades? (Yeah, I guess it’s completely different when a government does it instead of a single very wealthy individual…)
There is one thing to not help a movie that you don’t agree with, and another to ban it. Apocalypse Now was made without the support of us military band was a success.
For comparision in the Genius of Carpathian Mountains’s country (Romania), everything had to pass censor’s.https://www.military.com/off-duty/7-crazy-facts-about-vietnam-war-film-apocalypse-now.html
Again, the US government leaves censorship to the industry, which censors both inconsistently and stupidly because it’s so paranoid about possible government censorship. You probably should look a little bit deeper into film (and music) censorship in the USA sometime. It’s actually kind of amazing what people are getting away with imposing on others in the “Land of the Free”.
Yes, very different from all that, because none of that gets you thrown in a work camp. Stop trying to draw false equivalences.
That’s true. Cross pre-#MeToo Weinstein (and “crossing” could be as simple as “not fucking him”) and you didn’t wind up in a work camp. You wound up in the exact opposite, in fact: completely and utterly unable to find work in your field.
It’s very different. No equivalency whatsoever. You’re absolutely right.
It’s very different. No equivalency whatsoever. You’re absolutely right.
Damn straight. Not even remotely the same level of severity. Being blacklisted in your field may suck and be unfair, but it’s nothing like being forced into hard labor by the most powerful organization in your country.
Change Course sounds like a ripoff of Speed, but leaning more towards Battle Royale than Snakes on a Plane. strip out the NK nonsense and it’d be a decent scifi flick.
It’s surprising the 90’s didn’t give us a “Speed on a plane” flick. Or did they?
There’s Air Force One, I guess. And there’s probably a Steven Seagal plane movie.
“If this plane drops below 122 mph, we’ll stall and fall out of the sky”
Just doesn’t have the same ring to it when it’s a vehicle that would naturally cause death if it went slow.
Con-air was pretty legit
I kinda wished I hadn’t, but I did.
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Few stories have made it across the border, and so far, none have been published in English.
Disappointed, would have been curious to read one
Is there anyway to get translated copies of North Korean fiction? Sounds like it might make for some interesting reading.
I feel like a lot of it would probably just describe technologies we already have. 🤣
