Kim Jae Min Reading Journal Blog

 The Cathedral, By Raymond Carver 9/10 Friends are tend to be made in the strangest way, over the strangest incidents. I think the earlier parts where the husband considered the blind man as a sort of enemy and was on his guard, greatly contrasted with the later parts where he bonded with the blind man. Imagine how depressing to have a sense stripped from yourself, or be born without a sense owned by most others. It would be impossible to live like others, and moreover, it would be very hard to fully enjoy one’s life. Also, accidents and tragedies would be more tragic and hard to deal with. Yet the blind man in this story, despite the fact he is blind and has just lost his life, seems to be a much stronger and dedicated person than most of us. He communicates with others as recorded tapes, feasts upon provided meals, smokes, and wishes to know about things his lack of sight would not allow him to enjoy. He kind of reminds me of steven Hawking. I was amazed that someone with suc...

 Visitors that come at night, By Ryujin Jang 8/10 One’s homestead is commonly considered to be a zone of comfort and safety. Even those who have to face problems like disagreeable family members still consider their home as a place of expectation. Thus, to a citizen of a modern country, ‘unwanted visitors’ are easily a shocking experience.   I myself have never had a similar experience, but I once was the unexpected visitor myself. When I was about fifteen, our family left the city of Changwon where I loved my whole life, and moved to Seoul. The apartment we moved to was a seven story building, and our house was on the fifth floor. One day, when I came back from school, I used the staircase only to unconsciously step up to the third floor, which was the floor our house in Changwon was. When I pressed the password into the door dial, it only lett out a dull rejection bell chime. Right after that I saw that this floor was the third, and I scrambled up two more stairs. I still ...

Snowman, By Seo Yoo MI (2012) 9/10 Through the earlier part of the story, Yoo was described as a sort of enemy, that one guy who was better than you in every possible way. I believe me and most of my fellow readers share the experience of having a guy like this in life. But after finding his frozen corpse, the only feeling I had left for him was pity. Yoo was not the enemy nor the opposite of our main character, but just another victim of the cruel system, now dead and defeated like a worn-out gear that once belonged in a huge unstopping machine. If I have to pick out an opposite of our main character, I would instantly choose the delivery person. Unlike the businessmen who found it so hard to clen up the snow, he appears to find it so very easy. This seems to be metaphor about the difference between the two jobs. A businessman is considered default, probably decent job. Yet really, they suffer from overwork and stress. A delivery person is considered to be poor and uneducated, but i...

 Extreme_Chulsoo, By H.S. Kim  8/10 I found it very ironic that Chulsoo left the original system of CSAT only to join a different system of SNS starship. Chulsoo found the students studying for good grades to be unable to understand,, while he chose to perform every stupid trend and material that can get him a bit more attention any day. I personally believe the regrets he felt at the last moment were not just about risking his life for some attention on the internet, but possibly because he suddenly realized he failed to really venture past the system. He may have chose a life most others don’t, but I don’t think that didn’t mean he really found himself the true meaning of life. But I can’t blame Chulsoo for his choices, for the real target to blame is the society itself. In modern South Korea, you’re either the overworked whitecolor businessman inside the window, or the SNS addict dopamine junkie hanging outside the building cleaning it. A vicious caste forced upon most soul...