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The Vegetarian: A Novel by Han Kang (2015)
, 30 Jun 2016
The Vegetarian (채식주의자) is a Korean novel, and the winner of the 2016's Man Booker International Prize.
This is a tree-part novella, each narrated by a different character. The main character is Yeon-hye, a young married woman who suffers a mental crisis and becomes a vegan in a country and family where veganism is almost unknown and not well-seen. Her crisis will affect all members of her family in unexpected ways, opening a box of Pandora that will varnish with emotional turmoil everyone it touches. The other two major characters are her sister In-hye, and her brother-in-law (an unnamed artist and In-hye's husband.)
The three parts are:
The Vegetarian is Yeon-hye's vanishing act in three chapters as each part shows a progressive deterioration of Yeon-hye's body and state of mind, and her progressive transformation from a fleshy human into a light tree. The Vegetarian is also about ways of self-immolation: work on self-destruction, self-obliteration, and self-denial (Yeon, the artist and In respectively).
I love the way the character of Yeong-hye is portrayed, like an ethereal ghost-like being even though there is little lightness about her. The depiction of her mental crisis and conversion to veganism is very real. I have come across many cases of real women in the 19th century, just to use an example, who developed food phobias and anorexia nervosa as a part of severe mental problems, some of them with deeply spiritual roots. There is something about the way you feed you body affects your soul, and vice versa, and this is masterly captured in the book.
I love the character of In-hye. I think she is a reflection of most of us, we who endure life and don't live it to the fullest, we who mute our inner voice, we who please instead of enjoy, we who repress anger to show how civilise we are but really angrier than those who do the contrary. To me, the character of In-hye is the most insane of all even though she is sane in her mind.
It is very difficult, at least for me, to like the character of In-hye's artist husband as he appears as a selfish, self-centred, and self-absorbed prick. He, like Yeon-hue, wants to die, but in a different way. His art comes from his core, is created to feed his soul, and in this case to die, to be one with the Universe, with Nature, to become one with humans, animals and plants as he expressly says. It is not a surprise that the character mentions as a source of inspiration an untitled audiovisual work by the avant-garde Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, which I think is self-obliteration.
The oneiric element works perfectly in the novel because, dreams are the messengers of the psyche, they are the bed where the soul rests, the mirror of the true self, that part of the human being that is honest and says to you how you feel even when your conscious mind doesn't want to accept it. Dreams are also a space where reality and non-reality mix in organic but mysterious ways. The dream is the seed of our hidden truth, of our moments of elation, despair and anguish. The dream is always emotional. We see our characters' frigid emotionality in their awaken life, but very emotional in their oneiric life and very connected to their inner truth trough dreams. We see their dreams speaking their inner truth.
However, the dream is not only an literary element here. There is a strong dream culture in South Korea, still alive nowadays. Jeremy Seligson says in his entry on traditional Korean Dreams that:
The book spans out for only 160 pages. The story and narrative are brilliant, the language I don't know. I always prefer that to three volumes of epic adventures full of fluff that are populating the charts of best-sellers around the English-speaking world.
There are images powerfully lyric and visually artistic and cinematic in this book. One of my favourites is in the fist part, when Yeong-hye in the courtyard in the hospital with a bird in his hand.Almost like a modern painting. Or the image of In-hye reflected in the mirror with a bleeding eye, very surrealist. Others, on the contrary are very dramatic, shocking and horrific, like the dream with the dog. Those images will stay with you for a long time, tattooed onto your retina long after you finish the book.
This is a tree-part novella, each narrated by a different character. The main character is Yeon-hye, a young married woman who suffers a mental crisis and becomes a vegan in a country and family where veganism is almost unknown and not well-seen. Her crisis will affect all members of her family in unexpected ways, opening a box of Pandora that will varnish with emotional turmoil everyone it touches. The other two major characters are her sister In-hye, and her brother-in-law (an unnamed artist and In-hye's husband.)
The three parts are:
∫ The Vegetarian = We are told the story of Yeon-hye through the eyes of her husband Mr Cheong, a dull pragmatic traditional businessman, who narrates the chapter in the 1st person. However, Yeon-hye's voice appears inserted in italics, narrated also in the first person, describing some of her dreams and childhood traumas.
∫ Mongolian Marks = We are told the story through Yeon-hye's brother-in-law, a talented audiovisual artist, now somewhat lethargic, who has an artistic epiphany after Yeon's crisis, and develops an artistic and erotic obsession with her after learning he has a Mongolian spot on her body. The story is narrated in the third person.
∫ Flaming Trees = We are told the story through Yeon-hye's sister In-hye. The story is narrated in the third person with some intercalated visionary elements narrated in the first person. .In-hye tells us part of the missing story about Yeo-hye's traumatic childhood and about In-hye's inner life. In this process we see dream and reality, the past and present, the In and Yeon mix in ways that become less and less separated.
∫ Mongolian Marks = We are told the story through Yeon-hye's brother-in-law, a talented audiovisual artist, now somewhat lethargic, who has an artistic epiphany after Yeon's crisis, and develops an artistic and erotic obsession with her after learning he has a Mongolian spot on her body. The story is narrated in the third person.
∫ Flaming Trees = We are told the story through Yeon-hye's sister In-hye. The story is narrated in the third person with some intercalated visionary elements narrated in the first person. .In-hye tells us part of the missing story about Yeo-hye's traumatic childhood and about In-hye's inner life. In this process we see dream and reality, the past and present, the In and Yeon mix in ways that become less and less separated.
The Vegetarian is Yeon-hye's vanishing act in three chapters as each part shows a progressive deterioration of Yeon-hye's body and state of mind, and her progressive transformation from a fleshy human into a light tree. The Vegetarian is also about ways of self-immolation: work on self-destruction, self-obliteration, and self-denial (Yeon, the artist and In respectively).
Ω Ω Ω
The Vegetarian is not an easy book to read, sad, tragic and depressing, but also artistic, erotic, lyric an poetic. The book has layer upon layer of meaning, and touches many different subjects that are organically intertwined.
Ж Some of these subjects and themes are immediately obvious:
Ж Some of these subjects and themes are immediately obvious:
~ The social and family structure in South Korea.
~ The objectification of women.
~ The nature of desire.
~ Social and personal boundaries.
~ The objectification of women.
~ The nature of desire.
~ Social and personal boundaries.
~ The nature of artistic creation.
~ The effect of trauma and the suppression of emotions on the psyche.
~ The many facets of violence in our daily dealings.
Ж However, I see four major themes in the novel.
~ One is the seek for the real self, because that true self is what we really are, no matter we display it to the world or not. The true self is that voice in our speech, behaviour and actions that matches who we really are inside. That is the only way to true sanity. Yeon-hye's true self has been stepped on since her childhood, her inner voiced mute, so when it comes out it burst into rage and insanity.
~ The second is reality as perception. Reality does not exist. Everything is subjective perception or view of the others, which is tarnished by our psychological projections. Besides, reality can be a dream and dream is always reality. All the characters say at certain point in the novel, that the other person is a stranger to them, or that they don't really know them, even though they are family. We can only know other people to a certain extent, even when we think we know them well. We are projecting all the time.
~ The third is mental illness. What is the line that separates sanity from insanity? Who is most insane, the insane person whose mind exteriorises the trauma, or the sane person who cannot deal with the trauma within their own sanity?
~ The fourth is Human Nature vs. Nature. In the book, the former is equalled to violence, suffering, lack of peace, and being stuck, while the latter is equalled to peace, fluidity, happiness,truthfulness and life as in Zen. In fact, the three characters develop a special relationship with Nature and feel it in powerful ways. Yeon-hye wants to be a tree, the artist wants to self-obliterate himself into nature through bodies covered by painted flowers, while In-hye sees trees and forest as beholders of the mysteries and answers she is still to discover. This links well with Korean culture and Korean connection with the forest, trees and mountains and with some ancestral animist believes that still permeate Korean culture.
~ The effect of trauma and the suppression of emotions on the psyche.
~ The many facets of violence in our daily dealings.
Ж However, I see four major themes in the novel.
~ One is the seek for the real self, because that true self is what we really are, no matter we display it to the world or not. The true self is that voice in our speech, behaviour and actions that matches who we really are inside. That is the only way to true sanity. Yeon-hye's true self has been stepped on since her childhood, her inner voiced mute, so when it comes out it burst into rage and insanity.
~ The second is reality as perception. Reality does not exist. Everything is subjective perception or view of the others, which is tarnished by our psychological projections. Besides, reality can be a dream and dream is always reality. All the characters say at certain point in the novel, that the other person is a stranger to them, or that they don't really know them, even though they are family. We can only know other people to a certain extent, even when we think we know them well. We are projecting all the time.
~ The third is mental illness. What is the line that separates sanity from insanity? Who is most insane, the insane person whose mind exteriorises the trauma, or the sane person who cannot deal with the trauma within their own sanity?
~ The fourth is Human Nature vs. Nature. In the book, the former is equalled to violence, suffering, lack of peace, and being stuck, while the latter is equalled to peace, fluidity, happiness,truthfulness and life as in Zen. In fact, the three characters develop a special relationship with Nature and feel it in powerful ways. Yeon-hye wants to be a tree, the artist wants to self-obliterate himself into nature through bodies covered by painted flowers, while In-hye sees trees and forest as beholders of the mysteries and answers she is still to discover. This links well with Korean culture and Korean connection with the forest, trees and mountains and with some ancestral animist believes that still permeate Korean culture.
Ω Ω Ω
The unbearable heaviness of being is an expression that comes to mind when I think of all the characters in this novel. The three main characters are masterfully composed, and we come to understand the three of them, to put ourselves in their shoes and see their view of the world and experience their inner pain. None of them oozes happiness.I love the way the character of Yeong-hye is portrayed, like an ethereal ghost-like being even though there is little lightness about her. The depiction of her mental crisis and conversion to veganism is very real. I have come across many cases of real women in the 19th century, just to use an example, who developed food phobias and anorexia nervosa as a part of severe mental problems, some of them with deeply spiritual roots. There is something about the way you feed you body affects your soul, and vice versa, and this is masterly captured in the book.
I love the character of In-hye. I think she is a reflection of most of us, we who endure life and don't live it to the fullest, we who mute our inner voice, we who please instead of enjoy, we who repress anger to show how civilise we are but really angrier than those who do the contrary. To me, the character of In-hye is the most insane of all even though she is sane in her mind.
It is very difficult, at least for me, to like the character of In-hye's artist husband as he appears as a selfish, self-centred, and self-absorbed prick. He, like Yeon-hue, wants to die, but in a different way. His art comes from his core, is created to feed his soul, and in this case to die, to be one with the Universe, with Nature, to become one with humans, animals and plants as he expressly says. It is not a surprise that the character mentions as a source of inspiration an untitled audiovisual work by the avant-garde Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, which I think is self-obliteration.
Ω Ω Ω
There is a heavy presence of oneiric elements and moments in the novel that I find remarkable:‘I had a dream … and that’s why I don’t eat meat.’ (Locations 1079-1080).In-hye has also dreams, as does her son, and her husband. Dreams are mentioned throughout the book, even at the very end.
‘I have dreams too, you know. Dreams … and I could let myself dissolve into them, let them take me over … but surely the dream isn’t all there is? We have to wake up at some point, don’t we? Because … because then …(Kindle Locations 2174-2176).
The oneiric element works perfectly in the novel because, dreams are the messengers of the psyche, they are the bed where the soul rests, the mirror of the true self, that part of the human being that is honest and says to you how you feel even when your conscious mind doesn't want to accept it. Dreams are also a space where reality and non-reality mix in organic but mysterious ways. The dream is the seed of our hidden truth, of our moments of elation, despair and anguish. The dream is always emotional. We see our characters' frigid emotionality in their awaken life, but very emotional in their oneiric life and very connected to their inner truth trough dreams. We see their dreams speaking their inner truth.
However, the dream is not only an literary element here. There is a strong dream culture in South Korea, still alive nowadays. Jeremy Seligson says in his entry on traditional Korean Dreams that:
"In traditional Korea, clairvoyant and precognitive dreams have played a vital role in the individual's and family's life at every level of society"
and also, and relevant for this novel,
"Once an event is foreseen in a dream, the dreamer takes steps to prepare for its arrival" (see Deirdre Barrett, D. & McNamara, P.. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreams: The Evolution, Function, Nature, and Mysteries of Slumber. Greenwood, 2012, vol. 2, pps. 774-776.)
Ω Ω Ω
Regarding influences, we Westerners have a western-centric view of the world that we project all the time, especially with successful Asian artists. We tend to see the influence of any major Western artist on any successful Asian artist who becomes popular in the West, or a tendency to put in the same bag all those Asian artists who become popular in the West. In a way it is understandable. Those are the cultural anchors we have because, when it comes to South Korea, we don't have enough knowledge of the language and culture of the country to do differently. Besides, we are reading a translation and, no matter how good this is, this is never the same as reading a work in its original language. What can we say about the use of language, play of words, choice of words, sentence structure and on any other linguistic characteristic that is intrinsically linked to the literary value of any literary work? Some critics with too much space to talk nonsense have made connections between Han Kang's writing and Murakami, and found all sort of Western literary influences on this book. Well, I don't see the connection with Murakami at all, mind you. The connection with Kafka's Metamorphosis could be made, albeit quite vaguely.
I also have my own projections, of course. Here my mental association. The second chapter and the erotic flower theme resonated with me and brought to mind a video that I saw many-many years ago, the scene of the copulating flowers in Pink Floyd's The Wall because, somewhat, I found there was a similar energy, the madness, and darkness .
Han Kang has personally said in some
interviews, that her work is indebted to Korean literature, that some of darkness and themes in her works are directly linked and indebted to her experience of the massacre in Gwanjiu in 1980, and that she writes from an Universal standpoint even though she is
Korean. She is the daughter of a writer, grew up surrounded by books and
artists, she says, but she doesn't really mention any major Western
author as her major literary impromptu even when asked about this. So, why keep insisting on the contrary?
Ω Ω Ω
There are images powerfully lyric and visually artistic and cinematic in this book. One of my favourites is in the fist part, when Yeong-hye in the courtyard in the hospital with a bird in his hand.Almost like a modern painting. Or the image of In-hye reflected in the mirror with a bleeding eye, very surrealist. Others, on the contrary are very dramatic, shocking and horrific, like the dream with the dog. Those images will stay with you for a long time, tattooed onto your retina long after you finish the book.
Ω Ω Ω
The translation by Deborah Smith is good. Most of the book flows and that is the sort of experience we want as translators and readers to have when translating literary works. However, as I reader, I thought that the first chapter needed of a better editing
because, personally, I found it lacking in punctuation at times, some
unnecessarily wording others, and the choice of some words over others a bit distracting, at least to me.
Ω Ω Ω
TWO NOTES
Ѫ The Vegetarian was originally published in 2007, compiling three novelettes previously published separately. However, the story, according to Hang herself, developed organically, but turned dark, from a short story of hers "Fruits of my Woman" written in the year 2000:
A TYPO
> I couldn’t get my head round it. (Locations 48-49).
> natural it was to not wear clothes. (Location 1220).
A WARNING
This word contains explicit violence, human and animal, and explicit sex scenes.
A QUERY
Why was the book called Vegetarian in English is the character becomes a vegan? Was the title in Korean the same?
Ѫ The Vegetarian was originally published in 2007, compiling three novelettes previously published separately. However, the story, according to Hang herself, developed organically, but turned dark, from a short story of hers "Fruits of my Woman" written in the year 2000:
The main characters are a man and woman, and one day when the man returns home from work, he sees that his wife has become a plant. So he moves her into a pot, waters her, and takes care of her. As the seasons change, the woman spits out her last hard seeds. As he takes the seeds out to the balcony, he wonders whether his wife will be able to bloom again in spring. Overall the story isn’t so dark, and is also magical, but after writing it, I wanted to write it again from a different perspective. So I thought for years about how to write it. From the very first page, The Vegetarian came out very dark and different. (in "Violence and Being Human: A Conversation with Han Kang" by Krys Lee (World Literature Today, January 2016).Ѫ The book was taken to the screen in 2009 under the direction of Woo-Seong Lim. The movie was also called The Vegetarian.
A TYPO
> I couldn’t get my head round it. (Locations 48-49).
> natural it was to not wear clothes. (Location 1220).
A WARNING
This word contains explicit violence, human and animal, and explicit sex scenes.
A QUERY
Why was the book called Vegetarian in English is the character becomes a vegan? Was the title in Korean the same?
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