“Let’s meet at Express Bus Terminal station,” my friend said. At first I was rather alarmed. I’d never even taken a bus in Seoul, so how was I going to get there on my own? To my relief it turned out to be a subway station on line 3 and line 7.
My friend said I should meet him at the main entrance, which I never found because the station is so large and has so many levels. There’s a Marriott hotel there, lots of shops, food places and a Shinsegae department store. It doesn’t look like a bad place to hang out with friends on a bad weather day.
In the end we met at the main entrance of Shinsegae. If you’re interested in cheesy mish mashes of European culture in Korea you’ll appreciate the giant figures on either side of the department store doors: British soldiers with their red jackets and black bear skin hats standing guard with Swiss guards from the Vatican.
I’ve read a bit more Korean literature in translation since I last blogged here. I bought Photo Shop Murder by Kim Young-Ha and Mujong by Yi Kwang-Su. Kim’s book is actually two stories, one about a detective solving a homicide and the other about a man having a very bad time trying to get to the office. I enjoyed them but didn’t find them very satisfying because they seemed a bit light. Having said that, they undoubtedly do say something about Kim’s view of society.
I found out about Mujong after attending a lecture by Michael Shin at the Royal Asiatic Society. It’s got a good page turning story line and says an awful lot about changes in Korean society 90 years ago.
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