Monday, February 18, 2013

Fantasy, Ethnic Identity, and Monsters That Eat People's Livers

I know what you're thinking - "Mike who? Whuzzat? Who are you again?" I'M A FOUNDING INKIE, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, way back when the Inkpot was still on LiveJournal. I just, you know, left for a while. Now I'm back, which is not what you want to read about so yes yes, I'll get to the real point of this post.

Want to read an awesome gumiho story?
Go check out thefoxsister.com.
I'm working on a new book that's very, very different from my debut, Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities - this new book is easier to describe as fantasy (Geeks tends to be described as science fiction), and it also taps into my personal history in a way that I haven't attempted before. I don't want to spill too many beans about the story's details, but the fantasy elements are rooted in Korean mythology, particularly the dastardly gumiho, a nine-tailed fox that gets its kicks out of seducing unsuspecting dudes and chowing down on their livers. Yes, that IS awesome. It's got the full-on Enchanted Inkpot vibe, am I right?

More importantly, the personal element that I'm mining for this book involves ethnic identity, with all of its psychological and cultural complexities. My debut novel isn't devoid of emotional truth or personal meaning (I think, anyway), but the personal issues it focuses on are more about perceptions of self-worth and adapting to new roles. It's been described as "fun" more than anything else. This new novel won't be devoid of fun - that's, um, not what I want - but the emotional truths at its core traffic much more in family history, communication breakdowns between generations, and cultural alienation.

Whoa dude, serious, huh? I don't want to give the impression that I'm attempting to stop being a supposedly humorous and light-hearted author and reinventing myself as a solemn chronicler of identity crises in bloom - at this point in my career I don't know if I'm even capable of doing something that difficult. But I am exploring aspects of my own life that have provoked complicated feelings, including confusion, regret, resentment, loss, and shame.

I really don't know why I keep using this photo.
Seems like unrestrained masochism, doesn't it??
I'm a child of immigrants. My parents were born in Seoul, but they both immigrated to the U.S. in the early 60s for educational purposes, and despite their original plans to return to Korea they were captured by inertia and stayed permanently. As a result I was born and raised here in the States, and when my family moved to New Jersey I ended up spending some of the most formative years of my life in a community dominated by people of white European descent. In a fairly short time I drifted away from my family's ancestral culture, and started down the road to the place I currently occupy, where I call myself "Korean-American," but identify far more as "American" than "Korean."

One of my favorite articles in the realm of Asian-American identity is this piece about current professional basketball player Jeremy "Linsanity" Lin, written by Jay Caspian Kang during Lin's time at Harvard. I'm not approaching the topic with Kang's journalistic intent or depth of intellectual inquiry, and he writes about it on a broad societal level, while I'm writing the story of one character's experiences within a single, specific context. However, Kang touches on many of the internal conflicts that are informing my book. What does it mean to lose contact with one's ancestral roots? How do we perceive, think about, and react to the "race to whiteness"? How much of our racial identities do we define for ourselves, and how much is defined for us? What is the relationship between external and internal perception? Is it possible, necessary, or defensible to weigh the validity of a person's self-defined ethnic identity?

Which brings us to the question of "Okay Mike, that all sounds good, but with all this heavy-duty stuff about culture, ethnicity, and personal history in the mix, why are you writing it as a fantasy novel?" Good question. It might seem reductive and misleading to say "Well, I just WANT to, because I LIKE fantasy fiction, and thousand-year-old foxes who eat people's livers are AWESOME," but that statement (which is admittedly a bit flip) is very true.

The fact that I'm exploring issues with a great deal of emotional relevance to me doesn't change the fact that I also want to write stories that are fun, fast-paced, and humorous. I believe those lighter, less solemn elements are every bit as personally relevant, emotionally meaningful, and psychologically resonant as the heavier, more serious ones. I love reading and writing fantasy - those stories suffuse my being with undeniable plenitude, and the layers of metaphor and symbolism they create in my heart and mind are nearly fathomless.

Sometimes you just have to embrace the megalomania.
I have to confess that there's more than a little creative ambition at work here too. Creating balance is a challenge, whether it's between humor and solemnity, action and reflection, or realism and fantasy. Can a book be serious in an emotionally profound way AND funny in a completely irreverent way? Can it deal with slice-of-life realism AND over-the-top fantasy? Yes, in fact. Why not? It's easy to perceive (rightly or not) certain dichotomies when writing a novel, but in reality there's no cosmically inviolable rule that says any one of those elements automatically takes precedent over the others. I want to write a story that encompasses all of those things. I don't know if I'm enough of a writer to genuinely pull it off, but I'm just egomaniacal enough to want to try.

It's fascinating, gratifying, and thoroughly engaging to be exploring these questions of culture, ethnicity, and identity within the mingled context of traditional Korean mythology AND contemporary North American society. It also feels like I'm clawing open a bunch of scabbed-over, decades-old wounds and pouring big, chunky handfuls of rock salt in them, which is, um, not entirely pleasant. The whole endeavor feels very, very complicated, but that's okay. It doesn't have to feel easy to feel good or worthwhile. I'm ready to put in the work, and hopefully I'll manage to combine those complicated autobiographical ingredients with those cool, scary, fun fantasy ingredients in a way that results in a strong, cohesive serving of emotional truth. Give me a fist bump, yo. *fist bump*

m.

Mike Jung is the author of GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic 2012). He's also kind of a basket case, but he's able to tap into the basket case thing for the purpose of writing, which may or may not mean anything to you but there it is.

17 comments:

  1. We're so glad to have you back at the Inkpot Mike! And I have to say, you have made me very curious about your new book! I'm a huge fan of Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, and I have no doubt that you will be able to explore these issues in a fun and entertaining fantasy novel. Can't wait to read more about that liver eating fox!

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    1. I'm really happy to be back Erin! Thanks for the kind words about GEEKS, and I do feel cautiously optimistic about the new book. We'll see if it comes together. :)

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  2. > It also feels like I'm clawing open a bunch of scabbed-over, decades-old wounds and pouring big, chunky handfuls of rock salt in them, which is, um, not entirely pleasant.<

    Wait, really? WHY NOT?

    Based on that sentence alone, I'm confident you can combine the deep stuff and the fun stuff. I can't wait! Very thought-provoking post, and now I will go click over to read Kang's article...

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    1. Thanks Leah! Hopefully I'll prove worthy of your confidence. I'm a big fan of Kang's stuff - I think of him first and foremost as a sportswriter, but he writes very intelligently on culture and society too.

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  3. Well now I can't wait to read this book. I am so envious of writers who can balance wrenching/complicated stuff with humor (<----books not super funny). And that fox sounds FANTASTIC.

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    1. Thanks Katherine! It remains to be seen if I actually CAN balance the wrenching/complicated stuff with the super funny stuff, but I'm trying. And yeah, the gumiho is a pretty spectacular mythological beast, with all sorts of fascinating psychological angles to it.

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  4. It takes guts to go more “directly personal” in what you put out in public. Know that this reader appreciates your doing it here, and in your next book.
    Everything we write is personal. But as you undertake this journey and go deeper, you are giving us a gift “beyond rubies.”
    And that photo^ says so many things. For one, that Mike Jung is a born comedian. Not many would post and re-post a pictorial reminder of their most geeky years. Wait a minute, that’s all in your first book.
    Go geek!

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    1. Thanks Mirka! That photo certainly does have an element of comedy. Dark, horrendous, scarred-for-life comedy... ;)

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  5. YAY!!! Mike is back!!!! And you know how much I identify with this post!! You go MIke!!!

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    1. Well Ellen, as you know, this post (and the book it's about) would be impossible without the help of a certain ninja triad critique group. :)

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  6. So great to have you back Mike! Your new book sounds really intriguing I can't help but think when you write so close to the bone - it's got to make your work even stronger. And you're totally reminding me of Shaun Tan right now and his works that look at both his ancestral roots and his homeland.
    Yeas, I;m thinking, 'The Arrival' - 'The Rabbits' - I cant' wait to read your new book Mike, and you know how much we enjoyed your last one!

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    1. I am not even on the same continent as Shaun Tan - literally or metaphorically - but thanks so much, Keely! Yes, Luka's book report is still one of the highest high points of my publishing experience so far!

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  7. I really need to employ a proof-reader for my posts *face palm.*

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  8. Another fan jumping in to say hi! Geeks rule in my book!

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    1. Hi Lee!! Nice to see you, sort of. You know what I mean... :)

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  9. fox spirits for the win! what
    a fantastic post, mike. thank you!
    i love a novel that will challenge us
    as a writer--that's the whole point, isn't it?
    as we go?

    also, what instrument are you holding
    in that adorable band foto?????

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  10. Thanks Cindy! Yeah, that whole "challenging ourselves" thing is really essential. Creative growth! And that instrument is a piccolo, if you can believe it. I was my high school's first male flute & piccolo player in 20+ years. It was, um, challenging...

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