Well, that post is a few years old, and I haven’t noticed people getting any more anti-Muslim than before. (Or, rather, I should say, the gusts of popular xenophobia blew in other directions: these days, the panic seems to be directed at Chinese of Korean ancestry, Sino-Koreans, whatever we’re supposed to call people in that background; there’s been a few highly-publicized crimes, and Korean society is always eager to believe foreigners are dangerous — despite the fact that Korean-on-Korean crime rates are much higher.) In fact, I’ve run into more anti-Semitism (ie. anti-Jewish feeling) than anti-Muslim, though there is a degree of ignorance about Islam, a semi-common assumption that people from places like the Middle East and North are “dirty” (which is hilarious considering just how bad hygiene is here: I love to point out that given the expectation of wudu, the hygiene of practicing Muslims is likely at least as good as most Koreans — and, given the frequency of handwashing-after-doing-one’s-business I’ve seen in public bathrooms over the years, I’d bet on the average practicing Muslim to be cleaner; certainly, while I found Indonesia kind of hygenically terrifying — the water quality was horrifying in many places, especially in Jakarta — Indonesian people were usually scrupulously clean).

Now, I think you might have some eye-opening experiences if you come to Korea and either look like you’re of Middle-Eastern descent, or openly discuss your religion. I don’t know where you live now, but those Koreans who are bigoted and stupid, tend to be more overt and straightfoward in their bigotry, because there are fewer mechanisms in Korean society to punish those kinds of idiocy when they’re expressed publicly. Probably people will ask you whether you liked bin Laden, or whether you know any terrorists. (If you don’t say anything and are somewhat fair-skinned, of course, they may mistake you for someone of European ancestry, and will treat you relatively better.)

However, I don’t think you’d be in any more danger on the streets than anyone else, or at least not any more than other foreign women. I’m guessing that Islamophobia here (which is sort of second-order, derived from Western media mostly) is much less noticeable than in places like the US/Canada, Britain, and other places in Europe. But I’m a white, Canadian man, so I’m just guessing. I’ve not met a lot of Muslims here, though obviously there is a population in Seoul and some other places. (There’s a ton of Halal food shops near the mosque in Seoul, and definitely a Muslim population (from Indonesia, India, and Pakistan, and some other places too I’d guess) down in Ansan as well.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88zGEpbocQ0

Which Steve Reich was it? I missed that.

Although I was impressed by that one bit of Steve Reich at the start of the games sequence. So very random.

It’s funny that such big directors would end up making an omnibus film instead of, say, collaborating on a feature. Maybe that’s all they could get funding for with Im attached, but I thought the first two segments — both Kim’s and Im’s — were quite good. (Though I own that I likely missed nuances in the second section, namely the supposedly Ultraman-ish language stuff.)

Im Pil-sung was supposed to be part of that great crew of directors who appeared in the 1990′s (like Kim, Bong Joon-ho, as so forth), but his debut, Antarctic Journal, tanked pretty badly. Hansel and Gretel did even worse. Since then, he’s been considered box office poison.

I don’t know their other work — maybe I’ll have to do some digging around. Anything you can recommend? And, ha, I just emailed you!

As for footnotes, they’re not so popular in the commercial fiction scene, unless they’re kind of there as part of the fictional conceit. (In fact, I imagine any such explanation would likely go into the introduction for the story, strictly speaking.)

But I agree personally that footnotes can indeed be half the fun! Or half the pain, or… well, I don’t know where reading Ezra Pound falls on the masochism scale, but I have a whole second book constantly open when reading the poems, titled “A Companion to the Cantos” (as well as numerous other books I constantly consult). A whole second book that is stuffed full of footnotes in this case counts as both half the fun AND half the pain. :)

“Readymade Life” I remember being interesting, but in the three-story collection I much preferred “My Innocent Uncle” and “Once upon a rice paddy,” I believe it was called, which was written after liberation, and is anything but an anti-Japanese, ‘Isn’t it wonderful we’re all free now” kind of tale.

Anyways, I’d agree ‘Prefab’ would be the better way to render it, with the history lesson for the footnotes (footnotes can be half the fun!).