/lit/ - Literature

North Korean aesthetics enamor me. If countries were viewed in purely aesthetic terms it would rank very highly. Often you see those pictures of it from space to juxtapose its lack of electricity next to the garishly illuminated, manic overdrive of the South, as if this peaceful quietude were a bad thing in absolute terms. I believe you can make the case that the entire country is an aesthetic piece, minimalistic, sparse, austere and cruel but with occasional touches of color; with nothing wasted and everything intentionally arranged just as an artist's hand would will it. North Korea blends its strange State Ideologies of communism--with its brutalist, spartan aesthetic components, with strident militaristic Songun, and bold Juche and the ornate, imperial lavishness of Kimism and somehow combines it all with a rustic, parochial, almost charming traditionalism . Kim Jong Il, rather quaintly, is said to be born on a sacred mountain under a rainbow. Various locations he visited have been sacrosancted, like out of some ancient literary myth recounting the travels of a sage

>According to author Suki Kim's memoir of her time teaching at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, there are twelve "Wonders of Songun":[14] The sunrise at Mount Paektu (the alleged birthplace of Kim Jong-il); the winter pine trees at the Dabaksol guard post (where Kim Jong-il supposedly launched the Songun policy); the Cheollyeong azaleas (a "frontline" hill where Kim Jong-il visited often); the evening view of Jangji Mountain near the Changja River (a refuge for a young Kim Jong-il during the Korean War); the sound of the Ullim Waterfall in the mountains above Munchon, Kangwon Province (as it is the sound of a "powerful and prosperous nation"); the horizon at Handurebol (the Handure Plain in Taechon County) for this was the location of Kim Jong-il's land reform in 1998 after the famine; Taehongdan County's large fields of potato flowers (Kim Il-sung is said to have fought the Japanese here and Kim Jong-il turned it into the country's largest potato farm); the area around the mountain village of Beoman-ri in Sohung County, North Hwanghae Province (Kim Jong-il rebuilt the village after the famine and is claimed as the "pride of a communist country");[15] the bean (or nut) farming program Kim Jong-un instituted to provide food for the military; the large rice farm in Migok, Sariwon; the Taedonggang fruit farm in Pyongyang; and the Ryongjung fish farm in South Hwanghae Province. A thirteenth "wonder" is reported to have been created in 2016.[15] The first nine of these sites have been heavily promoted by North Korean authorities and have become tourist destinations.[15]

Somehow NK has managed to maintain its soul, its regional uniqueness and distinct cultural identity, while the South has become a globalist mutant, a deranged graffiti wall of various corporate billboards and advertisements and incoherent, chaotic fads.

I should like to continue this thought.