Leonardo Da Vinci’s monumental painting “Mona Lisa” is one of the most widely discussed paintings of all time because of its subject’s ambiguous smile. People have argued that depending on the viewer’s distance and angle, her smile looks different. Sometimes it looks happy, other times sad. Some people find the smile to be deriding and sarcastic, while others perceive it as a smile of condescension, like someone who knows everything. That is why Mona Lisa’s smile always refers to an enigmatic sm

I have taught English literature, comparative literature and Korean literature at American universities, such as Penn State, UC Berkeley and BYU, for over six years. Whenever I have taught English or comparative literature, I have always tried to bridge the cultures of the East and West, through which I have enjoyed wonderful cultural interactions with my students. Whenever I have taught Korean literature at American universities, I have always been very impressed by my colleagues who are dedica

Recently, I revisited the famous Spanish town of Ronda to follow the trail of the late American writer Ernest Hemingway, who celebrated his last birthday there. Ronda is famous because the old town was built on high, stiff cliffs that make for truly dazzling scenery. It also has the enchanting Mina Secreta Y Jardines del Rey Moro, where former US first lady Michelle Obama visited some time ago.To me, however, Ronda is the city of Hemingway. The internationally-acclaimed writer loved virtually ev

Traditionally, the Year of the Pig is regarded as auspicious because pigs symbolize good fortune. People believe that pigs have gentle personalities and an optimistic demeanor. Pigs are also known to be energetic and enthusiastic and, contrary to popular belief, prefer a clean and organized environment. Experts say that those who are born in the Year of the Pig possess many similar attributes. In some countries, pork is a favorite dish. The Spanish people, for example, enjoy Jamon, ham that is d

When I first read Takano Kazuaki’s thriller “Gravedigger,” I was enthralled by the breathtaking speed of this mesmerizing novel. It tells the story of a wrongfully accused man named Yagami who has to flee from police and a group of sinister men. As an organ donor, Yagami has to safely arrive at a hospital in south Tokyo as soon as possible in order to save a child who is suffering from leukemia. To accomplish this, he has to cross Tokyo from north to south at full speed against all odds. Recentl

How do you differentiate a democratic, advanced country from a totalitarian, underdeveloped one? According to political scientists, there are almost always political prisoners in an underdeveloped, totalitarian country. On the other hand, in a democratic, advanced country, you cannot arrest your political opponents and throw them into jail at will. Running a country is different from running a military operation that allows you to terminate your enemy with extreme prejudice. Indeed, advanced cou

History tells us that ever since the Crusades, Christianity and Islam have been archenemies. The clash between these two civilizations and religions seems to be reaching its breaking point today, as Muslim extremists frequently attack Christian countries and the US government seeks to prevent people from certain countries associated with radical Islamic beliefs from entering US soil. Under the circumstances, many people wonder if peaceful coexistence will ever be possible at all. But perhaps suc

The fear index, also known as the Volatile Index, refers to the stock market’s expectation of volatility and investors’ anxiety amid extreme uncertainty. “The Fear Index” is also the title of famed British writer Robert Harris’ novel about the financial crisis that swept the world due to the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007 and the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy in 2008, which culminated in the Flash Crash of 2010 that created panic for 36 minutes all over the world. Due to the fear index that may

These days, many people are concerned about violence in Korean society. There are many compelling reasons for such worries. For one thing, the country is sharply torn between groups that vehemently antagonize one another: conservatives versus radicals, the young versus the old, and men versus women. The country is also divided into the rich and the poor; the privileged and underprivileged; and between laborers and the managerial class. The Korean press, too, is divided into two ideologically dis

Famous American poet William Carlos Williams was a pediatrician, so he thought of poetry as spiritual medicine that healed wounded souls. Interestingly enough, his contemporary, poet Wallace Stevens, was a lawyer, so he thought of poetry as a quest for the order of the universe. Another American poet, T.S. Eliot, was a banker who regarded poetry as spiritual wealth and treasure. Recently, one of my Spanish friends asked me, “In Korea, how could musicians hold a picket, demanding severer punishme

In his monumental novel “Native Son,” Richard Wright depicts the tragic life of an African-American boy named Bigger Thomas who has to survive in the hostile environment of the white-dominant American society of the 1930s. It was the Great Depression era, and African-Americans were particularly in trouble because they were “last hired and first fired” at the time. Unable to get a job, Thomas is forced to live with his family in a one-room tenement in a slum district on Chicago’s South Side. Natu

In 1981, during the ruthless military dictatorship, poet Kim Kwang-kyu published a monumental poem titled “The Land of Mists.” When I first encountered this poem, I was mesmerized by the intense and powerful central metaphor that painfully renders the social milieu of the time: “In the land of mists/ always shrouded in mist/ nothing ever happens/ And if something happens/ nothing can be seen/ because of the mist/ For if you live in mist/ you get accustomed to mist/ so you do not try to see/ Ther

When I was 12, I left home for a broader world. Thus I came to know early on that there were other peoples and other lands in this world and that there were many things I could learn from them. Ever since, that realization has made me open-minded and global, far from being jingoistic or parochial. For that reason, I am ever grateful to my parents for having sent me to a boarding school in a foreign place where I learned to survive alone in an unfamiliar environment when I was young. Thanks to th

If you go to a foreign country without knowing about the country’s language and culture, you might feel hopeless and at a loss. Suddenly, you will find yourself in an unfamiliar environment, if not hostile, where you instantly become a hearing-impaired and verbally challenged person. Unable to communicate with others, you will be embarrassed and frustrated because you will not be able to understand others or make others understand you. If you are a politician or a diplomat, who is accompanied by

When I studied at the State University of New York at Buffalo 40 years ago, my dissertation director, Leslie Fielder, taught me to always stay in the middle, avoiding both extremes. He used to tell me, “In a polarized society, it is not easy to stay in the middle because you will be criticized by both extremes. But that is what an intellectual should do.”When I studied at Columbia later, my academic adviser, Edward Said, also enlightened me, saying, “Although I am a Left intellectual, I am neith

It is undoubtedly a blessing for anyone to have a country of his own, a place to which he can always return after traveling abroad and where he can live happily and comfortably with his friends and relatives. Unfortunately, not everybody is blessed in this way. There are those who have lost their homeland and become refugees wandering without hope due to war or political turmoil. In that sense, Koreans are blessed, even though the Korean Peninsula is unfortunately divided by political ideologies

In Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” the protagonist Willy Loman gets abruptly fired from his lifetime job. Frustrated, Willy expects his son Biff to succeed socially and financially. Unfortunately, Biff fails his father, as he neither enters college nor secures a decent job. Ultimately, Willy takes his own life in order to give his son Biff his life insurance policy money. It is a touching story about a frustrated salesman who sacrifices himself for his family in difficult times. Recently

We may think that we are absolutely right because we are logically impeccable, and that all others are wrong accordingly. By firmly believing so, however, we may inadvertently commit logical fallacies. Moreover, logic can be easily defeated by what we call logical fallacies. Max Shulman’s “Love is a Fallacy” well illustrates this compelling issue. The protagonist of the story is a narcissistic law student who believes that he is always absolutely right, smart, and logical. One day, upon spotting

Stephen King is undisputedly the most prominent horror fiction writer of our times, and his stories are undeniably bone-chilling and hair-raising. Nevertheless, there is much more to his stories and novels than we might at first expect.Indeed, King’s novels are always saturated with social and political implications. For example, “Salem’s Lot,” which was published in 1975, is ostensibly a vampire story set in a small town in Maine. However, it is in fact both a product and a critique of the Wate

Although Richard Brautigan tragically took his own life in 1984, before he died he left us some legendary literary classics such as “Trout Fishing in America.” This novel in particular has greatly influenced many other prominent writers, such as the celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. By the 1990s, Brautigan’s legacy was so strong that, in 1994, a young man named Peter Eastman actually changed his name to “Trout Fishing in America” and a young couple named their baby after the novel. F