[IR] Florescent Lights Just Make The Darkness Brighter

Blog post title brought to you by: Ian's Quotes, a digital archive of solid quotes by Ian McKnight, documented by yours truly.

Over the last few weeks I've been slowly working my way through Never Let Me Go, a rather excellent book by the highly acclaimed Japanese-English author.  I think I expressed this in a recent post titled "Controlled Creativity (Talk About and Oxymoron)" that might as well have been titled "I Don't Know What The Heck Is Going on And It's Probably My Fault."  As a TL:DR, I expressed my frustration with the fact that I had made it a decent way into the book and still had no clue what the point of anything was.  Ishiguro is a great writer, don't get me wrong, but he seems to get cold feet every time he gets close to explaining what's going on in the story.  It's not even one of those stories where you can make an educated guess as to what the significance of something is and it might be something close to that estimation but much more extreme or, you know, whatever.  No.  I've been in the dark for chapters on end... until YESTERDAY!  

Throughout the book, these references to "donations" continue to be made.  We don't really know anything about them, just that lots of people give them, there's more than one donation and the main character is a carer for those who make donations.  The most frustrating thing? We have no frickin' clue what is being donated.  I like to guess about some things, but this concept of donations is so frequent and so vague that I just got irritated every time the author brought them up.  But! But but!  I just found out that they're donating organs! Woohoo!  I don't think this is a huge spoiler so calm down, I'm not ruining it.  So let's talk about organ harvesting.

There's this super scary thing called organ trafficking and it happens all over the place.  Like, everywhere.  A lot of times, people are so poor that they sell their organs on the black market.  Sometimes this pays really really well, but other times donors get terribly ripped off or, even worse, end up paying with their life or at least their health.  Even less fortunate people are kidnapped and have their organs forcibly removed.  Ugh.

When I think of live donations, I think of people donating one of their kidneys.  After all, you only need one healthy one to survive.  However, I just read on www.donorrecovery.org that you can also donate a lobe of your lung, parts of your intestine, parts of your liver, and your pancreas while you're still alive.  Crazy stuff man.  

So while I might be incredibly frustrated by the lack of information concerning these donations, the author has effectively prompted a physical reaction (mostly phantom organ aches) that allows me to connect with the characters more.  Maybe this was his plan all along, sneaky bugger.

[FW] So You've Been Commissioned to Make a Documentary on ~Anything~

A few days ago my lovely step sister was in town and she was eager to watch a movie before bed with the fam.  Due to her heightened intellectual preferences, she suggested a documentary.  Before I could sneak upstairs to watch some Star Trek (I have a tough time watching a movie if I'm not sitting in bed), I was stopped by the rest of my family and asked: "Hannah, if you could make a documentary about anything, what would your topic of choice be?"  What an intriguing question.  I couldn't believe I'd never thought of it before.  Nevertheless, it didn't take me long to identify my subject.

Now before you think to yourself "OH MY GOSH WHY DID I EVEN QUESTION IT, SHE'S OF COURSE GONNA DO A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT KOREA" just... hear me out on this one, it's really important.  The origin of my interest in Korea came from the country's massive pop music market, one of the biggest in the world, and for good reason.  Everything from the music and cinematography to the hairstyles and facial expressions are designed and analysed down to the atom.  EVERYTHING is synthetic.  One could even argue that personalities are designed to appeal to the widest, heavy-pocketed audience.  

At this point you're probably thinking: "Wow, how could someone enjoy something so incredibly fake?"  Well, weren't you listening? It's designed to be liked.  Korea has over 2 decades of experience with pop music and they know what sells better than anyone.  To this day, one of the first songs and groups that was created under the K-Pop category is recognized by anyone who has done an ounce of research on Korean pop music, this being "Candy" by H.O.T., an absolute classic.  It's like the Korean equivalent of N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" or Britney Spears' "Oops I Did It Again," but with WAAAAY worse outfits.


And so many of the guys from this era of Korean music own massively successful music labels today.  They know what's hot and how to sell it, there's no question about that.  However, they also know that sacrifices need to be made in order to push music and idols to their greatest potential, and this is where issues involving morality come in.  Too often do we see incredibly young recruits who are looking to follow their dreams of becoming a pop musician taking the hit for big labels just to move up on the charts.  It's no secret that teenage trainees, after enduring mercilessly meticulous recruitment events, are often put into small living spaces with many other trainees and with far from nutritious or abundant food (fans of established music groups are known for sending huge amounts of food to venues so they know that their idols are being fed).  It almost seems inhumane.  But the issues don't end when glory is achieved on the weekly music charts.  Music labels ban dating under any circumstances, which has led to K-Pop idols in their THIRTIES becoming involved in "scandals" that are really just dating rumors, but unauthorized nonetheless.

The greatest thing that makes K-Pop so renowned and enjoyable to experience is the visual perfection of it all.  Music videos are much more vital to a song than it is anywhere else in the world, so they have to be clean in choreography, lighting, sound, wardrobe, facial expression, hair and makeup. If you can get past the boys wearing eyeliner you're sure to be impressed by the aesthetic of it all. But Korean music labels know they can control more than just the lighting.  Plastic surgery is almost a given for anyone entering the K-Pop industry, especially for girls.  Western beauty ideals (double eyelids, wide eyes, v-shaped chin, etc.) have dominated standards for Korean idols and have had a huge impact on the health and image of almost everyone in that field.

Needless to say, there are so many things to be said about the blatant corruption of the Korean pop music industry and I would like to let my K-Pop-loving guard down in order to educate the world about the things being done to the idols that people around the world have come to love.  A need for this information to be spread is increasingly necessary as music labels are signing increasingly younger trainees (kids aged 13 or below that will endure years of musical training before they even see a stage). Hopefully by revealing the pressures that musicians are put under to sell their material the best they can, conditions can be improved in the K-Pop industry for idols and trainees of all ages.  

Also, on a more shallow note, I'd love having the chance to meet and interview the Korean musicians I've been admiring for years.  When I got a chance to see my favorite K-Pop group in concert (BAP) I asked the touring staff whether the boys were getting enough sleep.  They said that they were young and therefore always energetic, but I still worry about their health and whether there are paid well enough or not.

Side Note: a country that should get more attention in general is Japan.  Their music labels have been known to take female idols involved in "dating scandals" and send them out to a street to kneel and be publicly shamed.  Insanity: A famous example of Japanese public shaming.

[CC] How to Write "Wanderlust" Without a Hashtag Sign in Front of It

If I were to come across a person like Marlow in a bar, I'd use an excuse to escape the conversation before he even had a chance to properly introduce himself.  In other words, he's one of the most convoluted and blabber-mouthed conversationalists in the history of literature, I'm sure of it.  Of course, this is done for literary purposes, as the message of the story would fit into a kernel (as the book says) should Marlow's points be brief and easily read, which is entirely against the point.  But despite the somewhat painful density of his banter I have found his story rather interesting.  

The section that stuck with me the most was when Marlow was talking about his initial interest in travel. This segment could have so easily found itself among the cliche descriptions of why travel is good for the soul and inborn in the hearts of the most adventurous breed of humans, it freaking doesn't and I am so happy about that.  If I want pseudo-inspirational blurbs about traveling the world for the betterment of oneself, I can easily find two dozen Twitter pages run by wannabe rubber tramps who projectile vomit text posts and Afterlight-filtered pictures of fit yet unbathed white Millennials sitting on cliffs and sporting gauzy Pacsun tops paired with red beanies on my precious timeline.

[cue demonic whispers] "I say rubber tramp because it sounds cool" "all hail Christopher McCandless" "my parents are paying for my college education but I just wanna live in a rusty VW bus" "I got this asparagus scented candle at Urban Outfitters" "real Pearl Jam fans only eat jam with pearls in it" "hashtag wanderlust"

But Marlow is not like that. Marlow has a history with a curiosity for the world that was not born out of one's own discomfort with one's own privilege.  Marlow looks at a map and sees so much potential for his life and the WORLD.  What amazes me is that he is drawn towards the unmarked, the emptiest areas of the planet.  I am not one to desire treading unmarked, virgin territory.  Honestly one of the scariest things I can imagine is driving up in the spider roads of Maine.  Nooooo thank you, ma'am. The Arctic? No thanks. Even my favorite country in the world, Korea, scares me a bit when I imagine going out in the countryside for very long. So much props to Marlow for being an active part of the era of genuine wanderlust and desire to tread where no man has tread before.  Also props for having at least a page or two of monologue that can permeate my mind and simultaneously please it.

This turned into a digital complaint about rubber tramp wannabes and that was not my intention.  Nevertheless, it had to be said.