2021/12 The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yujoo

[Aleksandra]

Hello! 안녕하세요!

This a thread for our December read, The Impossible Fairytale by Han Yujoo.

[Paul]

I read this one quite some time ago, in September 2017.

There are some fascinating translation dilemmas here as there is a lot of wordplay in the original. The UK edition has a fascinating translator's afterword (don't know if the US one does?)

For example there's a riff in the original on 고양이 (cat) to 고양 (boost/flight/sacrificial lamb) to 야공 (night-assault) to 야구공 (a baseball) to 공구 (tool), which doesn't work in English at all, so Janet Hong went for a different riff to get from cat to tool:

"Kitty cat, kitty cat. Kit Kat, kat. What does kat mean? Or kit? Tool kit. Tools hurt. Hammer, screwdriver, wrench."

Or the kitten's name - in Korean 방울 (droplet or small bell) - Hong points out that there is no English word covering the same things, but she needed a word that could describe blood, be countable and be a pet name for a kitten - "sprinkle" was a great solution:

"Her dirty running shoes are sprinkled with blood. One sprinkle, two sprinkles, three sprinkles. Hey Sprinkles, she calls out to the kitten."

[Aleksandra]

Paul wrote: "I read this one quite some time ago, in September 2017.

There are some fascinating translation dilemmas here as there is a lot of wordplay in the original. The UK edition has a fascinating transl..."

Whoa, Janet Hong knows what she's doing, doesn't she? The level of translation work here seems impressive, I wish I could read the original version as well. Thank you for sharing this, Paul!

[Aleksandra]

I started reading and, a few chapters in, the recurring cruelty towards animals makes it quite hard for me to continue. I think I may have to schedule a few pages a day instead of casually reading the novel before bedtime…

For others who may have not started yet, take this as a sort of trigger warning.

[Jeshika]

I’ve been busy and haven’t managed to pick this one up yet but the animal cruelty warning makes me not want to at all. Thanks for letting us know, I might skip this one until another time when I’m more... ready for it haha.

[Aleksandra]

Jeshika wrote: "I’ve been busy and haven’t managed to pick this one up yet but the animal cruelty warning makes me not want to at all. Thanks for letting us know, I might skip this one until another time when I’m ..."

I managed to finish and the animal cruelty, child cruelty, and such, kept coming up. The text itself was written in an inspiring, playful way, which made the cruel imagery hit me even harder. I wonder what the point of putting in so much cruelty was. Han Yujoo seems to be a rather deliberate writer, I don't suppose anything in the novel is purely incidental.

I also wish I were able to read the text in Korean. The novel seems to really have a lot to offer in terms of literary beauty, but it was lost on me when I read the translation. (Not the fault of the translator, of course.)

In the last part of the book, were you able to assign the identity of the narrator to any of the girls from the previous parts? Is she "the Child" or is she not, in your opinion?

[Paul]

It is 4.5 years since I read this one so my memory may be faulty but I took the 2nd part as The Child from part one debating who was responsible for her actions with the author.