The strange, secretive world of North Korean science fiction

August 8, 2024 6:48 AM

Unusual and often breathtaking, the genre is relatively unknown in the West. Lovely article introducing and situating North Korean science fiction as its own genre
posted by infini (8 comments total)

An interesting historical overview of the genre in the DPRK, but I didn't read anything in the excerpts that was "unusual and often breathtaking." The heavyhanded party gospel of Change Course seemed pretty bog-standard North Korean propaganda of the "Let a million bullets of righteousness fly at the imperialists!" variety except with some high-tech touches. I wish the article had, in fact, provided examples of this unusual/breathtaking writing. I've read some South Korean sci-fi in translation, and it was excellent. I'd rather hoped this would be similarly eye-opening.
posted by the sobsister at 8:08 AM on August 8 [4 favorites]

If I were watching this same story as a Hollywood movie and the protagonists were Americans, my reaction would be very different

Siri, summarize every Cold War factoid about propaganda in communist countries.
posted by supercres at 8:08 AM on August 8

Mod note: One removed. Please avoid posting spoilers to plot points of a show, especially if has nothing to do with the topic of the post.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:11 AM on August 8

I liked the artwork and wish the article had more.
posted by JanetLand at 11:12 AM on August 8 [1 favorite]

The author posits several statements (e.g., "As North Korean writers become more exposed to the West, the stories they write are slowly changing."), but doesn't follow up with evidence.

Seconding that the examples provided are pretty snoozeworthy, as befits something written by a person who is afraid of going to labor camp for writing the wrong thing.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 12:59 PM on August 8 [1 favorite]

The art accompanying the story reminds me of Soviet space stamps, which I always thought were cool and used to collect as a kid. The story described in the article sounds like dreck.
posted by jabah at 2:24 PM on August 8 [1 favorite]

Related to the stamps, this cartoon of an Unha-9 rocket displayed in Pyongyang, from a 2015 NYT photo essay, has been something I've always enjoyed.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:54 PM on August 8

There's a different sort of dystopian sci-fi than the type that's set in a dystopia: The type that comes from a dystopia.
posted by Sleeper at 6:09 AM on August 9 [1 favorite]