The Novels of Park Jiwon (Translation of Overlooked Worlds)

A compilation of short stories by Park Jiwon (Bak Jiwon), this book is a curio that will be difficult to appreciate but by experts on the topic. For the average reader it is an interesting look on the era in Korea and of some of its problems/philosophies but not much else.

Bak Jiwon was an important Korean philosopher and an advocate of the 'silhak' movement, that thought the Korean philosophy was becoming disconnected from the real world and its innovations, becoming stilted and trapped in the past. This book offers some of his stories, where he develops little theories or criticizes some behaviors or ways of thinking.

It is interesting enough, but it is all so much a part from another era and place that it is difficult to understand much of what goes on. There are many names that will make no sense for the regular reader (in particular in this English edition that is focused on English readers) and many of the theories and problems that may have looked so important back then make not much sense nowadays. Some of his ideas, though, are timeless.

It doesn't help the translation, which has two clear problems. First, the language, the rhythm, of the translation may be quite literal, but make the reading of the texts slow and difficult. Second, the author has decided to ditch any explanation of the texts but puts hundreds of footnotes that sometimes just complicate things further, as it is difficult to know what he is talking about. If you are an expert in the topic, probably all will make better sense, but if you are just a curious reader or have superficial knowledge of the era in Korea (or the region in Asia) it will be quite difficult to follow through.

Just for experts on the topic.

The best: it offers a glimpse into another world

The worst: the language of the translation is stilted and can't overcome the problems of translating an old source; instead of so many footnotes it would be better to have had little explanations of the texts and its main points, the footnotes becoming many times repetitive, obscure or unnecessary.

Further reading: this is a difficult one, I'm no expert on this kind of texts; "The Art of War" is the closest I can come with; maybe some old texts of Confucianism, Buddhism or old European philosophy could come close; you can also read manga like "Ikkyu" that offer glimpses into old East Asian culture.

6/10

(English translation & introduction by Emanuel Pastreich)