Wonder or Wander

Yi Je-ha, 1987 This work is quite strong in that it describes the very life of Korean painters, who are very much disintegrated from everyday life and the subject matters of novels. The writer keeps the tension between a painter and a story teller and finally goes beyond the trend, unbearable lightness of writing, in Korean contemporary novels.

José Saramago, 1995 It begins with a striking sequence--people becomes blind one by one. We do not know where and when it happens and what they are called. People lose their sight because of extraordinary brightness coming through their eyes. When a couple of hundreds people detained in a ward move out due to the hungry, they realize everyone has become blind. Everyone loses dignity and humanity. They all exist as an anonymous who only has basic desire to survive. In the end, they regain their sight the way they lost their sight. This novel reminds me of "The Invasion of Body snatchers", where everyone loses their emotion. I am looking forward to reading his another novel,"Baltazar and Blimunda", which brought the nobel prize for literature.