Reddit reviews Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
We found 15 Reddit comments about Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Also, your entire family will be sent to a concentration camp if you escape (or try to). I've always wondered why North Korean athletes don't try to seek asylum during international sporting events, I'm assuming this is why.
Also, obligatory North Korean reading list for those who are interested:
Take a look at "Nothing to Envy" by Barbara Demick. You'd be surprised.
These are people who, by and large,don't know that the internet even exists. There's a story told by one defector in that book where they got illicit TV feeds from South Korea - it was a sitcom. The story was about two people fighting over a parking space. The North Koreans who watched it thought that the comedy was in the absurdity of anyone other than the Military having a car.
They are completely politically illiterate, because they have one source of information - the government. Political discussions don't happen. If you are overheard saying something that might be remotely negative about the gov't, off you go to the labor camps.
This is a society that has been completely cut off from the rest of the world. There is nothing ridiculous about the idea that there will be severe culture shock if/when there is a reunification.
There is an entire educational system devoted to teaching defectors how to live in a modern country.
Yes, living in North Korea is like 1984 except everyone is starving. I highly recommend reading this book for more information.
If you live in the Western world, what you learn about North Korea is almost literally unbelievable.
Rather than watch the vice guide videos (which only show you the propaganda that the DPRK wants you to see) you should go read books like these:
These and other books give you amazing insight into what it's like to actually live inside North Korea. May of the defectors who have been interviewed for these books do indicate that they do believe in the personality cult around the Kim's, at least at a certain level.
One of the best ones I've read recently was Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. It's amazing to see actual real life inside North Korea how people live and die, and why they defect (including one middle-aged woman who was practically tricked by her daughter into defecting).
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy is awesome.
One of my favorite non-fiction books.
if you're okay with pretty modern history, I recommend North Korea. the secretiveness about the country is fascinating.
For documentaries, i recommend National Geographic: Inside North Korea. there's also the Vice Guide to North Korea and I also personally like their documentary on North Korean work camps inside Russia. If you have netflix, there's also Kimjongilia and Crossing the Line.
As for books, I really liked Nothing to Envy:Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick. It talks about the lives of several defectors mainly during the famine in the 90s and also talks about how their lives are now in South Korea. Right now i'm reading Escape from Camp 14
which is about a guy who escaped from one of North Korea's many prison camps.
With a lot of recent events, I think it's important to understand the history of the country. also, Korea under Japanese rule might be interesting to.
Good Luck :)
EDIT: spelling
Someone recommended this book to me about a month ago in /r/books . Just got it in the mail the other day. As soon as I finish up the book I'm reading now, I'll tackle this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523904
I've seen both documentaries mentioned above. Both are excellent.
If you have Netflix instant check out "National Geographic's Inside: North Korea." as well as "Seoul Train".
The latter isn't a joke and is probably the best documentary about NK on Netflix instant.
I just finished this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523904
Its an excellent read into the daily lives of NK citizens told from the perspective of defectors.
Also HIGHLY recommended is this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Tourist-Sightseeing-Unlikely-Destinations/dp/1847398464/
It's not specifically about NK but Dom Jolly (Trigger Happy TV) travels there in this fantastic book. He offers a different, hilarious take on his experience in "The DPRK".
Also check out the book nothing to envy http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523904 fantastic read.
the wiki on Korea before WWII and after is good for the facts.
I'm reading Nothing to Envy at the moment which recounts stories of defectors from after the war up until the present from North Korea. Gives a good incite to the day to day life of a North Korean.
There are some great films about the Korean War
Brotherhood of War
The Front Line
This film about the boarder of North and south is great also
JSA
"And in food news, you've had enough to eat today."
It took a 30 Rock episode to get me reading about North Korea - go figure - but anyway, this pic is from their capital city.
This book set out to describe life in North Korea today, and if it even remotely resembles fact I feel terrible for those living there.
me too! BTW, I'm reading Nothing To Envy by Barbara Demick. It's horrying book about North Korea. If I can save up I'm gonna see N. Korea next year. I think next year I'll have something to karma whore about :P
http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523904
I have ebook of it, if you want I can share.
missyb described it best in her comment, but I'm making mine a separate comment to make sure you see this. In Barbera Demick's work Nothing to Envy, she describes the North Korean reaction to the death of Kim Il-Sung. People were being watched for their emotional displays, and everyone was afraid of not expressing enough remorse/love (in turn leading to ever more frenzied displays of emotion fueled by the others/the fear of being "out-devoted"). Like missyb says, "Don't be so accepting of people's stylised emotional displays." And please don't necessarily accept all the explanations of "it's a hive state" and "it's the power of religion in practice" as the sole explanations. While I have no doubt that the social structure and religious nature of the state have played major roles in creating this "love," most North Koreans aren't stupid or entirely brainwashed - and many lived through the famine and were forced to see the lies with their own eyes. Don't take their intelligence for granted.
It's a question with an answer that exists at the core of all authoritarian regimes: how much of what we are seeing is truly real? I encourage you to read Demick's work and make your own judgement call. (My answer: some of it is, some of it isn't. Unsatisfying, but that's the real world for you.)
>Broadly speaking, Dracula is about moral panic, and homosexuality was a MAJOR feature in moral panic in Stoker's time.
The "link by association" argument that ties Dracula to homosexuality gets to my issue, namely that an association argument isn't enough. The text in Dracula needs to mention homosexuality directly or implicitly for your claim to hold. In my opinion the strongest evidence the "lit crit" author you linked provides is that Count Dracula (male) desires Jonathon's (male) blood, but even this evidence is tempered by the fact that Dracula also attacks women. There is also the greater problem that there is another feasible alternate explanation for this, namely that Dracula's behavior stems from the vampiric desire for human blood both men and women have. This is quite unlike your "Roland Rump" example, where alternative explanations (e.g. that the relationship to Trump is mere coincidence) are absurd. The associations you and the paper mentioned need to be stronger to be convincing.
Secondly, consider the book Nothing to Envy, written by the American author Barbara Demick
about the oppression of those living under the North Korean regime. You could similarly argue that since this book is about oppression, then it is also about the oppression of homosexuals and colored people in the U.S., which are both "major features" of Demick's time. That would be an intriguing interpretation of the text. However, I wouldn't say, "Nothing to Envy is about racism against African Americans in the U.S," which is a stretch — even though we could support the assertion with exhaustive analysis (there are actually many fascinating parallels between the two). At best we could only say that racism against African has an indirect, peripheral influence on Nothing to envy. Ditto for homosexuality and Dracula.