The Adventures of Chester: 60 Years of Socialist Paradise

The San Francisco Chronicle carries an article entitled, North Korea at 60 -- squinting to see in from the outside:

On Monday, isolated and impoverished North Korea celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Workers Party of Korea, whose leaders Kim Il Sung, and his son, North Korea's current strongman Kim Jong Il, have ruled the country since the end of World War II in 1945.

The weekend cruise along the Yalu was just one of a string of festivities the isolated state has been putting on for its impoverished citizens for two months. The grand finale is the Mass Games, an exuberant gymnastics display to be held in Pyongyang this weekend.

Gazing across at Sinuiju from China, it is hard to see why ordinary North Koreans would feel like celebrating. While the Chinese side of the Yalu glitters with the glass and steel of numerous high-rise apartments and giant hoardings, the North Korean side looks drab and derelict.

The riverside is cluttered with debris from broken and beached ships, and the rows of concrete factories with soaring chimneys that dot the area are empty, their broken windows swaying gently in the wind. A giant, unmoving Ferris wheel in the middle of this industrial decay adds to the stillness of the landscape.

The only gleaming things along the stretch of harbor visible from Dandong are the AK-47 rifles slung over the shoulders of North Korean soldiers in khaki, roughly inspecting the catch a few small fishing boats have brought in.

Actually, it's not hard to see why ordinary North Koreans would feel like celebrating. Theirs is the most isolated country in the world, where the state has a control on information that is nearly incomprehensible to those of us outside.

A small glimpse of life in North Korea is offered by the book Pyongyang. The author, Guy Delisle, is a French-Canadian animator -- yes, a cartoonist -- who traveled to North Korea in 2001 while employed with a French animation firm. He lived there for several weeks and Pyongyang is a graphic novel about the experience.

I stumbled upon this book yesterday in Borders and plowed through it in one sitting today. It is excellent. Artistically, Delisle's work is superb and he has a talent for excellent character portrayals, fantastic points of view, creating mood via shading and the like, and explaining background details though careful flashback or overview techniques. Moreover, he pulls no punches in his depiction of the regime. When traveling there, he realizes at customs that he has two items of contraband: a small AM/FM radio, and a copy of 1984. During the first part of his trip, he reads from 1984 from time to time and contrasts it with what he's seen (this is all in cartoons, mind you, and brilliantly done). At one point, his translator asks him about an obscure book and Delisle offers him 1984 to read instead, calling it a "sci-fi" novel. Two weeks pass, then Delisle brings it up:

"So, how'd you like the book?"

"Uh, umm . . . not so much . . . uh . . . I don't really like science fiction . . . I can give it back to you right away . . . here . . . thanks."

On another occasion, his translator watches his work and the following exchange ensues:

"We've got some great animators at this studio. The best one was Kim Sun-Yok . . ."

"Who is he? Is he on one of our teams?"

"No."

"What production is he working on?"

"He isn't here any more."

"Huh? Are there any other studios in North Korea?"

"No, none."

"Oh, I see. He went abroad."

"Not at all."

"So where is this super animator? He didn't just disappear, did he?"

[Silence]

Delisle, to himself, "'Vaporized' is what Orwell calls those who are gone and best forgotten."

Such is the nature of his attempts to engage his minders in conversation about the regime: they stick to the party line and Delisle is continually frustrated. He wonders, as he stares at his guide and translator on a long ride one day,

There's a question that has to be burning on the lips of all foreigners here . . . a question you refrain from speaking aloud . . . but one can't help asking yourself: Do they really believe the bullshit that's being forced down their throats?

For those isolated in the countryside, where a simple trip between two villages requires a visa, the propaganda must be convincing. But for my companions it's different . . . Because they are among the privileged few who are able to leave the country. Every animation contract is an opportunity for some of them to get themselves invited abroad to "start the project." In fact, those who visit Paris or Rome are not necessarily the ones who wind up working on the production.

And only married men with children are authorized to travel. If they're not fooled, they never let on. In fact, they live in a state of constant paradox, where truth is anything but constant. It's like their permanent fear of landing in one of the re-education camps. Officially they don't exist. But everyone knows they're there. And a Sword of Damocles hangs over every head, waiting for one false move, striking both the "guilty" and their entire families.

At a certain level of oppression, truth hardly matters, because the greater the lie, the greater the show of power. And the greater the terror for all. A mute, hidden terror.

I highly recommend this book. Delisle captures all of the little things that are different about traveling to any different country, and all of the insane things that are strange about North Korea -- as best as he could with his limited access to the countryside and being largely restricted to Pyongyang.

Only critique: At first I thought $25 was a little much for a 176-page graphic novel, even if it's hardbound. But I see that Amazon is selling it at a significant discount, so use the link above if you are so inclined. I suppose carping about the price isn't fair really, since just as much work must go into drawing things as writing them. In any case, this was well worth it.

Here's hoping that the next 60 years of North Korean history will be better than the last . . .

Posted by Chester on October 16, 2005 7:26 PM to The Adventures of Chester