The 80s

I still remember the intense fear I felt when the civil defense air raid siren wailed. An urgent announcement stated, “This is a real situation.” My heart cramped with dread, thinking a war had started. Because of incidents like the Lee Ung-pyeong defection mishap and the forced landing of a Chinese civil aircraft, 1983 brought with it numerous false alarms. There were probably some good times, but much of the 1980s conjured feelings of terror.

For years, literature has remembered the 80s as an era of civil conflict, ideologies, fear and hurt. Novels are narrations of memories, so it is only natural that writers who lived the 80s would passionately embrace the era of resistance and conflict, and incorporate it into their work.

But wounds aren’t all that they remember. Recently, there have been books released that tell a different tale of the 80s; as a period both ordinary and culturally-oriented.

In a short-story compilation entitled “Wafer,” written by Ha Seong-ran (40) and published by Munhakdongne, there is one such story entitled “1984.” The writer says that 1984 was “the year of Yuri Geller.” Israeli illusionist, Geller, had visited Korea and bent spoons with his superpowers on national television. She recalls, “His voice sounded hollow like it had passed through a voice altering device. ‘Youuu caaan dooo iiit. Beeend the spooon.’”

In the story, the persona was forced to get a job straight out of high school because her family was in a hard state financially. The times overlapped with George Orwell’s long novel “1984,” but instead looking into the dark side, the character thinks back and remembers the year as a time when Yuri Geller told her she really had the power to bend a spoon.

In “Today’s Lie” by Jeong I-hyeon, published by Moonji, there is a short story entitled “The Secret Tutoring Lessons.” Set in 1985, the heroine is a middle school student who starts taking secret tutoring lessons. Around that time, the air was thick with both flower pollen and tear gas, but for her, everyday just floated by while children grew up.

The tutor was always dressed in his uniform of dress pants and World Cup sneakers. Like her crush on class president and basketball player Heo Jae, she falls in love with the tutor, only to have her heart broken. He bought a milkshake for her and took her to visit universities, and then one day vanished without a word.

For the young girl living in 1985, the grim words of her schoolteacher, “Not everything the textbook says is right,” are forgotten amidst the loud thumping of her heart as she gazes at his profile.

A coming-of-age story of a boy growing up in a small town, entitled “Sky Kongkong”, by Kim Ae-rahn (27) in her book of short stories “Run, Ah-bi”, and published by Changbi, depicts a boy riding his pogo stick and his brother who reads science magazines. The pogo stick must be ridden a certain way by hopping wildly up and down; the “kongkong” becomes the symbol of his childhood.

Pencils with the rabbit in the moon designs, Nike, Seoju milk, and 100-minute Show; these were all part of the 80s. What seemed to be relics of the 80s only visible in the minds of the “386 generation” are now brought to light by these authors.

In this process, literary value is not stationary, but becomes rich with meaning. This weekend, why not take a trip down memory lane and think of the small things you had back then. You’ll discover that you had memories of your own that were untouched by history’s big picture.

kimjy@donga.com