""You'd better not screw up again, Hardin, because if you do ...
...I'll be all over you like a pitbull on a poodle."
Posted on 04/30/2012 9:38:39 AM PDT by DFG
Shin Dong-huyk is 29 years old. He loves Mexican food and going to baseball games. But any similarities between Shin and other young men ends there. Shin Dong-huyk is the only person known to have escaped from a North Korean prison camp. He was born into a life of enslavement and torture inside Camp 14, where he was starved, beaten and forced to watch the executions of his mother and brother.
He existed within the camp’s concrete walls, which had no running water or furniture, until aged 23, he escaped. He spent one month on the run before sneaking over the border into China, and eventually reaching the safety of the South Korean embassy.
Last month, a book about his life — Escape from Camp 14 — was published, taking its place at the top of the bestseller lists. I met him in London as he prepared to speak at a House of Commons meeting to raise awareness about North Korean prisoners.
(Excerpt) Read more at thisislondon.co.uk ...
You can read a few chapters in the book dept on amazon for free. It’s interesting.
“...and there is a disturbing parallel to how we were fighting the Iranians in Iraq.”
It wasn’t too disturbing to the 3rd AD, lolz.
Another little tidbit I’ll throw in here from the Lamb/Hardin interview is that Hardin said the profits from the book will be split 50/50 as this fellow has really no money (of course) and it is His Story. Sounds good to me. Wonder if the Pulitzer will be 50/50? Oh, I forgot (smile) — the guy can’t write - no Pulitzer for you Hardin!!
I had said earlier that the interview was on Book TV — now I remember it was on CSPAN but on a show called “Q&A”. So much was revealed that I thought about this all night long. Watch for Q&A it’s bound to repeat or be on BookTV.
D
I reiterate, there are things that are far more important in making a book valuable than a smooth writing style. That’s a surface consideration, and most of the great books of history aren’t easy popular reads. In this case, the critical point is that the information about North Korean camps gets out to the public, all over the world.
I saw an interview or something when he first spoke. You can easily tell there was deep brainwashing on the guy. He wouldn't "feel" normal reactions to anything we might normally react to. One becomes "conditioned" over time and this guy was born in the camp. That was the hell hole life he knew.
Not usrprisingly he had mental issues to contend with....disoriented hardly says enough after being in such a depraved environment. Can you even imagine the "norm" of eating your own vomit to stay alive.....years on end...and then seeing food thrown out just beyond your borders let alone the banquet throughout. I cannot imagine the questions and absolute shock coming from a camp to freedom. If I recall hementioned seeing N.Korea people walking about and thought they were living in abundance!
N.Korea is caught between China’s Political desires to keep them as a buffer Zone and the fact of how do you bring people caught in the 50’s mentality into a modern world....let alone the brainwashing they’ve ben under for eons concerning their “Dear Leader” who has a nuclear bomb.
You can’t just go in there and free a backward and mentally handicapped people who are basically starving. Every border would be breached and thousands would run from the country. China will not allow that....and even the N.Koreans know it would tax their entire system.
So the situation isn’t as simple as it might have been eons ago. There are a gazillion problems about N.Korea....and the fact the people would fight any who tried to come in....they are not going to co-operate willingly.
If you believe that these obama worshiping, obama voting, to use the term very loosely “young people” over here will have any more regrets or remorse about killing their parents when the time comes for them to do that than he did, you are only fooling yourself.
You might want to read the entire article before you post.
“Your comment reminds me of Angela Davis. She defected to Cuba. Castro put her to work in the sugar cane fields chopping sugar cane.”
—
I did not know this.
Pretty funny that she couldn’t last in a workers’ paradise.
God what hypocrites those sixties idiots were.
I did read the article and I don’t understand your point. What is wrong with suggesting that the message of the book is more important than its literary style?
In my view, complaining about the smoothness of the style is not germane. The book is valuable for the story it tells about what goes on in North Korea, regardless of its choppy style.
There is another book, written by a young man who escaped from the atrocities of Sudan in the late 1990s. I believe his name is Francis Bok, and the title of his book is Escape from Slavery.
Your post #30 very strongly implied that Shin wrote the book.
The article explains that he didn’t.
Simple.
As I understood the article, the book was transcribed from what Shin said, so it’s hard to tease out who is responsible for what in a collaborative project like that. But once again, what difference does it make who wrote it? The point is that having a smooth literary style is not important. The revelations in the story make it valuable, not a snappy popular style.
Reminds me of a book I read of a woman who escaped NK, after her release from prison. The story is gut wrenching.
http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Tailless-Animals-Prison-Memoirs/dp/0882643355
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