“Is it true that human beings are fundamentally cruel? Is the experience of cruelty the only thing we share as a species? Is the dignity we cling to nothing but self-delusion, masking from ourselves the single truth: that each one of us is capabable of being reduced to an insect, a ravening beast, a lump of meat? To be degraded, damaged, slaughtered- is this the essential fate of humankind, one that history has confirmed as inevitable?
Hi folks,
This was a haunting, lyrical and creatively told story about the 1980 Gwangju massacre. The story of the massacre and its aftermath is told from the point of view of those who died, the relatives of the deceased, those who lived to remember what happened to them and those who refuse to let the sacrifice of the people be forgotten. I had a lot of thoughts while reading this one. I thought about how cruel we can be to our fellow humans. I thought about what it takes to endure torture and have to live with the aftermath. I thought about how life goes on. One of the narrators has a line where she says ” The thread of life is as tough as an ox tendon, so even after I lost you it had to go on.” In the end though I was mostly thinking about how important it is to never let the perpetrators and their enablers forget the irreparable harm they caused. They can burn every book, close every museum and censor all the artists and we will still bear witness to the atrocities. Our memories of how their evil knew no bounds will be stored in our cells and we will never forget.
Stardate:2500017.12
