Dictee 1

Dictee is by far one of the most experimental novels I have ever read. I can tell this only from the first 60 pages. The author, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, appraoches storytelling from multiples angles, most of which are very poetic. There is one portion of the book wherein Cha contextualizes the story by including a note from the Koreans of Hawaii to the President of the United States, who at the time was Theodore Roosevelt. In this letter the Koreans are beseeching the president to intervene in the abusive and underhanded affairs of the Japanese (who are occupying Korea, evidently under false pretenses). I thought that this letter had an interesting effect. It allows the American reader (such as myself) to connect these struggles to myself, and my country. Otherwise, this story could have been another one about the struggles of foreign people. The lack of context in stories like this one allows many readers to create a distance between themselves and the subjects of the story, but this small tie in helped me relate the Korean struggle to my history as an American, and it had a significant effect on me.

The religious focus of the book so far is definitely one of interest to me. It seems to focus on Western religion, which surprised me slightly even though I know how expansive Western religious tradition is. The descriptions of the religious rituals are fragmented and seem to mimic a sort of staccato rhythm. Cha also writes in 2nd person for a portion of the novel. This technique is rare, but oddly effective. It made me feel as though I was witnessing an interior monologue, rather than being told a story. This made that bit of the story intimate and delicate, which was fitting seeing as it was a girl talking about her mother's life.

Cha makes use of French, kanji, and pictures. Somehow the book feels more interactive this way, though at first it threw me off. Her writing style, or rather her style of storytelling is one that takes patience and getting used to, but the benefit of having to adjust to a writer's style is that you are almost forced to see things from a different perspective. The adjustments you have to make allow you to shed all of the notions regarding writing and storytelling that have built up within you over the years. At least, this is what the novel has done for me so far.