From A Novelist To A Professor > IDEAS & IDEALS

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Mr. Lee Moon-yol, indisputably one of the best novelists of our time in Korea, made a news recently by accepting a professorship in a small university located in Seoul. He was invited by Sejong University to teach at the department of Korean literature as a professor from the start without any redundant adjectives such as 'assistant' or 'associate' before it, and he accepted this rather exceptional and unprecedented offer. That is the end of the story.

      The reason I here belatedly address the issue anew is because for me who is a literary critic the case of Mr. Lee has ever since remained a topic worthy of scrutiny and analysis, and at the same time as a professor of English myself in a university in Seoul for the past 20 and more years I felt the case interesting as well as disconcerting. This is not because Mr. Lee became a professor overnight without the Ph.D. diploma which is a must for other persons, nor because he was rather advanced in age, 46, to start a new job, nor because he had not published any scholarly books or papers which are usually required of anyone who aspires to start his or her teaching career in college level.

      Mr. Lee had been a novelist by vocation until last year. He may think he still is. Unlike many other unlucky and unfortunate novelists in our country, and elsewhere in the world, who cannot afford to devote their time and energy entirely and solely to writing because of the financial cares, Mr. Lee, as a novelist, was lucky enough to do that. To the envy and admiration of so many unlucky and would-be novelists in this country, his novels sold so well that he made a considerable fortune and name. This is not a small blessing for a professional writer and for all aspiring artists. It is a dream all sorts of artists dream to realize. For Mr. Lee the dream has come true. But he, quite unexpectedly, took another job. This makes me sad.

     Mr. Lee was reported to have said that originally he wanted to become a teacher and entered the College of Education of Seoul National University, and although he dropped out of it and became a writer, he had always entertained and cherished the original dream. No wonder that he jumped at the offered chance. Mr. Lee would surely make a good teacher too, and enjoy his popularity among the students to the full. The university in return could command better image by employing a celebrity in its pay-roll. The deal between Mr. Lee and the school was an ideal one indeed in which both if the parties won.

     But very unfortunately, Mr. Lee has lost something invaluable as a novelist: freedom. What is truly needed for a true artist, I mean, the man who is born with the special gift as well as the unquenchable desire to make something new and fresh out of the old and common materials, is freedom, complete freedom to do what he likes to do. The cares any true artist should and must take are the ones that are necessary as well as indispensable for the creation of artistic works. This is what an artist needs money for. Paradoxically enough, only those poor and unlucky artists have to sacrifice their freedom to live. The everlasting and unchanging dream all the aspiring artists in the world dream is, more than anything else, the financial independence. Mr. Lee as a novelist has achieved this, but he willingly assumed another responsibility and obligation that is all contradictory to his successful writing career. This, I don't understand.

      Professor's job is known to be an easy one in Korea for its high prestige, and a secure one without steep competition or risk. So long as his health sustains him, he can remain on the job until his retirement at the age of 65. But work is work. At least he must keep his office hours, teach assigned classes, give mid-term and final exams, supervise the students as a proctor in the examinations so that they may not cheat, check the exam-papers and give grades, attend faculty meetings, commencement and matriculation ceremonies. He must accompany the students to MT(Membership Training), in which he will be forced, not asked, to play soccer or volleyball, to drink, to sing and even to dance all over the night. Of course all these works cannot be compared with those of the miners or of the construction workers in consuming man's energy, but anyway, work is work in that it makes one tired at least and need rest.

      And teaching is one thing, and writing another. There is no guarantee for a very successful writer of novels to succeed in teaching novels or in writing novels, even if the primary course Mr. Lee is supposed to undertake is the art of writing. Some of the basic and fundamental rules and techniques of writing can be taught by a teacher, but art and artist cannot be taught or made. No one taught William Shakespeare how to write. Artists are born. For certain period of time a swarm of students who have strong aspiration but inadequate talent will flock to his classes and office, even to his private house, and Mr. Lee will try very hard to satisfy the students' demand as well as his own ego, but this cannot be continued for long. The ardor and the zeal will soon cool down on both sides, and some kind of ennui and boredom will pervade and prevail, which is the ultimate fate of all teaching profession.

      One of the conspicuous elements that had made me interested in and attracted to Mr. Lee the novelist was his independence as a writer. Unlike many other writers in our country today who seek higher level of diplomas for some purposes other than better writing, Mr. Lee very unusually and courageously quit the university he had entered without degree, and established himself as a successful writer. I thought we had at least one serious novelist in our country who could dare defy, ignore, and even scorn the established value, system and authority. But very unfortunately, I was wrong.

     Among innumerable natural assets an artist should be born with, aside from the unusual talent, the ability to command loneliness is essential. Like an eagle in the sky an artist should and could live alone and apart from the gregarious world, so that he may have better view of it and more time and freedom to spend on his own work. Mr. Lee seems to have overlooked the privilege of the artist, while overestimating the professor's worldly prestige.
       (March 14, 1995)