Yoon Ha Lee

Q-1.

What country/ethnicity/culture do you identify yourself with?

 

A-1.

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I am a USAn and my heritage is Korean.​

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Q-2.
 

SF/F/Horror/Slipstream genre has always been dominated by Anglo-American language. Is Anglo-American genre fiction is your major influence?
 

A-2.

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During my earlier years writing sf/f I usually drew my influence from Western English-language sf/f, although I have been trying to move away from that. I am only fluent in English (alas), the sf/f I read was predominantly Western in setting/outlook, and I learned by imitation. Lately I have been trying to draw more details from Korean history and culture, although since I write in secondary worlds rather than future histories/alternate histories, the reader may not be able to identify them as such.

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(I'm not entirely sure what is meant by "Anglo-American" in this context, so I will say "Western.")

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Q-3.
 

Give us the ratio of your reading of Anglo-American fiction against your own or non-English literature. Currently.
 

A-3.

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To be frank, I don't read a whole lot of fiction anymore, period. Most of it is Western sf/f; some of my reading is manga in English translation. The majority of my reading these days is military history or other nonfiction.

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Q-4.
 

To our dismay, a lot of so called World things are actually American ones. From Baseball's World series to our genre's Worldcon (almost) or World Fantasy Awards. How can we correct it to its real structure, into the real chaotic world?
 

A-4.

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​I am not sure there is a good top-down way of doing this (or even that there should be a top-down way of doing this). I don't attend many cons and my policy is not to pay attention to awards unless someone emails me about one for some reason; I'm sure other people are better-informed on this topic.

Q-5.

Yet, it's true that we're culturally much influenced by American pop culture. Haruki Murakami cannot write like he does now without his American literature and Jazz influence. Is it the same for your case? Can you imagine you write without that influence at all?
 

A-5.

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Everything I write has to be drawn from something I can access. I live in the USA and I am a USAn. This is my home (albeit not a perfect one). It is natural that USAn culture informs my writing. The trick is that it doesn't have to be the only thing that informs my writing.

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Q-6.
 

But these days a lot of young writers and editors work in English language and for American market. Do you hold any grudge against working like this? Or is it a natural reaction to that influence?
 

A-6.

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In my case, working in English is my only practical option. My next-best language is French, and I would hesitate to attempt fiction in French because it has been a long time since high school. You don't even want to hear about the one fantasy short story I attempted in Korean. (My spoken Korean is deeply mediocre and my spelling is atrocious.) To be honest, I love English. I love the language because sometimes I can make it sing. It is not an unproblematic instrument, but it's the instrument I have.

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I submit to USAn markets because they're the ones I'm familiar with and they seem happy to buy what I send them.

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Q-7.
 

If and when you have to write in English, do you do that to English-American readers, or to the global readers?
 

A-7.
 

Of necessity I am addressing English readers, although I will (for instance) include Korean terms for Korean speakers who happen to read the story. "Eating Hearts," for instance, has a tiger shapeshifter character named Horanga, whose name is derived from horangi, which means "tiger." I'm not saying this is profound, but it amuses me.

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When I write stories that draw on Korean history or folklore, I am mindful that much of my practical audience (primarily, I assume, USAn, but with the stuff on the web who can tell) is not going to be familiar with this material. So to use it, I must make sure that I contextualize it enough that the reader won't be lost. I don't always succeed at this, but I try to keep this goal in mind. I don't make a conscious effort to address readers outside the USA. I can barely keep track of my tiny corner of the world as it is; trying to figure out what non-USAn audiences are interested in is beyond my ability.

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Q-8.

Is there any works or writers from your local scene you can sincerely recommend to the world readers? And why do you recommend them? Is it because they have no equivalent works or writers in Anglo-American scene? Or is it because they perfectly fit there and have many things in common that we should share? Which do you think is important, originality, or affinity?
 

A-8.
 

I live in Louisiana and while I am sure there are other sf/f writers in Louisiana, I am usually not aware where writers live, so I'm going to decline to answer this one.

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I'm not sure the "originality or affinity" question has a lot of meaning to me. I am not in a position to dictate what other people should want to read. When I do read fiction these days, I'm usually looking for fast entertainment, preferably with big explosions, which is orthogonal to the point.

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Q-9.
 

Have you ever read and liked any Japanese works, in and out of our genre? What aspect of it attracted you?
 

A-9.
 

If manga counts, then yes. I have read a Haruki Murakami novel, but I am pretty sure I had no idea what was going on. I sometimes read sf/f manga, but sometimes I read comedy or romantic comedy manga. The art is frequently appealing, but I'm sorry to say that I don't have a good vocabulary to discuss how it's deployed. One that I'm enjoying right now is Nightmare Inspector, with its psychology-based mystery-of-the-week format. But usually, if given the choice, I will watch an anime version instead of reading the manga because I have difficulty following action scenes in sequential art.

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Q-10.
 

Could you please explain what you do to promote foreign literature to your readers or your own works to foreign readers?
 

A-10.

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I discuss manga on my blog when I read it, but I don't think this really counts as promotion. I mention things I like or don't like in a casual fashion; I don't do deep or systematic reviews as a rule, but I'm not consistently doing deep or systematic reviews of anything. It's just a blog for chatting about things that catch my eye.