Has the author portrayed the history accurately?

Use this forum to discuss the January 2021 Book of the month, "The Vanished" by Pejay Bradley
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ShelleyH
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Re: Has the author portrayed the history accurately?

Post by ShelleyH »

Sushan wrote: 01 Jan 2021, 00:51 The story is woven in the time period of when Korea was under the rule of Japan. Has the author portrayed the historical events and settings accurately? How close are they to the actual picture as per your knowledge?
I think the history was followed accurately enough, but it is obviously from only the viewpoint of people who were not the main sufferers under the Japanese rule. The author wrote only from the perspective of the wealthy and semi-wealthy. I still think she did a great job. If she were to try to include every Korean point of view, the novel would be 4 times as long!
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Post by Laura Britos »

raluca_mihaila wrote: 12 Jan 2021, 15:21 Accurate is not a word to be used about history. Every country has an entirely different record for the same event. It is based on the subjective description of the people who wrote history, and they tend to present the facts in some direction or other. However, the book follows the main direction as presented in most history books.
I absolutely agree with you. I once read that history is written by the winners so everything must be always then with a grain of salt since it is never impartial.
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Post by Eunice Geres »

I don't know much about that time, but the master and servant relationship seems very accurate, based from what I've watched in historical k-dramas
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Post by Goodness C N »

I'm not sure since I do not know the relationship between Korea and Japan in the 1990s. However, even if The Vanishes is a work of fiction, I still believe that there would be an atom of truth in what was painted by the author. On the other hand, it may still be a false news. Point is, I cannot make an informed judgement due to my level of knowledge between the two countries.
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Post by skyemiller1993 »

I believe with all works of historical fiction, generally speaking, the author does well to follow the broad timelines and matches the bigger events. When it comes to more detail and specifics, it does well to embellish. Thats the greatest part about fiction.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

cristinaro wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 07:43 From what I already knew and from the things I have researched about King Gojong and Queen Min, I think the author closely followed the line of the historical information available about the time period. I'm not so sure about the details concerning the resistance movement. My guess is the author supplemented the missing pieces of historical evidence with abundant imagination.
This is a historical fiction, so it is the author's responsibility to keep along with the general historical lines. The resistance part can be author's own imagination, but the acts of the Japanese should be historically correct since that part has abundant sources to refer
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

cd20 wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 19:09 As this is a fiction piece, the author did not have to closely follow historical details, but seems to. Since we were not there, it is hard to know exactly what is truth and what she has embellished. With her treatment of women she kept to the time period, and with having been born in Korea herself, I imagine she knows quite a bit about that time period, probably having grown up with relatives that lived during that time.
I strongly believe that historical fiction should contain accurate information. The author can include his own imagination into those facts, but the original facts should remain intact. The cultural background of this story keeps in line with the culture of the era that the story has taken place
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Post by cd20 »

Sushan wrote: 24 Jan 2021, 12:35
cd20 wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 19:09 As this is a fiction piece, the author did not have to closely follow historical details, but seems to. Since we were not there, it is hard to know exactly what is truth and what she has embellished. With her treatment of women she kept to the time period, and with having been born in Korea herself, I imagine she knows quite a bit about that time period, probably having grown up with relatives that lived during that time.
I strongly believe that historical fiction should contain accurate information. The author can include his own imagination into those facts, but the original facts should remain intact. The cultural background of this story keeps in line with the culture of the era that the story has taken place
I agree, it should continue accurate information, I didn't say that it didn't. I only said that she did not have to completely hold to facts. I also said that the cultural background did stay inline with the time period.
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Post by SweetSourSalty AndSpicy »

There were many references to western influences in the story (the sandwich, cars, clothes, education, to name a few). I was wondering how and why they have these exposures. I googled a bit and found it was also the time of the industrial revolution. There was a reform geared to modernize and westernize the Korean Empire. I did not see this in the book, or I probably missed it. But I think mentioning it in the story will give additional context to the transformation of traditional Korea. The changes were not only caused by the Japanese occupation but also driven by other influences.
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Post by Ahbed Nadir »

cristinaro wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 07:43 From what I already knew and from the things I have researched about King Gojong and Queen Min, I think the author closely followed the line of the historical information available about the time period. I'm not so sure about the details concerning the resistance movement. My guess is the author supplemented the missing pieces of historical evidence with abundant imagination.
I agree with you. I recently began to research the Min dynasty and read about Korean history so I was quite delighted to see that I recognized a lot of the historical content the author depicted in the book. While there were some parts I do not recognize I am no expert so I would simply say that the author depicted it quite accurately to be honest.
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Post by Ahbed Nadir »

cd20 wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 19:09 As this is a fiction piece, the author did not have to closely follow historical details, but seems to. Since we were not there, it is hard to know exactly what is truth and what she has embellished. With her treatment of women she kept to the time period, and with having been born in Korea herself, I imagine she knows quite a bit about that time period, probably having grown up with relatives that lived during that time.
Yes, I would say that the author has a certain advantage over us as she is of Korean descent and as such is sure to be privy to more details of a historical nature than most people. I would say that the book was wonderfully written and the author depicted the timelines very accurately lending the book an air of authenticity.
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Post by Ahbed Nadir »

While in my opinion one cannot accurately speak on historical events as there will always be contrasting views and recollection of events based on the individual experiences, I would say that yes the author succeeded in rendering an extremely accurate depiction of Korea in that particular period as on further research the timelines match up exactly and it was a very enlightening experience to read about this through the eyes of a Korean citizen.
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Post by Josephe-Anne »

I don't really know much about this time period in Asian history. Judging from what little I do know, it seems to be fairly accurate. To me, the author was emphasizing the Korean point of view by telling the story of her native people.
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Post by Owen John »

Well... The research that has been put into the book is undoubtable and evident when you read the book. However, it's right to question the accuracy since this is a fictional book.
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Post by zulfiyya »

I did a brief google search of the history and timeline of 1910-1945 and the book appears to accurately represent the information that I've collected. I would like to know from a historian who is an expert in this particular time period if the book is historically accurate.
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