Minsuk Kang 강민석

What if all humans spoke the same language?

The late surgeon Sherwin Nuland, in his classic book How We Die, lamented, “The necessity of nature’s final victory was expected and accepted in generations before our own. Doctors were far more willing to recognize the signs of defeat and far less arrogant about denying them.” But as I ride down the runway of the twenty-first century, trained in

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If you write to please others, you are selling out. You are in the process of audience capture. This way of talking, which is how the fear in me talks, is common—as if writing for an audience and writing for yourself are at odds with each other. I really used to feel like that.

But I no longer think that it is quite right. The relationship between... See more

It was specifically very important for me with the Koreans in Japan because I started out in the position of, “Oh, these are poor victims who’ve been oppressed by colonialism and how horrible.” And that’s all true, but they didn’t see it that way, and they told me, “You’re wrong.” And I was, like, “Well, O.K., how am I wrong?” When you hang out... See more

I think writers want to change their realities in some way. You want to show what’s lovable and beautiful and so you sift through your life and you can look at it one way, or you can look at it another. And writers, I think, are people who need to affirm, need an affirmation about their life. And to me, it’s a way to make things positive, not in a... See more