“What’s good Korea” — BTS, “Idol” (ft. Nicki Minaj) Midway through the k-zombie drama, All Of Us Are Dead, the high school students seeking refuge from their infected peers on…
Contemporaries Essays
Hallyu and Crisis
In episode five (“A Fair World”) of Netflix Korea’s international hit series, Squid Game (Ojingŏ Keim, 2021 – ), we learn the origin of Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) misery. Keeping night…
Temporal Ruptures: Crises of Meaning in Hallyu Dystopias
References to American culture inflect the opening episode of Hwang Dong-Hyuk’s Squid Game (2021). The contestants wear tracksuits reminiscent of Adidas’ trademark style. The jazzy tune of “Fly Me to…
Squid Games, Transcultural Fan Parodies: Black and Queer Adaptations
The mega-hit Netflix series, Squid Game, has led to hundreds of parody and response videos on YouTube and TikTok. For instance, one of the most popular parody videos, “$456,000 Squid…
K-Crossover, or, Crying Over Marbles
The unexpected success of the Netflix-financed serial Squid Game in September 2021, written and directed by South Korean filmmaker Hwang Dong-Hyuk, undoubtedly confirmed a rising interest in hallyu. While Squid…
Cultural Specificity, Hybridity, and Transnationality in Squid Game
Netflix’s original series Squid Game emerged as one of the most discussed TV series in 2021, generating 1.65 billion hours of viewing in 28 days after its release on September…
The Hallyu Project: Introduction
Consider: Parasite’s historic Best-Picture Oscar win; Squid Game’s still-unrivaled Netflix triumph; the globally chart-topping tracks of BTS and Blackpink; and the recent addition of 26 new Korean words to the…
Postscript
David Berman is the only poet I’ve ever known. He didn’t call himself one. He didn’t dabble in poetry. He didn’t try to impress people with his poetry. When I…
From Vault to Humbling Void: David Berman’s Attention Ecosystem
In a long-lost Fader interview that resurfaced the day after David Berman’s death, Nick Weidenfeld levels charges of solipsism and lack of empathy that he defines as “an inability to…