Baek Minseok
Baek Minseok (Hangul: 백민석) is a modern South Korean writer.
Life
Baek Minseok was born in 1971, in Seoul, Korea. In 2004, Baek announced that he would no longer write and since then, he has suspended all writing activities.
Work
Baek Minseok made his debut with in 1995 with '내가 사랑한 캔디' (I Loved Candy.) His work is representative of the prevailing aesthetic of Korean fiction in the mid-1990s—“Bizarre fiction.” Bizarre fiction is opposed to societal norms and accepted systems, often portraying the weird and cruel in a humorous light. Characterized by a heightened imagination that is filled with gory and graphic images, Baek’s work often makes direct reference to the bizarre, such as in the case of his representative novel Cotton Field Bizarre Story. For these reasons, Baek’s work has been classified as bizarre fiction.
Boys are often the main characters in Baek’s work, such as in the stories “The Errand Boy at the Manor” and “Poor Boy Hans.” Even the psychologies of his adult characters are closer to that of children. For example, the main character of “Farm for Dead Owls” is a 30-year-old man-child who only talks to dolls. In these works, characters seek growth and development but the final outcome is far from what is regarded as healthy maturity. Through these characters who go against the tide, Baek criticizes the power of influence and questions what we consider to be the “norm.”
Baek
Baek, also often spelled Paek, Baik or Paik, is a common Korean family name. As of 2000, there were 351,275 people by this surname in South Korea. In addition, the meaning of Baek can mean either one hundred, or the color white.
白/existence
白(Bai) is pronounced "Baek" in Korean. The name has a Cantonese origin from the Yuan dynasty and Goryeo dynasty.
苩/extinction
Some Baekje refugees from the late Silla age had this surname.
List of famous Baeks
Bäk, Khost Province
Bäk is a village in Khost Province, Afghanistan and the center of the boundary Bak District, close to the border with Pakistan. It is located on 33°30′N 70°03′E / 33.5°N 70.05°E / 33.5; 70.05 at 1137 m altitude.
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