July 13, 2023
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I happened to come across a set of books titled BLONOTE - one Korean, the other an English translation - written by the leader of the hip-hop group Epik High, Tablo. Although vaguely aware of him, I’ve only ever heard a few Epik High songs; I haven’t seen him on TV shows or listened to his radio show, which inspired this book, so I had no idea what to expect.
I listened to the English audio first, which was a bizarre experience (if the Korean version included a CD, I must have lost it). It was obviously recorded on-the-fly: you hear “um…” or “uh…” at least once in each sentence (often both!); there are noticeable pauses as he collects his thoughts; and at one point, his phone notification goes off, and he stops to check it. To be fair, the quotes are from his radio show, so perhaps it matches his hosting style.
He describes the book as a collection of quotes or aphorisms that he would use at the end of his late-night radio show instead of saying “goodnight”, although he stresses that they’re not meant to be “inspirational” or “deep”, which at least shows he has some awareness of how it comes across. He picks out a few quotes to read, and explains how they originated, even though as a rapper, he says, he doesn’t like reading aloud what he has written. Bless. This part was also a bit strange, since even he didn’t sound sure of what he wanted to express.
As for the text: imagine a tumblr of inspirational quotes, but in book form, each page a post of one or two lines hinting at something vaguely meaningful, but in reality, being quite trite, obvious, or ridiculous. Some favourites:
It is possible to use as a learning resource, I suppose, since it’s available in Korean and English, but… Why would you?
Well, Tablo, you wanted your book to inspire creativity, and look at what I’ve written! Mission accomplished.
This wasn’t supposed to be a roast, and if you are a fan of Tablo, you might enjoy this. (I mean, I did enjoy it to some extent - I giggled quite a few times as I read!) If you’re not already a fan… um… this won’t… uh… convert you?