Nadie meets Nadie in ‘Tinta y sangre’, Han Kang’s furious novel published in Spain

The fragility and also the denominated efforts of individuals to fight against the inhumanity of the world are revealed in the works of Han Kang sublimation of the revue and survival spirit. But in this territory of life and death confrontation, the protagonists of the South Korean world do not always come to the fore.

Shade and blood was published in Korea in 2010, while the novel that later brought her world fame, Vegetarian (International Booker Prize 2016) and later, Gray class. The author, who was a professor of creative writing at the Institute of Arts in Seoul, won the 2017 Malaparte Award for Actos humanosand in addition to many other awards and honors, we cannot say goodbye to the Extraordinary Doctors Award in 2023.

On the linguistic journey of Korean in more than three languages, its ability to translate words into perceptions has not lost its ability to shock and transform audiences.

En Shade and bloodtranslated from Korean by Sunme Yoon, as well as his other works published in castellano by Random House, including friendship between women, illness, art as a tabla to save freedom, human enmity, appear with force astrophysics, space, time and space and the intellectual manipulation of art gurus.

Inju, una destacada pintora con un futuro brillante y Cheonghee, la narradora de esta historia, dramaturga y traductora, son amigas desde la infancia. La pintora muere en un misterioso accidente en el paso montañoso de Misiryeong, un lugar extremadamente peligroso y abatido por los vientos y las nevadas.

El poderoso crítico de arte Kang Seogwon prepara un libro sobre la artista defendiendo que su muerte fue un suicidio. Seogwon afirma que sus últimas pinturas fueron las más geniales de la producción de Inju. Cheonghee no acepta esa interpretación de la muerte de su amiga; también sabe que las últimas piezas de Inju son la copia exacta de las obras de su tío materno.

La relación de Cheonghee con el tío de su amiga enriquece el relato con una delicadeza sutil; la amistad y la admiración delatan un enamoramiento tierno y excitante, transparente como un sueño ligero. Él es un hombre enfermo, astrofísico y creador de unas sublimes pinturas en tinta china, como explosiones de estrellas, descritas morosamente por la narradora, que ha sido su alumna.

Si el juego de las teorías astrofísicas y las descripciones de los cuadros crean un trasfondo onírico y algo denso, la verdadera carne de la historia se plantea en la lucha ética y física entre Cheonghee y el crítico Kang, que quiere apropiarse de la memoria y la obra de Inju.

‘Tinta y muerte’ es una extraordinaria historia sobre los que sobreviven, aunque la pelea contra el mal haya sido a muerte

Conforme nos vamos adentrando en las investigaciones de Cheonghee para desmontar al crítico y ofrecer su propia versión sobre la vida y muerte de su amiga, la novela se convierte en un thriller psicológico palpitante, con ramificaciones inesperadas que desbarajustan cualquier certeza.

Abundan los pasos detectivescos de la narradora, entremezclados con una memoria lírica señalada en letras cursivas. Las mudas temporales que recorren el devenir de los personajes dejan adivinar los traumas heredados y un simbolismo psicológico: lo que sabemos de los otros es como la cara oculta de la luna.

Cheonghee se casó con un marido violento: “Sus fuertes brazos me retorcieron los hombros como con una llave inglesa. Me pegó una patada en las costillas, como si fuera una pelota. Mi cuerpo no rebotó porque no era de goma. […] He took good care of me. He stripped me naked and dragged me to the cold floor of the room“.

When a biography written by critic and corrupt art commissioner Kang Seogwon is published, Cheonghee’s indignation grows. The volume is full of interesting manipulations, Kang bought the entire work and completed Inju’s studio and is preparing a large exhibition of the late artist.

Para Cheonghee ex moral pain that turns into physical symptomsas expressed on malestar: “A book that never said anything. A dirty book, a dirty book, a book without a face from blood, a book buried in the world like a bomb. A book where every sentence, every word strikes a chord in my forehead, a book that I felt like a flood of needles digging into my skull.”

The impulse of this anger turns into the best of the novel, the desperation of new witnesses, wandering the streets with detective intuitions, chance and revelatory meetings, attacks on the artist’s studio, terrible physical skin with Kang.

Astrophysical musings, especially in the first part, can suggest unusual paths through life that are interesting and make reading the novel something uncomfortable or slow. Images of the moon or the rotation of the earth parallel the ink dye techniques recreated in the novel in full detail. This obsessive awareness of space and space moves in abstractions that contrast with the solitary human beings in the midst of this universe.

The emotional decline of the protagonists, unable to fully connect one with the other, is placed in an immense and unknown space. Reference is made to the titles of some of the chapters in this novel hexa spatial sizewhere Nobel laureates moved like hormigas turdidas: “Planck Time”, “Magmatic Sea”, “Black Sky Paradox”, “Precious Occulta of the Moon”, “Celestial Volcano”, “Trailer Light”.

They must overcome these barriers between science and abstraction to continue the protagonist’s detective journey. Being moved by the heroism of the narrator to save the memory of the child Inju. Because I looked further the painter’s mother, the alcoholic hasta rozar la care, will tend much more in this story. Shade and blood he has no pretense of rescuing evenings lost in an unwelcoming universe plagued by hostility. It is an extraordinary story about those who survive, even when the skin against evil has left them at the mercy of death.