Broadcaster Jeong Seon-hee recalled her experience of losing her husband, the late Ahn Jae-hwan, and strongly empathized with the protagonist who lost his family in the work.
On the 18th, a video titled "A work that made even Jeong Seon-hee cry: recommended for those seeking the meaning of life! Interpretation and review of Train Dreams" was uploaded to the "Jib Nagan Jeong Seon-hee" channel.
That day, Jeong Seon-hee reviewed the book Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. Introducing the book's plot, he said "One day Robert returns and heads for home, but black, cloudlike smoke billows up. They say, 'There is a fire on the mountain right now and the fire is coming into the town, so we must evacuate. You run away quickly,' but the place on fire is toward where his house is. Robert goes mad. It was nice when he lived romantically in the cabin, but isn't he vulnerable to natural disasters? Calling his daughter's and wife's names, the flames come in and he goes back up against them because his house is there, so he must go" and conveyed the tragedy that befell the protagonist.
She continued, "People tried to stop him, but he pushed them all away and climbed up. As a result, the mountain was completely devastated. Nothing is alive. Only remnants remain where the house stood. It is unknown whether they are dead or alive. That is maddening. From then on he starts looking for his daughter and wife. Thinking they might be alive, he keeps searching through the ruined wreckage, and when no body appears he thinks, 'Then they could be there,' and goes around the village. What he must do now is not important. He searches in a dazed, single-minded way to find them. He is completely lost. He had barely made a reason to live, but that reason disappeared. Wandering in a ruined state, when evening comes he, like a wounded lion, sleeps on that spot without even a blanket, as if punishing himself while waiting for his daughter and wife," she explained.
Jeong Seon-hee said, "Meanwhile, it is depicted how Robert gradually rebuilds those crumbled walls. The heavy resonance this book gives was that. Sadness is not expressed flamboyantly. The loss of losing one's family, the loss of a spouse or a beloved child is a tragedy and sorrow beyond what we can imagine. But the book is not kind in its depiction of that sadness. It does not touch the depth of that inner feeling. It does not focus on treating the weight of loss at all. I found that somewhat shocking," she confessed.
She said, "And what hit me very heavily was that this could be our life. Not reacting ostentatiously to sorrow. Why? There is no time to react ostentatiously. In the face of survival. There is no time to stop, wail and grieve. Some cannot even make a sound. I used to really like Harim's song 'Comfort.' The penetrating meaning there is that everyone cannot reveal and cry out all their sorrow. Even when everyone experiences something sad, they must live one more day. That became a great comfort. But this book also forces you to dwell on the idea that Kate might be dead and prevents you from staying idle. He keeps going out to work, to log. While doing logging work, he also experiences the deaths of people he meets there. The process of loss is portrayed very calmly. It does not take shape," she said with deep emotion.
Jeong Seon-hee also referenced the film version of Train Dreams, which was an Academy Award best picture nominee, saying, "What stayed in my memory from the film is that the woman who came as a forest ranger had lost her husband one or two years earlier. There is a conversation between two people who lost loved ones, and they say something like, 'Sometimes dead trees in the forest are meaningful.' I cried there. Maybe because of menopause approaching, I have been crying these days," she said, her eyes welling up.
She said, "The idea that dead trees are needed in the forest resonated with me. Sometimes don't you feel like a dead tree? Life does not always deliver shiny results for everyone. Sometimes you look at the backs of people who started at the same time as you and move on. Sometimes you trip over a tree root and your whole body is scratched and you feel you can no longer get out of this forest alive. But I don't know why the nuance of saying the forest needs dead trees felt so warm," she said.
She continued, "You might think, 'Am I a dead tree?' but we can become dead trees or small insects at any time. I cannot always be the commanding, great old tree. I may not be the protagonist of the forest. But when it was said that all those sparkling moments exist even among small and insignificant things, it brought a lot of comfort. So that line really struck me. If you hold on to the thought that 'small insects and dead trees are needed,' perhaps you would be a little less desperate and less fierce," she said, sharing the comfort she felt.
Meanwhile, Jeong Seon-hee married actor Ahn Jae-hwan in 2007 but was widowed the following year.
[Photo] Jib Nagan Jeong Seon-hee
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