Novelist Oisoo Lee has long performed linguistic alchemy with penetrating sentences.
After leaving the world behind and writing inside a jail of his own making, Oisoo Lee set an unprecedented
record of becoming Korea’s first Twitter user to have a million followers.
Now having more than two million followers on Twitter, the novelist has become
'a master of communication' based on the power of sensibility.
This celebrity novelist is still working in a hope to make the world with more sensibility.
How about visiting Gamseong Village, which means 'Sensibility Village' and experiencing Lee's profound but simple artistic world?
Sensibility Station in the Deep Mountains
Covered with snow from the night earlier, the village is resplendently white.
Located in Hwacheon, in the midst of a wide mountainous area and
many military bases, the path leading to the village feels grave and solemn.
However, just across the bridge into the village is Literary Theme Park, nestled in clean and fresh nature.
Named by Oisoo Lee with a meaning of "a village of nature, a village with growing sensibility,"
the village has become the core element of cultural tourism in Hwacheon.
Not that I walk because there’s a path, but that a path is created as I walk.
The phrase seen in the village’s entrance warms the visitors who have walked through the cold.
The 430-meter-long trail to the Park passes through a small forest where 119 natural stone monuments stand in line with poems written on them.
Visitors can walk up the trail along the valley, enjoying the poems and pictures of Oisoo Lee on the standing stones.
A little more walking from the end of the trail brings them to Oisoo Lee’s Literary House.
In an effort to communicate with readers who are part of a movement of 'Big Fans of Oisoo Lee' the novelist
has created a wide variety of works and content in literature, arts, music, and broadcasting.
Oisoo Lee’s Literary House was opened on August 12th, 2012 for those who wish to communicate and interact with Lee’s artistic world.
As Korea’s first literary house named after a living writer, the venue is home to a collection of materials showing Lee’s life
and also displays books, paintings, and poems. In addition, an experience center is currently under construction to be opened near the literary house.
His Literary Achievements Never Obedient to the World
The literary house welcomes visitors with a rusty iron gate that was directly bought
by Oisoo Lee’s wife from a company that supplies iron gates to a prison.
The writer himself installed the iron gate in his studio and locked himself into a 'literary prison.'
The two novels Lee wrote inside the 'prison' for nine years 'Byeok-o-geum-hak-do' and 'Golden Scales' became
best-seller novels in Korea, and his life as a writer was divided into two; 'before lockup' and 'after lockup.'
Walking through a long passage, visitors are met by photographs that show the history of Oisoo Lee.
His life was packed with hardships and sufferings.
His mother passed away when he was two, and his father fought in the Korean War.
As a result, his grandmother raised him, eking out a living by begging.
Poverty persisted even after he began studying at Chuncheon National University of Education.
Poverty also made Lee decide to start a literary career;
he applied for the annual spring literary contest held by Gangwon Daily to pay for overdue rent.
After studying literature for three years deep in the mountains, Lee made a debut on the central literary stage and finally settled
into a career as a writer after working as a newspaper journalist and private tutor.
Over 100 first editions of Lee’s books now introduce his literary world. Visitors will notice a number of books of this bestseller writer.
To the left of those books a range of paintings that reveal the novelist’s artistic world is displayed.
Lee drew those pictures when he was young as an aspirant painter and opened them
to the public officially in commemoration of the opening of his literary house.
Among others, Lee made a work with wooden chopsticks based on his recollection of the time in his life
when he would survive for five days on a single pack of ramen.
The opposite wall is filled with artwork that at first appears to be oil paintings.
Looked closely, the paintings are drawn with crushed crayon, revealing a unique aspect of creativity.
Lee did not name the paintings, as a way to allow viewers to imagine freely and have personal appreciation of the works.
Lee also has profound knowledge of music and composed every piece of music played inside his literary house.
Undaunted Courage
The literary house has a wide collection of Lee’s artistic works, his writings on his life as a professional writer,
and a number of objects Lee used for writing, such as fountain pens, a typewriter, and a Mac computer.
Beside these objects is written a calligraphic phrase.
The phrase was printed with Lee’s signature typeface, expressing letters written with inked wooden chopsticks.
The route then leads to the courtyard, where the clear blue sky of Hwacheon covers the literary house like a ceiling.
This space hints the intention of Dr. Byeong-su Jo, who designed the building.
Often called 'an architect who writes poems with houses' Dr. Jo was deeply
impressed by Lee’s novel Byeok-o-geum-hak-do and designed the literary house with a shape of an ascending crane.
Visitors are now invited to go inside the building and walk through the last passage.
'Until the Writer’s Painstaking Effort turns into the Reader’s Pleasure' also a motto of the writer, is printed on the wall.
Lee believes that a writer’s painstaking endeavor of writing down one word
after another is not different from a farmer’s sweat and effort, or even pain.
Although he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2014 and underwent a difficult surgery
and a long period of chemotherapy sessions, Oisoo Lee finally overcame it with doggedness and recovered his health.
He then began writing again, and this 'terminator' artist’s latest book,
Self pride is my strength, demonstrated his undiminished energy and strength across the country.
Just like the title of another book, he showed that 'Just stand up again and again whenever we fall down.'
Oisoo Lee is called the 'President of Twitter' because his comments and
writings encourage and support those who feel exhausted in this desolate world.
Those who want to soften their hardened sensibility this winter and toughen their soft mind
should take a short trip to Gamseong Village filled with consolation and hope delivered by Oisoo Lee.
