Kim Eon (; born 1973) is a South Korean
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
.
Biography
Kim was born in 1973 in
Busan
Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...
, South Korea. He made his debut as a
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
in 1998, with the publication of six poems including ''The Sunflower'' in the journal ''Poetry and Thought''. Kim is a poetic
fundamentalist
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishin ...
who believes that the task of changing the world should begin with the task of changing the language, so much so that he has named himself "Eon," meaning "language".
Work
Kim published many collections of
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
, including ''The Breathing Tomb'' (Cheonyeonuisijak, 2003), ''The Giant'' (
Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
Korea, 2005), and ''Let's Write a Novel'' (Minumsa, 2009). His poetic journey is symbolized as a "giant" that has come running out of a "breathing tomb" writing a "novel." Regarding his works, Sin Hyeongcheol, the critic, has said that "These poems won't get any comments on a
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
," warning that "reading more than three of these poems a day will possibly result in the overheating and explosion of the reader's brain." And yet these poems "should be read." The poems, deemed "impossible to translate" (Yi Jangwuk), and appraised as "
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nowiki/>Antigones songs—voices that summon unfamiliar times," (Ham Dongyun) could be misunderstood as nothing more than Obscurantism">abstruse
In philosophy, obscurantism or obscurationism is the Anti-intellectualism, anti-intellectual practice of deliberately presenting information in an wikt:abstruse, abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subj ...
poems, but they are creative poems that make possible the imagination of "other poems." In that respect, Kim is a poet who never ceases to explore the world, the nature of existence, and the principles of language. He seeks to say what cannot be said, to communicate with things with which you can't communicate. He is a poetic fundamentalist who believes that the task of changing the world should begin with the task of changing the language, so much so that he has named himself "Eon," meaning "language."
In Kim's poetry, the ultimate question regarding poetry is no different from an extreme exploration of language, which in turn is no different from a fundamental investigation of the domain of poetry. That must be why the poetic fundamentalist has suddenly released a poetry collection under the title, ''Let's Write a Novel''. He is not saying that he will actually write a novel, but that he will write a "different kind of poetry." ''Let's Write a Novel,'' a collection of poetry that brings together the most fundamental charm of poetry (the language) and the thing that's the farthest away from poetry (the novel) presents a kind of beauty different from what readers ordinarily expect from poetry.
Creative Writing Fund in 2006
* Midang Literary Award">Daesan Literary Awards">Daesan Creative Writing Fund in 2006
* Midang Literary Award (2009)
* ''The Breathing Tomb'' (Cheonyeonuisijak, 2003)
* ''The Giant'' (Random House Korea, 2005)
* ''Let's Write a Novel'' (Minumsa, 2009)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Eon
1973 births
21st-century South Korean poets
Living people
Midang Literary Award winners
People from Busan