(ARTICLE) Seven Ways to 'Read' BTS as Classical Literature (Part 1 of 2)

#BTS x Demian

BTS' popularity is ever so hot. It's almost too repetitive to mention the popularity of those who are laying down a career of awards while already hovering between broadcast and internet and creating countless records. They've charted on Billboard and Oricon, they've achieved 1st rank on the iTunes album chart in 97 countries including America, it's ordinary for them to be on the Billboard 'Social 50' chart which symbolizes the hot topics on social platforms all around the world, and so on and so forth...Those boys who have freshly passed 20 are already performing on stages around the world.

BTS' songs were originally quite good, but the writing of this article is thanks to their album 'WINGS,' which was released in fall of this year, and its connection to Herman Hesse's <Demian>, which became a hot topic. This album has borrowed its entire concept from the classical novel <Demian>, from the short film-style teasers to the music video and the composition of the songs. It seems like the simple fact of an idol group's album borrowing inspiration from a classical literature objet and motive is, in itself, exceptionally wonderful (although some may criticize it for being too light an approach to classical literature, or for being commercialized).

(However, speaking with the opinion of an employee of a publisher of very 'heavy' books, what on earth is the standard for a 'light' or 'serious' approach to literature? Who establishes that standard? Those seem like laughable things to say.)

a capture from one of BTS' short films

"The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas." - <Demian>

#The Fragrance of the Classics Buried Within Their Songs

In particular, Rap Monster, who takes the lead on the production of BTS' music, did an interview in which he said, "When I was younger and read classical literature, I also used to think 'how did I read this?' but now that I'm older and I read them again, it gives me a different feeling," and said, "I really like that people call us the 'idols who make people read the classics,' thanks to our fans taking this opportunity to read <Demian>." Rather than regarding it as a 'light commercialization,' the consistent messages and storylines in their past works truly captivate us. The outstanding lyrical and production skills of each member are also contained in this album.

So in this article, it seemed natural to look through the prism of classical literature at BTS' songs from their debut in June 2013 and following. The title of this article, which will span over 2 sections, is 'Seven Ways to "Read" BTS as Classical Literature." I will endeavor to look at BTS' songs and classical pieces through the 7 keywords of 1) rebellion and 2) growth, 3) destruction/inspiration and 4) sense of identity, 5) sex, as well as 6) effort and 7) dreams.

Ultimately, we are all of the belief that the fragrance of classical literature can't help but be contained in BTS' songs, and that that the place where the problematic individuals of great literary works should be is not 'inside' a book but rather at the 'side' of the teens and 20-year-olds of today. It's true that compared to music, books are more boring and more difficult to experience, but just as you can know from this year's Nobel Peace Prize in Literature being awarded to Bob Dylan, music and literature have always had a deep and profound connection. If BTS' members were to have been born in the Middle Ages, it is clear that they would have been bards who wrote poetry and sang songs and stole the hearts of numerous noblewomen.

So, we will begin.

1. Rebellion

The most basic code that contains the identity of BTS is 'rebellion.' Starting from the beginning, even their very group name is evocative of direct rebellion and resistance. With 'bangtan' having a meaning of blocking bullets, the motto that the members assert is one of singing on behalf of the teens and 20-year-olds in the world who are suffering prejudice and oppression. Of course, they are also protecting their justly valuable music.

Since the debut single '2 COOl 4 SKOOL' that signaled their start in 2013, BTS have sung passionately about the value of their rebellion. In their debut song 'No More Dream,' which had a slightly retro gangster feel, they rebelled against a generation that forced uniform rules for success. They declare that the discipline and teaching of 'adults' are 'hypocrisy' and 'lies,' and they give a warning "not to dawdle anymore" to the weak youth that are swayed by those adults.

Sick of the same day, the repeating days
Grown-ups and my parents
keep instilling confined dreams to me
Number one future career is a government worker?
It’s not a forced dream, a ninth inning relief pitcher
Throw a fast ball at the waste of time that is night study sessions
Rebel against the hellish society,
dreams are a special pardon
Ask yourself about your dream profile
Become the main subject of your life
that has always been suppressed
- BTS 'No More Dream'

They raise their voices against the establishment and the system, but BTS' characteristic is singing as though chiding the teens who are being tormented by the system to "stand and fight." It's similar to 'Class Idea,' by Seo Taiji and Boys, which was called a syndrome around 20 years ago. They sing to say to their peers and those younger than them that they 'can't just settle for things as they are.' Their title track 'N.O' from their first album 'O!RUL8,2?' is like that as well, and the context for 'Can You Turn Off Your Phone?' from their first full-length album 'DARK&WILD' and 'Am I Wrong' from 'WINGS' is the same.

With 'Spine Breaker' from their mini album 'Skool Luv Affair,' they 'refreshingly mock' (as they say) the youth who wear coats costing hundreds of thousands of won while making their parents' backs bent. But if you repeat the superficial words, they are also 'mocking' the adults who want to interfere in the lives of others. As it is, it is a general rebellion without division between my side and your side.

With shoes worth a couple hundred,
padded jacket worth a couple thousand
With a watch worth a couple hundred,
you feel good about yourself
Education goes over the hill and
the student identity goes over the hill too
The class system of the 21st century is divided into two
Those who have and those who haven’t
- BTS 'Spine Breaker'

And if you hang this in the opposite way, and slow down, establishing a 'general rebellion' within this sickening world is not BTS' invention. We will take as an example of famous classical literature  Albert Camus' <The Stranger>. The main character, Meursault, who shoots and kills an Arabian for the sole reason that the seaside 'sun was too strong,' is one of the most shocking main characters in world literature. He had no comrade in his rebellion, and no ideology, and no excuses. He just committed a murder. Indifferently.

Albert Camus

But I was sure about me, about everything, surer than he could ever be, sure of my life and sure of the death I had waiting for me. Yes, that was all I had. But at least I had as much of a hold on it as it had on me. I had been right, I was still right, I was always right. I had lived my life one way and I could just as well have lived it another. I had done this and I hadn't done that. I hadn't done this thing but I had done another. And so?
- Albert Camus, <The Stranger>

The beginning of the 20th century where so many were mercilessly mowed down. The French Meursault, through the extreme measure of murder, had to prove his own humanity. He squarely recognized is own crime and through perseverance, through some faith and philosophy, didn't rely on the system and testified to humankind's existence and dignity through the choosing of a thoroughly solitary death. This novel was a synthesis of the existential philosophy that was sweeping through those days, and Camus won a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature for this work.

#Growth

It's almost surprising, BTS takes care of each individual among their many fans and how they've achieved such a fandom. Each of the seven members, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Rap Monster, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, boasts their own individual personality and style and they receive love liberally. They are united under the one name BTS, but ultimately, they are breathing in sync with the fans through their individual identities and capabilities. There cannot be an amazing group without amazing individuals. This is the reason why the word 'individual' must be placed before the second keyword, 'growth.'

The philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche once said, "People who make a group and move around in crowds are essentially vulgar." These words are excessively cynical towards humans, and (disregarding his great philosophical legacy) he eventually died lonely of a mental illness. However, living without being swept up by other people, the discovery of a strong and firm individual character, is connected to a cultural rebellion against the system that surrounds us. That rebellion could not be more urgent than it is in this Korean society, in which people's tastes are fixed in various biases and stereotypes against those who are even a little different from others.

a capture from BTS' 'Blood Sweat Tears' music video

Here, the keyword of rebellion is connected with the value of growth. This is because the process of growth is at times also the process of discovering the 'self' that can naturally stand sturdily on its own from the help of 'outside strength.' In sum, growth is the process of discovering myself. Growth is a process of withstanding loneliness, and finding the things that are 'only mine' that remain after sweeping away all of the enmities and odd bits of trash.

Please kill me softly
Please close my eyes with your hand
I can't refuse
I can't run away anymore
You're too sweet, too sweet
Because you're too sweet
- BTS 'Blood Sweat Tears'

But the process of growing by treading the earth 'alone' with two feet is not an easy task. As said above, the concept for BTS' 'WINGS' was taken from Herman Hesse's <Demian>. Hesse is a distinguished German writer who received huge influence from Nietzsche and was a contemporary of Camus, and <Demian>  is the best and most of all the bildungsromans of humankind past and present. The points of this album's concept and music video which embody the contents of <Demian> have already been explained in great detail by many people.

In particular, the above lyrics of 'Blood Sweat Tears' very well contain the complicated love and hatred that Sinclair, a teen who has fiercely struggled to find himself, feels towards Demian, who he feels is part of the 'perfect world.'

"I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?"
- Herman Hesse, <Demian>

Becoming oneself. Properly facing the world without relying on anyone, with only your own thoughts, your own language, your own body, is so lonely and difficult as to be unbearable. It is not a fruit that one automatically acquires when one becomes older. BTS' album, and the fans who love it, will walk their own course, create a world of their own, and depart.

Herman Hesse

And, if we look at the track 'Move' from BTS' special album "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life," with its sexy beat and rhythm, it seems as though they have slightly become adults themselves. Although it's the share of each individual member to assign the name of 'growth' to that fact...

When the nine trainees shared a 17-pyung house
Seems like it was just yesterday, we grew up a lot
Good things were always other people’s things
We were always hoarse
from an uncertain future and worries
Seeing all the senior artists at the end of the year awards
Let’s not forget those things but put them away
This place smells like us
Let’s not forget this scent, wherever we are
We cried a lot and laughed a lot
but it was so beautiful
- BTS 'Move'

#Destruction, and Inspiration

But it isn't that we can always be healthy and grow moderately. A world in which all people can go through a beautiful process and grow exists only in the imagination. After Emil Sinclair departed from Max Demian, he also wandered the road alone while being pestered by suicidal impulses. Accepting the me who is different than others, and not evading the high wall of reality that faces me but rather standing fairly against it is a scary and difficult thing to do.

There's nothing different about everyday life. When one pushes off the things they have to do in favor of laziness, how easy it is to hate ourselves. Our appetites for self-hatred and self-destruction are just as strong as our desire for growth. And we are seized by a desire to destroy the society and world that makes us torment ourselves as we progress.

"I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself."
- Herman Hesse, <Demian>

That frustration is a ceremony through which we all must pass. The hopeless awareness of the reality that young people must face up against was no different tens of thousands of years ago, hundreds of years ago, or even now. It seems like BTS knows that well. They are scared sometimes too. They too gasp at their consciousness of the 'thrown-away future' and 'harsh stares around them,'

My breath is getting shorter
I close my eyes every night from twisted reality
The music box of tragedy echoes
But in order to be free from this crime
It’s impossible to forget and give up
Because those lips were too sweet
I threw my future away because I was drunk on dating
When I woke up, I was surrounded by land mines
Surrounded by people’s stares that can’t be touched
- BTS, 'Intro: Boy Meets Evil'

I beg for something to newly become different in me, but reality isn't easy.

It’s funny, you think anything is possible when you’re a kid
When you feel how hard it is to get through a day
Keep feeling like the “Control” beat, keep downloading it
Every single day is a repetition of Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V
I have a long way to go but why am I running in place?
I scream out of frustration but the empty air echoes
I hope tomorrow will be different from today
I’m just wishing
- BTS, 'Tomorrow'

However, sometimes this frustration and desire for self-destruction can become the source of inspiration. Destruction gives birth to inspiration. Just as the bird fights its way from the egg, if you destroy what exists, something new is born. That is also the storytelling in BTS' 'WINGS' short films and 'Blood Sweat Tears' music video. In particular, their 'The Most Beautiful Moment in Life' title song 'Fire' dramatically shows exactly this destruction → creation process. Their shout to "burn everything up" is suggestive of the young generation's desire to find something new through destruction.

So Suga's final part, in which he says "I'll forgive you," is significant. 'Forgiveness' is something only the strong can give. The rebel, the person who pities himself and hates himself, the weak person, cannot say to the person who goes after them, "It's okay, even if you sin with me I will forgive you. Don't be afraid." After shaking off the restraints of reality that have bound them, only those who can face the world on their own terms can say the bold words, "I forgive you."

Stendhal

It isn't only one or two classical works that contain the relationship between destruction and inspiration. Among these, Stendhal's <The Red and the Black> is the story of Julian Sorel, a low-born but ambitious youth who stands against the oppressive French society of the 19th century. But his ambition was doomed to destruction from the start. In the end, he shoots Madame de Rênal, who he loved, and precipitates his own demise.

"Now I am isolated in this underground prison, but I did not live my time on earth in isolation. I lived a life devoted to my duties. Right or wrong, I imposed upon myself the duty I determined..."
- Stendhal, <The Red and the Black>

But even in jail, Julian Sorel searches for his true self. The end of his life is right in front of his eyes. He receives a new language and new emotions, and freedom from the time he spent with Madame de Rênal, who watched over him. Julian looks into his heart and finally finds the 'happiness he missed even when it was at his side, having been seized by ambition.' As the translator said, "Society has locked him in prison, but contrary to expectation, he gets revenge on society by finding in that prison the true meaning of happiness."

If I scorn myself, what will be left to me?

I was bursting with ambition too, in the past. I do not wish to reproach myself for that now, for all I did then was follow the current of the times. Now I am living out the days that have been given to me. But if I were to say what base act I committed, it would be that in front of all the people watching, I became an person evil to myself."
- Stendhal, <The Red and the Black>

All people rebel, and grow, and sometimes are caught up in a desire for destruction. The abovementioned Albert Camus, Herman Hesse, and Stendhal, and writers like them, are people who can edify that desire through artistic inspiration. BTS, as well, are working to sublimate their desires through the music that they themselves are creating. Their desire is no different than the desire of their fans. So it may be that that is why we cheer for them.

(To be continued in Part 2)

original post: here