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Continued from Part 1 ― #The Fragrance of the Classics Buried Within Their Songs

On December 2, we uploaded the first part of "Seven Ways to 'Read' BTS as Classical Literature.' In this posting, we mentioned how the "WINGS" album borrows from Demian's concept, and attempted to analyze the message and storyline of BTS' works through the lens of 1) rebellion, 2) growth, 3) destruction and inspiration, while looking back at the consistent storylines and messages in BTS' past works.Many fans read our posting and shared it. We are sincerely thankful.

In this posting, we plan to conclude the examination through the prism of classical literature of BTS' works since their debut in June 2013. In addition to the 3 keywords of the last part, we will add another four, 4) sense of identity, 5) sex, in addition to 6) effort and 7) dreams, for a total of 7 keywords that attempt to connect BTS' songs with works of classical literature. Through this opportunity, we were more deeply able to appreciate the songs and performances of 'the hottest idol group in the world,' BTS. It was an enjoyable time.

We'll repeat it once again, but we all believe that BTS songs can't help but contain the fragrance of the old classical works of literature, and that the place where the problematic protagonists of great works of literature should be is not 'within' a book but rather 'beside' those in their teens and twenties 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.

* translator's note. please be aware that the following post contains the following: explicit mentions of sex, slurs for female genitalia, mention of sexual violence, discussion of misogyny.


#Sense of Identity

While rebelling against the world, yearning for growth, and occasionally suffering from a craving for destruction, a person ultimately gains their 'sense of identity.' A correct awareness of oneself is the sole channel that a child needs in order to be born again as an adult.

What is a sense of identity? The dictionary definition is "being aware of the position one is in or one's own behaviors or personality." In this, the core is to "be aware of oneself." Knowing what kind of person I am, knowing where I am treading and where I am standing, and knowing what I therefore must do is, exactly, a sense of identity.

The phrase 'sense of identity' is commonly suggestive of the period of puberty in which one is excessively and sensitively aware of oneself and acts as though one is the center of the universe. But this kind of sense of identity is a false sense of identity. It is nothing more than a frail and easily-broken understanding of oneself.

The reason is that such an awareness is insufficient in terms of a strong understanding of one's limitations and impotence in comparison to one's strengths and possibilities. This is because it lacks awareness of the harshness of the world, as well as the responsibility to stand and face it. A self awareness that lacks understanding and a deep view of the world is expressed in a defensive attitude that only attempts to protect oneself. And this defensiveness is paradoxically expressed as a self-intoxication with the idea that "no matter what anyone says, I am me."


Anna Freud, born in 1895 and who became an authority on developmental psychology, is the daughter of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), who is considered the 'father of psychoanalysis.' She who, incredibly, overcame her father's excessively deterministic approach to psychoanalysis, had this to say about the ego of a young child.

"As a rule, children in a dangerous situation lack the physical strength to escape, and their capability to understand is limited, so they logically understand the inevitability of the situation and cannot accept it. In this immature and dependent time, it isn't only that the ego tries to control instinctive stimulus, but also that it mobilizes all possible methods to defend itself from the objective unpleasantness and danger that threatens it."
― Anna Freud, from 『Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense』

A standardized society and school system gives children cold feet. And parents project their own desires onto their children as if their children were their possessions. In this environment, as in Christina Aguilera's famous song "Beautiful," affirmation of the strengths and inner beauty which others have not yet discovered is the first key to a healthy sense of identity. This is different from thoughtless and groundless narcissism. Self-affirmation is to discover the beauty and possibility within oneself even while acknowledging the limitations and weakness that one carries.

In BTS' songs as well, this desire for self-affirmation stands out. If you listen to "21st Century Girls" from the "WINGS" albums, it is like this.

don't get cold feet
no matter what anyone says, you're okay
you're strong
20th century girls
21st century girls
say it, that you're strong
say it, that you're enough
― from "21st Century Girls"

But the world tries adamantly to scatter such self-affirmation. It becomes a repeated shrinking. The song "Whalien 52" from the "Most Beautiful Moment in Life Pt. 2" album, with its memorable refined and sharp flow and peerlessly memorable lyrics, discusses the world being ignorant to an individual's pain.

the world doesn't know
how sad I am
my pain is water and oil that can't be mixed
I only breathe above the surface of the water, and the interest ends
a child in the lonely ocean
I want to make my value known too, every day
― from "Whalien 52"

Like this, the process of expressing strife with the world even while perceiving our own strengths is a process of formation for our senses of identity which everyone passes through. A child's ego passes through childhood and moves on to the level of adulthood.


Sigmund Freud's theory of the ego is that it depends on a triangle between the outside world, the superego, and a concept called id. One's instincts (id) and the values of parents and society (superego), and the environment that surrounds one (the outside world) makes us who we are. Freud said as follows.

"An old adage warns against serving two masters. It is very difficult for the pitiful ego, which must serve three strict masters. It works to harmonize the demands and opinions of those three. However, there are also times when these demands disagree with one another and appear as if they will never reconcile. As such, in these situations, it is not strange at all for the ego to often become stuck. The ego's three masters are the outside world, the superego, and the id."
― Sigmund Freud, 『New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis』

While stroking one's destructive instincts, obeying the real laws of the world, and informing the outside world of yourself as you improve, is soon no different from developing one's sense of identity. Now BTS tries to actively attest to their individual worth. From "We On," which contains the members' amazing rap skills which stick in one's ears―

I don't know you, and you don't know me
please shut up, are you gonna die?
don't worry about me, I'm better than you
I'll be like that in the future too
where are all the friends who
ignored me from before? we on
this is nothing like a joke, I'll show you
I promise ya, we on
― from "We On"

Furthermore, the awareness of their identity as a company's boy group, that is to say an idol, is one of many such characteristics. It is an intense self-meditation on the limitations of being an 'idol.' Justin Timberlake, who originally came out as a member of N*Sync in the 1990s and is now working as a solo singer and film actor, said this. "I am a person who tried being a member of a boy group who had to endure criticisms and mockery. What's left that I can't do?"

since you're idols even if you don't hear it, it weighs on you
if you don't like the lyrics even if you don't see it, it's a video
if you don't have strength you'll obviously have done something suspicious
but you see the things you do if there's even a little, you're screwed
(thank you so much) thanks to your inferiority complexes
I got the certification I couldn't in high school
applause, clap clap, that's right, keep going, keep going
we'll just be happy with ourselves
good yeah I’m good
― from "2! 3!"

#Sex

When we become adults, we inevitably end up facing the problem of sex. Sex is the endless mystery and powerful riddle of humankind. Sigmund Freud, who we mentioned above was a revolutionary thinker who advocated the idea that a human's sexual energy has influence over a person's conscious and unconscious. Based on Freud's theory, various scientists, including Wilhelm Reich and Herbert Marcuse, have demonstrated how serious an influence human eros has held over the civilizations of humankind.

How these healthy youths of 20 or so must be crowded full of sexual energy. They've sung in so many songs about their passions towards women. (In particular, "I NEED YOU" with its beautiful music video is one of my favorite songs among theirs.) But the song among BTS' songs which most actively lays bare the issue of relations between men and women is "Hormone War."

my eyes keep turning to the girls (yup)
girls are like an equation, us guys just do them (yup)
wear them more,
your high heels
I’m 18, I know what I need to know
I know that girls are the best things in the world
yes I’m a bad boy so I like bad girl
come here baby, we’re gonna hit it off 

her hair, body, waist, legs,
even her other unspeakable parts
saying I don’t care would be ridiculous as a guy
I lose it just at her tiniest gestures
girl, your temptations keep me away
from my computer every night
for her, it’s lady first
girls are like cold ice mountains? let it go
a female that drives me crazy, provoking me every day
after fighting my hormones again today,
I’ll pop my pimple
― from "Hormone War"

You could say that 2016 was very much the 'year of hatred.' In particular, it feels as if the scandals of misogyny/misandry that have been the center of online talk for many years reached their peaks this year. Male writers, once greatly loved, fell from grace in a moment after their backgrounds of sexual violence and sexual assault were revealed. Even in the publication industry, many written theories and analyses were published that took a view of this phenomenon.

With regards to this topic, I think there is no more suggestive book than 『Lady Chatterly's Lover』, published in Italy in 1928 by English writer D.H. Lawrence.

This book suffered the stigma of being banned in its home country of England until 1960 for its shocking-for-the-times portrayal of sex. The English government prosecuted the publisher, Penguin, under suspicion of violation of the law regarding publication of obscene materials, and from October 27, 1960, the famous 'Chatterly Trial' began. At this trial, many great men of letters of the time, including E.M. Forster and Richard Hoggart, were called in to defend the literary value of 『Lady Chatterly's Lover』. Finally, on November 2, 1960, the English court took the side of the publisher, Penguin.


However, 『Lady Chatterly's Lover』 is not a book that simply describes the erotic love between a man and a woman, but can rather be seen as a classic that strongly expresses a humanistic personality that possesses a sexual element. In addition to the lunacy and horrors of World War I, among the ruins of the industrial society of the early 20th century which had advanced at inhuman rates, Lawrence repeated an awl-sharp insight into men and women, and into sex.

"Ay! it's tenderness, really; it's cunt-awareness. Sex is really only touch, the closest of all touch. And it's touch we're afraid of. We're only half-conscious, and half alive. We've got to come alive and aware. Especially the English have got to get into touch with one another, a bit delicate and a bit tender. It's our crying need."
― D.H. Lawrence, 『Lady Chatterly's Lover』

As in Lawrence's expression, tenderness cannot become a commodity, and nor should it. Sex is not popular recreation but rather the most private human means of communication. If we believe in this means, then I believe that we can overcome hatred. I believe that this is the reason why BTS' "I NEED YOU" is so beautiful, and the reason why the lyrics of a few of BTS' songs were justly criticized. I anticipate listening to more of their songs of mature love and sexuality in the future.


#Effort

In the first episode of the drama "God of Study," there is a famous line which lawyer Kim Su-ro, while visiting his alma mater, thunderously shouts at the students. It was a line in which he tells them not to blame the rules for harassing them, but rather to become a person who can renovate the rules and make them anew. "You say that this world that sings the song of S-university is disgusting? You say that this world that is a playground for people with money and connections is dirty? If so, then shouldn't you become the person who makes the rules? Don't live as a loser who spreads unfairness behind him, I'm telling you to become the person who remakes the rules!"

These words are close to reality, and as always, a huge dilemma will as always be approaching students. They are words that say that the society and system made by adults isn't something to blame only with your mouth, but rather to do everything you can from your position and gather up all the strength you need to change that system. But these words are conclusively not that different from telling someone "just focus on studying right now," packaged in a slightly different way. This is because it's simply a state of railroading the students who, for whatever reason, don't like to study into the category of 'latent lowers,' and browbeating them into not making excuses.


In the student season of which there is only one in the world, one must explore one's dreams and prepare to go out into society. At this time, students have the right to enjoy this time free from anyone's interruptions and without worries about their livelihood, on behalf of only their own future.

In this precious time, many students bemoan the fact that they are taught in a way that doesn't match their aptitudes. We have previously discussed at length the ways in which BTS actively resists this. In that case, the question remains, what path will the students who choose not to study take? Ultimately, can the students become the "subject of their own lives, which have always been suppressed" (from "No More Dream")? How?

However, in the end, the paradox remains that no matter what you do, you must 'try.' There also exists the paradox that if you choose a life that isn't studying, you must work even more fiercely. In Miyazaki Hayao's animation "Whisper of the Heart," the main character Shizuku's wise father says these words. "A life different from others can be difficult. Even if you fail, you can't blame anyone else."

In this aspect, BTS is 'unexpectedly' exemplary. They have chosen their own paths as musicians, and the fact that they are trying hard often appeals. Taken as an example is a song which has very much succeeded even among the general public. If you see the lyrics of "Dope," they are as follows.

I stay up all night to work, every day
while you're playing in the club, yeah
differently with the other kids
I don't wanna say yes
I don't wanna say yes 

not in school, but in the practice room
I danced and sang all night
when you guys are playing
I'm living my dream and holding back from sleeping
I stay up all night holding my ball pen
I close my eyes after the sun comes up in the morning
among the standards and countless oppositions
my limits have been broken
― from "Dope"*

I want a rapstar, as others,
I hated living the same, the prematurity of a little kid
even if people hold me down and warn me
hip hop persists in me
and completely turns me inside out
the young me used to write
my 16 bars on the corner of my textbooks
thanks to that, I threw away my secure life
and went to a studio in Namsan-dong, Daegu
all night, I sharpened my blunt pen tip
at the end of my efforts,
instead of having a language marks for school
I filled up my rhymes,
which made my dreams come true
everyone asks me, what is hip hop?
then I confidently answer, my everything
as a result, my life has buried itself into music
if loving this culture is a sin,
I’ll die over a hundred times
― from "Hip Hop Lover"

But like the society that will follow these modern times, only a few hundred years ago, the concept of a 'child' that attends school and studies did not exist. Before the birth of the nuclear family in the Western world and the development of systematic education, children and adults did the same work, and children prepared to take over the family business.

It may seem like a pitiful job, but it is proof that in the history of youth, the moments of school were not a 'playful period.' (We can play comfortably when we die.) That is not a statement from those of us who have already become adults, but the voices which BTS directly convey.


One's school season is, in that case, even less a period in which students must unconditionally study or 'develop themselves.' The most important keywords that surmount the above-mentioned 'Kim Su-ro logic' from "God of Study" are, as expected, to be found in Mark Twain's 『The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn』. Logic that tells students to study to change the system if they don't like the system is, in itself, willful logic that in itself already a part of and a benefit to that system.

When one does not like a system, the place where one can best see the system's weakest aspects is not from inside the system, but outside of it. Scholar Sin Young-bok, who passed away at the beginning of this year, also often accentuated that the "truth is always at the borders."

『The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn』 is, together with 『The Adventures of Tom Sawyer』, widely considered to be one of the best among bildungsroman and youth literature, but it is also a book which is wonderful to read even after becoming an adult. Great American writer Ernest Hemingway said, "All of the culture of modern America is contained within Mark Twain's 『The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn』." This book, which is told from the first-person perspective of vivacious and playful Huckleberry, is a cheerful adventure novel, but is also a novel that expresses the process of Huckleberry's growth into maturity while delivering an incisive lampooning of the oppression of Black people and the damaging effects of the established social system.

While traveling the Mississippi River with a runaway slave, Jim, who has escaped the abuse of his vagrant master, our Huckleberry becomes vividly aware of himself through his own eyes and body. In particular, while agonizing over whether or not to report Jim, and after writing a letter to Miss Watson, the wife of the slave's master, the moment in which he rips the letter up is the ethical highlight of the novel. Huckleberry regards slave masters as pitiful and becomes caught up in his resolve to help the runaway slave, and ultimately takes a position of friendship with Jim. In that period where slavery was surviving intact and racial discrimination was common!

"I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, 'stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper. 

It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was atrembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: 

"All right, then, I’ll go to hell"—and tore it up." 

― Mark Twain, 『The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn』

Huckleberry does not lose his passion and faith towards humanity even after experiencing so much cruelty and violence and being scammed so many times by adults, and through these vivid experiences is able to learn ethics and love. In a disadvantaged environment, he has come through a stereotyped system of education and nonetheless bravely took on his own life. And the important thing is not whether he was a student or not. It is whether or not he was able to learn with his own eyes, in that bright and innocent time, love and morality, warm-heartedness towards one's neighbors, and bravery and determination towards life. At such a young age, Huckleberry Finn is able to prove to us what I call the fact of the greatest effort.

Ultimately, telling someone to study in order to change the system is simply a meaningless and therefore useless thing to say. We remember not the names of the 19th century American elites, but rather the name Mark Twain, who lived life as recklessly as Huckleberry and who fundamentally shook the sensibilities of that system to its core. Will BTS become such artists too?


#Dreams

Up until now, we have studied BTS' songs in conjunction with various works of classical literature. Rebellion and growth, destruction/inspiration and sense of identity, sex, and even effort... But after setting foot in all of these different processes, ultimately I believe that BTS is a group who sings about 'dreams.'

And all of our lives are the same. Although this phrase is matchless in how fed up with it we've become, just as in Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," we are all withstanding each day cherishing hearts that want to become "complete seagulls, seagulls with endless possibility." Dreams are what made BTS sing, and they are what make us keep living on.

Their dream is music. Among those abundant songs which sing of their dreams―

saying that I’m just a rookie and that it’s okay
they sat me down and
taught me how cold the world is
with a few subjects
bias, negative comments, double standards,
smack talk and disinterest
teacher, do we have SATs for this too?
if I get first place, will I be a successful artist?
that’s good too but I wanna do music
― from "2nd Grade"

they're useful, these setbacks
I believe, we're going right along
if we find it some time
obviously we'll come home at once
like the ants
― from "We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2"*

* not from WABP2, from Lost. idk what this writer is up to.

But their dreams are impressive, not because they are chasing vague success and pursuing wealth, but because they draw an image of returning to one's hometown and one's family. The 'dialect' that comprises such an important part of their identities can also be understood in this context. Their simple dreams seem to contain an extremely Korean characteristic.

if I ruled the world, sometimes, I dream
if I ruled the world, first I’ll hire a real estate agent
and buy a house to live in with my family
yes, next I’ll awaken my savings
and buy a four-wheel drive, put in some gas
even if it’s too much,
I’ll get it with zero-interest discount
stocks and gambling
I don’t wanna do things like that
I rule the world so why would I dream small?
don’t ask me that because
I still want to do music with my BTS family
― from "If I Ruled the World"

The world is overflowing with literature that speaks of indomitable dreams, but among those, how about reading Hemingway's short story 『The Old Man and the Sea』? If I read Hemingway, it always gives me strength. One Japanese writers has said that on the first morning of the new year, he always reads Hemingway's 『Snows of Kilimanjaro』. Something about his works pulls us in, whips us, and has a virtue of making us live thoughtfully.


The many works of Hemingway always contain a main boy character who either has dreamed and become frustrated with it, or has shyly held back his dreams. (So much so that BTS could make an album using Hemingway as a model next...)

"He had destroyed his talent by not using it, by betrayals of himself and what he believed in, by drinking so much that he blunted the edge of his perceptions, by laziness, by sloth, and by snobbery, by pride and by prejudice, by hook and by crook. What was this? A catalogue of old books? What was his talent anyway? It was a talent all right but instead of using it, he had traded on it. It was never what he had done, but always what he could do."
― Hemingway, 『Snows of Kilimanjaro』

As a matter of personal opinion, for some reason I believe that if you are a person who enjoys Western classical literature, then that person cannot dislike Hemingway. You can dislike Tolstoy, but even if you can turn your head at Shakespeare and Proust, it feels like you can't help but like Hemingway. As such, he left behind works that are both widely popular and powerful. And his life was in itself charming.

"This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos, he thought. But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel. What is a bone spur? he asked himself. Un espuela de hueso. We do not have them. Can it be as painful as the spur of a fighting cock in one’s heel? I do not think I could endure that or the loss of the eye and of both eyes and continue to fight as the fighting cocks do. Man is not much beside the great birds and beasts. Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea."
― Hemingway, 『The Old Man and the Sea』

If you read 『The Old Man and the Sea』 and 『Snows of Kilimanjaro』, you go to a quiet and refined place where you want to focus on a glass of strong martini. And after going home, you will want to sleep deeply after writing a long diary. Because the next day, you will have to wake up early to find your identity. Hemingway's theory is that even if you are ruined, you can be ruined with dignity, but that rather than accepting our ruin, we must again run towards our dreams and towards tomorrow. That is one point which BTS' songs let us know.


It is time to conclude this writing.

Above, I briefly mentioned Justin Timberlake. In 2016, he took his position as the singer with the highest number of single album sales in the world. Robbie Williams, who began as a member of the boy group Take That, was nothing more than a 'novice' who craved rock 'n' roll and followed in the footsteps of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher after his departure from Take That, but after a few years, through his own strength, he surpassed Oasis' number of Knebworth concert attendees and became a best selling artist in the UK.*

* Robbie Williams' album "Life at Knebworth" is the second fastest and highest selling live album in English music history, second only to Take That's album "The Greatest Day."

BTS have a bright path ahead of them. We continuously hear of how they are on a roll around the world after only 2~3 weeks.

And although they sometimes waver, and sometimes make mistakes, they are walking on their own path. Like Justin Timberlake and Robbie Williams, they can be the representative group of our country, even beyond their existing fandom. If you look at the trend now, this is not a hollow goal. Of course, it could be that all of that may disappear in a moment. The important thing, more than this trendiness and popularity, is how purely they love music, and whether they can continue to express their identities through song and performance as they do now. It will shake all of our hearts as fans.

In the face of the popularity given by their hundreds and thousands of fans, it could be that literature is something that teaches a 'way to be alone.' And when the members are alone (even while they are together), or when they search for their own style and individuality that will not be swept up by others, we may see all of their best moments for a long time to come.

We will always support BTS. Thank you.