Brian Reynolds Myers - North Korea and Post-modernism

North Korea and Post-modernism

Myers’ Han Sŏrya and the North Korean literature: The Failure of Socialist Realism in the DPRK was adapted from his 1992 dissertation at the University of Tübingen and published as the sixty-ninth volume of the Cornell East Asia Series. A Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose was developed from his critical review essay of the same name published in the Atlantic in 2001. The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters is an examination of North Korean propaganda, arguing that North Korea under Kim Jong Il was guided by “a paranoid, race-based nationalism with roots in Japanese fascism.” Myers argues that North Korea's political system is not based on Communism or Stalinism, and that the juche ideology is not really an ideology at all but a sham to establish Kim Il-sung's credentials as a thinker. More provocatively, Myers argues that the more recent post Cold War attempts to understand North Korea as a Confucian patriarchy based on the filial piety of Kim Jong-Il, and the dynastic transfer of power from his father are equally misguided, and that the North Korean leadership is maternalist rather than paternalist.

Myers’ opinion columns for the Atlantic, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal generally focus on North Korea, which he says is not a Marxist-Leninist or Stalinist state, but “a national-socialist country.” His book reviews have included critical appraisals of American historian Bruce Cumings, American author Toni Morrison, American author Denis Johnson, and South Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong. His most recent major review was a scathing takedown of American novelist Jonathan Franzen's celebrated novel Freedom. Myers has also countered received notions of Christianity, saying, “Prophets are always choosy about their followers; Jesus spoke in parables so the multitude would not be saved.”

Politically, Myers is a supporter of the Green Party of the United States, veganism, and animal rights.

Myers recently explained the common public perception of the ROKS Cheonan sinking in South Korea in respect to its perception to North Korea.