It might sound harsh, but you really do come across as the one lacking media literacy here. Having a master’s in English literature doesn’t automatically make your take deeper or more balanced. You’re talking like people are defending Jiho out of some moral obligation, when most of us are just acknowledging that his actions come from a place of deep trauma. Saying “trauma can make bad people” isn’t the insightful statement you think it is ,it just sounds like a way to stay detached while pretending to be objective.
And no one said that criticizing the writing equals having no media literacy. But when people start blaming a traumatized victim for being broken, or expect him to act perfectly mature after everything he’s gone through, that’s when it really does feel like they’ve missed the point. And there's literally no "fetishism" here .The author has portrayed the necessary and harmful parts in a gruesome, raw, and deeply uncomfortable way, not eroticized or romanticized. It’s meant to disturb you, not entertain you. There’s nothing glamorized about what he goes through.And if we're being real what’s his worst crime here?the fact that he didn't tell the mc that he's going abroad right?which was basically him getting forced into going abroad?I’d understand the criticism if he were taking his pain out on others, but he’s not. He’s hurting himself instead.
Hiya, by no means did I say that anyone is defending jiho out of moral obligation. Instead, I said that his trauma does not automatically absolve him of all wrongdoing. Moreover, this is not necessarily about jiho specifically; my statement “trauma can make bad people” is very broad for this reason. This, like you said, acknowledges that his actions come from a place of trauma, and affect his behaviour. It is not needlessly critical to say that his behaviour is often manipulative (again I used a broad term, “bad”) even before he went abroad. I certainly did not imply that jiho was to blame, I said that it is more nuanced than fully condoning or condemning him. I don’t mean to be harsh, but media literacy requires logical interpretation, not drawing unfounded conclusions. You suggest that I mean multiple things I did not say, such as the text being fetishistic. I said there is a fine line, and while I agree that the story intends on being disturbing, intention does not exist in a vacuum. If you doubt my media literacy I’m more than happy to debate you on Homer
Interesting that the suggestion “the author may be oversaturating the story with trauma” is received as “you just have no media literacy.” There is a very fine line between realism and fetishism. It’s worth pointing out that there are some things in the story that feel less like realism and more orchestrated to achieve maximum pathos, lol. This is not to say it’s bad (I’ve personally had enough of it, but that’s just me), but it’s not completely unreasonable to say that jiho has unlikeable qualities. Obviously his character is reflective of his past abuse, and you can emphasize with that, but forgiving all of a character’s behaviour/actions because they are results of trauma is a slippery slope. It is not a moral high ground to defend jiho with your life, and nor is it nuanced to say that he deserves what he gets. Trauma can make bad people. Before anyone says I have no media literacy please be informed I have a masters in English literature