Situations Vol. 2 (Fall 2008) © 2008 by Yonsei University Jung Eun Seo1
The Sweet Dream of an Urban Commune The Freedom that Nobody Planned out by Ko Mi-suk
“Is there any reason for youth to look for a master with a golden name card? Rather find some friends, cooperate among yourselves and step forward to progress and a better future. Youth, you have such vigor. Find a forest and develop it; find the wilds and cultivate them; being left in a desert, dig for a well. What’s the use of looking for the old pathways that are already covered with thick brambles; what’s the point of seeking out already worn out masters?” Lu Xun’s Youth and Leader
Ko Mi suk’s The Freedom that nobody planned out is a record of how the famous social institute the “Research Machine Trans” was started and how it came to establish itself as an alternative urban intellectual commune. Ko, who is also one of the founders of the “Trans,” vividly describes the history of its commune experiment and its present situation. Reading this book, people might well think that an ideal alternative world is really possible in the center of the financial metropolis of Seoul.
The seemingly enchanting alternative space of “Trans” begins with Ko’s private despair at her prospects on the academic job market. In her late thirties, Ko found herself unemployed, with a Ph.D in Korean literature. After having failed several times in her attempt to secure a full time teaching position, she started to ask herself
1 Yonsei graduate student
121 why she wanted to become a professor at all. “Economic independence and a place for teaching and learning” were the answers she finally decided upon. At this point, she decided to give up the search for the “old ways already covered with thick brambles” and to beat a new path for herself. This involved finding a room of her own for teaching and learning, while still earning the minimum necessary for survival. In this way, in 1997, she established her office cum study at Suyu ri on the northeastern outskirts of the city. Initially, she wanted nothing more than to have some small group seminars at the Suyu office, but as she had made connections with the members of the
Seoul Research Institute for Social Science (SRSS), some of them began to give lectures, including Ko Byŏng gwon and Lee Jin gyŏng. As time went on, more and more people began to gather in the Suyu office in order to take part in the seminar group or listen to the lectures. Due to its unexpected popularity, Ko and her new friends from the SRSS decided to move to a bigger place and eventually changed the name to Suyu +Research Machine Trans.
The idea of an urban intellectual commune, outside the framework of institutionalized academia, naturally comes up against the realism inherent in the needs arising from an increased membership. Many participants who spent most of their time in “Trans” did not want to waste money eating out all the time, so they decided to start cooking and sharing meals together, as well as with the occasional visitors. This change in everyday life launched a kind of “gift economy” because people who had once enjoyed a meal there sent rice, vegetables, side dishes or even exchanged their labor for cooking. With their ever increasing list of gifts, “Trans” could serve wonderful snacks and meals, while still spending less money buying foodstuffs.
122 Other kinds of gifts were given as well. Paid lecturers began to donate money back to the “Trans” as “shared gifts.” Knowledge was not an exception. The members of
“Trans”, ranging from Ph.Ds to undergraduates to those with no college education, shared what they knew, often writing or translating books together. While they studied together, they became both friends and teachers. Citing Li Zhuo wu, Ko explains: “Unless a friend can be a teacher, he is not a true friend; unless a teacher can be a friend, she is not a true teacher.” As a result of the “gift economy,” “Trans” became a space where people could live without much money. In addition, without the requirement for large tuition fees, it became possible for anyone to participate in the seminars and lectures, which ranged from Korean literature to European philosophy, from the social sciences to natural science, all the while enjoying physical and cultural activities at no cost. “You do not have to save money to study, do not have to have a golden name card to be a friend. Come and stay with us, be a friend; possess neither objects nor space but circulate these things instead as gifts.” Such is the commune ethic you need to become a member of “Trans,” Ko emphasizes.
Instead of the urge to possess and consume that dominates our society, “Trans” tries to find an alternative path aside from the circulation of things and knowledge. In this alternative framework, nobody possesses objects but everybody relishes to their riches.
Instead of ascetic moral voices denouncing capitalism, Ko makes the best of the pleasant sketches of the institute’s lively everyday life, trying to seduce readers into participating in the experiment. Over and over, she highlights the ludic quality of her project: “It is rather a fun to be a war machine against both the conservative academy and the capital dominated world”.
123 Though readers may be unsure whether being a war machine can truly be fun, reading her story is a real pleasure. The one thing lacking in Ko’s vivid description of this urban intellectual commune is the inevitable process of trial and error which must have been crucial in shaping Trans into an established alternative community. Such an account would have contributed greatly to making her lively sketches even more realistic and genuine. What’s more, focusing mostly on its intellectual productivity and heterogeneity that derives from its unrivaled interdisciplinary study methods, Ko forgets to mention the judgments from outside the “Trans” on its academic products.
Can she be so sure that their products, unchained as they are from the worn out masters and their disciplines, are being celebrated only among a close circle of friends? It seems that Ko treats the readers to many bright visions, but some of them might become bored with this overdose of sweetness — unless it is balanced by some equally vivid realistic considerations.
In the end, however, this book deserves more applause than criticism. There is no doubt that Ko Mi suk has developed a rich field from out of the margins of existing academic society. To read her success story The Freedom that nobody planned out is also to share her sweet dream of a successful urban commune.
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