Seoul VillageS (free ebook)

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"A series of love letters to Seoul and its many alleyways" (The Korea Times) 

"서울과 서울의 수많은 골목길들을 향한 일련의 연애편지" (코리아 타임즈)

"Let's dive into the surreal world built by this urbanism enthusiast (KBS World Radio)
"열렬한 도시주의자가 지은 초현실의 세계 속으로의 다이브" (KBS 월드 라디오)

Now adapted into movies as 'Seoul Urban Legends'

I've walked through all of Seoul's 600+ neighborhoods, and you've come across a significant number of them in this excuse for a blog, but today, you're invited to my fictional Seoul.

Welcome to my 'Seoul Villages' ('서울 마을들'), a collection of 12 Seoul 'dragedies', among which 'Year Of The Dog', and 'Guisin-dong', and a few short stories initially published in French. Don't try to escape this ghost neighborhood, don't waste your energy tearing off that plant, and don't even think about catching Korea's most elusive shaman: you just can't shake off death. So let this fictional Seoul claim your soul.

 

=> download for free 'Seoul Villages' along with my other free ebooks 'on Google Play Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=LwHeDwAAQBAJ. 

 

=> (UPDATE 202204 - Now in French!) 'Seoul Villages' en Francais, egalement a telecharger gratuitement sur Google Play Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=Gc9qEAAAQBAJ, ou a lire en ligne sur Neovel.

 

=> (UPDATE 202305 - Now in Korean!): read / download "서울 마을들" for free on Google Play Books the Korean Edition (KR - https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=tke-EAAAQBAJ) or the Bilingual Edition English-Korean (EN-KR - https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dV6-EAAAQBAJ)

=> Check my website for my other books (NB y compris en français).

Your feedback and reviews are welcome (e.g. on Google Play Books, on Amazon, on Goodreads, on Neovel, on my dragedies website...).  

Stephane - April 2020

Seoul Village 2020
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter, follow me on Instagram.
NEW: download 'Seoul Villages', my collection of short stories (free ebook)

Seoul Villages, the map:

• Crossroads and forking paths - a foreword by Mr. Ho
• Seoul Village(s) - a foreword by the author
• Guisin-dong
• Year of the Dog
• de Vermis Seoulis
• Sweat dream
• Black Snow
• Korean wave
• Tchik!
• Comin'up next
• Seoul Metamorphosis
• (Alleyways – Ogin-dong, Autumn)
• Hunting for Kim Mudangnim
• (Alleyways – Sajik-dong, somewhen)
• Lexicon – Korean terms

 

'Seoul Villages' - Copyright © Stephane MOT 2013 - All rights reserved. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living, dead, or beyond those stages, is purely coincidental. www.stephanemot.com - www.dragedies.com

Year Of The Dog (free ebook)

Initially published in French 10 years ago ('L'Année du Chien' - 'Breves', 2007), 'Year Of The Dog' remains so far my only non-fiction Seoul 'dragedie', and the only one written from a foreigner's point of view. Yet it's not my first story featuring a dog - that would be 'Le regard d'un ami' (1979), where the narrator himself is canine. 

Which, as you'll see, doesn't make me humane.

I met this dog in Sanggye-dong, Nowo-gu, along Danghyeoncheon, long before Seoul upgraded it into a park. That streamlet also appears in my essay "Inhuman, all too human Seoul" (picture of an old timer who used to grow vegetables there).

Like for 'Guisin-dong', you can download this story for free (NEW - now also free on Google Play Books).

I hope you enjoy it, but welcome any comments (e.g. on dragedies website, on Google Play Books, on Amazon...).

Stephane - November 2017

 

Seoul Village 2017
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'Guisin-dong' (free ebook)

Here's a small gift for you: 'Guisin-dong', a short fiction I wrote a couple of years ago (part of my collection of  Seoul 'dragedies' in English).

Guisin-dong is not the kind of Seoul neighborhood you want to visit, but now you can download it for free, by clicking right here: Guisindong2012StephaneMOT.


Any comments and critics are welcome (e.g. on this site, on the Facebook page, on Amazon...).

NEW - now also free on Google Play Books.

Seoul Village 2015
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NB: also on dragedies, stephanemot.com.

The Interview (no, not that one)

As you well know, The Interview was eventually released on Christmas. But did you know that you could listen to it for free?

If you have one hour to spare, I invite you to listen to the conversation Colin Marshall and I had in a Seoul cafe a couple of months ago.

We both share a love for roaming cities and writing about them, but only Colin is blessed with an uncanny gift for maieutics, a truly clear mind, and a spellbinding voice. If you enjoy that interview as much as I did, praise him. And that annoying gibberish of mine? Don't try to put it on a hot summer day, a night unnecessarily shrunk by insignificant World Cup games, or even my Frenchness.

So take a cup of coffee, and come sit down with us.

"Notebook on Cities and Culture's Korea Tour: Shapeshifter with Stephane Mot"

• Colin's article: "Notebook on Cities and Culture's Korea Tour: Shapeshifter with Stephane Mot"
• The podcast of our interview (mp3)

Seoul Village 2014
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Interview in the dark

Interview with

Benjamin Joinau, "L'Atelier des Cahiers"

This short video interview (in French) with the publisher of 'Impressions papier hanji' was recorded in the middle of the summer and in the heart of Seoul (Seochon, Jongno-gu, my favorite neighborhood and Benjamin's new lair). I'm at my Bela Lugosi best, but this is about 'de Vermis Seoulis', haunting places, and the dark side of Seoul. 




Ce bref entretien vidéo avec l'éditeur d'"Impressions papier hanji" a été enregistré au coeur de l'été séoulite, et au coeur de la capitale (à Seochon, Jongno-gu - mon quartier préféré et le nouveau repaire de Benjamin). Ambiance sombre, mais il est question 'de Vermis Seoulis', de hantise, de fantastique, et du côté obscur de la ville.


See also / Voir aussi:

• "Impressions papier hanji" release (2011)
• "Impressions Papier Hanji" / Kindle" on Kindle, paperback (2012)
• L'Atelier des Cahiers

Seoul Village 2013
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dragedies and Seoul crumbs

My "dragédies" are now available on Amazon.com*.

What is a "dragedy" ?

You may have heard about "dragees", sweets you offer to somehow exorcise festive events - generally a wedding or a birth... dragedies basically and nonsensically announce death, which means they can be sweet and sour, sad and funny (my definition of humor being the ability to accept death in general and one's weaknesses in particular, in order to make life in general more acceptable, and one's existence in particular more bearable to others).

This excuse for a book proposes a handful of dragedies, and some definitions, along with a few Seoul crumbs which somehow fell into my lap or lens.

Worms in the city, books in the sky, trouble in the company... these 17 dragédies stretch over three decades and three continents :

- La mer amarrée
- de Vermis Seoulis
- Le Dévisseur
- Le regard d'un ami
- Brouillon
- La Bibliothèque de Babel II
- Neige Sale
- Paranoïa
- Etat de Grâce
- Nouvelles du front
- Le Salon de Lecture
- La Malédiction
- Comin'up next
- Si Paris m'était comptée
- Le blues de la grille
- Rendez-vous Rue Van Boo
- L'Année du Chien

Yup. That's in French. Or kindo. So luckily, it won't be as poorly written as these lines.

And oh. That's fiction. I mean both the book and this last wishful comment.

Stephane - Seoul Village 2009


* "dragédies (la mer amarrée et autres dragédies)" - ISBN:978-1449510916 - dragedies.com. Soccer nerds can still order my other book (also in French), "La Ligue des Oubliés, l'autre histoire du football" : "The League of the Forgotten / The Other History of Football" tells the tales of unlucky soccer players, personalities or events - they didn't even have the chance to exist.


see this post in French on blogules (VF)