I would bow to no one in my admiration for Yeonmi Park . . . if her story is true. But when I read her incredible essay of poverty, starvation, and abject slavery under the cruel Rocket Men of North Korea, her dramatic escape, horror after horror visited upon her and her mother, reaching the Promised Land of America, and instead of waitr…
I would bow to no one in my admiration for Yeonmi Park . . . if her story is true. But when I read her incredible essay of poverty, starvation, and abject slavery under the cruel Rocket Men of North Korea, her dramatic escape, horror after horror visited upon her and her mother, reaching the Promised Land of America, and instead of waitressing in Koreatown, she rubbed elbows with more famous people than Forrest Gump? She received invitations to the Met Gala and other enclaves of the rich and elite, and kept receiving them even after embarrassing them with her speeches? How did that happen? She's fluent in American English when North Korea forbade such an education? And she consumed ONLY those mainstream media outlets that could serve as the perfect setup to her conclusion that The Elites Are Preening Scum?
I hope her tale is unembellished, because I WANT her to be one of my heroes. But what came to mind when I finished her essay was not "OMG how do I support her cause," but "Jessie Smollett meets Stephen Glass."
Do any of you know if her story has been thoroughly vetted by, ideally, someone who would take great delight in proving her a fabulist? Or are we taking only her word about everything she says happened? I genuinely do not know if she's truthing or fabulating, so help me out if you can.
I would bow to no one in my admiration for Yeonmi Park . . . if her story is true. But when I read her incredible essay of poverty, starvation, and abject slavery under the cruel Rocket Men of North Korea, her dramatic escape, horror after horror visited upon her and her mother, reaching the Promised Land of America, and instead of waitressing in Koreatown, she rubbed elbows with more famous people than Forrest Gump? She received invitations to the Met Gala and other enclaves of the rich and elite, and kept receiving them even after embarrassing them with her speeches? How did that happen? She's fluent in American English when North Korea forbade such an education? And she consumed ONLY those mainstream media outlets that could serve as the perfect setup to her conclusion that The Elites Are Preening Scum?
I hope her tale is unembellished, because I WANT her to be one of my heroes. But what came to mind when I finished her essay was not "OMG how do I support her cause," but "Jessie Smollett meets Stephen Glass."
Do any of you know if her story has been thoroughly vetted by, ideally, someone who would take great delight in proving her a fabulist? Or are we taking only her word about everything she says happened? I genuinely do not know if she's truthing or fabulating, so help me out if you can.