If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
Wandering Ghost without face
A ghost wandering with the streams of sorrow’s salt fire billowed on her glass heart, shattered, changed forever, has no face because she knows not what face she has. She sees it beautiful, yet severe, bright but dark. No one wants to see her, and everyone decides to ignore her. She has become invisible, and by and by, she loses her face and thus becomes invisible as people want her to be. Just like her star losing the brightness of the fire, her spirit loses the luster of light. Alas, never to acquaint joy, footless to wander evermore.
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
I will abolish the At-Will Employment law so that the employer cannot terminate the employee at any time without notice.
I have seen people fired, and most of the time, it’s not because of the poor work performance of the employees but because of personal traits that collide with their supervisors/managers/colleagues, who appear to be all neurotypical.
Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times depicts how a man is treated as an expendable component of the systematic organization. We are neither AIs nor toy soldiers marching forward unquestioningly at the command of winding tape. Therefore, I will abolish this inhumane At-Will Employment law so that people don’t need to fear losing financial security and mental stability. It will decrease the increasing rates of homelessness and poverty.
I am all sweetness. I have sweet teeth. Too sweet to discipline, not to be sweet. My darling sweets are Gummies, and chocolates must have sweetness filled with flavors, preferably from Germany.
Of all gummies, gummy worms are the sweetest. I’m not too fond of worms, but strangely, I am charmed with gummy worms. Nothing macabre or carnivalistic is associated with ritualistic pleasure, but I like its flavor, which tastes particularly delicious to be addictive. The gummy worms from Black Forest are the best. And I like the gummy worms from a market or a sweet store sold by weight. American gummies are the best.
As for chocolates, my love goes to Milka’s strawberry-filled chocolate bar and Lindt Sport Chocolate bars with flavors. Who says Godiva chocolates are the finest? They are overpriced and overhyped even though they are only chocolates. On the contrary, Milka and Lindt have democratized quality chocolates so everyone can enjoy the delicacy. I may be biased in my preference, but how can it be when it is an empirical opinion?
My sweet teeth may bear the consequence of my lifelong love affair with sweetness, but I will not forego it to wear a prim and grim face of being freakishly healthy. Because without sweets, the world will be drab and dreary. And I don’t want to grow old without the sweetness in my soul.
Ad Astra (2019) and The MArtian (2015) from L to R
I know a thing about loneliness: willing and unwilling. It is lovely when it is mixed with white noise, like the sounds of raindrops or bells tolling afar. But too long quiet becoming dead silence unwanted is dreadful and miserable, as if I were forcibly cut off from the rest of humanity. That’s what happened to the spacemen on Neptune in Ad Astra (2019 film) or Mars in The Martian (2015 film) in their fated space odysseys.
Fall from heaven and the man in search of life
Ad Astra shows Major Roy McBride (played by Brad Pitt) is a cinematic version of Classical Greek drama. Roy is a hero because he has conquered his fear of not being true to his sensitive nature. It is also an epic tale of man’s voyage to the end of the world in the sense that he reaches his ideation of dream in truth. One of the most memorable scenes is when Roy falls from the ladders of the International Space Station’s spacecraft to the Earth, a spectacular rendering of the Fall of Man from high to low. Still, it also means an escape from darkness to light, which the Blue Marble symbolizes.
Left Alone On Mars
If Ad Astra is sentimental, the Martian is jovial in approaching a man in solitude. Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is a resourceful botanist who makes the possible out of the impossible. His brilliant mind, blended with his adorable wit tipped in cheerful disposition, propels him to survive on Mars and never surrender to hopelessness. Watching Mark growing potatoes on Mars and telling jokes to the camera to cheer him up reminds me of Horace Walpole’s following quote: “This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.” Charlie Chaplin adapted thus: “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”
Miss Universe
Man in space seems romanticly adventurous and mysteriously atmospheric. Still, it is a metaphor for being alone, the existential distress with no sense of direction in life with no one to speak to but the sound of silence that echoes loneliness aloud. Yet, those moments of darkness will pass if you let them go away with the will to live. Indeed, Matt Watney is brilliant in figuring out how to live in such an adverse environment, but he would perish soon without his will to live. So is Ron, who could have been lost in space had he given up to disappointment. They are Nietzschean superheroes who have whys to live and thus huddle through any hows. Also, nothing is more beautiful than Earth, sparkling like a gorgeous blue marble. Therefore, there is no point in war, conflict, or any unrest among ourselves because we are all family in Humankind in the universe.
These days, I’ve been wondering about my living in the two centuries (OMG, do I sound like a centenarian? LOL). Would it have been the same for those living in the 19th and 20th centuries? I bet it would have been nothing like my generation – the Lost Generation- the children of the 1970s Children – because we have witnessed the birth of the Internet and learned to use and enjoyed the privilege of incredible modern technology.
The offspring of the Internet comes in the form of Kindle, Music, and movie streaming, not to mention AI Personal Assistant Alexa. Kindle is impressive, although many people grimace about it as if it were beneath traditional books and thus unfit for their intelligent taste. Like YouTube, it has popularized the use and habit of reading everywhere, even in darkness. It will die out without batteries, but with it, knowledge and wisdom from time immemorial till today is stored. It is a compact Library of Barbel in my palm, even in my tiny apartment.
The Internet, however, is not a 21st prerogative because it has already existed in the military world. It was used in military defense for a long time till it became the convenience of civilization. I believe many other technological wonders have been unknown to the public. Who knows, there will be cars that do not require a Driver’s License because they will be auto-piloted. And what about changing faces like the one in the Mission Impossible series? What was once thought of as sorceries are the manifestations of science? Alexa is a ghost in the machine or the spirit of the AI. Maybe.
Describe your most ideal day from beginning to end.
I want to say my ideal whole day is traveling, hiking, getting together with families or writing and reading profusely. That’s what people think the ideal response should be, or it may seem so. But my ideal day is anything but the ideal, far from glamorous, but existential and small.
My ideal day would be free from duties and obligations as a Daughter and an Employee at home with my cats. That said, my ideal day lasts from Friday evening till Saturday evening, during which I don’t have to do anything but watch movie after movie with intermissions of playing with my babies. It will be perfect if it is raining during the pleasure time, but it has to be when I am home, not outside.
Ancient Germanic tribes would drink barrels of beer during the lull in battles with the Romans, according to Tacitus. So, this is my way of unwinding the overdosed adrenaline in the mind and spirit.
Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh 
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