A review by misosoupcup
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense

4.75

Really nice short story collection. The book blurb describes this as genre defying, which i can see when you look at the entire collection hollistically as the short stories ebb and flow from horror, to urban myths/folktales/cautionary tales, fantasy, and sci-fi but I would say that all of the stories when read separately tend to stick to their respective genres.

Unfortunately, there isn't much analysis that I can find online about Cursed Bunny, except when it comes to the three titles, The Head, The Embodiement, and of course the titular Cursed Bunny. I really had to do a close reading of each one and also scoured youtube for any interviews with bora chung and anton hur to try and see their authorial/translator intent. 

  1. The Head is about a woman who discovers a head composed of all the things that she has dropped in the toilet (feces, toilet paper, urine im presuming, and hair). The Head desires that the woman continue to give her material in order for her to become a complete human being. There is a surreal and absurdist element to this story and the proceeding story The Embodiement. My interpretation:
    At the climax, the head becomes fully formed after many years of the women trying desperately to stop it from growing. Much of the description of the younger self emphasizes her beauty and health, which ties the two beings together. The Head/the younger self now embodies the woman/the old self's untapped potential as Chung makes it clear that the woman does not live a meaningful life. Her younger self rebels and flushes the old self down the toilet. The Head first calls the woman "Mother" and the woman is quite unnerved. The Head symbolizes a child, but perhaps an unwanted child as the woman despises it and tries her best to sabotage it's growth. Throughout the story, the woman is put under stress because The Head keeps following her: she quits her job, and thus relies on her husband to bring income to the house. She is not particularly attached to either her husband or her actual daughter as she is too preoccupied with the head. Before the climax, the woman now old, realizes the meaninglessness of her life as she peers at her reflection, 'gazes' at the tv (a passive verb) suggesting no intention in her life, and feels that there is a 'little odd space' in her heart. My conclusion is that Chung is exploring how Korean women pushed into more conventional roles as a wife, mother, and house wife is unfulfilling, and demonstrates this through the tension between the woman and the head.
  2. The Embodiement. In a Kafkaesque and absurd style, a woman gets pregnant without having sex. The story begins with the woman having an irregular and long period. She is prescribed birth control, but takes it for too long and becomes pregnant. The doctors tells her that she must find a husband to seed the egg, and be its father or else the baby will develop strangely.
    At the climax, the woman who has not successfully found a husband gives birth to a giant blood clot. She is blamed for her own pregnancy and the reason why the baby ended up as that. My personal interpretation is that the blood clot baby is a physical manifestation of the trauma that women have to endure in medicine, as she was not treated correctly. There are also real life parallels to how women who have been sexually assaulted and/or raped are treated in society. They are blamed for their own trauma by people in both the public and private sphere by their doctors, family members, strangers, and even the media as the woman has other strange and nightmareish encounters when trying to find a husband. I think there could also be a reading of how the reproductive labor of women is exploited in capitalist societies as the 82 year old chaebol tries to coerce her to be his wife/concubine in order to keep his empire afloat. Overall, the character's treat this experience as normal (thus the Kafka comparison) lending a strange reader experience in which we feel like victims being gaslit in a horrific and confusing event.
  3. Cursed Bunny. This is one of the more straightforward stories on top of being more discussed compared to some of the others so i'm just gonna stay silent on this one.
  4. The Frozen Finger. A woman is blinded by a car accident and forgets her memories. Another voice tries to lead her out of the car to find help. Before getting out she momentarily searches for her ring, and the voice finds it for her before they start their walk.
    The woman because she is in a scary situation follows the voice, and becomes increasingly worried as the voice begins to gaslight her. The story ends in a loop as she momentarily gains her sight back to see that the accident was caused by her past self colliding into her body. I found a great article from the translator Anton Hur. According to him the ring is an allegory of the patriarchal and heteronormative construst of marriage that leads to gaslighting, violence and abuse towards women. In his words, "patriarchy is an institution, institutions are systems, and systems are cyclical—they repeat themselves." On the translated title, The Frozen Finger in which he states that the finger in question is a phallic symbol of the patriarchy (aka. a penis), the woman is repeatedly killed by the finger(s) by a man who takes away her power through initial politeness which transitions into dread as he begins to spin lies to confuse the woman. The man is most likely Teacher Kim (the husband and cheater), and according to Hur the narrator is Teacher Choi who was married to him. However, I think it could be either Teacher Choi (wife) or Teacher Lee (the woman he was having an affair with) as he later reveals (or just states to try and confuse her) that shortly after Teacher Choi discovered the affair she committed suicide. It is possible that Lee and Kim were attending Choi's funeral and thus got in the accident. IDK this really confused me, but i guess whoever it is, it doesn't really matter as the message is the same.
  5. Snare. A fairytale made for adults cautioning the reader against greed. Fairytale framing in children's stories helps create safety in the narrative even when describing horrific acts (think of the Grimm Brothers). I have found the story to be reminiscent of the European fairytale The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg and Aespo's fable King Midas and the Golden Touch.
    The man loses his family because he cares more about the accumulation of his wealth than the well being of his family, which starts with the abuse of the fox until he kills it. He marries his wife and they have twins, a boy and girl. The boy is discovered to have the same magical properties as the fix who bleeds gold, but he must consume the blood of his sister in order for it to be gold. The son along with his father is allowed to abuse his sister by biting and drinking her blood, and eventually raping her when they get older. (It seems that the daughter like the son has inherited an unearthly gift/curse from the fox which is her beauty). The man's grandson is a literal "golden boy" who has inherited his mother's beauty and his father's feralness as he is found eating the body of a man he has killed. There isn't really an analysis as I found this one quite straightforward.
  6. Goodbye, My Love. Its like a combination of Ex Machina and Her. Themes
    Consumer capitalism, cultural fears around AI/robots whether be because it sits in an uncanny valley of machination and projected humanity, fears about surveillance and privacy, the cultural practice of disposing of women once they become "too old"
  7. Scars. Longest story in the book. I agree with a lot of other people who think this is the weakest link in the book. I initially really liked this one and I still do, but upon close inspection yeah, the collection would probably be stronger if it was snipped. Folktale vibes.
    Anton Hur said the subtext in the original Korean version is a story about sexual abuse. I also kind of agree with this reading as he tried to bring out the subtext more explicitly in his translation. Specifically for me a couple of lines. For instance, the sorcerer who created this ritual in the first place states that the best sacrifice is a prepubescent child. The boy/narrator's marrow is sucked out of him every month (?) by a giant bird referred to as "It", that plunges it beak into a new part of his body mostly on his spine starting near his pelvis to his neck, leaving the boy in pain each time and in some instances unable to walk. He escapes for a bit, only to be purchased and coerced to participate in a fighting ring (perhaps an allegory for sex trafficking??) before returning back to the bird who tries to "climb on his back" and proceeds to rip the boy's new tunic and trousers before It is killed.
  8. Home Sweet Home. Urban legend vibes. I wasn't particularly interested in this one. Themes:
    Gentrification? The reality of trying to live outside of capitalism (the husband)
  9. Ruler of the Winds and Sands. Fantasy, no explanation as this one is also fairly straight forward.
  10. Reunion. A lot of people's favorite. I also think this one is pretty straightforward. Also my fingers hurt SOOOO much. Very melancholic and quite somber. I agree with Anton Hur when he says that it is a relief to finish a sad story and return to your life which will continue differently.