After finishing with the material in the appendix you can jump back to the main text, and then jump back again to the appendix at the end for further reference on another topic you may have come upon in the main text. This book can, then, be read in a continuous cycle. In a word, this is a format which has no beginning and no end.
We have often seen displayed in museums the earthenware crock, or a pair of shears, inherent parts of the Korean's everyday life. The crock, the shears, and every other item we see in the museum are individual symbols of an inclusive code which defines culture in one way. Through that thick glass, though, we can only look at these objects. We cannot stick out our hands and touch them. Those shears, alone there on the other side of that glass, can not cut even the softest fabric, just as we, on this side of the glass, cannot come close to scratching the surface of the cultural code which they hold inside.
This book, yet another star in the constellation of earthen crocks and shears—and kites and coins and all those other objects which fill our daily lives—is a decoded conversation with the co-inhabitants of its constellation.
Lee O-Young
Contents
6 Scissors and Their Country Cousin
10 An Intimate String Instrument
12 The Egg Crib
19 The Luster of Lacquer Inlay
23 Paddy Paths
24 Laundry Bat: The Cudgel Tamed
33 Rice Chest, Heart of the Home
34 Rice Cake, an Event in Itself
36 Letter of Unity and Continuity
44 Elemental Doors and Windows
