culture

Printed books still retain their appeal.

“E-books cannot replace printed books in arousing cultural emotions. To old people like me, reading a paper book is a course of appreciating culture. Printed books give us unique pleasure as they enable us to immerse ourselves in such an atmosphere and ruminate on their contents every now and then,” said Jon Kyong Ran living in Hungbu-dong of Moranbong District, Pyongyang.

The Art and Literature Publishing House publishes many books to meet the growing demand for printed books.

It brought out a collection of short stories Great Devotion on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the DPRK (September 9).

“There are more facts unknown than those known to the public about the devoted efforts of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il who dedicated their whole life to the good of the people and about the great dedication of General Secretary Kim Jong Un. Unable to suppress an impulse to tell about such stories to people, I have edited the collection,” said Kim Kwang Song, department head of the publishing house.

According to readers, the collection of 12 short stories makes a deep impression on them as it shows, based on historic facts, the world of burning love for the people of the great leaders and the General Secretary which is as vast as ocean.

A full-length novel Red Soul also wins popularity among readers. It portrays the struggle of underground political workers of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army who worked with Mt Madu as their base true to the all-people resistance idea for national liberation of General Kim Il Sung in the first half of the 1940s.

It grippingly depicts the course of confrontation between the underground political workers of the KPRA and head of a Japanese criminal affairs division dispatched by the government-general of Korea. Under the skilful command of the hero of the novel, members of the underground organization defeat the Japanese imperialists.

The other full-length novel Green Hill shows the struggle of unconverted long-term prisoner Ri Yong Gak, inspiring people to reconsider the meaning of faith.

In the novel, its author writes about faith as follows:

“If you have a spiritual mainstay to rely on, you can steadily go along the road of revolution without vacillation in the face of any difficulties, but if not, you will easily succumb to difficulties with no hope for the future.

“The unconverted long-term prisoners could have avoided the suffering of prison life if they said they would recant, but they followed the only road of holding in high esteem the Sun of destiny and faith for decades. Their images are the paragon of faith and conscience for us.”

Full-length historical novel Dawn of Koguryo (Parts 1 and 2) has also been read by many. It describes the struggle of the people of Koguryo (277 BC-AD 668), which was known as a medieval power in the East for nearly a thousand years, who turned out in the fight against foreign aggression to defend their national dignity and sovereignty in the opening years of the kingdom.

In addition, the Art and Literature Publishing House brought out dozens of other interesting books this year.