Shaman Seoul
By David Kim
i was recently with a rock diviner all day talking about...well, rocks. this shaman was really into rocks. that might be kind of a archaeological thing--to dig rocks. but nowadays, it's philosophy--or inspiration--or fetish. i suddenly remember that song by U2 called 'elevation.' well maybe 'remember' is the wrong word. we remember songs like new year's day--we put members together in a kind of symbolic act--we dismember the same way in surrealistic act that is much more satisfying--the andalusian dog. slicing up eyeballs. it's a cheesy art school film. but i am still drawn to it. fragmentation is the secret sharer. the heart of darkness is a slice of ghostliness. when marlon brando did his snail monologue, that was all about fissures. its all about cuts....and cutting. i don't particularly like U2 anymore--too religious. pop.
so anyway, all is quiet on new year's day, etc. but i digress. archeology and 'elevation.' lara croft and fantasy. we see her marvelous body and she takes us higher--above the dirt. which is kind of strange. lara croft is one of the uncanniest characters--sex and artifact combined. well maybe not so strange--just a bit of stone henge filtered through freud--things--we become a thing to break the catastrophic spell of things.
this shaman who i met, today, she likes me, but she is kind of skittish on the phone. mrs. pak said, "we've said everything we have to say." i had spoken to her many times, you see. she was growing saturn.
it was like i was breaking up with a minor girl friend--a slight of hand--so of course, i persisted, having nothing to lose but my fate. i needed more.
"i am a addict---i fuck ghosts!" --- secret sharer, see?
so i gave her a box peaches--they are in season. ripe and camel-toed. she then proceeded told me stories about phallic stones that sparkled to her in the midst of muddy waters--"gae-si"--during a shaman trip to the mountains. she deciphered them like they were some jade keys. alas, it's all about jade, metallurgy or glass? i am not sure. but i am certainly puzzled.
like a diamond jig that can cut through glass and metal. cut through the concepts, i sneak a peak at my electronic dicrionary--"gae-si" i discover, means revelation.
this conundrum--am i supposed understand the secrets of jade? the shaman then proceeded to tell me that jade cuts through stones like the lines in your hand. i wonder, can i extend that line....live a bit longer. the razor bleeds...palm reading. fuck, bro, i'll cut that line to my ass hole.
the shaman laughs. "you have all the power." lies. she is humoring me.
she digs dreams and dreaming. so i shared my knowledge of very little, and said, "thank you berry berrry ,much."
she very much enjoyed the peaches. that is how one relates to people that speak to the dead--through tasty peaches. they were not ripe. so i told her to eat them in a few days. she said, "come back whenever you want."
the next time i'll bring grapes.
David Kim is an anthropologist living in Seoul, Korea.