6.14.2006
Welcome to North Korea
This guy's photos of N. Korea, which I found on Metafilter, provide a fascinating and somewhat frightening portrait of a culture that has has only partially modernized and has had little contact with the outside world. Monumental governemntal and cultural structures blend together with broken-down 1950s apartment blocks, and a sense of being closely watched haunts the narrator's and his guide's every gesture. Reading the captions, it's also hard to conceive of what it would be like living in a place that did not constantly and rapidly communicate with the rest of the world. People are in awe, for example, when they see a white person. If it wasn't for the constant threat of being spied upon and reported, the lack of technological and consumerist insanity might be kind of appealing. As a bonus you'd always get to look at statues of the fabulously nutty Kim Jong Il.
