Cursed Bunny: Stories

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i am a weak person, but...i am physically incapable of having any opinions on this story beyond how disgusting it is. Bora Chung (born 1976) is a South Korean writer and translator. Her collection of short stories, Cursed Bunny, was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. Like the work of Carmen Maria Machado and Aoko Matsuda, Chung’s stories are so wonderfully, blisteringly strange and powerful that it's almost impossible to put Cursed Bunnydown.”―Kelly Link, bestselling author of Get In Trouble Goodbye My Love (안녕, 내 사랑) has a designer of artificial companions deciding it’s time to replace her first robot, and her one true love, although the androids have other ideas. The story is also noticeable for a reference to the uncanny valley concept - one that neatly summarises the collection. One of the most captivating short stories that describes the complex emotions of selfishness, greed, and revenge is titled, “Cursed Bunny.” The story is told through the lens of a grandson whose grandfather repeatedly tells him the story of a “cursed bunny.” The story revolves around a cursed bunny lamp that was made for the grandfather’s friend. According to the grandfather, his friend’s distillery company was ruined by a greedy competitor who spread lies about their drinks. The grandfather explains that “they claimed that anyone who drank [their drinks] would become blind, lame, or even fatally poisoned. Sales for my grandfather’s friend took a nosedive.”

RASCOE: Well, I mean, it's pretty much - it's the Frankenstein issue, right? Or Frankenstein's monster, right? Like, you create something that you don't have any understanding of, and then it terrorizes you because it's dangerous to create things you don't understand - right? - or to play God. There are big kernels of truth to the reality we live in inside of the stories, so it’s not like it’s trying to be this way on purpose. Chung’s prose is like a knife, something that is very precise and clearly carefully deliberated upon when choosing its themes and subjects. The very first story is about a head appearing in a woman’s toilet, and she treats it with blatant disregard. I only want so little,” said the Head hastily, “I’m only asking that you keep dumping your body waste in the toilet so I can finish the rest of my body. Then I’ll go far away from here and live by my own means, so please, just keep using the toilet like you always have.” CHUNG: I was 28, and I was bleeding for two weeks. I couldn't stand up. And the first thing my mom said was, no, you're not going to go see a doctor because you're not married. So that felt really strange, but that was very Asian. That was very, very Korean. And I think that stigma is still very well alive to this day, unfortunately. And my own doctor was very kind. She was very friendly, for the record, and I got a prescription. And my ovarian cysts went away with time. But if you just refuse to go see a doctor, it could be very, very catastrophic. So this is something that is happening to your body. And it's like having a toothache. Nobody tells you, you can't go see a dentist because you're not married. If you are alive and have functioning organs, then you should take care of that. It should be very simple. But because the question of pregnancy is attached to it, society just dumps all kinds of weird meanings to your organs. And I thought, well, I'm going to write a story about it. I have been wanting to read Cursed Bunny ever since I heard that it was coming out. How I specifically had heard about this one was that Anton Hur was translating it, and I really like Anton Hur’s translations.

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With the very real risk of being called a party pooper, a spoil-sport, old-fashioned and worse, I think Bora Chung's short story collection is bitter, sour, cruel, depressing, and yes ultimately evil. I took the first story seriously thinking that she was making a strong comparison between the haves and have nots - but by the end I was laughing because of the un-erasable image of that woman emerging from the toilet, with her wet hair hanging over her face - The Ring, horror film 2002 - anyone? Ok, so she's climbing out of a tv.

Finally, I want to congratulate the translator Anton Hur for having two of his works longlisted this year. Love in the Big City is the other one, which I also enjoyed.

New in Series

Cursed Bunny is a creepy good time with something for everyone if only you dare to enter Bora Chung’s nightmares. For those curious, her award winning story The Head can be read here. These sharp social critiques and eerie stories are so well balanced and so much fun, I certainly will be thinking about them for a long time to come. Especially on dark and stormy nights…