Forum From the Archives: R.O. Kwon Mines Complexity of Desire, Both Romantic and Creative, in ‘Exhibit’

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In her new novel “Exhibit” R.O. Kwon introduces us to Jin Han, a photographer in San Francisco who’s unsure if her transgressive infatuation for a ballet dancer activated a family curse, conjuring a ghost from her family’s past in Korea. Through Jin, Kwon explores the nature of desire — and why shame too often accompanies it.. Kwon says it’s as though she “made a list of boxes a person might tick to explain why a woman ought to be disliked, perhaps despised, and then, writing this novel, I filled in each box.” We’ll talk with Kwon about why women especially feel shame for the desire they feel for others or for personal creative fulfillment — and for not desiring motherhood. And we’ll hear about how she grappled with her anxieties and reflected on her politics while writing this novel. Guest: R.O. Kwon, author, "Exhibit" and "The Incendiaries"; co-editor, "KINK: Stories" the anthology Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:04.0	Coming up on forum, what would you risk to pursue your core desires?
1:08.6	That's a question writer R. O. Kwan explores in her new novel exhibit
1:12.1	about a San Francisco photographer who finds herself immediately attracted to a ballerina,
1:17.6	which threatens to upend her marriage. Quan's novel delves into queer lust, the nature of desire,
1:23.4	the power of shame. And Kwan admits, writing and putting the novel out into the world gave her panic attacks.
	...

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