How a sea of self-help books deepens Korea’s intellectual
vacuumBy Jung Min-ho
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Kim
Mi-kyung, author of self-help books, “Dream On” and “Biting Remarks from
Your Elder Sister,” and host of the “Kim Mi-kyung Show” on cable network
tvN | Have you ever met anyone who has
realized their dreams through self-help books? You may have, though it is
probably not the readers; it must be the writers.A recent
plagiarism scandal surrounding self-help writer Kim Mi-kyung’s master’s degree
at Ewha Womans University has been inadvertently leading to questions on whether
such writers are qualified to teach anyone anything other than writing popular
self-help books.For a person who advises others for a
living, the way Kim responded to the accusations was woefully ill-advised. She
admitted that some parts of the disputed thesis were cut-and-pasted from her
older studies but claimed that was acceptable because academic standards were
more lax at night courses. Ewha probably isn’t
pleased.“Often the people giving all this advice have no
credentials whatsoever to be doing so. They get a hot idea and with the help of
some agent and publisher they rush it into bookstores. Very few if any of these
self-help regimens have been tested or validated,” Steve Salerno, an author of
the book, “Sham: How the Self-help Movement Made America Helpless,” told The
Korea Times.“So we're making major life decisions based on
advice from people who in most cases are no more qualified to give that advice
than your gossipy aunt or your auto mechanic.”According to
Kyobo Book Centre, Korea’s largest book store chain, self-help books sold a
record high of 466,300 copies last year, up from 235,613 in 2009, and the number
is only expected to swell this year with such books cementing their positions on
the bestseller list.Kim, 48, who hosts the “Kim Mi-kyung
Show” on cable network tvN, had landed two of her self-help books, “Dream On”
and “Biting Remarks from Your Elder Sister,” on the list after her recent
televised lectures catapulted her into national stardom. However, following
media reports that she copied and pasted other people’s thesis for her own
without properly citing them she decided to leave the show with a growing public
disenchantment.“I think all self-help books are basically
the same with different covers,” a 27-year-old jobseeker Kim Kwang-il said.
“Through the books, the authors justify their success, promoting the message
that their ways will also work for others.”Sandra K. Dolby,
professor of American Studies at Indiana University, said most self-help books
are rhetorical essays that rarely use controlled research methods to accumulate
the information they share with their readers.“I do not
mean to appear cynical, but I do think many writers are in it because it is a
fairly easy way to make money without taking the time and effort to do the hard
research that would make their studies more convincing to social science
researchers,” Dolby said.Then, why are self-help books
selling so well?Salerno said economic recessions and the
general instability of modern life is what drives people to buy the books,
noting that “The more desperate people feel, the more vulnerable they are to
self-help.”“Self-help preaches the idea that you can take
full control of your life and basically rearrange life to your liking. It's an
appealing message to people who feel lost, and even if they know at some level
that they really can't fully control life, they still like reading about it and
fantasizing.” Salerno noted.Seoul National University
professor Kim Ran-do is another author who has made a fortune out of selling the
book, “You are Suffering Because You are Young.” Since it was published in 2010,
over 2 million copies have been sold.“The book is nothing
but an anti-depressant,” Korean Publishing Marketing Research Institute
President Han Ki-ho said. “It provides absolutely no solution for young people
who are struggling with unemployment as well as many other issues in this tough
economic situation. But apparently, the pep-talk was sold very
well.”Han said he saw pop columnist Kim Tae-hoon talking
about the same messages from the book on television one
day. “There is nothing new. The messages were just
delivered differently; one wrote them and the other said them,” said Han, noting
that the “healing trend” is nonetheless expected to continue for the next three
years.For others, the book is not even
convincing.“The only time author Kim Ran-do was ‘hurt’ was
when he failed to pass the Public Administration Examination after getting into
the nation’s best college when the college entrance rate was less than 30
percent,” a 22-year-old college student, who refused to be named, said. “And he
became a professor of the school after working as a part time instructor only
for two years. I do not think he is in a position to teach anyone about life,
especially the ‘hurt’ part.”The prevalence of self-help
books - and the highly individualistic solutions they advocate can contribute to
the notion that everyone ought to be out for their own interests without regard
to the broader social and environmental contexts, a publishing industry expert
said.“There is nothing wrong with selling anything legal to
make money in this capitalistic society. But the reason why I am especially
upset about such dream sellers is that they do not tell you what they are really
selling,” Kim Kwang-il said.
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