“A Snake That’s Eaten its Tail” by Lee Min-kyung / “꼬리를 문 뱀” 이민경 저
[Introduction]
In commemoration of Pride month, this month’s book is the essay collection “꼬리를 문 뱀” (“A Snake That’s Eaten its Tail”) by prominent queer feminist writer and translator Lee Min-kyung (이민경), published by Baume à L’âme (봄알람) in March 2023.
[About the book]
This book is a part-travelogue, part-queer feminist coming-of-age treatise centered around the author’s journey between France and Korea. In 2021, she was accepted into the École normale supérieure in Paris for a PhD. Since her thesis was related to race, gender and sexuality, readers should definitely be prepared for the fact that this is a bit of a heady read, with multiple tabs that get opened throughout.
The book is divided into 5 parts ranging from Korea to France and from 2020 to 2022. It starts with a brief introductory chapter set in 2022 in France, and then goes chronologically forward from 2020 in Korea to her arrival in Paris in 2021, and back to Korea in 2022.
[Significance of the title]
The title is based on the French phrase “le serpent qui se mord la queue,” which is a French idiom that refers to being stuck in a situation that is hard to escape because of contradictory rules or circumstances, or a vicious cycle that is hard to escape.
In a similar vein, this motif of intractable situations or vicious cycles surfaces throughout the book. Some of these are more concrete incidents from the author’s day-to-day life in France, such as dealing with incompetent bank tellers, infuriatingly slow service at restaurants, or mind-bogglingly inefficient bureaucracy.
She also explores the question of why women restrict their own growth, like a snake eating its own tail. Through references to the works of prominent feminist scholars, writers, and artists’ works, she ruminates on ways in which women can sever ties with that vicious cycle.
[Personal takeaways]
Personally, I loved the author’s reference to standup comedy as one possible means of liberation, as I personally do some standup and do believe it to be a powerful way to subvert or question the status quo.
Another thing I loved about this book was how vulnerable and honest Lee was in describing her growing confidence in her queerness, as it paralleled her growing French language skills.
One of the most memorable lines that reflected this was when Lee confesses:
“When I first started learning French, I had passionate relationships with women. But I was only admiring them from afar because I didn’t know what to do. It turned out to be similar to what I wanted with the language.”
[About Lee Min-kyung]
Lee was born in 1992 in South Korea. She is a prominent feminist writer, entrepreneur, and translator of English and French.
She graduated from Yonsei University’s Departments of French Literature and Sociology, and earned a master’s degree in International Conference Interpretation for French from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
Lee is the founder of Guerilla, a community space and shelter for women escaping from domestic violence based in Seoul’s Mapo district. She also runs a language school for women, where I occasionally take French classes. They also offer classes for English and German.
In 2016, Lee co-founded 봄알람 – based on the French phrase “baume à l’âme.” It means “ointment of the heart” or “rest of the soul” in French. She says she chose the name because at the time of the Gangnam Station murder case in May of that year, many women were hurt and exhausted, so she chose a name which she hoped to be a source of strength and comfort to women to keep moving forward. The Korean name also sounds like “Spring Alarm” – that is, an alarm that announces the arrival of spring.
Her first solo published work was “우리에겐 언어가필요하다: 입이 트이는 페미니즘” (“We Need A Language: Open-Mouthed Feminism”), which was a response to the misogyny and gender conflict that emerged at the time of that tragedy. The book was so popular it’s known widely by the abbreviation “입트페.”
Lee was one of the pioneers of the feminist movement here, which includes the “Escape the Corset” campaign and her personally coming out as queer in 2020. She’s also extremely popular for her email newsletter “Love in the COVID era” which has more than 2,000 subscribers.