Tuesday, May 01, 2007

DPRK IV

April 29th in the DPRK.....the GREAT highlight today was the mausoleum of Kim Il Sung. We found out later that we were the first American tourists ever permitted to enter this hallowed place!

One goes to a secret reverie away from the city...there are a myriad of buses who have brought in 500 women naval cadets, 1000 members of the peoples' army and so on...everyone looking very tidy...marching...resolutely...the nation seems to LOVE to march....the building is low lying and involves a tremendous amount of distance..it seems awflly important that everone be prepped for the holy occurence to follow. I walk a while and then revert to a wheel chair, thanks to the accomodating guide, Pak. It is fitted for butts from the DPRK (people on this side of the DMZ are said to be 27% smaller than people in the South)...at any rate when I squeeze my foul rear into the wheel chair I strain it...when I stand the chair adheres to my butt...it is all rather funny but seems to break the solemnity of the place.


One walks about a half mile and then gets on moving sidewalks....another half mile and then a turn and another...the music builds in crescendo...it is oddly reminiscent of the Miss America pageant if staged by The World's Largest Funeral Home. We eventually enter the penultimate room....we make little obeances...we are all terribly touched...then we enter the sanctum...there is Kim il Sung looking like a waxy Herbert Hoover.


The Koreans are so touched that they weep....we form into fours and stand for exactly 35 seconds on each of the four sides of the bier....we are all solemn ...we bow....a nice, gentle bow....as though were were bowing to a minor satrap in someplace like Cooch Behar.....we walk out (I being wheeled)....we go into a room of the treasures bestowed on the great poohbah...my favorite is an honorary degree from a spurious American university (I think it was "Kensington"... the zip code in LA was listed on the certificate). It is graustark, lala land, nuthaven. It is terribly impressive and believe me deMille could not have done better. One leaves more drained than revivified...and yet, for certain, these people of the DPRK have produced effects that the Medicis never dreamed of.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home