Holy Twisted Fate Batman, We're in a Boat!

So 60 or so fans fainted over the weekend at the Big Bang concert. I am trying hard to figure out why. I mean, I guess I can kind of see how fans get so enamored by stars that they feel as if they are connected to them in some way, but I don't see Lady Gaga's fans mailing period blood stained notes to her, or fainting at her concerts simply because they see her. This reminds me of a very special episode of 'Will & Grace' when Jack finally is exposed to Kevin Bacon as Kevin Bacon's stalker. In America, stalkers may be thought of as scary contraptions of people, but compared to Korea, a stalker is a welcome sign of relief. We think paparazzi is evil; nothing quite prepares anyone for a rushing onslaught of teen girls (and in some cases boys). Stalker culture in America takes a backseat to fan culture in Korea. Regardless, though, I'm still trying really hard to figure out why 60 fans fainted. Are their lives so void of meaning outside of Big Bang that they are affected by simply the presence of the star? I went to the concert over the weekend, and interestingly I was not the only guy there. To me, it looked more like a party than a pop concert, and Big Bang treated it more like a party than a pop concert. I've also been to a DBSK concert where I saw fans fainting and being carried out of the stadium. Either way, the way Korean fans attach themselves to their stars by all accounts is psychologically, and now physically, unhealthy.

In other news, I would like to know who exactly are the 'Korean netizens'. My impression of netizens, from back in my heyday as one living in America, were the otaku guys with too much time on their hand. Case and point: comic book guy from The Simpsons. But in Korea, I think of Korean netizens as synonymous with these fans, because that's where most my interests lie. But here we are, in the year 2010, and we are talking about how Korean netizens are angered over how one of the Japanese girls (Rie Akiba) from that retarded foreign girls talk about how to get guys and how beautiful they are and how idiotic and absent minded and blah blah blah (obviously I harbor some distaste for this show and its foreign girls), how she was asked about Korean politics from a Korean newspaper and her answers were apparently not all that savvy. First of all, what is a Korean newspaper doing asking a Japanese girl from a TV show about Korean politics, especially Dokdo? I mean, it's like Jerry Springer, because you know that these 'Korean netizens' are going to take anything she says and overreact, because that's what 'Korean netizens' do. To be honest, her answer was nothing special, and she was quite careful to avoid the big ass hole that is Korean politics, but she still managed to anger Korean netizens. So this begs the question, who exactly are Korean netizens, and why do they care? Are they so invested in what some Japanese girl on some retarded TV show says about Korean politics (who admits herself she is a novice to the field) that they are up in arms over it?

I feel as if no matter what anyone says about anything in Korea, Korean netizens, whoever they may be, will find some way to be angry over it. Korea, as I always have said, suffers from a Mommy problem because they find themselves always thinking they need to be on the defense because they believe everyone is out to get them: Korea is one big conspiracy theory. I mean even Mel Gibson is looking this way and saying 'I ain't touching that mess'. We all love Korea, in the way we love our crazy Aunt Harriet, but we don't always want to have to convince it that the world is not out to get it because that takes a lot of time and energy, and frankly, it never listens. I figure if we can start with entertainment, change that, then we can change Korea as we know it. I've learned something valuable, or completely pointless depending on how you view it, while living in Korea: Koreans, much more than any other people I've encountered, place more emphasis, value, and time/money/life in entertainment/pop culture than they do anything else. Sure, family values are important and loving God is good and all, but never have i witnessed such an affinity for television regularity, music influence, and all that is 'the entertainment world' than what I have witnessed here. Granted, Korea is significantly smaller than many of the other places I've been, and most people are concentrated in Seoul, but it is still quite something. I wonder, is Korea the future or the distant past?