I wanted a short Asian book. so ofc as any sane person would do, I went hunting through Tokki's Goodreads. and was duly rewarded :3 I wouldn't call this a phenomenal book. I had no idea what I was even going into. it was short and the premise looked sweet. that was enough for me to pick it up. from the premise tho i did expect some philosophical grift that'd make me feel inspired about my dreams or show me hidden truths that'd help make life easier. instead, I ended up being shown the abject horrors of reality TT this was the takeaway from my reading of Silver Salmon's life: happiness shall come from conformity. very characteristic of the hyper-capitalist society South Korea is lmfaoooo. but honestly? I know perfectly well that conformity would fully end in happiness. But, and this is a huge but, only if I'd known nothing of the world. if I'd known nothing about my mother's pain at the hands of her in-laws and society, if I'd known nothing about the exploitation and abuse my dad went through, if I'd known nothing about how those old men who began touching me the moment I got boobs at age 10, if I'd just never learnt words like "misogyny" and "domestic violence", if only....... as they say, ignorance is bliss. being aware of all the things happening around me, having gained enough knowledge to notice even the little moments of injustice that usually go unnoticed and being unable to do anything about most of them — all of this means that I spend most moments in life in the agony of having known. conformity would have been so much easier without knowledge. but again, I've heard enough rural women gossip around to know that not having enough knowledge isn't stopping them from hating lmaooooooo.