Writing is hard — especially fiction writing. Great literature must show commitment, a deep understanding of language, a sense of originality and, most importantly, it must become “a communist humanics which places the masses in the forefront as the strongest, noblest and most beautiful beings and must serve them.”
Welcome to Kim Jong Il’s Creative Writing Workshop 101. Please — settle in, don’t ask questions and simply nod in agreement as we walk you through everything you need to know to write the Next Great American, or as the case may be, Totalitarian-Communist Novel.
All these wise nuggets of North Korean knowledge can be found in Life and Literature, a 1986 book written by Kim, whose death on Dec. 17 of a heart attack took the world by surprise. If you’re working on your novel, you’re probably too busy to read Kim’s book. So here are the essentials from the man who considered “Rambo” to be one of the great films of all-time.