Philip Martin, “Style” page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, recently reviewed a new novel by Michael Landweber, which Martin categorized as a “utopian fantasy.” Martin described Landweber’s The Damage Done as “about the end of violence, “at least the end of person-on-person physical violence” because “some mysterious force has made it impossible for us to hurt one another. A bully goes to punch the bullied and the fist loses velocity….Bullets hang in the air.” A dissident imprisoned for his attacks against “Dear Leader” “finds his torturers impotent”; “politicians wonder how they might continue to make war”; the Pope wonders if ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ is an obsolete commandment.”
Martin declares such novels to be rare. Dystopian novels “abound”; utopian novels, in which “something good happens to mankind,” are rare. So NW Arkansas has been given a rare gift in the writer and philosopher Cliff Mikkelson, whose novel The Krishna Kid in North Korea imagines the removal of a major source of anxiety regarding nuclear war: aided by many ranging from NK army generals to a beautiful young woman, Krishna Das peacefully rids the world of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
While Landweber posits “some mysterious force” for the miraculous transformation of our violent world, Mikkelson offers considerable details of the preparation of Krishna Das for his mission to persuade the NK people to reject Kim Il Sun, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un. “’The universe [Hwain, the One Spirit] has heard the desperate cries of millions of North Koreans who are suffering under the Kim family dictatorship,” and Krishna Das was “sent to show them how to rebel in a nonviolent, nondualistic manner.” He was taught this knowledge possessed by “the ancients” of the “mighty Spirit of the universe…within all of us,” called Juche, including the truth and power of miraculous healing, mental telepathy, dreams, and intuition which he demonstrates repeatedly and through which his authority is rapidly established. (The support of influential shamans and several army generals who secretly detest the ruling Kim family helps.). And he has come to NK to work “quietly” “until we have a million or more people willing to stand up…and put an end to this dictatorship.”
The rest of the novel traces the “nonviolent and nondualistic revolution to liberate the people of North Korea.” It is to bring comprehensive change—in agriculture, prisons, the military, the Kims’ “reeducation camps.” Their dictatorship falsely claims to be teaching Juche and collective organization: the revolution will teach the genuine Juche faith and practice of Socialism, and end the present cronyism, elitism, and repression. And from generals and army units in the major cities to the villages, work for liberation sped forward until General Lee declares a nationwide general strike for which all were prepared, for we learn that plans for the revolt began in 1998 when the population was starving and Kim Jong Il didn’t know what to do.
I didn’t mention the sub-plot. The novel also reflects the romance genre. Krishna Das meets a revolutionary young woman, Hee Jae, and they fall in love. Their last night together reinforces the main vision of political bliss, merging two individuals and two genres, the One Spirit victorious, before Krishna Das flies off to another country “to topple every dictator, tyrant, despot, and autocrat in this world who think they have the right to control the lives of millions of people.”
References
Philip Martin. “’The Damage Done.’ Depicts the Duality of Mankind.” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Section E (June 5, 2022).
Cliff Mikkelson. The Krishna Kid in North Korea. Self-published, 2022. The novel is the first in a planned “Krishna Kid” series.
Reviewed by James R. Bennett, Prof. Emer. UAF; Compiler of Peace Movement Directory, Control of Information in the U.S., Control of the Media in the U.S., Political Prisoners and Trials; and Co-Founder of OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology.