Book · 2019 · History
The Great Successor
The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un
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I'm shocked at how good it is and how much she figured out about Kim Jong-un that I'd never seen reported before.
Tommy Vietor · Pod Save America · Oct 2022 Listen at 40:23 What they say about it
- Reads and discusses book“how much she figured out”10
The best things said about it
And so I I want to lead this episode off by uh thanking a journalist named Anna Ffield, uh, who's the author of a really good new book that I just read called The Great Successor. Um, and it's a book mostly about Kim Jong-un.
The Great Successor has a pretty good writeup of what happened when things went off the rails. And it paints, I don't know, it adds a little bit of extra depth to our picture of Kim Jong-un.
At their compulsory weekly education sessions, people around the country were having messages drilled into them about the incredible feats of this young genius.
The 1970 edition of North Korea's dictionary of political terminology stated that hereditary secession is a reactionary custom of exploitative societies that was quietly dropped from future publications.
So, I'm going to quote again from the great successor. To bolster the case for hereditary succession in these challenging circumstances, the regime created a fantastical story about Kim Jong-'s providence that borrowed heavily from both Korean mythology and Christianity.
Even when he was eight or nine and still in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-un would stay up all night doing experiments with his machinery and insisting on speaking to some expert or another, even in the wee hours of the morning if he couldn't figure things out by himself.
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The Great Successor by Anna Fifield is a biographical study examining the rise and rule of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Robert Evans introduced the book on Behind the Bastards to launch his episode on Kim Jong-un and his family, praising the author's reporting and research. Tommy Vietor also discussed the book on Pod Save America, expressing shock at how good it was and how much the author had uncovered about Kim Jong-un that had never been reported before. Evans cited the work to describe North Korean propaganda regarding Kim Jong-un's childhood genius, the hereditary succession process, and the regime's creation of a fantastical mythology borrowed from Korean mythology and Christianity to bolster divine right. Furthermore, Evans used the book to explore the role of music and political propaganda in North Korea, shared an anecdote about Kim Jong-un's childhood fascination with machinery and engineering, and included an account of Dennis Rodman's visit to North Korea to add depth to the portrait of the leader.
Every mention
Robert Evans And so I I want to lead this episode off by uh thanking a journalist named Anna Ffield, uh, who's the autho… 9
Discussed
“According to the great successor, quote, "At their compulsory weekly education sessions, people around the country were having messages drilled into them about the incredible feats of this young genius.”
Discussed
“The Great Successor has a pretty good writeup of what happened when things went off the rails. And it paints I don't know, it adds a little bit of extra depth to our picture of Kim Jong-un.”
Recommended
“And so I I want to lead this episode off by uh thanking a journalist named Anna Ffield, uh, who's the author of a really good new book that I just read called The Great Successor. Um, and it's a book mostly about Kim Jong-un.”
Discussed
“So I'm going to read a quote from the great successor that talks about sort of how he goes about this process. The 1970 edition of North Korea's dictionary of political terminology stated that hereditary secession is a reactionary custom of exploitative societies that was quietly dropped from future publications.”
Discussed
“I mean there's a lot said in the great successor in particular about music in North Korea and about its role and like um one of like they they have particular songs that they use like when they were preparing Kim Jongun to take power there was a particular song called footsteps”
Discussed
“So, I'm going to quote again from the great successor. To bolster the case for hereditary succession in these challenging circumstances, the regime created a fantastical story about Kim Jong-'s providence that borrowed heavily from both Korean mythology and Christianity.”
Discussed
“According to the great successor, even when he was eight or nine and still in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-un would stay up all night doing experiments with his machinery and insisting on speaking to some expert or another, even in the wee hours of the morning if he couldn't figure things out by himself.”
Discussed
“Kim Jong- Nam's fading star also came from the fact that his mother spent most of her time in Russia rather than sucking up to Kim Jong- according to the great successor Kim Jong-un's mother on the other hand became a constant presence in Kim Jong-'s life as his favorite consort”
Discussed
“We don't really know anything about how he felt about them. Um we don't know how he felt about them fleeing for the United States. They in the interviews with the author of uh The Great Successor, they like reported being frustrated at the coverage of Kim Jong-un that they saw on TV in the States”
Tommy Vietor I'm currently reading a book called The Great successor the rise and Rule of Kim Jong-un it's by a reporter… 1
Discussed
“I'm currently reading a book called The Great successor the rise and Rule of Kim Jong-un it's by a reporter named Anna Fifield who covered the administration for us it's like I I'm shocked at how good it is and how much she figured out about Kim Jong-un that I'd never seen reported before”
