En-Uk and Sa-Rah: Squabbling Siblings or Arguing Artists?
My children appear to be competing for aesthetic honors, or perhaps sniping out of sibling rivalry, but I'll let readers judge. Here's one of En-Uk's latest artistic efforts, direct from his art blog:
He calls this artwork "My Home" and identifies it as the national flag of En-Ukistan! I had noticed him growing rather hegemonic around the apartment lately.
Sa-Rah, however, is not surrendering without a fight. Here's her effort, which she calls "Imaginary Creature Uk-En":
The drawing doubles as a homework assignment for her online homeschooling course in . . . uh, 'science', which also required a description of this imaginary creature and its special adaptations:
My imaginary creature is called Uk-En. It has a very big head compared to its long slim legs and arms. There are no male or female Uk-Ens. They are all neuter, and to reproduce they have to eat 50 kg of Danish chocolate and 30 kg of Swiss cheese, and when they digest and excrete, the baby Uk-En comes out. The baby Uk-En is covered with a hard brown layer that is a mixture of chocolate, cheese, and liquid vitamins that help the baby grow up immediately so that it can live on its own -- the parent gets stunned and passes away after seeing how awful the baby looks because it can't believe the baby is actually its own: the parent has never looked in a mirror.Everybody loves them . . . excepting their parents, apparently, who die of embarrassment! I'm beginning rather to understand that feeling myself.
All Uk-Ens work as models with its long skinny legs, and all the fat that they get from eating goes to their brain, changing into the brain energy that makes them extremely intelligent. This helps them stay skinny. Uk-Ens are extremely smart creatures that have also made a new standard of beauty. Everybody loves them!
I suppose that I ought to reflect well on all this . . .
posted by Horace Jeffery Hodges @ 3:18 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Does En-Uk know about the Uk-En? That's hilarious, and Sa-Rah's an extremely talented writer (as well as a talented artist in her own right).
I was especially charmed by her correct use of the colon ("can't believe the baby is actually its own:"). She clearly understands the colon to have a "왜냐하면" valence, i.e., that it's not merely used to announce the beginning of a list/series, or to be used as formal punctuation in the salutation of a business letter. Very few kids her age would get that. (Very few adults get this, come to think of it.)
Kudos to both kids. May they not kill each other (yet)! As for this:
"I had noticed him growing rather hegemonic around the apartment lately."
I saw En-Uk's recent "Shut up!" to you on his blog, and immediately thought back to my own childhood, where that expression was as punishable as a swear word. Is "shut up" generally permissible in the Gypsy Scholar household? How about the Korean "딱쳐," which is often used casually among friends, but which might make a Korean parent gasp in surprise (especially if-- unimaginable though this may be-- directed at a parent)?
Apologies if these are overly personal questions. No need to answer.
I'll have to let the kids answer some of your questions (maybe my wife, too).
The "shut-up" response by En-Uk is approved by me before he posts it, so it's more of a joke between the two of us there. I would never allow him to use it in earnest.
But he is getting a bit 'hegemonic' -- taking over my room at three in the morning to watch Korean soccer . . . along with Sun-Ae, also a fan (and fanatic).
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
You ALL get up at 3AM?
"Brava" Sa-rah, too! She will wind up a she-Dali! Has she got a website displaying her artwork?
No, the others are all in bed at 3 in the morning . . . usually. But soccer overrides sensibility, moving mother and son to temporary insanity, not chronic like mine.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Dario, Sa-Rah doesn't stick to one topic, unlike monomaniacal En-Uk . . . so no long-term website for her.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
unlike monomaniacal En-Uk
En-Uk, O my brother! I am a multi-monomaniac...
I can hardly wait for my wife and kids to see this post and these comments.
Maybe I'd better leave town . . .
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
I noticed that the Uk-En had a high, bulging forehead.
In the hill country of north Arkansas, people had a saying: "He (or she) daddied himself (or herself) by their features.
Uk-En came by this trait naturally.
Cran
Uncle Cran, are you implying that I'm also an Uk-En? According to the science of Uk-Ens, I ought to be dead by now!
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Thank you for your kind words, Kevin Kim. My dad taught me the use of the colon some time ago or I wouldn't know how to use it. He's very strict about grammer, so I naturally learned the uses of many punctuation marks . . . and more.
Thank you for the even kinder words, dhr. But I'm not really that good. Oh, and I'm sorry I'm not monomaniacal. :)
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