Why can't water and oil mix?

by Kim Yu-gon

It was in a literature seminar when I first met Kwang-ho and Kwang-sob. At that time, we were discussing the traditional attitude to sex in D.H. Lawrence's novels and they were in disagreement with it. And even recently such a disagreement between them has been continuing. Whenever I see them discussing something disagreeable, I wonder why they always can't be in agreement. Consequently, I believe that the fact Kwang-ho and Kwang-sob are as opposite as oil and water in their favorite book, movie and music shows that they may have difficulty in sharing their ideas with each other.

The difference between Kwang-ho and Kwang-sob in their favorite book can show that they may be not able to be in agreement if they argue about what kind of book we should read. Kwang-ho love to read something imaginative and romantic so that he has a passion for poetry and especially he loves such "love lyrics" as Elizabeth B. Browning's poetry. He says, for instance, that her masterpiece, "Sonnets from the Portuguese," is his favorite one not only because he can feel the author's ardent love but also he can dream of his future's lover from reading it. While Kwang-ho gets a lot of pleasure from the poetry, Kwang-sob likes to read something scientific and realistic so that he is fond of reading science magazines. Whenever he has some time to have a rest, he prefers to read such magazines as "The National Geography" and "Newton" and the like. For example, he tells me that among such books he adores "The National Geography" because he can see the real world instead of imaginary world just like poetry. Therefore, we can see that how different they are in reading books, which may shows that they might not be of the same opinion in argument about book we should read.

In addition to knowing that Kwang-ho and Kwang-sob are have different tastes in reading books, there is an another difference in going to the movies. If they argue about which kind of movie to see, they might be conflict with each other. Kwang-ho prefers to go to such romantic movies as "French Kiss," "Love Story," and so on. For example, he saw the "Love Story" more than 20 times. Reason for that, he says that while seeing the movie he feels as if he fell in love and senses how beautiful the world is. In contrast, Kwang-sob is very keen on such action movies as "Terminator," "007" and the like. He tells me, for instance, that the most favorite movie is the "Terminator" because he can have fun watching the hero's revenge for the devils. And he says that whenever seeing the movies, he feels how messy and cruel the real life is. Considering that they might have difficulty in choosing movie they want to see, there might be difference of opinion between them.

Besides knowing that they are different tastes in reading books and seeing movies so that they might have difficulty in going along with which books and movies to choose, I can show you how different they are in their favorite music. If they have an argument about which kind of music to listen to, they might be out of tune with each other. Kwang-ho is very attached to the classical music such as Bach, Beethoven and so on. For example, he always try to go to the classical music concerts as many times as possible. He says that his favorite music is Beethoven's piano sonata no.8, "Moonlight" because it's very delicate and subtle so that he feels as if he was in the pale moonlight. Moreover, he himself can play the music with the piano. In contrast to Kwang-ho who love to the delicate and subtle classical music, Kwang-sob is almost crazy about Rock. Especially the extremely nosy "hard-rock" is his great passion. He tells me, for instance, his favorite one is Seo Tae-ji's recent music because it seems to be very strong and simply understandable to him. Consequently, we can say that they might be in disagreement with choosing the music because their favorite music contradict each other.

Kwang-ho and Kwang-sob might have difficulty in sharing their ideas of books, movies and music because they have different tastes for them. For that reason, you can say they also might be in conflict with something other in the future. I believe, however, such an idea might be wrong because they still have a good relationship with each other even though they are always disagreement about something they argue. Hence, I can say, "oil and water do mix."