r/bangtan Books with Luv | Beyond the Story: 10 Year Record of BTS – Chapter 1

## 13-20 / Big Hit Entertainment

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## Each in Their Position

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## The Battle for Razor-Sharp Dance Worlds Collide

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General comments:

I saw some people mention they weren’t a fan of the writing style, which is totally fine. I wanted to maybe provide some context, though, for anyone who might at all care. It may not have been as easy a read as other bios, but that’s because it was never meant to be some sort of juicy, tell-all memoir. What they were going for is an official record of the past decade of their career based on the members’ own stories as told through interviews. The writer felt a responsibility to tell their story without “speaking” over them. So as he’s constructing the narrative, he makes sure he’s building it around what they themselves have said. So anything he writes in between can serve to provide context to what the members say (their quotes), but he has to also be very careful not to provide his own interpretation or frame their quotes in a way that may be biased or leading. He’s letting their words speak for themselves. So anything he writes in between their quotes may seem “dry,” but that’s only because he has to walk this fine line of providing enough info so you understand the basic context of the quote without positioning everything under his lens/from his perspective, to make sure the members’ original intentions behind their words come through.

On a sillier note, I just could not get used to “hyoung.”

Some general thoughts –

* as someone just coming up on their 1 year Army-versary, this book has been really helpful in learning about the group’s history/backstory especially from the perspective and memory of the members themselves
* the QR codes are super helpful and it’s taking me longer to get through the chapters because I’m basically Namjooning my way through these virtual “exhibits”. There’s a lot of early Bangtan content i wasn’t familiar with or had just heard about/skimmed
* I *loved* the pictures on the first pages ! They’re a bit whitewashed, but their simplicity with the lines and their names was a stunning way to introduce the members and kickoff the book itself. Like, at its core, BTS is the members and this who they are.

I left all my notes about what I wanted to discuss at home, so I’ll come back later, but one thing I can’t get out of my mind is the image of Yoongi waiting outside BH until Pdogg came and dragged him in (I can’t remember which section it was…). I don’t know why but it just made me feel all mushy inside. Those kids had no idea.

Jin’s perspective in all this during this time was absolutely hilarious lol. “I was fooled,” got me cackling like a madman lmao. Then there’s his compulsion to cook because of Yoongi’s 🤢 smoothie. I know times get hard and you’re going through the struggle but that’s just too much. Bless this man for making it through lol.

I challenged myself with reading the Filipino version of the book first before reading the English version so only finished reading Chapter 1 now. I know this post is weeks old already but I do hope there would still be people willing to discuss things here. Shout out to bilingual people here who might also be like me, experiencing difficulty reading in our native language but have no problems speaking it.

I guess my takeaway for this chapter is that they really clarified that Bighit Entertainment wasn’t as small and unknown as most narratives I saw as a baby ARMY during the Butter era. Trainees trusted Bighit because of Bang Si-Hyuk, who had built up a name for himself due to his past connection with JYP, his compositions, and exposure on TV with talent search shows.

This chapter also managed to clarify some misconceptions I have heard such as Yoongi running away from home to become a trainee in Seoul, when in fact, his parents brought him there. It’s nice that at least some of the early lore has been set straight.

I feel a bit disoriented though with the repetitions in the narrative. I don’t know if that is just because of the translation, and things will get better when I read the English version, or if that really is the Korean author’s style. I felt like some paragraphs could have been condensed into one sentence since the thought had already been mentioned somewhere else.

Anyway, I’ll get back to this later after I’ve read the English version. Perhaps I’ll get a better understanding after reading that.