Seoul Survivors (41 page)

I am deeply grateful to all those who nourished this book during its long gestation. From Canada, Alan Fern and Pat Vogt got me out to Seoul. In South Korea, Bhak J-Zzoo and Moon Kyung Sun opened many secret doors to the Hermit Kingdom, welcomed me into their hearts, and are ever-present in mine; Pascal Gerrard, Simon Kemp, Una Kim, Kaori Komura, David Lee, Julie Lee, Catherine Lupton, Chaeok Oh Asher, Glen Perice and Heather Scott also all stand at the source, along with J. Scott Burgeson, who published an early chapter in his cult 'zine
Bug
; Toby Benstead, Josh Schwartzentruber, Geoffrey Viljama and Michael David Yantzi of the legendary Mama Gold; the cyborg sculptures of artist Lee Bul, and the neon tracers of everyone who ever drank and danced all night at Azitoo and Sang Su Do. I also especially thank Scott, Julie and Chaeok for their kindness in correcting the often idiosyncratic Romanization of Korean terms in the first edition of the book; my many errors stemmed from “playing it by ear” in Seoul in the years before
Revised Romanisation
was published, and all howlers, of course, remain my own. In the UK, Susi Aichbauer, Elizabeth Ashworth, John Luke Chapman, Robert Dickinson, Hugh Dunkerley, Sarah Hymas, Simon Jenner, Kai Merriott, Aidan Norton, John O'Donoghue and Lorna Thorpe made invaluable comments on the novel-in-progress, as did David Swann, who heroically edited the whole manuscript one summer; Bethan Roberts, who so kindly helped me find Zeno Agency; and John Atkinson and James Burt, who freely shared with me their respective scientific and IT expertise (but cannot be held responsible for any warped results). I would also like to thank my Goldsmiths College MA tutors Stephen Knight, Susan Elderkin and Maura Dooley for their critical feedback; Thomas Dolby and his management company OpticNoise, who so generously gave permission to quote from “Europa and the Pirate Twins”; my agent John Berlyne, who looks out for me at home and abroad; and my then-agent John Richard Parker, who delivered me safely to the spectacular Jo Fletcher and her dedicated staff.