Blood and Ink: Revenge in Contemporary Fiction

They say that revenge is a dish best served cold and that it is sweet, but what about the flavors in between? It is sweet at times, with a hint of saltiness following close behind as you pucker your lips and swish your tongue around. Soon after, a sour taste comes out of nowhere before a tang of umami hits you at the end. The flavor varies from person to person, just as if seeking revenge in and of itself is morally correct. We’ve seen revenge in countless forms of media: books, movies, and plays. Each takes a slightly different approach to the concept of revenge and how to obtain it. The overarching question in the revenge genre is whether what is lost along the way is worth it. Matters of ethics, loyalty, and justice also come into play. My novel Blood and Water offers a perspective of what can be lost and gained when revenge becomes an obtainable option. Blood and Water serves as a different spin on the revenge trope in the literary genre as my inspirations, novels 告白 (Confessions), 去年冬、君と別れ (Last Winter, We Parted), and the famous Korean drama, The Glory, did. These works informed my novel by offering a variety of perspectives on revenge and carving new spaces and ideas for revenge tropes. I also focused on how the creators chose to navigate revenge through vignettes as a way to provide details on the main characters and their motives. As a whole, my novel seeks to explore moral ambiguity and its justification. From a structural point of view, my novel demonstrates how the narrative structure of revenge novels can be strengthened through the use of flashbacks and vignettes.