One of my other courses this quarter is Worldings with Cooppan, and the main topic we are going over is the idea of the network. One of our recent readings was Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, which is a dystopian portrait of a capitalist future, in which the country is basically run by corporations, and another plane of existence exists through the internet, in a place known as the Metaverse. One of the lifeforms that has appeared in this futuristic society is a "Rat Thing," and in class, we discussed how the  Rat Things are characterized more by what makes them not a rat than their one rat-like feature. "The body is Rottweiler-sized, segmented into overlapping hard plates like those of a rhinoceros. The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's. It must be the tail that makes people refer to it as a Rat Thing, because that's the only ratlike part - incredibly long and flexible" (Stephenson 94). Mandogi's case is that he is known for his personal decision to remain a temple hand rather than going out and creating an identity for himself in the world outside of the temple. So, networks function differently for the two.

Mandogi could be seen as a connection within a network, rather than a node, which the Rat Thing would be an example of. Whereas the Rat Thing gains its identity from all of the things which it is not but is compared to, I found that Mandogi, both before and after death, helped build a network. Mandogi's tale served as a form of inspiration for the other subaltern members of South Korean society at the time. But, at the same time, Mandogi can be seen as a node because the people he inspires are all connected by the idea of this one man, whose story reaches people on many levels because of his lack of solid identity.

In the same way that I question, "Why is it a 'Rat Thing,'" I wonder, "Why is it Mandogi?"