“It ain’t watcha write, it’s the way atcha write it,” wrote Jack Kerouac in 1962. He could be talking about calligraphy, which elevates the very act of writing. Long regarded as one of the highest art forms in Korea, calligraphic texts that span both millennia and social classes—works by monarchs, scholars, artists, and slaves—are on display in Los Angeles, a first outside of Asia. —J.V.