Love that enables imagination
Imagination that enables such love. A man and a woman appear. Not the adnominal 'han' but the pronoun 'i' - a relationship that can only be 'this' person. Such people exist. One might call it fate, or simply dismiss it as a couple, but the two protagonists in the novel, 'Gu' (the man) and 'Dam' (the woman), seem to deviate slightly from the scope of that word. They are like a palindrome, forever bound together, circulating the circumference of a circle. They experience coincidences and misunderstandings created by others, but the two points on the curve of life share the same orbit, so their destiny must also be the same, and they somehow meet. Some might call such a relationship relentless, while others might call it perfect love. However, tragically, tragedy suddenly befalls them at such times. The death of a loved one, the undeniable end of life. The novel begins with such a tragedy. Finding the corpse of a loved one, reconfirming extinguished love. Sitting beside Gu, who lies dead on the street, Dam's low voice, speaking to him, is imbued with the empty solitude that only the grieving can possess. Her unfocused gaze seems to look upon an unreal landscape rather than reality. Amidst all this, she eats. She begins to slowly eat a part of the dead man's body. Is it unconventional? It focuses on the reason why she must eat, rather than the act of eating itself. For her, the present is death. Therefore, she can only focus on the past. Didn't they say that the hearing of the dead remains for a while after the heart stops? She whispers to the dead man. What is a person? Am I a heinous criminal or a psychopath, or a demon, a barbarian, a cannibal? Who am I? She whispers into the dead man's ear that she cannot fully fit herself into any category. She merely eats you, you.
The novel speaks of the present, but time has already stopped with the death of her lover, and everything the narrator, she, monologues is solely the past she shared with the person she loved, now residing in her mind. The novel slowly returns to their past. She stays in the past while eating. Eating him would be eating his time and swallowing their entire past. A ritual. A courtesy that the living can offer to the dead. By eating him, she performs a ritual. Tragedy cannot be prevented. Tragedy is something that touches a certain essence. Therefore, she can only believe in this ritual she is performing and thinking. Thus, she completely chews him and swallows him into her body. Only then can he live within her, not truly dead.
One can only call it love.
This intensity, too, must be love. Such love is placed at the center of someone's life. The centrifugal force of life cannot fling them away. They are squarely at the center. One might call it a tragic fate. One might curse them as unbelievable people. But these two people are no different from us. Perhaps they are Gu and Dam, who are near us, living ordinary lives and having ordinary loves. This novel is not a story about extraordinary love. It is no different from the very love we have seen and experienced countless times. Imagine our expressions after the life of a loved one ends in reality. How prepared are we? For loss. For being left behind.
* Eunhaengnamu 'Novella' is starting anew as Eunhaengnamu 'Series N°'.
The Eunhaengnamu Novella series, launched in 2014 and having published 13 volumes until 2016 before a brief hiatus, is now being republished with a new name and works by young authors who represent this era. 'Eunhaengnamu Novella', a series of novellas ranging from 300 to 400 pages by authors such as Bae Myung-hoon, Choi Jin-young, Jung Se-rang, Ahn Bo-yoon, Hwang Hyeon-jin, Yoon Yi-hyung, and Moon Ji-hyeok, breathed new life into Korean literature. Building on that spirit, the baton is now being passed to 'Series N°', a collection of full-length novels by young authors actively working in the contemporary Korean literary scene. Along with these three new works (Park Moon-young, Jang Jin-young, Hwang Mo-gwa), re-covered existing titles (Choi Jin-young, Yoon Yi-hyung, Hwang Hyeon-jin, with others to follow sequentially) will be published simultaneously, and works by Seo Yi-je, Jang Hee-won, Han Jung-hyun, Jung Yong-joon, and Jung Ji-don, each with their unique individuality and imagination, are planned to be showcased. We ask our readers to join us in this endeavor to complete a new map of Korean literature with the precarious and infinite coordinates found in literature.