rust
The world is going to end anyway
A returning heart
Just before naming
Seonja's Miracle Study Method
warrant
We are the forest
After Everyone Disappears - Third-Person World

Commentary│In the world of anyway - Iso
Author's Note

We again misunderstand each other and think we know each other well.
Even a small misunderstanding can ruin a relationship.

In Gong Hyun-jin's novel, the family of origin is not a safe haven to which one can return at any time, but rather a trigger that makes the individual more anxious.
A family community that seeks to be united solely by religion, without any effort to build mutual faith or trust, alienates the individual and enslaves him relentlessly and cruelly.
When my older sister, who had returned home after five years, suddenly announced her intention to get married, the first thing my mother asked was, “Are you a believer?” (「Returning Heart」, p.
78) The image of Aunt Cho-hee, who lost her daughter, interfering with everything about her niece, ‘Na’, and obsessed with her religious life (「Power」) symbolizes an abnormal family that prays to God every day but does not communicate with each other.
That doesn't mean my sister and aunt were treated as hopeless by their family from the beginning.
Until she left home, 'Sister' was the pride of her parents and siblings, and 'Aunt Cho-hee' was the only person who could save the narrator from nightmares in place of her busy mother.
The novel ends with each speaker wishing for their blood relatives, who were like one body, to settle into their original families, but also feeling anxious that they will never be able to return to their peaceful daily lives.
In "We Are the Forest," the main thread of the family narrative connects with the previous two works, but it shows a clear difference in that the original family breaks down and a new family is born.
Left alone by their parents' suicide, the two sisters have no adults to protect them.
The neighbors keep quiet about the death of their parents, and the aunt who came from Haenam to visit the sisters disappears without being able to fulfill her role as guardian.
The younger sister, Miyoung, is getting thinner by the day, and the sisters are even tormented by objects that constantly talk to them.
But the young sisters, who were left without anyone to protect them, grew up in a house full of trash and opened a dumpling shop that they had long dreamed of.
With this, the Polly Pocket that she stole from her childhood friend, the light bulb that made her feel worthless, and the traces of her dead parents are all crushed and reshaped into something warm and soft, becoming the past.
The two become each other's protectors and become a new type of family, not just blood-related sisters, with a strong bond.
Gong Hyun-jin's novel, which questions the form and meaning of family today, shows how the false belief that we know each other well can lead individuals to ruin, and asks us what relationships truly matter in life.

Because I don't know you well
A heart that can believe, rely on, and support with all its might

The wounds inflicted by family members who believed they knew each other well can sometimes be healed by the unconditional support they show others.
In “Just Before Naming,” Seok-ju’s father says that Seok-ju “doesn’t have a job, isn’t manly, postpones military service, is a vegetarian, and has absolutely nothing to like about him” (p.
100) Commit violence.
Unlike Seok-ju, I, who eats meat and works as a temporary telemarketer for a travel agency, do not understand Seok-ju, who was cut even from the amateur band I created.
It's not just Seok-ju that the speaker doesn't understand.
From managers protesting in pink vests in front of companies that have halted operations since the pandemic, to students shaving their heads in protest against the commercialization of universities.
The speaker does not understand people who do not hesitate to act on what they believe is right even in situations where it seems like nothing will change.
But “Do you need to be qualified to have sincerity?” (p.
131) Seok-ju's innocent question makes me think that I should just completely support all of his actions without adding any more reasons.
If the speaker of "Just Before Naming" cheered on a friend he couldn't understand with only his feelings of love, "Mr. Seonja's Miracle Study Method" shows that even strangers can sincerely cheer and support each other.
Seonja and Jinah, who met in a nursing assistant certification preparation class, live in different worlds, but they study together, share their lives, and support and help each other with kind hearts.
The two people, who each have to support their father and husband, become friends who carefully watch over each other's daily lives and fill in each other's shortcomings.
When the water meter froze in Jin-ah's house in the middle of the night, the first person to come running was Seon-ja, and when Seon-ja was the only one to obtain a caregiver's license, Jin-ah asked herself, "Am I in a situation where I should be wishing and praying for someone's happiness?" and yet, "I wholeheartedly and sincerely wished Seon-ja well" (p.
171) We hope and support each other and move forward toward a brighter tomorrow.

The final work, "After Everyone Disappears - The Third-Person World," depicts the destruction of humanity through the last moments of humanity and the only remaining character, "Hana," while also showing the splendidly beautiful moments of human life.
While depicting humanity facing a situation from which there is no recovery, he asks questions such as “how can one love the world even knowing its end? How can one accept the destruction of the world and not be indifferent to the disappearance of others? How can one not deny the changed world and not be cynical?” (Lee So, commentary on “In the World Anyway,” p.
291) Gong Hyeon-jin's story of passing on the world tells us that we must look back on the world of the third person in a broader category, not just our own first-person world, until the moment we disappear.
Beauty exists in a world outside the mirror, and we live with countless others, so Gong Hyeon-jin's novels still have so many stories to tell us.
This is why the actions of a new writer who tries to convey love and courage with all his heart even at the moment of sinking deep into the water feel even more admirable.

Author's Note

Like the characters in my novels, I learned to swim in the back row of the beginner swimming class.
Standing at the back of the pool, I watched people moving forward.
The sentence, “The world is going to end anyway,” which became the title of the novel collection, suddenly came to me.
In the noise of the pool.
After that sentence suddenly popped out, I felt strangely better.
Fear and fear disappeared (a little) and courage (a little) emerged.
To be honest, when I was young, I was the type of kid who liked to be in front.
But now, I've grown into an adult who feels secure in what's behind him whenever possible.
The back was fine too.
I also made friends.

There was a time when I was wary of and hated the thought of carelessly using the word 'we'.
How are you and I us, why are we us, are we just us?
I used to go home hiding my harsh feelings towards someone who suddenly grabbed my hand.
But in the end, after going around and around, I end up saying the word "we."
Even though it's easy to say, I think there's nothing I can do.
Without finding any other words.

There are moments when I feel so fortunate and blessed to be alive that I am scared.
I want to convey that feeling to someone other than myself and call them “us.”
Letting go of the layers of barriers I've built around myself, the arrogance I might have.
I just want to hold someone's hand across the broken boundaries.
I want to speak with the hand I'm holding.
If the world is going to perish anyway, let's perish together.
These words are like telling me to live together, to live.

I'm putting together my first collection of short stories.
There are novels that I write with joy and novels that I write with pain.
As I was putting the novel together, I was tormenting myself with the question of whether it was possible to tie these things together.
But they are all novels that have passed through my mind.
I'm glad I can publish these novels.
Although I am very anxious and fearful, I try my best to show my joy.
There are many people to be thankful for.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to editor Yoon So-jin, who polished the novel with such a caring and detailed eye, and to critic Lee So, who wrote such a wonderful commentary.

As much as possible, I intend to swim backwards.
I hope we can go as far as we can and meet again.
Thank you for reading.

Summer 2025
Gong Hyun-jin