Guardian of the Demand Curve
With the aspiration of Chakatapa
Future past tense
Folding Gods
Representative of humanity
temporary pilot
Home, Away
Half of existence
When the alarm rings

Recommendation

From the deepest oceans on Earth to spaceships flying to Mars.
From robots enjoying art to long-time lovers from the future
A wondrous experience of crossing boundaries and meeting new worlds and people.

"Future Past Tense" is Bae Myung-hoon's third solo collection of short stories.
The nine original stories in this book take us into unfamiliar times and places we have never experienced before.
The time in the story is both the past and the future, and the space is both the depths of the sea and the far reaches of space.
For example, in "Guardians of the Demand Curve," a construction site for a deep-sea city is set; in "The Desire of Chakatapa," a university isolation lab in a future era where crackling noises have disappeared; in "The Folding Gods," a spaceship sailing toward Mars; and in "Half of Being," a world where people work together with cyborgs unfolds.

On the other hand, the characters living in this unfamiliar world are familiar, as if they have known each other for a long time.
These people, with their vivid names like Yuhee, Saro, Eun-kyung, Sohee, Maehee, Munji, and Haim, live lives similar to us, as if we could just touch them.
Sometimes we face crises and unexpected situations and struggle, sometimes we reminisce about old memories while unable to hide our joy at chance encounters, and sometimes we painfully endure separations that we cannot help.
Thanks to the hands they extend, we are able to willingly cross some boundary to another world.
The act of going into a world beyond the borders is a wonder in itself.


Bae Myung-hoon's skill in blending unfamiliar worlds with familiar characters has always been outstanding, but what he demonstrates in these works has become even more expanded and deeper.
This is probably thanks to the delicate emotions that are not lost while piling up unique ideas.
A sadness hidden in joy, a parting destined for an encounter, a strange melancholy drawn into wonder… These two layers of sensibility continue unabated from the first moment the world and the characters connect, drawing immersion from the very end.

Korean grammar with plosives removed, the use of the tense called future past tense,
The pansori format, developed with considerations about language prior to the modern novel
The most original and profound experiments in language

What is particularly striking in these works is the linguistic experimentation carried out with precision by the artist as a man of words.
At the end of each work, there is an “Author’s Note” containing the work’s prehistory or epilogue. In the “Author’s Note” attached to “With the Desire of Chakatapa,” Bae Myung-hoon looks back on the time of writing and confesses that he imagined the change of words in the face of the “terrifying prediction that the COVID-19 pandemic would change some part of our lives forever.”
The world that was born in this way is Korea in a future era where the sound of explosion has disappeared.
Unlike the title, "With the Desire of Chakatapa" hardly features the letters 'ㅊ', 'ㅋ', 'ㅌ', 'ㅍ', 'ㄲ', 'ㄸ', 'ㅉ', and 'ㅃ'.
In an era where 'flower' is pronounced as 'got' and 'katharsis' as 'gadarsis', it is an era where you have to master hacking skills to imagine the pronunciation of plosive sounds.
But what if an actor were tasked with portraying a character from a time when plosives existed? What would happen if they heard "plosives" in old material? This ingenious work, which could be called a "novel of flat sounds," evokes gentle laughter throughout, yet never fails to offer a profound reflection on the world represented by words.

As the wonders of pronunciation experiments come to an end, the experiment of tense, or time, unfolds.
In "Future Past Tense," a tense that can be used in a world where time does not flow in one direction appears.
Eun-kyung, a character living in a time that flows in one direction, experiences and interprets the ‘tense from the future.’
The character Eun-sin, who can travel from the future to the past, uses the tense 'am/eom' instead of 'at/eot' when talking about future events that have definitely happened. When this usage is interpreted in connection with the study of the tenses of the Turkic language, we are amazed by the interlocking narratives and at the same time, we are made to ponder the inseparable relationship between time and language.

"Temporary Pilot," which clearly shows the effort and dedication put into it over a long period of time, is a masterpiece among this collection of exceptional works.
This work is a heartbreaking adventure story about Ji Ha-im, a character who has learned how to pilot a robot with great difficulty, but is unemployed and leaves for a distant land after receiving a call.
What makes this guaranteed fun story even more special is the pansori format.
The author explains that he delved into the language of the pre-modern novel, unraveling the origins of words in detail and then building them up to create a pansori.
This might be a unique science fiction novel in the history of Korean literature.
The story, which begins with aniri (a private story performed verbally without rhythm), unfolds with free use of jinyangjo, jungmori, jajinmori, and jungjungmori, providing an auditory experience that makes it seem as if you are listening with your ears while reading with your eyes.
Meanwhile, the device of familiarity between characters contrasted with unfamiliar formats is also fully utilized in this work.
Thanks to this, we find ourselves drawn to the bonds of people who easily lose their minds over delicious food, find ourselves applying accurate and sober assessments of the political situation to our society, and find courage and comfort in those who embrace their fears and ultimately overcome crises.


An intellectual exploration that renews our sense of the 'now' and the 'here'.
A touching experience that transcends the boundaries between human and non-human, fostering affection for all beings.

Although the nine pieces in this book are driven by 'a time other than now' and 'a place other than here,' what we come to sense anew as we go through the stories is 'now' and 'here.'
For example, scenes in "The Speaker of Humanity," where a spaceship lands atop the tallest building in Seoul and the characters must prepare for an encounter with unknown beings, broaden our perspective on the real world.
"Half of Being," in which a cyborg who lost his upper body in an accident uses all his might to prove that he is still alive, leads us to reflect on the boundaries that divide existence and non-existence, human and non-human.
The dual plot of virtual reality that awakens a sleeping consciousness, as shown in "When the Alarm Rings," encourages us to think about a world that feels like it is firmly connected to the material world.

What does all this intellectual exploration, beyond the present reality and the present language, point to?
Perhaps it is about cultivating life without losing it in a “society ruled by barbarians,” or cherishing the encounter between you and me, calling out and remembering the name of existence.
The comments of author Jeong Bo-ra, who reads “a deep hope for fate, connection, and love” in these works, and critic Kwon Hee-chul, who derives “an understanding of and love for life,” also add strength to this reading.
Bae Myung-hoon also writes in his final “Author’s Note” that he believes, “We can still move toward truth and beauty.”
Could there be a greater resonance for us, who have encountered this novel as if we were encountering a star that had departed long ago?
"Future Past Tense" will be a collection of works that once again renews Bae Myung-hoon's excellence, in which his various strengths have fully matured through the issues that have arisen over the past few years.

About the cover illustration

The cover illustration for 『Future Past Tense』 is the work of artist Ji-su Choi, who also illustrated the covers of the English edition of Bae Myung-hoon's 『Tower』 and the Korean and English editions of 『Round and Round Space Force』.
By borrowing the mandala design, each and every story element that appears in the book was depicted without missing a single detail.
If you look at the paintings again after reading the work, you will be even more fascinated by the various elements of the novel incorporated into the paintings, from the whale shark in "The Guardian of the Demand Curve" to the skating rink in "When the Alarm Sounds."