Kim Hong Portugal… 007

Now there is no source, no source.
… 039

Son Won-pyeong mosaic… 073

Lee Seo-su, Young Geun-hee's March... 101

Lim Seon-woo doesn't shine... 139

Jang Jin-young, Cello and Turkey… 177

Jang Hee-won, the people left behind… 205

Han Jeong-hyeon's Little Season… 233

Sister, it's not my fault that my life has turned out this way.

It's because we live in an age where anyone can become famous.

It's the fault of the subscribers who subscribe to my trivial stuff.

― Lee Seo-su, from “Young Geun-hee’s March”

About the servants of this world who willingly accept the life of an uninvited guest

Eight young writers representing Korean literature
A different exploration and imagination of 'guanjong'!

A collection of short stories titled “Gwanjong” by eight young writers representing Korean literature, with the keyword “Gwanjong,” has been published by Eunhaengnamu Publishing.
Kim Hong, Seo Yi-je, Son Won-pyeong, Lee Seo-su, Lim Seon-woo, Jang Jin-yeong, Jang Hee-won, Han Jeong-hyeon.
Eight young novelists who are currently leading Korean literature have entered the world of 'Gwanjong.'
The diverse lives of these 'officials' are depicted through the language of literature, with special characters, ironic situations, relationships that deviate from the abnormal, and misunderstandings.

'Tolerance', sometimes referred to as a symbol of disgust, and sometimes as a quality demanded by the times.
The word 'guanjong' is quite familiar to us these days.
The word 'obsession' is a word that lies on the borderline between disgust and envy towards those who are the center of public attention, such as news and media, politicians, celebrities, and numerous influencers.
People who only prove themselves through the attention of their friends, colleagues, and family, not just celebrities.
'Gwanjong' is often categorized as a human nature or trait, and sometimes as a type of desire for recognition, like an instinct.
We form a community with these 'servants' and sometimes we want to live as 'servants', but at other times we vehemently reject it.
The life of a 'guanjong', which could be depicted as our current self-portrait, and in such a self-portrait, literature explores the origin and direction of 'guanjong'.
It depicts the changing landscape of the world through people who have become 'indulgent' and 'indulgent'.
Literature also speaks to the extent to which we are directly and indirectly involved in the life of 'indulgence' in today's society, which begins with others and eventually reaches us.
The planning for this book started there.
Through the novels of eight young writers leading Korean literature, we encounter the intimate lives of "them," who hide among us yet passionately reveal themselves, unwilling to become uninvited guests to the world, through eight powerful and captivating stories.


Our unfortunate self-portrait now

Looking at you.
Looking at me and wishing to be bound by me.
Son Won-pyeong's novel "Mosaic" illuminates the life of an ordinary young woman who has been left behind in a competitive society.
Busy being pushed out of the world with mediocre qualifications and education.
It was while watching the conveyor belt sushi that she began to reflect on herself, unexpectedly, as if her life in the goshiwon was about to end.
“What pulled me out of the monotonous cycle, the hammer or the axe that told me not to live like that anymore and to return to being human again, wasn’t my friends or my parents, but the conveyor belt sushi restaurant.” Having discovered her future in the orderly, rotating conveyor belt sushi restaurant where people choose her, she decides to live a life where she is chosen by others.
Take a picture of your hand.
I'm stamping my feet too.
Upload it to YouTube.
Put your voice on it.
You get subscribers.
Subscribers like her videos and send donations, but in return they want a glimpse into her real life.
The desire to cheer for the staged life while at the same time wishing for the real life to be revealed.
Son Won-pyeong's "Mosaic" examines from various angles the other side of the provocative desires of humans that are bestowed upon them by the authorities.

Lee Seo-su's "Young Geun-hee's March" colorfully depicts how deeply the traces of "indulgence" permeate the lives of ordinary citizens through the lens of one family member.
My younger brother, who has been active in the life of a servant, after working as a mukbang and soolbang and settling down as a booktuber, shows off his shoulders and wears low-cut clothes.
You find out that your sister has lost contact and that she has been the victim of an Instagram scam.
Because of this, the family gradually begins to accept and understand the life of their younger brother, who had been a 'tolerant' person.
“Children have already become the faithful subscribers of this era.
I've gone far ahead of the adults.
“I know that the number of subscribers becomes power, and I know how to use that power.” Through my younger sister, I learn about the life of a vassal, and as my older sister discovers traces of the vassal who has infiltrated her surroundings, I realize that the laws of the world have already changed and are different from what I knew.

In a society where attention becomes power, the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim creates an ironic situation of love and anger at the same time.
Seo Yi-je's "No Source, No Source" novelizes the irony of a celebrity who wants to get away from the public eye, fleeing reality into a virtual reality game, only to receive a different, larger-than-life attention within the game.
The protagonist, who was a child actor but underwent a 'reversal' due to secondary sexual characteristics, suffered from all kinds of malicious comments and eventually stopped all activities and disappeared from reality.
The place he's hiding is inside a virtual reality game.
“He was the first in the world to discover a fossilized fruit, but all he got from it was rumors and misunderstandings.” The public’s attention turned to him again after he obtained a rare item in the game, and the attention was directed at him in a way he did not want, and people were once again overly interested in him, just like they were in the real world in the past, but he remained silent, and because of that, too many words were left in the world.

Honest and clear desires, relationships that avoid the abnormal and misunderstandings

“I thought it would be nice if you could look at me even a little.” In Jang Hee-won’s “People Left Behind,” the beginning and end of relationships and love that arise from “interest” are depicted in a calm manner.
A trip that suddenly began without any reason.
She travels alone to a city in Gangwon-do, where memories of her dead ex-lover are etched, and reminisces about her same-sex lover, who started out as a friend and then became her lover.
It wasn't a trip I strongly wanted to take, nor was it a trip I consciously planned to take.
Fragments of memories vaguely come to life wherever my feet lead me, as if drawn by something.
“I felt like I was looking at her with pity, as if I was looking back at myself.
The desire to be looked at even for a moment.
I thought, “I don’t know why I keep feeling that desperate longing.” The beginning of every relationship is the beginning of interest.
It seems like the end of every relationship is the end of interest.
The novel soothes the small, stain-like emotions left behind in a relationship.

Lim Seon-woo's "There's No Light" deals with a mutant jellyfish that suddenly appears in the world.
A jellyfish shining like starlight in the middle of the black sea.
It lures people into light and then wraps them around with its tentacles, turning them into its own identical form.
“People have different reactions to jellyfish.
Some people saw destruction in jellyfish.
Some people saw the image of God, others saw an escape from life.” Jellyfish, viewed through the axes of interest of each person’s desires.
The novel explores how a strange jellyfish, introduced into the world, influences human society, and the jellyfish naturally becomes a metaphor for new ideas, ideologies, trends, and concepts that are transferred to us.
The figure of the spectator is metaphorically represented as a jellyfish, and perhaps, like the jellyfish in this novel, the spectator has no intentions, but is simply shining with all his might.
Or, the novel warns, those who are dazzled by the light and focus on it will discover their own darkness.

Kim Hong's novel "Portugal" metaphorically portrays servitude in a different way.
A color that stands out in a group of similar colors.
Kim Hong's novel follows a Korean man who travels to Portugal.
An unfamiliar color called Portugal.
The foreigners each treat him with different interests, as he is marked as a dot among those unfamiliar colors.
Although traveling is ultimately about receiving unfamiliar attention and experiencing the pain that comes with it, the situation in the novel is not all that pleasant.
You get lost, you lose your job, you start fighting, you lose your language.
But he realizes something that has not changed, something that is the same.
“The Marbao Olive Festival was essentially no different from the Jeungpyeong Ginseng Valley Festival.
The world is the same.
The Earth is either America or Europe.
The world was once Europe and is now America.
“No matter where you stand, you are no different.” Difficulty in communication.
Cultural discrimination.
The loneliness of an unfamiliar place.
The point is that, if you want to put it bluntly, the spectators exist and come to any place where humans gather, according to the same laws.

Metaphors for the lives of "tolerants" in our society

The protagonist, who is “acting misfortune,” receives a text message from a stranger about his daughter, who is preparing for the college entrance exam to play the cello.
My daughter smokes.
Jang Jin-young's novel "The Cello and the Turkey" makes us aware of how much biased attention can lead to misunderstandings about the true nature of an event, and how affectionate attention, often referred to as interest, can incidentally lead to misunderstandings between people.
“Maybe I wanted to shift the blame.
“I wanted to believe that Haewon’s suffering from failing the exam, her anxiety about falling behind, my interference, my neglect, and then her hatred for herself, was all this man’s fault.” The cello teacher found the silver dan in his daughter’s bag and took a picture of it to send to her mother.
To ease her guilt over her daughter's failure in the entrance exam, the mother shifts the blame for her excessive attention to others.

Han Jeong-hyeon's "Little Season" tells the sad reality that the damaging facts of historical events that deserve attention are disguised as cries of "spectators" or voices of hatred.
“I didn’t hit anyone, so why do I have to live like this, holding my breath?
But I wonder if I can live with confidence speaking out. I have seen people mocking the victims every time they spoke out, saying they were just seeds of interest.” The voices of victims of historical incidents where they were victims of state violence speak out to the public.
Even now, on the streets and in every street, the voices of May 18, April 3, and Sewol are heard.
The novel illuminates the reclusive lives of victims of current real-life events.
And the novel laments the reality that the voices of the victims are being sarcastically damaged and criticized as 'indulgent', and as a result, the incident is submerged beneath the surface, and calmly examines the paradoxical damage caused by the attention that silenced them.