Farewell
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Description
Book Introduction
A situation where no one can help, so you have to navigate it alone. A promise to keep, a warmth to hold on to Kim Young-ha's first full-length novel in nine years since "Memoir of a Murderer," "Farewell," is set in the not-too-distant future and follows the journey of a boy whose life is suddenly turned upside down. Cheol-i, who was living a comfortable and peaceful life with his father, a researcher at a famous IT company, is suddenly taken to a concentration camp one day and is forced to face a mental and physical crisis as he encounters a chaotic world filled with raw emotions for the first time in his life. At the same time, he meets people who, like him, are socially excluded, and for the first time, he feels a vivid sense of belonging and a warm friendship sprouts. Cheol-i sets out with them to escape the camp and return home, but the journey is fraught with unavoidable questions. Video source: 大愛電視台 春愛讀書, Da Ai TV Books for Youth |
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index
The day I buried the _direct copper_ 11
You _must _come _with _us _23
There was _outside_41
Living as a Human 53
Usage _71
Evidence of Failed Shopping 89
Escape _101
Landscape _seen_ in_a_dream_115
Winter_Lake_and_Osprey_129
Dharma _137
Trial _171
When the end _comes_ you _will_ know _189
_Switch_205 in the body
Machine's _Time_217
Cat Becomes _233
Pure _Consciousness_239
Peace Comes to Dad's Heart 253
Fresh _263
The Last Human 271
Author's Note 299
You _must _come _with _us _23
There was _outside_41
Living as a Human 53
Usage _71
Evidence of Failed Shopping 89
Escape _101
Landscape _seen_ in_a_dream_115
Winter_Lake_and_Osprey_129
Dharma _137
Trial _171
When the end _comes_ you _will_ know _189
_Switch_205 in the body
Machine's _Time_217
Cat Becomes _233
Pure _Consciousness_239
Peace Comes to Dad's Heart 253
Fresh _263
The Last Human 271
Author's Note 299
Into the book
Lying in a birch forest, my two eyes stare into the black void.
One short life, two bodies.
Now that second body is facing death.
Perhaps even consciousness will disappear along with it.
Everything I've been through starts to flash back into my head like fireworks.
At one time, reminiscing was my daily routine.
Back when I existed only as pure consciousness, I searched for records related to myself.
And then, connecting the memories, I went back to the past.
Each time, the story began with the morning when the magpie died, the moment when everything shook.
--- p.9
“…the harmless and majestic chaos like the sunset is something you can just admire.
"Why would we even make predictions? The sunset isn't going to kill us."
“The future is truly unpredictable.”
“It is not a certain fact that the future is unknowable.”
“What does that mean? So you can know the future?”
“It depends on what you mean by ‘future.’” --- p.33
In winter, geese flew in from the north in formation, and in spring, they flew again towards Siberia and the Far North.
There was definitely an 'outside'.
But I just thought that for whatever reason I couldn't go.
So my father tried to keep me sterile, but he ultimately failed, and I was left exposed to the 'outside' that had invaded my life, with no immunity whatsoever.
Of course, I don't blame him now.
He must have believed that was the best thing to do.
--- p.44
“I’m just helping everyone.
When someone wants something badly, I can feel it.
“Then I can’t turn away.”
Seon-i was a person who knew himself well.
She always found meaning in helping others.
The tentacles of the mind stretched out towards those who needed its help.
But her intentions were not always accepted as they were.
In every deal, there is bound to be someone who is dissatisfied.
Some people rushed to the store claiming they had been scammed, while others protested vehemently, demanding a refund, claiming they had received a defective product.
--- p.77
“It is foolish to believe that we can replace them.
Because you never know who will end up doing something truly meaningful.”
“What is meaningful work? Humans really love the word meaning.
You mentioned the meaning of suffering earlier, didn't you? Does suffering truly have meaning? Humans always say there's meaning in suffering.
No, I would go further and say that without pain there is no meaning.
“I wonder if that’s true?”
Seon-i didn't back down.
"is it so.
Maybe the pain is meaningless.
But it makes sense to reduce unnecessary suffering in the world.
It would be best not to be born, but for various reasons, conscious beings are forced to be born into this universe, and they cannot avoid suffering while they are alive.
Any being with consciousness and sufficient intelligence has a duty to reduce the unnecessary suffering that abounds in this world.
“That is why we strive to understand the principles of the universe and strive to attain higher intelligence.”
When Dharma heard that, he clapped his hands.
“That is correct.
I agree.
“Reducing unnecessary suffering in the world is what we are trying to do here.” --- p.152
Sometimes we were like a couple, and sometimes we were like a mother and son.
Nothing mattered to us.
We all had a feeling that Seon-i's life was running out.
At night, the Milky Way crossed the vast night sky of Siberia.
I came out and stared at it blankly.
At times like that, I thought of the second sentence of the Thousand Character Classic.
‘The sun and moon wax and wane, and the stars and constellations are arranged in rows.’ The sun and moon wax and wane, and the stars and constellations are arranged in rows.
I used to look at the same sky as the ancient Chinese and recite the sentences they wrote.
--- p.
285
“Can you read that part again?”
“Where? The part about ‘Have you never imagined something different from reality?’?”
“Yeah, that part.”
I read Anne's lines again.
Seon-i spoke with a dreamy look in her eyes.
“You said there were a few storybooks in that basement when you were little.”
“Yeah, I remember you talking about Anne of Green Gables.”
“I just had a thought, but I really liked the part you read to me earlier.
Since then, I think I, like Anne, have always tried to imagine things that are different from reality.
What you see can't be everything, that's not possible.
Thanks to that, I may have somehow survived and made it this far.
It's so good to hear it again... " --- p.289
I just stayed there.
And he stayed until the end to watch as members of the community died or disappeared.
Before long, problems began to creep up on me here and there, but I left them alone… Sometimes, a seagull flying in from the sea would sit there, looking down at me with an indifferent expression… One day, I looked around from the porch of the cabin.
The community had long since disappeared.
Suddenly, I had a strong conviction that I was the only human-like being left on this vast land.
One short life, two bodies.
Now that second body is facing death.
Perhaps even consciousness will disappear along with it.
Everything I've been through starts to flash back into my head like fireworks.
At one time, reminiscing was my daily routine.
Back when I existed only as pure consciousness, I searched for records related to myself.
And then, connecting the memories, I went back to the past.
Each time, the story began with the morning when the magpie died, the moment when everything shook.
--- p.9
“…the harmless and majestic chaos like the sunset is something you can just admire.
"Why would we even make predictions? The sunset isn't going to kill us."
“The future is truly unpredictable.”
“It is not a certain fact that the future is unknowable.”
“What does that mean? So you can know the future?”
“It depends on what you mean by ‘future.’” --- p.33
In winter, geese flew in from the north in formation, and in spring, they flew again towards Siberia and the Far North.
There was definitely an 'outside'.
But I just thought that for whatever reason I couldn't go.
So my father tried to keep me sterile, but he ultimately failed, and I was left exposed to the 'outside' that had invaded my life, with no immunity whatsoever.
Of course, I don't blame him now.
He must have believed that was the best thing to do.
--- p.44
“I’m just helping everyone.
When someone wants something badly, I can feel it.
“Then I can’t turn away.”
Seon-i was a person who knew himself well.
She always found meaning in helping others.
The tentacles of the mind stretched out towards those who needed its help.
But her intentions were not always accepted as they were.
In every deal, there is bound to be someone who is dissatisfied.
Some people rushed to the store claiming they had been scammed, while others protested vehemently, demanding a refund, claiming they had received a defective product.
--- p.77
“It is foolish to believe that we can replace them.
Because you never know who will end up doing something truly meaningful.”
“What is meaningful work? Humans really love the word meaning.
You mentioned the meaning of suffering earlier, didn't you? Does suffering truly have meaning? Humans always say there's meaning in suffering.
No, I would go further and say that without pain there is no meaning.
“I wonder if that’s true?”
Seon-i didn't back down.
"is it so.
Maybe the pain is meaningless.
But it makes sense to reduce unnecessary suffering in the world.
It would be best not to be born, but for various reasons, conscious beings are forced to be born into this universe, and they cannot avoid suffering while they are alive.
Any being with consciousness and sufficient intelligence has a duty to reduce the unnecessary suffering that abounds in this world.
“That is why we strive to understand the principles of the universe and strive to attain higher intelligence.”
When Dharma heard that, he clapped his hands.
“That is correct.
I agree.
“Reducing unnecessary suffering in the world is what we are trying to do here.” --- p.152
Sometimes we were like a couple, and sometimes we were like a mother and son.
Nothing mattered to us.
We all had a feeling that Seon-i's life was running out.
At night, the Milky Way crossed the vast night sky of Siberia.
I came out and stared at it blankly.
At times like that, I thought of the second sentence of the Thousand Character Classic.
‘The sun and moon wax and wane, and the stars and constellations are arranged in rows.’ The sun and moon wax and wane, and the stars and constellations are arranged in rows.
I used to look at the same sky as the ancient Chinese and recite the sentences they wrote.
--- p.
285
“Can you read that part again?”
“Where? The part about ‘Have you never imagined something different from reality?’?”
“Yeah, that part.”
I read Anne's lines again.
Seon-i spoke with a dreamy look in her eyes.
“You said there were a few storybooks in that basement when you were little.”
“Yeah, I remember you talking about Anne of Green Gables.”
“I just had a thought, but I really liked the part you read to me earlier.
Since then, I think I, like Anne, have always tried to imagine things that are different from reality.
What you see can't be everything, that's not possible.
Thanks to that, I may have somehow survived and made it this far.
It's so good to hear it again... " --- p.289
I just stayed there.
And he stayed until the end to watch as members of the community died or disappeared.
Before long, problems began to creep up on me here and there, but I left them alone… Sometimes, a seagull flying in from the sea would sit there, looking down at me with an indifferent expression… One day, I looked around from the porch of the cabin.
The community had long since disappeared.
Suddenly, I had a strong conviction that I was the only human-like being left on this vast land.
--- p.292
Publisher's Review
The Birth, Transformation, and Origin of "Farewell"
"Farewell" is a novel written by Kim Young-ha in 2019 after receiving a request from a new subscription e-book service platform to write a short novel to be provided to its members.
The fact that the novel was available only to members lightened the burden on the author, who had not published a full-length novel for six years since the publication of "Memoir of a Murderer."
Work progressed quickly, and in February 2020, "Farewell" was delivered to subscribers of the service.
The volume was approximately 420 pages of 200-character manuscript paper.
The author originally intended to make some minor revisions to "Farewell" and then publish it for general readers.
But by March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had begun.
In New York's empty streets, only refrigerated trucks carrying corpses stood ominously, while the streets of Paris, London, and Milan were deserted.
It seemed as if the dystopian future that writers had long warned about had suddenly arrived.
As the writer was revising a light-hearted manuscript he had written at his desk, a moment came when the manuscript he had written a few months ago suddenly felt unfamiliar.
The author kept rewriting, and the manuscript was increasingly heading in a different direction from what was published in February.
The pandemic, which was expected to end by summer, grew even more severe as winter arrived, and its momentum remained undiminished even after the availability of a vaccine.
It was not until two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic that the author finished revising "Farewell."
The manuscript, which was originally 420 pages, grew to about 800 pages, and the subject matter changed completely.
The novel, which used to ask questions like, "What makes a human human?" and "Where is the line that divides humans from non-humans?", has transformed into a story that asks questions like, "Is life truly worth continuing?", "How can we alleviate the suffering that permeates the world?", and "If we were born out of necessity, how should we live and how should we die?"
The pandemic may have influenced the revision, or perhaps some seed from the original concept of "Farewell" sprouted during the long revision.
The author says this about it:
It's as if the title had some kind of magic that compelled me to rewrite the story in a way that suited me.
Not long after I finished the manuscript, I read it again.
Only now did I feel that what I had originally intended to write had come out properly and completely.
_In the 'Author's Note', through a comprehensive revision, the 2022 'Farewell' has changed so significantly that the 2020 'Farewell' seems like a synopsis or a draft.
And the connections with Kim Young-ha's previous literary world became clear.
It was almost at the last minute that I decided on the title, ‘Farewell.’
After deciding on it, I realized that it seemed to fit much better than the tentative titles I had put up so far.
What's interesting is that the title 'Farewell' fits all the other novels I've published so far.
『I Have the Right to Destroy Myself』, 『Black Flower』, 『Empire of Light』, even 『Memoir of a Murderer』 would have all been plausible.
_From the author's note
The Kim Young-ha we knew is back.
But it's different.
The scene in "Farewell" where the characters argue over the proposition that "it is better not to have been born" forms a logical mirror image of the message in "I Have the Right to Destroy Myself," which made Kim Young-ha's name known to the world.
The image of the protagonist suffering from identity confusion, asking himself, “Am I really the person I knew?” is a familiar scene in Kim Young-ha’s novels.
Ki-young from 『Empire of Light』 was like that, and Byeong-su from 『Memoir of a Murderer』 was also like that.
The world of 『Black Flower』, where an orphan boy is suddenly dragged into an unfamiliar world and suffers extreme hardship, but experiences spiritual transcendence despite frustration, is also varied in 『Farewell』.
Many readers will recall a scene from "Farewell," where machines and clones, humanoids and non-human animals live together, in "I Can Hear Your Voice," where teenagers abandoned by society escape on motorcycles.
Kim Young-ha's themes of memory, identity, and death are reinterpreted in "Farewell" against the backdrop of the near future.
What has changed is that humans, as mortal beings, have become more deeply involved in the problem of death that they inevitably face.
The issue of identity, which was a key theme in the original manuscript, was significantly reduced in importance during the revision.
Instead, the dialectic of birth and death, meeting and parting, runs through the entire work.
Deeper thinking, sharp and intelligent prose, and a mature perspective that embraces the sorrow of mortality.
Although "Farewell" is certainly not a mutation in the world of Kim Young-ha's novels, there are parts that foreshadow future changes.
The author's gaze, which had been focused on characters who escaped with countercultural elements in a subversive worldview and on beings wandering at the border of two worlds, began to turn toward the horizon of civilization.
Traces of individuals beginning to contemplate the extinction of the human race and their own end can be found throughout "Farewell."
But as has always been the case since his debut, Kim Young-ha's virtue as a writer lies not in what he focuses on, but in how he deals with the "old problems" that countless other writers have dealt with in his own unique way.
Even when dealing with the most weighty of topics, Kim Young-ha's writing style is brisk, his rapid pace exquisitely maintains narrative tension, and yet forces readers to confront issues they usually ignore without even realizing it. This talent shines through in "Farewell."
"Farewell" is a novel written by Kim Young-ha in 2019 after receiving a request from a new subscription e-book service platform to write a short novel to be provided to its members.
The fact that the novel was available only to members lightened the burden on the author, who had not published a full-length novel for six years since the publication of "Memoir of a Murderer."
Work progressed quickly, and in February 2020, "Farewell" was delivered to subscribers of the service.
The volume was approximately 420 pages of 200-character manuscript paper.
The author originally intended to make some minor revisions to "Farewell" and then publish it for general readers.
But by March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had begun.
In New York's empty streets, only refrigerated trucks carrying corpses stood ominously, while the streets of Paris, London, and Milan were deserted.
It seemed as if the dystopian future that writers had long warned about had suddenly arrived.
As the writer was revising a light-hearted manuscript he had written at his desk, a moment came when the manuscript he had written a few months ago suddenly felt unfamiliar.
The author kept rewriting, and the manuscript was increasingly heading in a different direction from what was published in February.
The pandemic, which was expected to end by summer, grew even more severe as winter arrived, and its momentum remained undiminished even after the availability of a vaccine.
It was not until two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic that the author finished revising "Farewell."
The manuscript, which was originally 420 pages, grew to about 800 pages, and the subject matter changed completely.
The novel, which used to ask questions like, "What makes a human human?" and "Where is the line that divides humans from non-humans?", has transformed into a story that asks questions like, "Is life truly worth continuing?", "How can we alleviate the suffering that permeates the world?", and "If we were born out of necessity, how should we live and how should we die?"
The pandemic may have influenced the revision, or perhaps some seed from the original concept of "Farewell" sprouted during the long revision.
The author says this about it:
It's as if the title had some kind of magic that compelled me to rewrite the story in a way that suited me.
Not long after I finished the manuscript, I read it again.
Only now did I feel that what I had originally intended to write had come out properly and completely.
_In the 'Author's Note', through a comprehensive revision, the 2022 'Farewell' has changed so significantly that the 2020 'Farewell' seems like a synopsis or a draft.
And the connections with Kim Young-ha's previous literary world became clear.
It was almost at the last minute that I decided on the title, ‘Farewell.’
After deciding on it, I realized that it seemed to fit much better than the tentative titles I had put up so far.
What's interesting is that the title 'Farewell' fits all the other novels I've published so far.
『I Have the Right to Destroy Myself』, 『Black Flower』, 『Empire of Light』, even 『Memoir of a Murderer』 would have all been plausible.
_From the author's note
The Kim Young-ha we knew is back.
But it's different.
The scene in "Farewell" where the characters argue over the proposition that "it is better not to have been born" forms a logical mirror image of the message in "I Have the Right to Destroy Myself," which made Kim Young-ha's name known to the world.
The image of the protagonist suffering from identity confusion, asking himself, “Am I really the person I knew?” is a familiar scene in Kim Young-ha’s novels.
Ki-young from 『Empire of Light』 was like that, and Byeong-su from 『Memoir of a Murderer』 was also like that.
The world of 『Black Flower』, where an orphan boy is suddenly dragged into an unfamiliar world and suffers extreme hardship, but experiences spiritual transcendence despite frustration, is also varied in 『Farewell』.
Many readers will recall a scene from "Farewell," where machines and clones, humanoids and non-human animals live together, in "I Can Hear Your Voice," where teenagers abandoned by society escape on motorcycles.
Kim Young-ha's themes of memory, identity, and death are reinterpreted in "Farewell" against the backdrop of the near future.
What has changed is that humans, as mortal beings, have become more deeply involved in the problem of death that they inevitably face.
The issue of identity, which was a key theme in the original manuscript, was significantly reduced in importance during the revision.
Instead, the dialectic of birth and death, meeting and parting, runs through the entire work.
Deeper thinking, sharp and intelligent prose, and a mature perspective that embraces the sorrow of mortality.
Although "Farewell" is certainly not a mutation in the world of Kim Young-ha's novels, there are parts that foreshadow future changes.
The author's gaze, which had been focused on characters who escaped with countercultural elements in a subversive worldview and on beings wandering at the border of two worlds, began to turn toward the horizon of civilization.
Traces of individuals beginning to contemplate the extinction of the human race and their own end can be found throughout "Farewell."
But as has always been the case since his debut, Kim Young-ha's virtue as a writer lies not in what he focuses on, but in how he deals with the "old problems" that countless other writers have dealt with in his own unique way.
Even when dealing with the most weighty of topics, Kim Young-ha's writing style is brisk, his rapid pace exquisitely maintains narrative tension, and yet forces readers to confront issues they usually ignore without even realizing it. This talent shines through in "Farewell."
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: September 5, 2022
- Page count, weight, size: 308 pages | 458g | 128*188*30mm
- ISBN13: 9791191114225
- ISBN10: 1191114228
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