A game your mom plays better than you
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Description
Book Introduction
- A word from MD
-
The Stepping Stone of Park Seo-ryeon's Novel WorldA collection of short stories by Park Seo-ryeon, author of 『The Girl Who Worked Hard, Kang Ju-ryong』 and 『The Shirley Club』.
It is a compilation of seven novels, from his debut work, "The Mickey Mouse Club," to his most recent work.
This book allows readers to experience the lives of women and youth in this era, the personal incidents intertwined with the cruelty of the vast society, and various aspects of the world of Park Seo-ryeon's novels that the author has built over the years.January 28, 2022. Novel/Poetry PD Park Hyung-wook
Author of 『The Girl Who Worked Hard, Kang Ju-ryong』 and 『The Shirley Club』
Park Seo-ryeon's first novel collection
A narrative of reversal and overthrow brought about by those who reject the deceptive world of leveling up.
The rules of the game are being rewritten
Park Seo-ryeon, who began her career by winning the [Practical Literature] New Writer's Award in 2015, has been experimenting and adventuring with a wide range of novels and writing styles, unconstrained by genre and format, over the past seven years, including short story collections, novels, short story collections, anthologies on various topics, and essays.
However, he has solidified his position as a young writer representing Korean literature by winning the Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2018 and the Young Writer Award in 2021.
"The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You" is the first collection of short stories by Park Seo-ryeon, a collection of works she has published since her debut.
From her debut work, "The Mickey Mouse Club," to the Young Writer's Award-winning "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," the seven works loosely connect the considerable time that Park Seo-ryeon has spent together.
In each work, there are points of overlap and interlocking with the long novels 『The Girl Who Worked Hard, Kang Ju-ryong』, 『Martha's Work』, and 『The Shirley Club』 that author Park Seo-ryeon has published in the meantime.
You can encounter the diverse female narratives of author Park Seo-ryeon, who has gradually created them by focusing on the fundamental concerns of women's freedom and life, and by intersecting and expanding from them.
Park Seo-ryeon's first novel collection
A narrative of reversal and overthrow brought about by those who reject the deceptive world of leveling up.
The rules of the game are being rewritten
Park Seo-ryeon, who began her career by winning the [Practical Literature] New Writer's Award in 2015, has been experimenting and adventuring with a wide range of novels and writing styles, unconstrained by genre and format, over the past seven years, including short story collections, novels, short story collections, anthologies on various topics, and essays.
However, he has solidified his position as a young writer representing Korean literature by winning the Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2018 and the Young Writer Award in 2021.
"The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You" is the first collection of short stories by Park Seo-ryeon, a collection of works she has published since her debut.
From her debut work, "The Mickey Mouse Club," to the Young Writer's Award-winning "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," the seven works loosely connect the considerable time that Park Seo-ryeon has spent together.
In each work, there are points of overlap and interlocking with the long novels 『The Girl Who Worked Hard, Kang Ju-ryong』, 『Martha's Work』, and 『The Shirley Club』 that author Park Seo-ryeon has published in the meantime.
You can encounter the diverse female narratives of author Park Seo-ryeon, who has gradually created them by focusing on the fundamental concerns of women's freedom and life, and by intersecting and expanding from them.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
Preview
index
Games Your Mom Is Better At Than You ˚ 7
Mickey Mouse Club ˚ 47
View ˚ 81
Passing Kunlun ˚ 113
Freckles ˚ 147
The novel ˚ 177
A Queen Sized Hole ˚ 205
Author's Note ˚ 237
Commentary on the work
Queen-Size Novels and Their Heroines ─ Lee Ji-eun (Literary Critic) ˚ 239
Mickey Mouse Club ˚ 47
View ˚ 81
Passing Kunlun ˚ 113
Freckles ˚ 147
The novel ˚ 177
A Queen Sized Hole ˚ 205
Author's Note ˚ 237
Commentary on the work
Queen-Size Novels and Their Heroines ─ Lee Ji-eun (Literary Critic) ˚ 239
Into the book
Your child is special.
This is neither an exaggeration nor a joke.
He shows talent in various fields and has more perseverance than other children.
However, his communication skills are a bit lacking, but according to your own diagnosis, that is not the child's fault, but rather because he has difficulty keeping up with other children.
--- p.14, from “Games Your Mom Plays Better Than You”
You clearly typed 'Mom', but the word keeps disappearing from the screen.
Why is this happening?
The child responds to your words as if he doesn't know that either.
If you swear in the chat window, you'll be blinded.
Even Mom knows that, but is Mom a swearer?
It's used as an insult, so it's not blind.
--- p.43, from “Games Your Mom Plays Better Than You”
Mom knows Nina doesn't lie, right?
Only then did I realize the identity of the subtle sense of discomfort I had been feeling for a while.
You didn't close one eye once during the entire meeting.
Your tic that I've been trying so hard to fix.
Your tic that the public loved.
Nina's tic that doesn't lie.
--- pp.79~80, from "The Mickey Mouse Club"
Bye bye, Bo.
Even after returning to her husband's side, Bo-hye continued to look at Bonnie, whose body had turned red as if her insides were transparent, instead of the spectacular sunset, and at the red light of the sun reflected on Bonnie's body.
It's beautiful.
--- p.95, from "Bo"
The moment she refused, Jayoung suddenly realized that what she wanted might not be a red bicycle, but a windfall of some kind.
Throughout his life, Jayoung rarely felt lucky.
If there was some great being looking down on his life, Jayoung's simple wish was that he would be lucky enough to feel that he was being cared for even a little.
_118, from “Passing through Kunlun”
You got poisoned? You got poisoned here?
As always, the same criticism pours in.
Wonhee waits silently for his mother's rice bowl to tip over.
Maybe Mom wants Wonhee to poison her drink.
Maybe Mom really wants to stop this annoying thing.
But Mom.
If this is really poison, I'd rather eat it myself.
--- p.175, from "Signs"
The rest of the material could not be considered that diverse, but the subject of abortion was treated as worn-out, and the writer was treated as an obvious writer.
On the other hand, I was one of those who looked down on girls who wrote novels with such material.
They're not stupid.
They told me to get rid of that stuff when I was in high school.
It's as if everyone in high school has had an abortion at least once.
--- p.188, from “That Novel”
Three men and women sleeping in the same room on the same mattress - it's like a situation from a Kyoko Okazaki manga.
Seunghee opened her eyes wide and thought to herself, listening to the breathing of the two people lying next to her.
If I had to pick, it would be 『Pink』, not 『Helter Skelter』.
While I was thinking like that, things like health insurance premiums, national pension, electricity bills, water bills, phone bills, loan recognition tax, and guarantee fees didn't even come to mind.
Seunghee pondered for the first time in a long time how refreshing it was to not think about any of those things.
This is neither an exaggeration nor a joke.
He shows talent in various fields and has more perseverance than other children.
However, his communication skills are a bit lacking, but according to your own diagnosis, that is not the child's fault, but rather because he has difficulty keeping up with other children.
--- p.14, from “Games Your Mom Plays Better Than You”
You clearly typed 'Mom', but the word keeps disappearing from the screen.
Why is this happening?
The child responds to your words as if he doesn't know that either.
If you swear in the chat window, you'll be blinded.
Even Mom knows that, but is Mom a swearer?
It's used as an insult, so it's not blind.
--- p.43, from “Games Your Mom Plays Better Than You”
Mom knows Nina doesn't lie, right?
Only then did I realize the identity of the subtle sense of discomfort I had been feeling for a while.
You didn't close one eye once during the entire meeting.
Your tic that I've been trying so hard to fix.
Your tic that the public loved.
Nina's tic that doesn't lie.
--- pp.79~80, from "The Mickey Mouse Club"
Bye bye, Bo.
Even after returning to her husband's side, Bo-hye continued to look at Bonnie, whose body had turned red as if her insides were transparent, instead of the spectacular sunset, and at the red light of the sun reflected on Bonnie's body.
It's beautiful.
--- p.95, from "Bo"
The moment she refused, Jayoung suddenly realized that what she wanted might not be a red bicycle, but a windfall of some kind.
Throughout his life, Jayoung rarely felt lucky.
If there was some great being looking down on his life, Jayoung's simple wish was that he would be lucky enough to feel that he was being cared for even a little.
_118, from “Passing through Kunlun”
You got poisoned? You got poisoned here?
As always, the same criticism pours in.
Wonhee waits silently for his mother's rice bowl to tip over.
Maybe Mom wants Wonhee to poison her drink.
Maybe Mom really wants to stop this annoying thing.
But Mom.
If this is really poison, I'd rather eat it myself.
--- p.175, from "Signs"
The rest of the material could not be considered that diverse, but the subject of abortion was treated as worn-out, and the writer was treated as an obvious writer.
On the other hand, I was one of those who looked down on girls who wrote novels with such material.
They're not stupid.
They told me to get rid of that stuff when I was in high school.
It's as if everyone in high school has had an abortion at least once.
--- p.188, from “That Novel”
Three men and women sleeping in the same room on the same mattress - it's like a situation from a Kyoko Okazaki manga.
Seunghee opened her eyes wide and thought to herself, listening to the breathing of the two people lying next to her.
If I had to pick, it would be 『Pink』, not 『Helter Skelter』.
While I was thinking like that, things like health insurance premiums, national pension, electricity bills, water bills, phone bills, loan recognition tax, and guarantee fees didn't even come to mind.
Seunghee pondered for the first time in a long time how refreshing it was to not think about any of those things.
--- p.235, from "A Queen Sized Hole"
Publisher's Review
“You need to know this.
There are plenty of rats in the world
“Not everyone can be Mickey Mouse.”
Rejecting the deceptive world of leveling up
The narrative of reversal and overthrow they bring about,
The rules of the game are being rewritten
Park Seo-ryeon's short story collection, "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," has been published by Minumsa.
Park Seo-ryeon, who began her career by winning the 2015 Practical Literature New Writer's Award, has since embarked on a seven-year journey of experimentation and adventure in writing novels and other writing styles, regardless of genre or format, ranging from short story collections, novels, short story collections, anthologies on various topics, and essays.
However, he has solidified his position as a young writer representing Korean literature by winning the Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2018 and the Young Writer Award in 2021.
"The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You" is the first collection of short stories by Park Seo-ryeon, a collection of works she has published since her debut.
From her debut work, "The Mickey Mouse Club," to the Young Writer's Award-winning "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," the seven works loosely connect the considerable time that Park Seo-ryeon has spent together.
In each work, there are points of overlap and interlocking with the long novels 『The Girl Who Worked Hard, Kang Ju-ryong』, 『Martha's Work』, and 『The Shirley Club』 that author Park Seo-ryeon has published in the meantime.
You can encounter the diverse female narratives of author Park Seo-ryeon, who has gradually created them by focusing on the fundamental concerns of women's freedom and life, and by intersecting and expanding from them.
Each work takes us into the midst of issues that still dominate women's lives, such as maternal ideology, misogyny, sexual objectification, care work, and patriarchy.
Author Park Seo-ryeon does not stop at identifying the cause of this problem and distinguishing between victims and perpetrators.
In "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," the "you" refers to "mom," but just as the "you" in the title simultaneously refers to the "son" within the work and the "reader" outside the work, author Park Seo-ryeon twists our perspective on the problem at the crucial moment when the core is revealed.
This shift illuminates not only the contradictory emotions women actually experience, but also the complexity of the issue from multiple perspectives.
Even in the midst of complex and endless absurdities, Park Seo-ryeon's female characters do not give up.
Like Kang Joo-ryong, who climbed onto the roof to call for class and gender equality, Su-ah, who took personal revenge on a sexual assault perpetrator, and Shirley Seol-hee, who found love by uniting with people with the same name in a foreign country, the female characters in "Your Mom's Better at Games Than You" also do their best and struggle.
Embracing an inner energy of immense passion, they set out to find what they want, face the truth with confidence, and bring about change.
The appearance of these female characters is not unrelated to author Park Seo-ryeon's artistic attitude.
In her debut essay in 2015, author Park Seo-ryeon recalled the Sewol ferry disaster and the chimney protests by laid-off workers, saying, “I live with my eyes wide open to remember as much as possible.”
In a recent interview, he revealed his approach to writing by saying, “I try not to forget the feeling that I was a minority and a loser.”
This is a passage that lets us know where the author's gaze and heart have always been directed.
Author Park Seo-ryeon has consistently explored the world with a spirit of solidarity, deepening and broadening the scope of women's narratives.
In this collection of short stories, we will encounter author Park Seo-ryeon's transformation and growth, and we will anticipate and anticipate the new female narrative that will soon be revealed to us.
■ A world where love becomes a resource
"The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You" and "The Mickey Mouse Club" are novels that depict the bizarre nature of motherhood, featuring mothers with teenage children as their main characters.
In "Your Mom's Better at Games Than You," the mother of a son who is ignored by his friends because he is bad at games looks into gaming tutoring and tries it out first.
Through games, mothers simultaneously witness the realities of their minor children's world: not only the offline world of school but also the online world of games.
'Na' from "The Mickey Mouse Club" is the mother and manager of the most popular member of an idol group.
When his daughter's secret is in danger of being exposed at a press conference, he assaults a reporter and is imprisoned for the crime.
There he looks into his own desires, which have become intertwined with his daughter's life.
Meanwhile, "Passing Through Kunlun" depicts the care work of a mother-in-law, and "Gimi" depicts the care work of a woman who supports her mother.
There is no room in this care work for even the desire for compensation.
It just burdens you with heavy responsibilities and ties your life up.
If we have often defined the family as the smallest unit of society, the family of this era, as seen through writer Park Seo-ryeon, is a model of a capitalist society that has become extremely cruel.
Through the psychological dynamics of family relationships, including maternal love, author Park Seo-ryeon vividly reveals the larger social desires that cannot be defined solely by individual emotions such as love and hate or obsession.
■ The subject that defines reality
“Bo” and “The Novel” feature women who search for their own “true selves” as their main characters.
The protagonist of "Bo", Bo-hye, has never made any decisions on her own, living under the shadow of patriarchy, from her pastor father to her pastor husband.
Bo-hye, who had been living with her eyes closed for a long time and an unknown longing, discovers her true self in the moments of the past when she felt beautiful.
In "That Novel," the "real" appears in more complex layers.
'I', whose novel was plagiarized, struggles to prove that I am the real author of the novel, and when I later publish a novel based on 'abortion', I constantly encounter people questioning whether it is a real experience or not, and I engage in a tug-of-war over the truth.
Here, 'real' serves as a major criterion, from the author's rights to his or her creative work to the yardstick for ethically condemning female writers.
As the proof of the 'truth' demanded of us as women and the 'truth' we seek as human beings are innumerable times in conflict, we are forced to ask ourselves who defines 'truth' and who has the power to define 'truth'.
And that question escapes the novel and is thrown back at our lives and the society surrounding them.
■ Existence outside of 'us'
The final novel, "A Queen Sized Hole," is the story of Seunghee, a writer struggling to continue her life as a creator.
Seunghee's worry about her bank balance, whether she's sober or blacked out from being drunk, is no different from the daily life of an ordinary young man in this era.
One night, when an old friend who had been hurt for a long time and a friend who was entangled in a debt situation came to visit at the same time, Seunghee was laughing and chatting with them in the same room and ended up lying down. Suddenly, she realized that she was not calculating any of the health insurance premiums, national pension, electricity bills, or water bills, and she thought about how refreshing it was to not think about any of those things for the first time in a long time.
Seunghee's heart, which was slowly growing colder with despair that she couldn't confess to anyone, is suddenly calmed by a being who suddenly appears, holding onto a loosely connected string, rather than a blood-related family member or a lover with whom she promised a future.
At this point, at the very end of the novel collection, "Your Mom's Better at Games Than You," we will begin to untie the loose threads that bind us together.
If we can stretch our imaginations toward those more distant and loose connections, it is from there that we may discover a new meaning for the "we" that keeps us alive.
There are plenty of rats in the world
“Not everyone can be Mickey Mouse.”
Rejecting the deceptive world of leveling up
The narrative of reversal and overthrow they bring about,
The rules of the game are being rewritten
Park Seo-ryeon's short story collection, "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," has been published by Minumsa.
Park Seo-ryeon, who began her career by winning the 2015 Practical Literature New Writer's Award, has since embarked on a seven-year journey of experimentation and adventure in writing novels and other writing styles, regardless of genre or format, ranging from short story collections, novels, short story collections, anthologies on various topics, and essays.
However, he has solidified his position as a young writer representing Korean literature by winning the Hankyoreh Literary Award in 2018 and the Young Writer Award in 2021.
"The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You" is the first collection of short stories by Park Seo-ryeon, a collection of works she has published since her debut.
From her debut work, "The Mickey Mouse Club," to the Young Writer's Award-winning "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," the seven works loosely connect the considerable time that Park Seo-ryeon has spent together.
In each work, there are points of overlap and interlocking with the long novels 『The Girl Who Worked Hard, Kang Ju-ryong』, 『Martha's Work』, and 『The Shirley Club』 that author Park Seo-ryeon has published in the meantime.
You can encounter the diverse female narratives of author Park Seo-ryeon, who has gradually created them by focusing on the fundamental concerns of women's freedom and life, and by intersecting and expanding from them.
Each work takes us into the midst of issues that still dominate women's lives, such as maternal ideology, misogyny, sexual objectification, care work, and patriarchy.
Author Park Seo-ryeon does not stop at identifying the cause of this problem and distinguishing between victims and perpetrators.
In "The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You," the "you" refers to "mom," but just as the "you" in the title simultaneously refers to the "son" within the work and the "reader" outside the work, author Park Seo-ryeon twists our perspective on the problem at the crucial moment when the core is revealed.
This shift illuminates not only the contradictory emotions women actually experience, but also the complexity of the issue from multiple perspectives.
Even in the midst of complex and endless absurdities, Park Seo-ryeon's female characters do not give up.
Like Kang Joo-ryong, who climbed onto the roof to call for class and gender equality, Su-ah, who took personal revenge on a sexual assault perpetrator, and Shirley Seol-hee, who found love by uniting with people with the same name in a foreign country, the female characters in "Your Mom's Better at Games Than You" also do their best and struggle.
Embracing an inner energy of immense passion, they set out to find what they want, face the truth with confidence, and bring about change.
The appearance of these female characters is not unrelated to author Park Seo-ryeon's artistic attitude.
In her debut essay in 2015, author Park Seo-ryeon recalled the Sewol ferry disaster and the chimney protests by laid-off workers, saying, “I live with my eyes wide open to remember as much as possible.”
In a recent interview, he revealed his approach to writing by saying, “I try not to forget the feeling that I was a minority and a loser.”
This is a passage that lets us know where the author's gaze and heart have always been directed.
Author Park Seo-ryeon has consistently explored the world with a spirit of solidarity, deepening and broadening the scope of women's narratives.
In this collection of short stories, we will encounter author Park Seo-ryeon's transformation and growth, and we will anticipate and anticipate the new female narrative that will soon be revealed to us.
■ A world where love becomes a resource
"The Game Your Mom Plays Better Than You" and "The Mickey Mouse Club" are novels that depict the bizarre nature of motherhood, featuring mothers with teenage children as their main characters.
In "Your Mom's Better at Games Than You," the mother of a son who is ignored by his friends because he is bad at games looks into gaming tutoring and tries it out first.
Through games, mothers simultaneously witness the realities of their minor children's world: not only the offline world of school but also the online world of games.
'Na' from "The Mickey Mouse Club" is the mother and manager of the most popular member of an idol group.
When his daughter's secret is in danger of being exposed at a press conference, he assaults a reporter and is imprisoned for the crime.
There he looks into his own desires, which have become intertwined with his daughter's life.
Meanwhile, "Passing Through Kunlun" depicts the care work of a mother-in-law, and "Gimi" depicts the care work of a woman who supports her mother.
There is no room in this care work for even the desire for compensation.
It just burdens you with heavy responsibilities and ties your life up.
If we have often defined the family as the smallest unit of society, the family of this era, as seen through writer Park Seo-ryeon, is a model of a capitalist society that has become extremely cruel.
Through the psychological dynamics of family relationships, including maternal love, author Park Seo-ryeon vividly reveals the larger social desires that cannot be defined solely by individual emotions such as love and hate or obsession.
■ The subject that defines reality
“Bo” and “The Novel” feature women who search for their own “true selves” as their main characters.
The protagonist of "Bo", Bo-hye, has never made any decisions on her own, living under the shadow of patriarchy, from her pastor father to her pastor husband.
Bo-hye, who had been living with her eyes closed for a long time and an unknown longing, discovers her true self in the moments of the past when she felt beautiful.
In "That Novel," the "real" appears in more complex layers.
'I', whose novel was plagiarized, struggles to prove that I am the real author of the novel, and when I later publish a novel based on 'abortion', I constantly encounter people questioning whether it is a real experience or not, and I engage in a tug-of-war over the truth.
Here, 'real' serves as a major criterion, from the author's rights to his or her creative work to the yardstick for ethically condemning female writers.
As the proof of the 'truth' demanded of us as women and the 'truth' we seek as human beings are innumerable times in conflict, we are forced to ask ourselves who defines 'truth' and who has the power to define 'truth'.
And that question escapes the novel and is thrown back at our lives and the society surrounding them.
■ Existence outside of 'us'
The final novel, "A Queen Sized Hole," is the story of Seunghee, a writer struggling to continue her life as a creator.
Seunghee's worry about her bank balance, whether she's sober or blacked out from being drunk, is no different from the daily life of an ordinary young man in this era.
One night, when an old friend who had been hurt for a long time and a friend who was entangled in a debt situation came to visit at the same time, Seunghee was laughing and chatting with them in the same room and ended up lying down. Suddenly, she realized that she was not calculating any of the health insurance premiums, national pension, electricity bills, or water bills, and she thought about how refreshing it was to not think about any of those things for the first time in a long time.
Seunghee's heart, which was slowly growing colder with despair that she couldn't confess to anyone, is suddenly calmed by a being who suddenly appears, holding onto a loosely connected string, rather than a blood-related family member or a lover with whom she promised a future.
At this point, at the very end of the novel collection, "Your Mom's Better at Games Than You," we will begin to untie the loose threads that bind us together.
If we can stretch our imaginations toward those more distant and loose connections, it is from there that we may discover a new meaning for the "we" that keeps us alive.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Publication date: January 21, 2022
- Page count, weight, size: 256 pages | 268g | 115*205*15mm
- ISBN13: 9788937472893
- ISBN10: 8937472899
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카테고리
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