Through the ivory gate

America.
References
Recommendation

I have never seen a novel so obsessively about reality and unreality, here and there, this and that, and ultimately, the point where you and I become indistinguishable.

Lee Jang-wook (novelist)

This is not a 'story'.
A writing that cannot be summarized, a writing that destroys the message, a writing that is out of place, a writing that happened just the day before yesterday, in the blink of an eye, maybe a writing about a year.
Jo Jae-ryong (literary critic)

A city where there is no need to distinguish between dreams and reality
The beginning of the dream symptom that prices reality

From the onset of this symptom, every moment becomes a tool for analysis of the previous moment and anticipation of the next moment, and the act will never end.
In the mirror she looked into, only the red towel hanging on the towel rack behind her was reflected like a signal of a crosswalk that would never cross, and Jinyeo's own image was nowhere to be found. Now that she was used to that kind of appearance... Jinyeo turned on the faucet, filled her hands with water that she couldn't tell if they were there, and threw the water towards the spot where her face would usually be, washing it, and this action and the feeling of the cold water touching her face let her know that Jinyeo was there.
(p.
10)

When I wake up in the morning and wash my face, I can usually feel the cold water because there is a person called 'I', but in 'Through the Ivory Gate', it starts by denying this obvious fact.
In the mirror, 'Jinyeo' cannot find her own reflection.
Habitually splashing water on the area where your face should be.
Only the cold sensation felt where a face is supposed to be makes me sense that 'I' am there.
In this novel, situations that seem unrealistic are called “symptoms.”
This 'symptom', which began among city dwellers who live in a city where the lights never go out 24 hours a day, creates a state of neither sleeping nor waking up, where dreams "strike the weak point of reality with their ignorance" (p.
199) is being driven to the point of being done.

“Rather than saying that it has become a space where dreams and reality cannot be distinguished, it is more like a space where there is no need to distinguish between the two” (p.
29) In the city as a space, it is impossible to discover hidden meanings one by one or to create a consistent logic.
Our best defense in a world that is not fixed is to accept that these events “may have been part of the universe before we were born” (p.
32) It is only a matter of doubting the fact that their appearances are fixed.
So, what we continue to read is not a journey toward a fixed goal or destination, but rather a situation before our eyes of the 'true nature' that is not even reflected in a mirror and whose substance is unclear, sentences that erase the boundaries of all things like liquid and are faithful to the moment.


In a world where daily life and order have been destroyed
A sentence that creates discontinuous, disconnected moments

Sometimes, the repetition that seems unappealing is surprisingly the only truth.
Meaning may be a stopping point for cognition, but it is not its destination.
There may be moments when meaning seems to stand out, but when we realize that it is an illusion, the ultimate purpose of perception is not meaning.
What all this is saying, what are we talking about, what are we missing while we're obsessing over and talking about what we don't know, I think that's important.
(p.
191)

“An undefined future” and an “unfixed past” (p.
33) In the meantime, countless possibilities are bound to open up, and while embracing these possibilities, ‘Jinyeo’ lives in an unpredictable present.
I don't know where I'm going to work, but I go to work like I always do, and I get on the train like I always do, but I don't know where I'm going.
It's clear that yesterday you were a school teacher, but today you're a student, so it wouldn't be surprising.
What happened in the past does not guarantee what will happen today.
Creating a story is only possible in a world that can create a consistent order, but it is difficult to think that it is possible for the character 'Jinyeo', whose daily life and order have been destroyed.
Because of this, we may ultimately fail to grasp the true nature of the character called 'Jinyeo'.
The act of reading, of observing the actions of the true nature and imagining its reality in one's mind, is dismantled by the next sentence and rendered powerless by the sentence that follows.
The novel continues to dwell on fragmented moments of events, erasing any possibility of being told with certainty.
All we can do is silently follow the sentences of Koo Byung-mo, who persistently pushes us to the point where we cannot distinguish between yesterday and today, between 'you' and 'me', and make us question what we have believed.

When we finish reading this book, what will we discover in it?
Perhaps the idea of ​​discovering something within a book is common sense that only applies in the orderly world outside of this book.
Pursuing the 'true self' that is not reflected in the mirror is nothing less than an act that breaks common sense in seeking meaning.
Let me rewrite the sentence I quoted earlier.
“This is not a ‘story.’
“These are sentences that cannot be summarized, that is, sentences that destroy the message” (literary critic Jae-ryong Jo).
Only by turning the pages, navigating the endless maze where the sentence you are reading now brings forth the next sentence, will you be able to experience the new reading experience that author Gu Byeong-mo has opened up.