preface

Choi Jin-young's stone wall
Kim Ki-chang's Promised Land
Kim Jung-hyuk's albatross to kill time
Kim Ae-ran, Noh Chan-seong, and Evan
Im Sol-ah's body parts
The Death of a Poet, Lee Sang-wook
Jo Si-hyeon Earth
Reading Bae Myung-hoon's Clams

To you who imagine a better Earth where all life breathes together
Stories presented by Choi Jin-young, Kim Ki-chang, Kim Jung-hyuk, Kim Ae-ran, Im Sol-ah, Lee Sang-wook, Jo Si-hyun, and Bae Myung-hoon

『Breathing Novels』, a collection of eight short stories themed on the Earth and life, has been published for Generation Z, who are familiar with eco-friendly values.
The writers of our time, Choi Jin-young, Kim Ki-chang, Kim Jung-hyuk, Kim Ae-ran, Im Sol-ah, Lee Sang-wook, Jo Si-hyeon, and Bae Myeong-hoon, each portray the present and future of the Earth's ecosystem from their own perspectives.
The novel addresses toxic chemicals, the climate crisis, the plastic problem, communion with other life forms, the question of body worth, meat-eating culture, a planet that rejects humans, and the beauty of nature's vast expanse.

These days, articles about the 'strange Earth' are coming out every day.
Abnormally high temperatures have been observed around the world, and many people in our country have suffered damage due to the early onset of the heat wave.
During the same period, some parts of the Southern Hemisphere experienced an unusually cold spell and rare heavy snowfall.
Melting glaciers and disappearing species are no longer news.

『Breathing Novel』 depicts this ‘strange Earth’ and the ‘even stranger humans’ who live there through the eyes of Choi Jin-young, Kim Ki-chang, Kim Jung-hyuk, Kim Ae-ran, Im Sol-ah, Lee Sang-wook, Jo Si-hyeon, and Bae Myeong-hoon.
"Breathing Novel," which contains the voices of the Earth, which we naturally long for, and which now seems to have reached its limit, will provide a new perspective to young people and readers in their 20s and 30s who are sensitive to the Earth's crisis.
This book is the fourth in the series of themed novels published by Changbi Education, and is a follow-up to 『Sweaty Novel』 on the theme of labor, 『Heart-Pounding Novel』 on the theme of love, and 『Remembering Novel』 on the theme of disaster.



Beings at a crossroads on a changing Earth

We feel both worry and tension as we watch the Earth displaying unusual phenomena every moment, as if time is running out.
The same goes for the beings in 『Breathing Novel』.
As humans and animals living on Earth, we each stand at a crossroads of survival.

Jinyoung Choi's "Stone Wall" depicts the worries that ordinary people like us may face in our daily lives.
After learning the secret of a company that casually adds banned chemicals to toys, I wonder if I'm mistaken.
"Does everyone know about it and still use it? Is it really that bad? Are you saying it doesn't cause immediate harm? It's a toxic substance?" (p. 26) All I got in return for mustering up the courage to raise the issue with my boss was the accusation, "Are you the only one who's so smart?"
"We're not a rubber meat company, and we don't put cyanide on our products, right? They're just toys.
“That level of badness is widespread in the world.” (Page 34) ‘I’, who is struggling to escape from shame, ends up reporting the company.
There is no dramatic ending.
But the first step towards change has been taken.
“The factory keeps running.
One day you may be caught and ordered to return it.
Does my report have anything to do with that 'someday'? I don't know.
“I just piled up one stone.” (p. 44)
Kim Ki-chang's "Promised Land" captures the melting Arctic through the eyes of the polar bear, Aput.
“The Arctic was melting beyond the scope of what Aput knew and could choose.” (p. 50) The problem is not just that the glacier on which Aput stood is melting.
“The hunting grounds are shrinking, and the competition for prey is becoming more intense.” (Page 62) In the midst of the chaos, where no one tells him how to respond, Aput struggles every day, wondering what he should do to protect his cubs.

Kim Jung-hyuk's "Albatross as a way to kill time" deals with a person who returns alive after being stranded on a plastic island.
It was a time when “the news was talking every day about how trash would swallow the Earth” (p. 92), but paradoxically, ‘Joy’ was saved by that trash.
A light plane crashes and he almost dies in the middle of the ocean, but he survives by landing on a plastic island.
As I listened to the story, I thought, “Joy had a valuable experience” (p. 91).
But Joy said, “I threw something into the sea.
… … He chooses death, leaving behind a meaningful thought: “There is plastic in the bowels of the Earth.” (p. 101)
It was a stroke of luck for Joy that her life was saved by the plastic that had accumulated on Earth.
But is that lucky for the Earth?


In the end, the problem is humans
A look back at myself, hoping it's not too late

"Breathing Novel" addresses toxic chemicals, climate change, and plastic waste, drawing readers' attention to the Earth and the environment.
And then soon he turns his gaze to humans.
Ultimately, humans play a large part in why the Earth has changed.
Kim Ae-ran's "Noh Chan-seong and Evan" simultaneously depicts the communication and conflict between humans and dogs.
One day, Chanseong takes in an abandoned dog, “a sensation he has never felt before” (page 113), and names it “Evan.”
Evan, who was already an old dog, was very sick, and Chansung wanted to save money to make Evan more comfortable.
However, Chan-seong, who first got a large sum of money, ends up spending it little by little.
Chan-seong, who loved Evan more than anyone else, caused Evan to meet a tragic death and even faded the good memories due to a bit of selfishness and foolishness, “the word ‘forgiveness’ suddenly came to mind, but he didn’t say it out loud” (p. 145).

Lim Sol-a's "Body Excavations" shifts the gaze to the human body in more detail.
'Eunha' has one of her toes amputated in an accident while traveling.
The nurse returns the vial containing the toe and says:
“Because this is the body God gave you.
Here, the body parts are returned to the patient.” (p. 157) Eun-ji, the older sister who has to return to Korea with her injured younger sister Eun-ha, cannot understand why her sister wants to return with the toe, and asks, “Doesn’t it look like flesh to you?” (p. 163).
Eventually, the sisters enter Korea on tiptoe.
But the airport staff looks at the toes differently than the sisters.
“It is registered as infectious waste and incinerated by a specialized company.” (p. 168)
Lee Sang-wook's "The Death of a Poet" expands the perspective on the body and imagines a human being who has become meat.
To human predators, “We preyed on other species in the same way.
“We have no right to call appetite a sin” (p. 176) People who confidently say this do not think that they will become that food.
Ultimately, it is society's weakest link that becomes meat "for humanity" (p. 183).
Humanity, who has lived by exploiting other lives, exploits other lives even when they themselves become food.

Jo Si-hyun's "Earth" develops the imagination of the body and depicts a future where human corpses become pollutants and are rejected by the Earth.
In these circumstances, it is impossible to bury human bodies in the ground as before.
However, Anna asks her lover Yeo-ri to bury her, saying, “I don’t want you to see me as trash.” (page 225)
It may be greedy, but ultimately, humans need “a place to go, a place to return to” (p. 233).
The situation in the story, “Humans had no choice but to continue doing what they were doing, hoping that the Earth would hold out a little longer” (page 203), is very similar to our current situation.



So that everything we cherish does not disappear
So that the next, and the next, and the next sprout can sprout here.

Just because there are many human errors, it doesn't mean that the Earth, now or in the future, has only a dark side.
Bae Myung-hoon's "Reading the Shellfish" affectionately depicts the vast and distant landscape of nature.
'I', who studies the speech of clams, which "speak only one word from birth until death" (p. 248), explains his work as follows.
“Look at this.
How cool is that?
This vast stretch of sand along the Arabian Sea is my workplace.
How nice it is here.
Is there a paradise?
“No matter where you go in the neighborhood, you can hear the sound of waves.” (p. 248), “It’s fun.
I like this job.
“You have to let go of things like big greed.” (p. 250), “When you do this work, the moments when you discover small beauties are better than those big successes.” (p. 252) These are probably scenes and atmospheres that humans instinctively long for even if they have never encountered them.
If we can still feel the beauty in this landscape, we can start from here.
We must do what we can today to ensure that the things we love will continue to exist, that their beauty will be felt by generations to come, and the generations after that, and the generations after that.