Homo Ludens Kim Jung-hyuk, Rolling the Dice.
Now, the game has begun!

When I think of the artist Kim Jung-hyuk and his works, I picture an expression on his face as if he is daydreaming about something interesting, with countless thought balloons floating above his head.
It seems like he is wondering what to do this time.

In old Sanskrit there is something called lila.
It means to discuss.
A play of creation, destruction, and re-creation, a play that opens and closes the universe, a sacred play.
The free and profound Lila is an experience of joyful enjoyment and at the same time reaching the state of the absolute God (……) and reaching the state of Lila is like returning to the true self.

‘Play’ creates new life.
It fills our lives with joy, gives us momentum in our work, and even gives us the possibility to create a different life.
Imagination is productivity.
'Play' is something that awakens the human instinct to enjoy doing what one wants to do.

Everything we need to express already exists within us.
If we have the right to create, the right to realize and fulfill ourselves, then isn't the writer who best exercises this right 'Kim Jung-hyuk'?

I remember that I was a 'self-taught boy'.
It's still like that now.
(……) I realized that self-study suited my style.
(……) I sharpened and refined my senses by listening to music, drawing, copying, and writing on my own.
In the end, I think the most important thing is your own sense.
Wouldn't the wisest way to enjoy this era be to experience it with my own senses?
_2010, Kim Jung-hyuk

Kim Jung-hyuk, an author who plays with the times with his own unique sensibility acquired through 'self-study', has once again opened the game board.
Eleven years after his debut, his fourth novel and second full-length novel, 『Mr. Monorail』, is a custom-made novel by Kim Jung-hyuk, a novelist who plays.
The human Kim Jung-hyuk and the novelist Kim Jung-hyuk, the game, reality, and the work become one in 『Mr. Monorail』, this time it's 'dice game'.


A dice thrown into the sky is subject to countless changes before it reaches the ground.
There is no necessity to bind the dice.
But also, the dice somehow have to fall to the ground and come up with one number.
Dice, a game of chance and necessity.
What makes this dice game interesting is that it creates new excitement every time.
It is a repetition of ‘creation’ and ‘difference’ every time.
Again, the die is cast.

A moment's choice determined everything, and that choice ultimately determined fate.

Could this be a game?
Maybe I rolled the dice and ended up here.

But this was reality.
It wasn't a dream or a game, it was reality.


Roll two dice.
The dice, which had been changing directions in the air countless times, show a number each time they fall to the ground, and the piece moves that number.
It could be a trap or a pit, or it could be an unexpected stroke of luck.
But it doesn't matter.
The dice are thrown again, and the pieces are moved again.


From the beginning, I had a feeling that my own choices might not be that important.
Someone might throw a die, and Mono might be a piece that moves the number of dice rolled.
If someone were to roll the dice for him, Mono wanted to rely entirely on those dice. (pp. 167-168)

One morning, Mono woke up from a deep sleep and immediately thought that it would be nice to have a game called "Hello, Monorail", and immediately started making up the rules for the game.
Mono unfolded a map, built a virtual monorail over every city in Europe—a floating, flying monorail—in one day, and then set off on his own adventure.
Choosing one of Blue, White, Red, Black, or Pink is the beginning of the game "Hello, Monorail."

Unlike other protagonists in Kim Jung-hyuk's novels, the protagonists of "Mr. Monorail" are not from the top *% of South Korea, recognized by school or society.
We are ordinary people who hesitate endlessly, are shy, and timid, but we are all the main characters of our own lives.

Mono, the creator of the board game "Hello, Monorail," and his "friends" unexpectedly find themselves in the middle of an incident against their will.
And then, as if he were a piece of a game he had created, he gets closer to the incident as many times as the number shown on the dice someone threw, then gets further away again, encounters a trap, solves it, and then heads towards the final destination.


Perhaps I came to Rome by rolling dice.
If I roll the dice again, won't I go straight to the next city?
Mono fiddled with the dice in his pocket.
Mono took out the dice and threw them.
3 and 4 came out.
If it was 7, I could go to Amsterdam.
? I rolled the dice.
2 and 3, moving forward five spaces, was Copenhagen, Denmark.
I wanted to go back to Korea so quickly.
But Rome was real.
It wasn't a dream or a game. (Page 89)

As he walked to Brussels Station, Gou Chang felt like he had become a character in a game.
(……) When the dice roll 5 and 5 for the first time in a long while and it seems like the game will turn around, the characters running ahead will roll 6 and 6 and run away, and when it seems like they have fooled the opponent with a proper mission card, they will be counterattacked with a blizzard card or strike card and be left in a position where they can’t go anywhere. That character was Gou Chang.
I've never led a game before.
I was always second or third, but I never once felt disappointed, so for the first time I got annoyed with myself for always being behind.
I wanted to see myself crossing the finish line in first place, looking great. (Page 239)

So, one more time!

Once again, dice is a game of chance and necessity.
It never moves according to my will.
This is no different from our lives.
But, it doesn't matter.
Kim Jung-hyuk and his novels do not tell you to simply submit and accept this as your inevitable fate.
The die has now been cast once.
I have the ability to create something new within me.
If you affirm this ability and affirm your life, you can choose again.
Back to square one.
Now it's my turn to throw.
The horse moves again.
So one more time!
Because the dice are fair.

Perhaps this is a life-affirming mantra.
The heart knows what the head does not know.
Perhaps this is also about surrendering my whole heart and soul to a voice within me.
Because we somehow manage to survive in our own way.


The happy ending I think of isn't 'they lived happily ever after', but rather the conclusion that everyone somehow managed to survive in their own way.
This is also my favorite conclusion.
_Kim Jung-hyuk

Twinkling… …

Eleven years after his debut, two short story collections, and now his second full-length novel, Mr. Monorail.
Author Kim Jung-hyuk seems to have developed his own unique brand.
The so-called "Kim Jung-hyuk-style" novels, which are a combination of whimsical imagination, clever humor, and warm emotions, seem like jokes and not, like seriousness and not, and they speak of a certain "truth" that we may have momentarily forgotten.


I try not to forget important things.
I think that as long as we don't forget consideration for others, courtesy toward creative works, the emotion we feel when talking face to face, and the emotions we feel through each other's body temperature when holding hands, it doesn't matter how the world changes.
_2010, Kim Jung-hyuk

The basic rule of dice games is that the person who doesn't obsess over winning wins.
Therefore, to win at dice games, you must have a genuine desire to lose.
—Robert Graves

Mono liked that.

A saying that the person who doesn't obsess over winning wins.
The desire to lose.
Is that possible?
Mono liked the fact that such a thing existed in this world, even if it wasn't possible.
The fact that such a thing exists in this world means that at least there are people who think about such a possibility.
Mono was an unimaginable feeling, but it was nice to have such a feeling. (p. 65)

Mono shook his head again.
It was a nod that made it unclear whether it meant there was nothing to fear or that he had no intention of making a big deal out of it.
Everyone woke up while Mono was standing in the hallway talking to the branch manager.
Other passengers were also loitering in the aisle.
Behind Mono, Luca, Red, Gouchang, and Gouin lined up.
Mono could feel that someone was standing behind him, that they were all on his side.
That felt good. (p. 336)

His ideas and wit are not like stars in the night sky that twinkle for a moment and then disappear, but are embedded throughout the novel like small jewels that shine in one place for a long time.
There, sometimes, in every corner, a warm and kind heart that makes you smile is an unexpected gift.
Like a sentence in a novel, it suddenly felt like somewhere in the world, someone would be standing strong on my side.
So, his novels make you laugh out loud, but then they immediately caress your heart and rub your back.

His second full-length novel, Mr. Monorail, depicts sincerity as if playing a game.
Kim Jung-hyuk rolled a new dice.
On this world, and on the game board called novel.
The dice he threw, now it's our turn to accept them!