At the beginning of the book

Prologue - The Ethics of Decline: How to Use 21st Century Literature

Part 1: The Narrative of Universal Gravitation

The Novel of Gravitation: "Novels and Reality" as Seen Through the Novels of Kim Young-ha, Kang Young-sook, and Park Min-gyu
Those Who Are Not Deceived Wander - Thoughts on Kim Hoon's Novels
Oedipus Noir - 10 Notes on the Film "Oldboy"
Odysseus, the Siren, the Song - A Reading from "The Journey of Mujin"
Empire of Aporia - A Novel by Park Seong-won
Your X, It's Ethica - Kim Young-ha's 90s and Bae Soo-ah's 2000s
Possession - What We Say Too Much and Too Little When We Talk About 'The Ethics of the Novel' - Notes on Three Reviews

Part 2: Abalone that overturns abalone

The problem isn't lyricism - Welcome, New Wave
Truth is on the side of the suffering - New Wave Diagnostics, 2005
Schizophrenia and Anarchy: The Politics of Korean Poetry in the 2000s
The Spectrum of Poetic Things, From Cosmos to Chaos - Korean Poetry of the Summer of 2006
A Subversion That Subverts Subversion - A General Introduction to the New Wave
Possession - Minima Perspectivia_A Thought on the 'Depth' of Poetry
Sense, Once Again - Thoughts on Kim Kyung-joo's Poetry
What Should We Do When the Poets Are There? - Two Thoughts on Necessity and Possibility

Part 3: The Thirteenth Apostle

The Sad Illusions of the Thirteenth Apostle - Nam Jin-woo, "A Lion at Three in the Morning"
Love the Simulacrum - Kim Haeng-sook, "The Power of Separation"
Yesterday's Wounds, Today's Play, Tomorrow's Silence - Lee Min-ha, "Like Music, Like Scandal"
Somehow, a rock spirit! - Moon Hye-jin, "The Black Panther Lady"
This is how we break up - Lee Byeong-ryul, "The Wind's Private Life"
Revealing the Hidden and Hiding the Revealed - Jang Seok-nam's Poetry
The Mourning Orpheus and Aftermath - Kim Geun's Poetry

Part 4 The Place He Laid

The Politics of Gaze, The Subjectivity of the Mirror - Lee Sang's Poetry
The Place He Laid - Yun Dong-ju's "Hospital" and the Ethics of Lyric Poetry
Can This Love Continue to Be Varied? - Kim Soo-young's Thoughts on "Love"
The Poetic, the Real, the Symptomatic - Hwang Ji-woo's Theory of Poetry
Portrait of a Reflective Epicurean - Oh Saeng-geun's Poetics
Chronicles of Burning Love Machines - Kim Hye-soon's Love Poems
Poetry Has Sex - A History of Korean Poetry and Positions

Part 5: The Lonely Man's Guide

The Great Solitude, a Map of Humanity - Eun Hee-kyung, "Beauty Despises Me"
Politically Correct Adam - Lee Ki-ho, "I Knew This Would Happen"
From Desire to Love - Cheon Un-yeong, "How to Use Her Tears"
A Creepy Look - Pyeon Hye-young, "Towards the Cage"
Farewell, Penis - Oh Hyun-jong, The Adventures of Bond Girl Mimi
A Girl Reads Spinoza - Kim Ae-ran, "Run, Father"
Pessimism in Reality, Optimism in Literature - Kim Young-chan, "Ghosts of the Criticism Theater"

Epilogue - Wet Eyes Without Crying - Not Speaking About Kim So-jin

Announcement page

Shin Hyeong-cheol's first collection of essays

“The resume is short.
As he himself said, he does not have a doctorate and has not published a single book.
However, his commentary is included in the back of poetry collections and novels that seem to be of great quality.
There are even rumors that poets and writers are lining up to receive commentary from him.
“There are also entrancing compliments, such as ‘the second Kim Hyun.’” (Korea Times, January 4, 2007)

In 2007, a media outlet began an article introducing Shin Hyung-chul like this.
At the time, he was a new critic who had debuted less than two years ago.
What on earth made him compare to Kim Hyeon, who is called the myth of Korean literary criticism?
He debuted by publishing a review in the spring 2005 issue of Munhakdongne.
It was a time when the crisis of literature and the death of criticism had been talked about seriously for a long time.
In particular, the critical community, which had been locked in its own world and neglected communication with readers and writers, was now being criticized for having only formal authority.
His appearance brought fresh energy to the critical world, which had been so heavy and harsh.
First of all, his criticism, unlike previous criticisms that built a wall between himself and his readers, emphasized 'communication.'
Above all, his critiques were easy, kind, and even funny.
Moreover, his style was so fluid that he was said to have his own unique writing style, which is rare for a critic.
It was by far the best in the criticism world that had been stagnant since the era of criticism in the 70s and 80s passed.


The emergence of this young and lively critic was first welcomed by poets and novelists.
As you can see from the article above, his commentary was included at the back of most poetry collections and novels.
As proof of this, he was honored as the "most popular commentator" for writing the most commentaries in 2007 (Korea Times, February 3, 2008).
He has been actively engaged in critical activities centered on communication with readers and writers, and it has been four years since his debut that he has finally published his first collection of critical essays.
Was the publication of the collection of essays, like his critiques, also cautious and careful?
Compared to critics who debuted around the same time, it is quite late.
Since it is a collection of my previous writings, it is about twice as long (724 pages) as other collections of critical essays.
How did this delicate critic capture the world of his criticism that he has cultivated over the past four years?
Here are the traces of his communication “pile upon puffed bread.”


Literature is the etiquette of decline.

In the preface, he confessed that he was fascinated by the sublime expressions of the fallen who “give up everything but one thing to protect the one wife.”
And the first expression after that downfall was 'literature', he said.
That's why the title of the collection of essays is 'Ethics of Decline'.


What is literature?
It is the Ethics of Downfall.
When the whole world talks about success, literature speaks of those who have chosen to fail, saying that the world must change, that life must change.
It has been so until now, and it will be so in the future.
This is why I have cherished literature so much, and no matter how dire the political debates may be, I do not believe that literature can suddenly become something else one day.
The day these thoughts began to form in my head, I thought I could bind a book.
The title of the book was decided at that time and never changed.
The book is finally coming out.
_From the 'Preface'

The book is divided into five parts.
Part 1 is a collection of essays about the novel.
We examine the emergence of ethics, which asks what kind of life is true and beautiful, in the Korean literary world where ideology has disappeared since the 1990s.
The relationship between novels and reality as seen through the novels of Kim Young-ha, Kang Young-sook, and Park Min-gyu, the materialism of Kim Hoon, the reconstruction of the aporia (no path, logical impasse) that characterizes Park Sung-won's novels, and the profound thoughts on Kim Young-ha's business administration and Bae Soo-ah's linguistics, which most radically showed the ethics of Korean literature in the late 1990s and early 2000s, are gathered in one place.
What he wanted to show was that “ethically radical novels can also be literary masterpieces.”
And finally, he concludes with another introduction, mentioning the critiques of three fellow critics and moving on to a general discussion of the ethics of the novel.


Part 2 contains writings about young poets who emerged in the 2000s.
“Born in the 70s, originated in the 2000s” The poetry of young poets possessed a strange fascination that Korean literature had never experienced before.
Some called this new trend ‘futurism’ (Kwon Hyuk-woong), while others called it ‘other lyricism’ (Lee Jang-wook).
And he named it 'New Wave'.
He focused on the possibilities and aesthetics of new energy that appear in the poetry of Kim Min-jeong, Hwang Byeong-seung, Kim Gyeong-ju, Lee Min-ha, and Kim Haeng-suk, thereby empowering their adventures.
His critiques sometimes took on a cold air when they encountered conservative voices that tried to disrupt this new trend.
To the critic who criticized the attention to this new trend as a “hasty emphasis on newness” and a “fuss,” he quotes Kim Su-young’s words to counter that the advancement of art history comes from very small “differences” and that a sense of those differences is necessary. To the critic who disparages “rampant subpoetry,” he delivers a sharp rebuke that what is important in poetry is not to adhere to grammar, but to reach the “poetic.”


Part 4, which he asks to be read like a draft of Korean poetry, deals with the poetry or poetic theories of Lee Sang, Yun Dong-ju, Kim Su-yeong, Hwang Ji-woo, Oh Saeng-geun, and Kim Hye-sun, who are deeply rooted in modern Korean poetry.
The last part of Part 4, which takes inspiration from Zizek's "ideology of position" and examines Korean poetry from the perspective of "sex" ("Poetry Has Sex"), is particularly interesting.


Parts 3 and 5 are a compilation of commentaries previously included in the single volume.
Although the commentary at the end of a work is generally considered to be “a place where critics exhaust themselves,” he did not hesitate to write commentary in order to have a deeper conversation with readers and writers.
He himself has been an avid reader of excellent commentaries for a long time, to the point where he dreamed of becoming a literary critic since he was a high school student.
The reason his commentary is loved not only by readers but also by poets and novelists is probably because it begins with understanding and empathy for the author, affection for the text, and a humble attitude to communicate with the other person.
Moreover, the fact that his criticism rarely encompasses both poetry and novels is a special feature of his work.


“Personally, the reason I cherish his poetry is because his criticism is so delicate and precise that you have to read each and every word carefully, which makes the poetry even more poetic. In a way, it has the virtue of jumping over (flying!) and embracing the poetry with affection.
Doesn't literature take on new meaning when writers and critics no longer feel distant from each other's hearts?
(…)
He is clearly a critic who restored the pride of criticism.
If the critic's job is to enrich the literary world with his perspective and to awaken it with sincere affection, I believe that the quality of Shin Hyeong-cheol's criticism is enough to awaken the literary world's long-dormant slumber.” _Lee Byeong-ryul (poet)

The prologue and epilogue gave the book a sense of completion.
The prologue states that “even if the 22nd century comes when poetry and novels are no longer produced and sold,” critics “will find and criticize ‘the poetic’ and ‘the novelistic’ wherever they are,” and that literature must exist for the “ethics of truth.”
The epilogue is an article that was included in 『Memories of Sojin』 (Munhakdongne, 2007).
The words, “I will endure without writing about him so that I will not forget him,” are heartbreaking.


As you turn the pages of this thick book, you will realize that what he has been writing for four years, and what he wants to say across 724 pages, is ultimately a confession of his love for literature.
He has walked with Korean literature for four years and will continue to walk with it in the future.
How enjoyable it was, and how enjoyable it will be, to spend time with this warm critic who loves literature so much.


If there is one truth I can tell without hating myself, it is this.
I love literature.
I can't help it if literature doesn't love me.
_From the 'Preface'

Shin Hyung-chul's "One Step of His Own"

Shin Hyeong-cheol, who was good at singing, brought me the manuscript for his first book, piled high like a loaf of puffed bread.
The time I spent reading the military's colorful writings, which I had not been able to read before due to my busy schedule, was fragrant, like being in a savory smell.
His writing style is fresh and his thoughts wander to the vast horizons of life.
If he could even apply the fragrance of the spiritual ecology hidden in this land, his criticism could lead the spirits of this land to a dragon tower where flowers are spread.
Shin Beom-sun (literary critic)

The fate of critics is similar to that of Moses, who was unable to enter the promised land but could only watch from afar.
Life, happiness, love, ideology, history, the world, all these things the critic looks at with a gaze full of longing.
He can only remain on this side of the unbridgeable distance called language, text, and discourse, and point beyond it.
By that distance, the Promised Land appears before us in a radiant light of beauty and abundance.
Shin Hyeong-cheol's criticism is imbued with the mental acuity, sincerity, and intensity of a man who foresaw the fate of the lonely prophet earlier than anyone else and who sought to put it into practice later than anyone else.
He walks silently while cries echo from all sides that the Promised Land does not exist and that the path to it has been erased.
He makes a path that does not exist and arrives at an unknown land.
Nam Jin-woo (poet, literary critic)

I've often heard that Shin Hyeong-cheol is a trustworthy critic with a keen eye and good writing skills.
Of course, I was one of those people who said that.
But after reading the collected works in one volume, I thought that his true power of persuasion might lie elsewhere.
This is a 'firm oath as comrades' to meet in the land of 'Ethica of Fall'.
It may sound strange because it is obvious, but the passion that flows beneath his cool context is a reverence and purity for literature.
Therefore, his writings are not to be confused with the belief that criticism holds the right answer and the responsibility to never give up the responsibility of criticism, but rather with the warmth of respect for the text, and by breaking away from the trappings, pretensions, and trends of theory, they can display their determination as an “active critic” toward “commentators who think that criticism is simply translating materials and messages into secondary discourse.”
I am not interested in pronouncing literature dead.
Like Shin Hyeong-cheol, I am not anxious about unemployment.
What I believe is that literature is the 'first expression after the fall', the only organism that is far from death.
In this book, Shin Hyeong-cheol's "one step of his own" led me to the horizon of ethics in criticism, and further, ethics in literature.
Eun Hee-kyung (novelist)

In this vicious cycle of criticism and critique, where knowledge is erroneous, logic is simplistic, and logic is meticulous, affection is lacking, Shin Hyeong-cheol's writing shines brightly.
It is also thanks to him that criticism no longer feels inferior to creation.
Criticism that doesn't enlighten readers, but makes them laugh and cry! That's probably why countless poets and novelists rely on him.
Moreover, this young, sincere, and capable critic will bless them, their teachers, and their posterity for at least several decades, so, oh, how wonderful it will be for Korean literature.
Kwon Hyuk-woong (poet, literary critic)