If we compare the rise and fall of literature to history, now is neither the ‘Dark Ages’ nor the ‘Decline’ but the ‘Post-Apocalypse’.
The world has already perished due to nuclear war, and the few survivors are barely scraping by amidst the ruins.
And, of course, they can’t help but fight among themselves, so there was no need to look far for a real-life version of The Walking Dead.
Anyway, this is the worst apocalypse ever to hit the literary world.
However, surprisingly, you can still find famous novelists in the Korean entertainment industry, but how is that possible?
There’s a secret hidden here too.
Famous novelists are generally not famous for their novels.
“Hyung-pil, that’s not what I meant…”
“Enough. I’ll just go have a smoke before I go into my coffin. If only I hadn’t fallen for your plea about your pregnant wife and moving to the countryside…”
“But, well… if you calculate it, it does make sense to just give Moon In the award. Lim Yang-wook has returned to Baekhak Publishing now. They say he’s just using the department head as a puppet…”
“Damn it, we may have no money, but we still have pride!”
“Good point. Why do people buy and read literary magazines? Frankly, it’s because they want to show off, to say ‘I’m an intellectual’. But if that pride is shattered, will people still read literary magazines?”
“We don’t have enough subscribers to know much about that.”
“Ah, why did Lim Yang-wook have to complicate things so much…”
This story, which began to circulate around autumn, kept the editors of literary magazines stressed throughout the winter.
They had to reach a conclusion by spring somehow, as the Annual Spring Literary Contest was approaching.
Therefore, a unified response plan had to be established for the literary magazines by the time the contest announcements were made.
Individual actions would not be tolerated. If they scattered now, it would truly be the end for everyone.
Of course, there was the option for all the literary magazines to band together to destroy Moon In. This would involve bombarding him with ridiculously harsh criticism.
However, with Gu Hak-jun saying “Ahem”, Seo Woon-pil saying “Hmm”, and Park Chang-woon cursing “You fucking bastards”, it was clear that a tough stance would be useless.
Moreover, the image of the Korean literary magazine critique scene attacking a writer who had even been a Booker International Prize candidate was anything but dignified.
Yet, they couldn’t just smile and give him the award either.
Neither this nor that worked.
A machine would display an error code and crash spectacularly in such a situation.
But humans can’t do that. They have families to feed.
Therefore, the editors of literary magazines spent a miserable winter, staring blankly into space in their offices like broken computers.
There was no proper solution, but the Annual Spring Literary Contest was slowly approaching. Their hearts tightened, and their phones were constantly ringing. Something had to be done.
Just as the editors of literary magazines were shivering in anxiety.
A lifeline descended upon them.
A lifeline called 「Student Serial Killer」.
To begin with, it is worth noting that Gu Yubin’s the 「Student Serial Killer」 was clearly a piece deserving of a literary award.
However, coincidentally, there was also a political reason to award this novel.
Gu Yubin was the daughter of Gu Hak-jun, affiliated with Baekhak Publishing, and already a well-known novelist in the literary circle.
This meant that there were no grounds for criticism even if she received the award.
Moreover, until the emergence of Moon In, Gu Yubin had been the greatest prospect in Korean literature.
She was always referred to as a ‘genius’ whenever her name came up.
However, due to the public’s preference for an elementary school student writing novels over a middle school student writing poems, Gu Yubin was temporarily forgotten.
In this context, each literary magazine took action.
The ‘genius literary girl’ had returned.
[Genius Girl Gu Yubin Returns to the Literary World After Two Years, Shocking Sensational Work!]
[Review, 「Student Serial Killer」, A Raw Look at School from a Student Writer.]
Fortunately, Moon In had not submitted his work to any specific literary magazine. Therefore, there was no need to eliminate his work in any competition’s judging process.
Thus, the remaining awards were comprehensive categories like ‘Novel of the Year’ evaluated by the literary magazines themselves, where Gu Yubin pushed Moon In aside and took the spotlight.
Of course, there was significant backlash.
Many of Moon In’s fans sent protest letters to the literary magazines. Generally, these messages could be summarized as .
Moreover, these were originally high-interest individuals with a keen interest in literature, significantly overlapping with the main subscribers of the literary magazines.
Thus, the literary magazines found themselves clashing with their biggest customers.
But did the literary magazines fail to anticipate this outcome?
People tend to focus on the immediate crisis when it strikes. Humans are not particularly intelligent creatures.
Of course, occasionally, there are mutants who can see further, but these smart individuals generally act alone and cannot influence mainstream opinion.
This was why Seo Woon-pil, the representative of Korea’s largest literary magazine, had kept his mouth shut all winter. Seo Woon-pil had already cleverly maneuvered his way out.
So, as the literary magazines, focusing only on the immediate crisis, faced a deluge of protest letters from readers, they were stunned.
“Oh, right. His fans and our subscribers are the same people..”
“…What should we do, senior?”
“We’re fucked, that’s what.”
Fortunately, the literary magazines, being more inclined toward the scholar’s way of the brush rather than the sword, did not adopt the samurai spirit of committing seppuku instead of apologizing when fighting with their customers.
The literary magazines quietly prepared an apology.
However, that apology was never formally published because a wave from the ‘outside world’, incomparable to the affairs within the literary circle, struck.
The mainstream public took notice of Gu Yubin.
The reason was simple.
[Student Serial Killer… Number 1 Bestseller in One Week of Release]
[Exclusive Interview with the Star of the Gu Yubin Syndrome!]
[The Emergence of the Genius Literary Girl, Is Spring Coming to Korean Literature?]