Beasts of a Little Land

by Juhea Kim

Words changed and remade her constantly, and no one else could even sense a difference.

It’s an uncanny thing—inyeon. If it’s not meant to be, you can’t hold on to people no matter how hard you try. Some people you love deeply will turn into a stranger in an instant, if the inyeon has run its course. And sometimes people will be attached to you forever despite all likelihood.

EVERY HUMAN BEING FUNDAMENTALLY BELIEVES IN HIS OR HER UNIQUE and inherent significance, without which life would be unbearable;

IT IS A CONDITION OF YOUTH TO HAVE AN UNQUESTIONING BELIEF that life is a steady progression.

it was true he didn’t hold a lot of knowledge, but his mind was free to flow in whatever direction, and he didn’t nurture pain. Whatever he did keep permanently, Jade was certain that he would protect firmly in the bottom of his jangdok pot. He might never fling himself far from where he’d landed, Jade thought, but he would nonetheless be happy for the simple reason that he refused to be caged.

“The concept of a nation is a pure construct. It serves to hold up our reality, we need it for government et cetera, but it is neither self-evident nor natural, and becomes more meaningless when you think of it in historical context. For all of human history, nations have been destroyed, absorbed into others, reborn, or forgotten, and that makes no difference to the well-being of the posterity.

Time was a winter fog—gray, shapeless, indifferent to his existence. It passed on its own like a ship that sails without passengers. Or perhaps it was a ship that was carrying everyone else except MyungBo. Being left outside the world of time was a special kind of torture that said, You mean nothing. He

Love was defined by how much one could suffer for another, by what you were willing to do to protect this person. It was a question of choosing the person with whom you’d like to hold hands on your last train ride.

Now that I’m older I know that life is not about what keeps you safe, but what you keep safe, and that’s what matters the most.

So many words could be exchanged between people without any real desire to know one another. But with the right person, one could speak much or not at all, and feel completely connected.

JungHo stared at the smooth green pebble and felt all the ways people keep each other in their lives through material and immaterial means—words, memories, gestures, meaningless objects that become tokens and then turn back into meaningless objects—resting snugly in the palm of his hand.

EVERYONE DREAMS, BUT ONLY SOME PEOPLE ARE DREAMERS. THE NON-DREAMERS, by far more numerous, are those who see the world as it is. Then there are the few dreamers, who see the world as they are. The moon, the river, the train station, the sound of rain, and even something as mundane as porridge become something else with many layers. The world feels like an oil painting rather than a photograph, and the dreamers are forever seeing hidden colors where others just see the top shade. The nondreamers look through glasses, and the dreamers through a prism.

For all her faults, Lotus had always had an inspiring appetite for life. Whereas others thought of the world as a vast insidious sea or some such field of battle, Lotus took the approach that it was all just a game or a basket of fruits—to be played and to be tasted.

Maybe you only really died when no one assumed you were still living.

The meaning of old age was that all the bliss in one’s life must now be found looking backward, not forward. But he had played his part, he’d lived for something greater than himself.

The moon was still stenciled over the western sky when he arrived at the factory.

“There are just two things in the world that give you true confidence. One is overcoming difficulties on your own, and the other is being deeply loved. If you experience both, then you will be confident for the rest of your life.”

As always happens with significant events, the feelings developed fully and took on new colors and scents as she relived the scene in her mind.

WATCHING THE SEA MAKES YOU think of things. I spent whole days by the beach, my knees tucked in front of my chest, reminiscing.

In the water, I felt the weight of the people I used to be falling down to the seafloor. I no longer felt like the same person who had had all those heartaches and regrets.

Life is only bearable because time makes you forget everything. But life is worthwhile because love makes you remember everything.

And, finally, to David Shaw, the great inyeon of my life. We met before we even met, which is how I know everything I wrote in this novel is true.