Short story anthology explores magical realism in Seoul's alleys

The cover of "Guisin-dong and Other Seoul Villages" by Stephane Mot

By Jon Dunbar

If you find yourself in Guisin-dong, a nomadic, shape-shifting neighborhood of Seoul, you may never escape. That's one of the revelations in "Guisin-dong and other Seoul Villages," a recently released ebook by Stephane Mot, a Seoulite originally from France.

"We all live in Guisin-dong," Mot told The Korea Times. "If Guisin-dong doesn't exist, it's somehow a microcosm of life, and of Seoul's diverse villages, a social satire and a tribute to this shapeshifter of a city. Too many people roam Seoul without feeling anything for her."

He presents 12 short stories, or "dragedies," which is his word for his short stories based on a portmanteau of the French candies dragees which come in small bundles, and tragedy.

"Dragees are candies you offer in small bundles to celebrate, and somehow exorcise festive events ― generally a wedding or a birth... they can be treacherous for the teeth," he said. "My dragedies are short fictions basically exorcising death, so each small bite can be sweet or sour, sad or funny."

Alongside "Guisin-dong," which translates to "Ghost Neighborhood," his dragedies are full of surrealism and magical realism. In "de Vermis Seoul" he follows an alcoholic who studies the invisible worms that infest Seoul, subsisting on concrete dust and rats. In "Black Snow," a woman finds a man lying comfortably in the snow in sub-zero weather and brings this mysterious person into her home. In "Seoul Metamorphosis," a man wakes up to find himself transformed into a cockroach, but unlike Kafka's original short story, this Samsa finds the lighter side of his new form as he scurries out to make the world a better place. The last few stories involve Kim Mudangnim, a shaman who goes renegade, prowling the alleys like a comic book superhero after the police declare her a public threat.

The magical realism in his stories carries a clear inspiration from Korean shamanism, an indigenous belief system that sees spirits everywhere and is practiced mainly in hidden corners of the city.

"Like it or not, shamanism is as much as Confucianism part of Korea's DNA, a more repressed dimension of its rich culture. I let it naturally permeate through my fiction now and then. Sometimes as a narrative testing device, since shamans have good antennae. I met a few, and I know people who'd be terrific shamans. Not because they believe, but because they know how humans tick."

He's been writing short stories about Seoul for years, and some of the ones in this collection were released in French originally years ago.

The collection is a series of love letters to Seoul and its many alleyways.

"I enjoy walking across cities without a purpose, letting my mind wander as well. We're all drifters, and I see cities as more or less beautiful scars we humans leave on Earth. I have a special dialogue with Seoul, where as you well know whole neighborhoods can disappear," Mot told The Korea Times.

"I've walked through each and every Seoul neighborhood, and all my memories are now fictions."

Mot has been running his blog Seoul Village since 2007, focusing on the city's texture and developments, often taking a satirical tone. It's evident his fiction takes inspiration from his wanderings, and characters even visit real locations of change, such as Cheonggye Stream while it was being "daylighted" in the early 2000s, and a moon village (post-war refugee village built on a hillside) in the later stages of demolition. Through his stories he speaks with disdain of redevelopment, new construction and the flattening of Seoul and straightening of its pathways.

"If you walked only along wide avenues, what would be the fun?" he asked. "You're reading the script ahead; you know what and whom you'll see in the near future. Alleyway thinking slows down your pace, keeps you alert, adds twists and turns. And lovely dead ends."

Visit seoulvillage.blogspot.com or dragedies.blogspot.com to download the ebook for free.

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn