[Book Sip] 6 Writers Say 'We Like SF'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from books. - Editor's note

Through various activities such as writing, criticism, commentary, and lectures, critic Sim Wanseon actively discusses the world of SF and met six authors: Kim Boyoung, Kim Choyeop, Duna, Bae Myeonghun, Jeong Soyeon, and Jeong Serang. The interview collection meticulously captures the individual values, ways of thinking, and lifestyles of these six authors who tell stories of new worlds. Special effort was made to densely cover the broad spectrum of SF. “From the 1990s to the 2020s, meeting a range of authors?from those with a strong SF concentration to those with lighter works, from those focused on worlds to those focused on characters”?he listened to and recorded their stories.”

“The act of reading others is itself citation and transcription. I have lived by repairing, patching, and expanding myself through the stories of others. Just as one knows the scenery of a place never visited, I know lives I have never lived. The more connected texts there are, the more I become a diverse and vast mosaic.” - From the preface

“I often think about being truthful. Even if writing is not factual, it must be truthful and sincere. The stories I write do not always exactly match my values, and the characters in the novel are separate from me. After all, novels are fiction. Still, at the moment of writing, the story must be real to me. (...) But if I don’t believe it’s real when I write, it won’t be real to any reader. I write believing that readers will feel exactly what I feel while writing this novel.” - Kim Boyoung

“SF is indeed a somewhat difficult genre. The entry barrier is high. Some people cross that barrier effortlessly, while others say ‘No’ and turn away. (...) If you put aside your preferences a little, you encounter new worlds. (...) There are moments when you come to like works you thought you wouldn’t. Those moments broaden our world. Because I have enjoyed such moments in my life, I want to recommend them to readers.” - Kim Choyeop

“The impulsive actions of characters don’t always need logical explanations, nor do we need to know everyone’s motives. Some things should remain a mystery. That’s how the world we live in is. We can’t know everything. If everything is explained, it feels like a painting where every object on the canvas is drawn with the same precision, making it feel fake. It needs to be loose to some extent.” - Duna

“Overall, job satisfaction is not great, but there are very good moments. There is a sense of accomplishment. It feels like work I love. It’s something I can continue doing. And the writing I do keeps sending me to different places.” - Bae Myeonghun

We Like SF | Written by Sim Wanseon | Minumsa | 444 pages | 17,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.