[Bbang Gubneun Tajagi] When Asked What Love Is, the Play Asks Back...

After Writing "Love," I Find I Can't Write Anything Else
The Meaning of Love Seen Through Nine Plays

The sentence "I wrote 'love,' but could not write what came next" appears in Osamu Dazai's novel Sayang. This novel tells the story of Kazuko, a fallen noblewoman, who searches for love in her own way amidst despair. Choi Yeo-jeong, the author of In Times Like These, Theater, said this sentence was the first thing that came to mind when writing about love. Although everyone experiences love, perhaps no one fully understands it. When one writes "love" but still does not know what love truly is, the author leaned on nine plays to continue writing. These plays, which healed the author who was lost and wandering in love, each contain stories of love completed in different forms.

The first theme explored is forbidden love. Jean Racine's Phaedra is about a woman who loves her stepson. Ironically, love grows stronger when obstructed. Even if one engraves "this must not be done" repeatedly, only anguish remains; "pouring the oil of taboo on the flame of love" only makes it burn hotter. This love inevitably leads to pain. Yet, this terrible pain is also a form of love.

Cyrano de Bergerac questions the essence of love. Between body and mind, which leads you to love? The fact that this question has been asked repeatedly over time means there is no definitive answer. What the author found here is that love is inherently imperfect. Discovering and protecting this imperfection is, in fact, a miraculous act.

Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, well known through its film adaptation, is a story about jealousy. Salieri envies God's love for Mozart. In this play, Salieri confesses that he is the one who killed Mozart. Jealousy can bring about destruction. However, among "ordinary people," jealousy often becomes a motive for separation. No matter how much one vows not to feel jealousy, it is useless. Just as love overwhelms us, the emotion of jealousy quickly envelops us as well. Even when trying to be composed, the inferiority felt in the moment of jealousy is pitiful. Through his own experience of breaking up due to jealousy, the author comforts those of us who have destroyed relationships because of jealousy.

Returning to Sayang, Osamu Dazai reportedly said that before writing this work, he intended to write a Japanese version of The Cherry Orchard. The Cherry Orchard is Anton Chekhov's final play. Introducing this work, the author adds a memory of a grandmother who lived as beautifully, courageously, and fully as Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard or Kazuko in Sayang.

Love was like that. Sometimes it was pain, sometimes jealousy, sometimes memory. And it was always unstable. Love filled with certainty is simply astonishing, yet at the same time, uneasy. The nine plays presented in this book encapsulate even more diverse aspects of life and love. Since love varies for each person, we encounter even more diverse people and loves than those contained here.

Looking back, how clumsy we were in front of love. We lost our way again, and perhaps we are still wandering somewhere. The author, confused by past love, calmly accepts separation and concludes the book. Kazuko, who could write nothing after writing "love," comes to believe that "humans are born for love and revolution." She decides to fight to the end against outdated morals, saying love has no reason. This is Kazuko's answer; we must each find our own. As long as life continues, love will never fade. This book is a cheer for that journey.

(I Could Write Nothing After Writing Love / Choi Yeo-jeong / Teumsae Bookstore / 15,000 KRW)

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