[People Met Through Books] "There Is No Right Answer in Life... Literature Helps Find Each Person's Own Answer"

'If I Love Again' Author Lee Seon-jae
Chosen by 800,000 Public Service Exam Students as the 'Top Korean Language Instructor'
"Literature comforts me through others' lives, not just rushing to find the right answer"
"Inability to enjoy literature stems from living under pressure"
The Value of Literature Lies in the Comfort of 'Slowly Flowing Time'

It is an era where efficiency is emphasized. People prefer going straight rather than taking a detour. They watch movies or dramas by “fast-forwarding” or look for summaries. The knowledge of the result is valued more than the feeling of the process. Literature is no exception. Narratives written with a long breath are often flattened into standardized answers. Instead of reading value through individual interpretations, they are lumped together with questions like “So what’s the result?” or “What’s the twist?” For adults who prioritize efficiency over time and students who care about test scores, literature often feels like a distant entity that is hard to approach.

When everyone is busy trying to find life lessons or exam answers in literature, Lee Seon-jae, the author of If You Love Literature Again (Dasan Chodang), says, “Literature reminds us that there are no correct answers in life,” and “Literature guides us not to the right answer but to our own answers.” Known as a so-called “top instructor,” he has been chosen by 800,000 public service exam students not only for his skills in finding correct answers but also for conveying the true taste of literature. He emphasizes that through literature, he discovered his own desires and passions and became a person with a solid core. We asked Lee Seon-jae about the many things literature has done for us?from meeting ourselves through others’ lives to receiving comfort.

[Photo by Dasan Chodang]

-You published a book on the theme of ‘literature.’ Did you like literature since childhood?

▲My mother says I was always surrounded by books since I was young. From my memory, I was always reading, thinking, and enjoying writing. I was very curious and satisfied my curiosity through books. I think I liked literature because it was mediated by ‘people.’ The message “live kindly” sounds like a boring and tedious nagging if simply delivered, but literature vividly conveys it through characters like ‘Heungbu’ and ‘Nolbu.’ The process of stopping to think while reading and rereading, with my own imagination intervening, added to the fun.

-The title If You Love Literature Again feels like reminiscing about a nostalgic love for literature.

▲The reason we can’t enjoy literature anymore is probably because we live under time pressure. I, too, drifted away from literature as I became busy working as a private academy instructor. Usually, teenagers encounter literature somewhat forcibly for entrance exams. Instead of learning how to enjoy reading, they learn how to interpret literature as exam passages. More people have probably seen parts of very famous novels in study guides than read the entire works. That’s why after exams, people don’t readily pick up literary books. Reading thick books over compressed movies and dramas is not easy in terms of speed and efficiency.

-Then, why is literature necessary in this era?

▲Because literature naturally helps us acquire coexistence, openness, and diversity, and through this, we can question ‘what it means to be human.’ Personally, I like the term ‘empathy.’ Literature draws out empathy from unknown subjects and unexperienced situations. By emotionally immersing ourselves in the hypothetical ‘if it were me,’ we broaden our experience and understand ourselves. Human life in literature is full of irony and absurdity. Good people suffer because of their goodness, and villains are sometimes praised. Honesty can lead to catastrophe, and truth and goodness do not always coexist. Ultimately, literature shows the multilayered nature of life beyond right and wrong and makes us realize that humans cannot be ideologically or dichotomously defined. This diversity and multilayered perspective lead to an open mind toward others and society. Literature stands against an era that forces extreme choices and questions the era’s definitions of right and wrong.

-I’m curious about the experience when literature had the greatest impact on your life.

▲It was a great help when my optimistic worldview that I could do things on my own was shaken by surrounding circumstances. When my father passed away after a long illness, when I had to give up graduate school, when I was a novice instructor teaching 40 hours a week... Especially, I gained great strength from works by young writers of the 1930s colonial era. I empathized with the sadness, anger, confusion, helplessness, and self-loathing felt by characters in situations where individuals struggled but found no solution, and I received a strange comfort thinking, ‘Yes, they also lived enduring a difficult world.’ Without messages like ‘this is right’ or ‘do this,’ the protagonist’s struggles and split self-awareness when blocked by an inescapable world were a great strength. I gained realizations like ‘this too shall pass’ and ‘it’s not your fault.’

-Isn’t life too harsh for literature to comfort people struggling for various reasons?

▲The true value literature gives is ‘comfort through time.’ In fact, the experience of empathy can be achieved through movies or dramas, not just literature. However, literature involves imagination and allows us to experience ‘slowly flowing time.’ We have to concretize in our imagination from the text how the protagonist looks and what troubles them. Literature allows us to stop reading when we don’t understand, and if we can’t imagine concretely, we go back to previous parts, causing delay and slow flow, permitting a ‘generous time’ completely different from a busy daily life. I think the reason we read literature is for this special experience of time.

-From the literary perspective of transcending reality’s constraints, there is also a skewed view toward public service exam students.

▲It is true that there is a tendency to belittle public service exam students as passive youths who gave up challenges for a stable life. However, as I said in the book, a stable life has its own value no less than a challenging life. For young people who have never experienced stability and have always suffered from poverty and deprivation, stability can be a lifelong hope. Without such understanding, one should not simplify situations and judge recklessly. To students, I want to say that although the goal is passing, even if they don’t succeed, the attitude toward life during preparation is imprinted on their body and mind. No matter what they do in the future, the intensity of the exam period will remain. I want to say this intensity will push away current hardships and become a stepping stone to a new future.

-People who reach the top often worry about falling. Instructors who must be chosen by students probably have such fears too.

▲Just seeing the term ‘top instructor’ shows that the evaluation criterion is ‘ranking.’ Instructors are evaluated by competition, performance, and efficiency. These days, some people envy the glamorous appearance of certain top instructors, but if they saw me working for a few days, their thoughts would change. The mental stress and the intensity of labor itself are very high. Although there is great reward in opening the future for examinees with my knowledge, sometimes I feel extreme skepticism in a job that is constantly evaluated and competitive. At those times, I recall the line from poet Na Hee-deok: ‘The edge of the land is the end of the land but the beginning of the sea.’ I always try to maintain an optimistic attitude that ‘the end of an instructor is the start of another life.’ This is also why I accumulate diverse experiences through books.

-If you were to convey literature’s comfort to people who are discouraged and struggling for various reasons.

▲The reason literature comforts us may be because it shows that all humans are beings who wander. Another reason it moves us may be because it shows that a life is not evaluated by the achievements it has made. Life’s voyage cannot proceed straight toward a destination. Life shakes and loses direction, and it is the sum of emotions formed through interactions with people met along the way. So when struggling in a society that demands results, I recommend meeting characters in literature who wander in self-loathing, sadness, and anxiety. You will be able to escape the pressure of speed and experience slow time allowed only to you.

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