Novelist Running Through Time

TL: KSD

It feels like just yesterday that we were happy winter had ended, but now the warm air is already blowing in.

A few precious months have passed by like the wind.

Although it feels a little regretful to have invested time in making a movie rather than writing a novel, I have learned a lot in the process.

Movies.

They are not the art of one person.

The director is not a creator, but a maestro who leads an orchestra, and the art of film is accomplished through the collaboration of many individuals within that orchestra.

The roles of the director, actor, and writer are not everything. The roles of numerous staff members, distributors, and even investors are critical. There is no position unimportant in the voyage of a film, like a sailboat moving forward.

Thus, if that long voyage ends in a bad ending, where the ship crashes into a reef and is destroyed, it can be understood that the failure is not solely the director’s, but the failure of all the crew.

“……”

“……”

This is why the atmosphere at the dinner party, which felt like a funeral, felt even heavier.

As the saying goes, the more you know, the more you can see. The more I knew, the more deeply I felt their emotions.

Even the resentful gazes.

Whispers. I could hear the backbiting, though I didn’t know if it was directed at Director So Tae-woong or at me, sitting next to him.

The fact that no one could stop those words revealed the stark reality of the current situation.

But amidst all of this, there was someone who was eating meat without a care. Of course, it was none other than Director So Tae-woong, who was devouring the beef with relish, living up to his family name ‘So’. (TL: 소 (So) means cow in Korean).

“Let’s eat. What you eat is what you gain.”

The moment So Tae-woong placed two pieces of meat on my bowl of rice, I couldn’t overcome my guilty conscience any longer and muttered an apology.

“Um… I’m sorry……”

“What are you sorry for?”

“I think I was too greedy with the script-”

So Tae-woong cut me off.

“It’s a co-written script.”

That answer was enough, so I didn’t say more and just put the beef into my mouth with a small bite.

But I couldn’t gather any strength in my jaw, so the meat didn’t get chewed properly.

Then I saw Kim Byul sitting across from me.

She was staring blankly into space, her pupils unfocused, with her mouth slightly agape.

She didn’t look like an actor with any dignity left.

It was painful to see.

“Sigh……”

I placed a piece of beef that was sizzling on the grill onto Kim Byul’s bowl of rice.

Then, mustering some energy, I chewed and swallowed my own piece of meat.

Kim Byul also glanced at the meat with dull eyes and brought it to her mouth with a dejected gesture.

Yeah. You still have to eat to survive……

It was a dinner party where soju felt particularly tempting.

EP 9 – Sound

Movies are mainstream culture.

Within the flow of Korea’s cultural industry, they undoubtedly belong to the mainstream.

Thus, the mathematical and statistical analysis techniques related to the film industry have been highly developed, which is why experts can get a rough idea of how things are going just by looking at the box office results for the first two weeks.

– It’s fucked.

– It’s fucked, isn’t it?

– Looks like it’s fucked…

The general consensus in the industry was that the movie ‘Sound’ seemed to be fucked.

Such analyses were quickly passed on to the higher-ups sitting at their desks.

“It’s fucked?”

“Yes. The analysis suggests it might not even break even…”

Kim Geun-tae, the Vice President of Baekhak Publishing, was one of those higher-ups.

He couldn’t hide a smile as he set down the status report.

Moon In’s failure? Not bad news at all.

“All right. You may leave.”

“Yes, sir!”

Kim Geun-tae, who was the head of the book distribution department, had formed a group with Lim Yang-wook called <Kim Sang-guk is a Fucking Asshole Club> to fight against the corrupt figures in the publishing business department.

As a result, Kim Geun-tae became the Vice President.

Given that the leadership of Baekhak Publishing had always been dominated by the publishing business department, and even the previous head of the book distribution department had been ousted by Kim Sang-guk’s machinations, it was nothing short of a miraculous victory.

To top it off, Baek Seol was nothing more than a puppet CEO who couldn’t manage herself, so in effect, Kim Geun-tae had become the regent of the Baekhak Publishing kingdom.

And so, Kim Geun-tae did what a regent serving a young and inexperienced king would do.

The ruthless yet realistic politics that a soft-hearted king couldn’t do.

“How about managing Author Moon’s schedule more systematically?”

Vice President Kim Geun-tae is a shrewd individual. No, it’s not that Kim Geun-tae is shrewd, but that the position of Vice President demands shrewdness. Someone without such acumen couldn’t have risen this far.

Therefore, Kim Geun-tae had long since grasped the triangular relationship (literally a triangle relationship) between Baek Seol, Lim Yang-wook, and Moon In.

Their friendship was truly strong, long-lasting, and romantic…

But at the same time, it was contradictory.

Look. Even now, the young CEO is still speaking with such naive ignorance of the world.

“Um, is it a problem that I invested company money in ‘Sound’? If that’s the case, maybe we should wait just a little longer and see how things turn out…”

“No, CEO. The box office success of the movie ‘Sound’ is not important. The moment our company’s author jumped into the film industry instead of writing novels, this business was already a failure. Success will belong to Director So Tae-woong, but failure will be Moon In’s. And Moon In’s failure is Baekhak Publishing’s failure. This was a business with no return and only risk.”

Vice President Kim Geun-tae wasn’t saying anything particularly groundbreaking.

It was the kind of thing you’d expect from a cookie-cutter K-elite who graduated from Seoul National University and earned an MBA from a prestigious American university.

Let’s squeeze the author for the sake of money!

“Of course, I’m not saying that the company should infringe on Author Moon In’s artistic integrity and treat him like a puppet. However, since Author Moon In now represents the kind of recognition that Baekhak Publishing is known for, we too must make appropriate efforts to manage that recognition. And for that, we need proper ‘management’. Isn’t that the core of the business model that CEO Baek Seol and Department Head Lim Yang-wook have been pursuing?”

On one hand, what Vice President Kim Geun-tae was saying touched on the core ideology of Baekhak Publishing and also addressed the contradiction within the triangular relationship of Baek Seol, Lim Yang-wook, and Moon In.

The core issue is the ‘status of the artist’.

Art has always been controlled by the wealthy.

Depending on who the patron is, the artist sings praises to God, paints portraits of emperors, creates romantic chaebol second-generation male protagonists, or charmingly anthropomorphizes half-beast, half-human creatures.

Thus, art never truly belongs to the artist.

Art belongs to the church, to the emperor, to the corporation, and to the people who donate $600 a month to the artist’s patronage account.

Therefore, the ‘novelist’ rightfully belongs to Baekhak Publishing.

The business model of planning and publishing is based on this. Baekhak Publishing dominates the publishing world by planning the type of content the company wants and outsourcing the writing to authors.

In fact, there’s an even more compelling basis for this.

It’s none other than the ‘Publishing Management’ business that Lim Yang-wook is pushing.

The publishing management business has downgraded the writer from a noble scholar to a celebrity signed with an agency.

Now, the era isn’t just about the company owning the writer’s work, but also their personal life, appearance, lectures, star power, image, and copyrights—all of these belong to the company.

Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Vice President Kim Geun-tae, Lim Yang-wook, and Baek Seol share the same ideology.

Ideology isn’t some grand concept. If you take the same side on a for-or-against issue and attack the opposing side, anything can become an ideology.

<Is a novelist an independent entity?>

At this point, Kim Geun-tae and Lim Yang-wook both shout. NO.

Thus, the very essence of ‘Publishing Management’ business conducted by Lim Yang-wook and Baek Seol who follows him, is an extension of the effort to undermine the independence of the artist and subjugate them to the company.

But.

In reality, they do not infringe upon Moon In’s independence.

In fact, when it comes to Moon In’s matters, they even seem to display a system-breaking mindset that ‘letting the artist be independent leads to good work’.

Why?n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Because they’re close.

This is the contradiction in the triangular relationship that Vice President Kim Geun-tae observed.

And so, he began to dig into that part first.

To cut out Lim Yang-wook and Moon In, and become Baek Seol’s first loyal subject.

“Haha…”

Vice President Kim Geun-tae, like a teacher comforting a scolded student, tried to console Baek Seol, who had slumped her shoulders dejectedly, with a soft voice.

Or at least, he tried to.

“You don’t need to worry too much. I’ll slowly assist you from the sidelines- huh?”

“Huh?”

What caught their attention wasn’t an urgent text.

Or a secretary rushing in, yelling about some major crisis.

It was a TV that was left on just because the atmosphere in the CEO’s office felt too awkward if it was too quiet.

***

People love stars.

But what they love even more is the ‘fall of a star’.

Because jealousy is a more intense emotion than admiration.

So, it wasn’t surprising that Moon In’s slump began surfacing publicly.

It started, as expected, with the film industry.

They couldn’t tolerate even the slightest tarnish on the reputation of So Tae-woong, the pride of Korean cinema.

It wasn’t so much because they liked So Tae-woong, but because they couldn’t deny the past when they themselves had praised him.

– So Tae-woong is the most outstanding and greatest director in the world, and this can be scientifically proven!

– The box office failure of Sound is due to Moon In, the parasite who latched onto So Tae-woong, and the sinister forces of the publishing industry! If they hadn’t dragged So Tae-woong down, the film wouldn’t have failed so miserably!

– We must purge the treacherous profiteer Moon In, who beguiled the director with sly words, to restore the spirit of our nation!

How horrible and terrifying is that kind of thinking?

Yet, filmmakers, who had long suffered in the industry’s protracted downturn, cheered for such claims. It’s no different from how a starving person can’t appreciate generosity.

In truth, the literary world’s missteps also added fuel to the fire of this public sentiment.

The literary community is a group of survivors.

They are the hardened survivors of the long apocalypse that is the publishing industry.

No matter how much of an oddball Moon In might be, he was still ‘one of their own’, wasn’t he?

When his movie flopped, they still had to make a few supportive comments as part of the family.

– Sound is an exceptionally literary film…

– It would have done much better if it had been released as a book…

– The general public, who lack deep literary insight, couldn’t recognize its value…

If there’s an advantage to a survivor group, it’s that they’re quick, and if there’s a disadvantage, it’s that they only look ahead.

Thus, this shortsighted collective behavior happened swiftly, without anyone intervening to stop it.

And once again, the literary world became a laughingstock for the umpteenth time.

***

“This is why the Korean literary world…”

I savored each and every online reaction that was being read aloud next to me.

The voice was so clear and refined, it was like a radio broadcast.

The fact that she even attended voice acting classes for her acting career was really starting to show.

“…views its readers as complete pigs and fools…”

The voice spouting off such insulting words in a beautifully melodic tone was none other than-

Kim Byul.

Kim Byul was narrating to me the disgraceful state of the literary world being peeled like an onion on the internet.

She was doing it with a purely innocent intent- simply to torment me.

“Hmm…”

However, I calmly sipped my coffee from Baekhak Entertainment’s in-house café, enjoying the show unfolding on the internet, as if I were listening to a radio broadcast. Kim Byul tilted her head in confusion.

“You’re not angry?”

“I hear this all the time. Why would I get angry?”

“You’re not suffering at all?”

“Not really.”

“Hmph…”

Kim Byul shot me a deeply dissatisfied look.

I can sense her wicked mindset that she can’t be the only one suffering.

She stopped reading criticisms directed at the literary world and shifted her attack, reading more direct insults aimed at me.

“Screenwriter Moon In? A bubble who only rose to fame because of his age…”

I took out my phone and started browsing the internet.

Then I pulled up an article about Sound and launched my counterattack.

“Kim Byul…”

“Don’t dooooo iiiit—!”

Before I called her name, she had been nothing but a nuisance.

But the moment I called her name, she rushed at me and turned into a little furball.

Just from saying those two syllables “Kim Byul” she started pulling at her hair, crying out in anguish.

“Heeiiing…”

Like she had been hit by an electric shock, Kim Byul’s body trembled violently where she stood before collapsing onto the table with a pitiful whimper.

She had messed up her hair so much that she now looked less like a person and more like a tangled ball of fur.

I placed a cold strawberry yogurt smoothie on top of her head to help cool her down and said,

“Hey, everyone’s bound to flop a movie once in their life.”

A voice came from within the ball of fur.

“They’re all calling me a has-been with the shortest career…”

“Really?”

“They say I rose with ‘Rosarium’ and then immediately went into the coffin with ‘Sound’… What am I supposed to do now…”

“If you rose 10 years ago and are going into the coffin now, doesn’t that make you the longest-lasting has-been?”

The furball ghost flashed her bloodshot eyes at me, stretching her nails toward my face.

“I’ll kill you! You! I’ll kill you! You amateur screenwriter!”

“Honestly, I think the script was good.”

“Why didn’t you just stick to making some teen romance instead of ruining a perfectly good script, you overhyped Moon In-seop!”

“I co-wrote it with Director So Tae-woong.”

“Welcome to the world of has-beens. Now you’ll suffer alongside me. Have you ever heard of the lost decade?”

Even after that, Kim Byul continued to complain for quite a while, venting her frustration.

Knowing how much she yearned for success, I let her vent and tried to comfort her.

However, some time later, I received a slightly awkward message from Kim Byul, and the message read as follows.

[Hey… In-seop…?]

[Yes?]

[You wouldn’t mind forgetting what happened that day… would you?]

[Why?]

[Oh, it seems our genius screenwriter hasn’t seen it yet…]

Kim Byul sent me a link to a news article.

“Ah.”

It was breaking news that the movie ‘Sound’ had been nominated for the ‘In Competition’ section of the Cannes Film Festival.

*****

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