Literature

A Binge Artist

Kwon Ri
Pages
176
Dimensions
140*205
ISBN
978-89-6545-430-4 03810
Price
12,000KRW
Date
July 2017
Contents
Short Stories
*The 9th Hankyoreh Literary Award (author); selected in the 2013 collection of books of the year (short story A Binge Artist)

A Binge Artist is a collection of short stories that consists of Scherzo for a Madman, Jellyfish Medusa, The Hole, and A Binge Artist. 

The titular piece illustrates the sad ending of an ordinary man who happens to gain fame by binge eating. He is pressured to eat more because the more he eats, the more enthusiastic the public becomes. However, when the Binge Artist finally fails, the public turns their back on him, and his value erodes day after day. In the end, it is the very public who drives the man to a miserable death. His last moment is not remembered by anybody, and even after death, he remains a mere commercial item used to entertain the public.

The Hole is a story of events that occur when a huge hole appears in a poor district in Dogong-dong. The motifs come from the Tower Palace, a luxurious residential complex, and the shantytown, both located in Dogok-dong, Gangnam. 

Scherzo for Madman is a mockumentary of artist Jang Gok-do. It depicts how Jang’s messages and drawings that verge on fraud develop into legendary artworks, highlighting the vanity, illusion, and reality behind the art world. 

Jellyfish Medusa is a story of a jellyfish attack in waters off the coast of Incheon and the events that follow. The main character, Kim Bu-gyeom, heads to the coast with Tony, a young Filipino man whom Kim used to look down on, in an attempt to rise as a hero by catching the jellyfish. Through words and interactions of Bu-gyeom and Tony while living together, the story explores and provides a vivid portrait of the reality faced by foreign workers in Korea.