I was quite captivated by the episode of Dong-jin Lee’s Pyakia featuring Go Min-si. She appeared confident and thoughtful, answering each interview question with sharp, genuine insights. 📚 With a passion for reading, she mentioned being moved by Kim Ae-ran’s ‘Vapor Trails’, realizing the healing power of shedding tears while reading about someone’s pain. That was the moment I decided I had to dive into Kim Ae-ran’s ‘Vapor Trails’…
Long ago, I read her work ‘Outside, It’s Summer’. 🌞 The stories in that collection were filled with emptiness and pessimism, leaving me feeling trapped alongside the protagonists. Although ‘Vapor Trails’ was written before ‘Outside, It’s Summer’, it carries the same raw vibe, phrases, and messages.
Her novels feel so real. Even with surreal themes, they seem like they could exist in reality. 🌀 Her characters move as if plucked straight from the lives of those around us. Imagining the ordinary requires more precision than imagining the extraordinary, because everyone is familiar with the ordinary. In that aspect, she’s brilliant.
Not long ago, I’d sit in dimly lit bars, chain-smoking and exchanging intellectual, pretentious jokes, feeling like the world was a bit more manageable. But one day, I woke up to find myself just a trivial person. With nothing to show for it and a looming fear that I’ll never be more than this, Eun-ji and Seo-yoon knew. They were just about to lose what shone brightest in their lives. Kim Ae-ran, from ‘Vapor Trails’, short story ‘Hotel Niakta’
Believing that life always gets better and expands is a naive childhood thought. Most of life feels like walking into a narrowing tunnel, even if it seems otherwise. 🚇 The once-clear view is obstructed by tunnel walls, soon to be enveloped by darkness.
Among the students, there was a quiet girl who occasionally gave me strawberry milk or chocolates, and a boy, deep and thoughtful, always worried about his parents. Some studied so hard that they bled from their noses during class or ran to the corridor to vomit. But, sister, these days when I see pale-faced kids commuting from dawn till night, I think, ‘You will grow up to be me… just me.’ Kim Ae-ran, from ‘Vapor Trails’, short story ‘Thirty’
As we live our lives, we pass many Points of No Return. 🌌 Once crossed, there’s no going back. That’s certain. Our 20s, 30s, 40s, losing a permanent tooth, declining hearing or vision, and countless people… Permanent loss is an experience that can’t be diluted by new encounters.
In the past decade, I’ve moved six times, worked more than ten part-time jobs, and dated a couple of guys. That’s all there is to it. Really, that’s it. Now, I’m startled by how youth seems to have slipped away. What’s changed in me all this time? Have I just become a trivial adult, spending more, trusting less, with only an eye for good things? Kim Ae-ran, from ‘Vapor Trails’, short story ‘Thirty’
When I first encountered her novels, they weighed heavily on my heart, making me want to close them quickly. But after reading ‘Vapor Trails’ — perhaps influenced by Go Min-si’s curation — I experienced a catharsis I couldn’t quite explain. Did the realistic characters, who felt like people I knew, make me genuinely empathize with their struggles? Or was it the phenomenological, hermeneutic approach and repeated reflections on the futility and melancholy in each story? For multiple reasons, but like Go Min-si said, through this novel, I realized the dark aspects of life and human limitations, gaining the strength to face real-world issues instead of dreaming of an ideal world. After all, it was Go Min-si who led me to this book.
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