* The gaze of someone witnessing a catastrophe

* Writing that testifies of the ruins before one’s eyes, with the ability to see the future

“These stories might constitute what is closest to the voice of youth today, who feel that the present is a bleak winter”  - Kukmin Ilbo

The title story of the collection, “The Gaze of Winter,” is set against the background of a virtual space-time in which a nuclear accident has taken place. The narrator, who lives at some point in the future when everything is in ruins, watches a documentary on the accident. Although the documentary delves boldly into reality, the narrator does not see anything special about it, and feels that it’s “too transparent” when it talks about a dog that started having nightmares after the accident—as if it is saying that because something bad happened, dogs should have nightmares. The documentary, reconstructing the incident, becomes nothing but a failed attempt. A similar narrative is told in “Dice Dice Dice.”

 The narrator begins by talking about the construction of the Asia Culture Center, and is constantly reminded of the fact that in order to build the center, traces of a historical incident that took place in the past in Gwangju, a city in Korea, must be removed. In this city, Bak watches in silence as the existing scene is painted over by sophisticated symbols. Attempts to make sense of places that have turned into ruins bring about results that don’t make sense, and we become confused as to what really took place there.

Through the nine short stories in this collection, Bak resolves to take a close look at what she can see when she comes to a stop, and remember and write it down. Perhaps what she really wants to do is have people stop where they are now, when the days seem to repeat themselves, without going too far into the past or the future, and focus on what speaks to them.

Bak Solmay 

Bak Solmay made her literary debut winning the Jaeum & Moeum New Writer’s Award in 2009. She is the author of the short story collection Then What Shall We Sing? and novels Eul, I Would Like to Write About It All, and Time in the City. Her appeal to younger readers is evinced by her focus on the reality of a generation cut adrift and without hope. She is the recipient of the 2014 Moonji Literary Award and the 2014 Kim Seungok Literary Award.