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What Use Is the Average Joe?: The User Manual for Cheol-su by Jeon Seok-sun scrap

by Jeon Seok-sungo link October 23, 2014

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Jeon Seok-sun

Jeon Seok-sun

The name “Cheol-su” is one of the most common male names in Korean society. Within the ever-intensifying struggle for survival, the Cheol-sus—once looked at as common, “disciplined people,” who “lived without a greater plan”—have now become some of the most unfortunate of our society. If there isn’t a unique quality to someone like the Cheol-sus of our time, then finding success in our cruel society will become difficult. “The User Manual for Cheol-su” is the story of one young man who is able to find his own guide to life in a world that undervalues the average Joe—or the average Cheol-su, as it may be.

Cheol-su is an unemployed 29-year-old. He can’t find a job; he has no success in love, and is nothing to his family. He is treated as some type of inferior product. In order to rid himself of the feeling of inferiority that follows him wherever he goes, of the feeling that no one can seem to find a use for him, he decides to write a user manual for himself. Written for a world that looks at people as consumer goods, he counters: “Okay, fine. But I am a far more useful product than you think, a product you can appreciate.” As this sad young man writes a user manual about himself in order to find his own usefulness, we discover that this tale is far more than the story of your average out-of-work young man. It is a portrait of modern man, perpetually dissatisfied despite his constant efforts to gain recognition as a “slightly better commodity” in a world that regards people as mere consumer goods.

Perhaps all of us experience the agony of not being able to find our true usefulness in life. “Living in the red” is a harsh principle of competition and an all-toocommon phrase. This story is more than the story of an out-of-work young man. It is a novel for all those who have lost their own personal user manual. Although the commodification of man is an unfortunate reality, it would seem as though finding our own instructions for use may not be a bad thing. Too often we lose track of our user manuals, forgetting just how multi-faceted we are. Could it be that we already have this information somewhere inside ourselves? 

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