Consider the phrase“our future.” Is it just a palatable packaging for our petty, egotisticalinsistence that the next generation preserve our legacy in the world? We adultsare arrogant enough to think the future can be measured by the standards of thepast, and we try to disguise our questionable compromises as inevitablerealities. Otherwise, why would the adult world work so hard to force theburgeoning dreams of the younger generation into a box, dismissing the weightof their questions about existence, death, and the universe, and insisting thattheir self-worth depends on the job title on their business card and thebalance in their bank book? So we have to ask: what does it mean to walk theroad to adulthood?
The Summer 2025 issue of KLNturns its gaze to teenagers. In composed and heartfelt essays, Lee Kkoch-nimreflects on the hidden strength she has discovered in adolescents, while MoonKyeong-min describes his life as an elementary school teacher, writer, andparent of an autistic daughter. Lee Jongsan warns against objectifyingcharacters while exploring the lives of young girls from history, while PyoMyunghee shows the role of stories in shining a light on social issues.Meanwhile, the critic Cho Hyungrae examines the development of anti-growthnarratives for young female protagonists in late 2010s coming-of-age movies.
Our featured author for this issueis the poet Oh Eun, whose wielding of language remains lively and playful whilestill holding a quiet gravity. Ko Myeong-jae’s interview and Kim Un’s criticalessay take a close look at both the poet and his work. We also celebrate theprose of Moon Jinyoung and Ye Soyeon, and the poetry of Lee Young-ju and HanYeojin, whose literary worlds grant us access to diverse sensibilities andexplore the intricacies of the human mind. Last but not least, our multilingualReviews section remains both a unique strength and a source of pride for ourmagazine.
People never tire of talking aboutthe future. However, I believe that when our conversations center on youngpeople, the older generation should be mindful to reframe our so-called futureas their reality. At the very least, we can be sure that the futurewon’t be what we say. Because the clock of the past cannot tell the time of thefuture, and some transformations—what we might even call miracles—unfoldgradually. The next generation’s world will no doubt seem miraculous to us,shaped by values and possibilities we cannot yet imagine, although we may nolonger be here to witness it when it arrives. At the same time, such anuncertain future mustn’t be allowed to constrain the more definite present. Thefuture means something different to the next generation than it does to us.
LTI Korea 
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