The human arachnid by LTI Korea Library

TheHumanAr achni d

KyeYong-muk

Tr ans l at edbyEugeneLar s en-Hal l ock

The Human Arachnid By Kye Yong-muk Translated by Eugene Larsen-Hallock

Literature Translation Institute of Korea

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and Literature Translation Institute of Korea. The original manuscripts to these translations were provided by Gongumadang of Korea Copyright Commission.

The National Library of Korea Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kye, Yong-muk The Human Arachnid [electronic resource] / by Kye Yong-muk ; translated by Eugene Larsen-Hallock. – [Seoul] : Literature Translation Institute of Korea, 2014 p. 원표제: 인두지주 Translated from Korean ISBN 978-89-93360-63-9 05810 : Not for sale 813.61-KDC5 895.733-DDC21

CIP2014030825

About Kye Yong-muk

Kye Yong-muk (1904 - 1961), was born Ha Tae-yong on September 8, 1904, in Seoncheon, Pyeonganbuk-do, Korea. He attended Whimoon Normal School (present day Whimoon High School), and began his literary pursuits alongside the pioneers of modern Korean literature, including authors such as Yom Sang-seop, Nam gung-byeok, and Kim Dong-in. In 1928, he travelled to Japan to enroll in Toyo University. The real beginning of Kye’s career as a writer can be said to have begun with the publication of his short story “Mr. Choi” (Choi Seobang) in the literary magazine The Joseon Literary Sphere (Joseon Mundan). His reputation as a writer would then be firmly established with the publication of works such as “The Human Arachnid” (Indujiju), “Idiot Adada” (Baekchi Adada). “Idiot Adada” played an especially large role in bringing Kye to the attention of a mass audience and securing his position as a writer of short fiction, well known and remembered even to the present day. While most of his earlier works, including “Mr. Choi” and “The Human Arachnid,” evince a tendency toward the class-conscious realism of the 1920’s, his work after “Idiot Adada” largely embraced an aestheticism that stressed a humanistic focus on art as the creation of beauty. While Kye was not a prolific writer, he is highly regarded for the highly compressed aesthetic of restraint seen in the rich descriptions and taut structures of his stories. Following independence, Kye attempted to maintain neutrality even as the Korean literary world was riven by an increasingly fractious left-right divide, and published the literary journal Joseon with Jeong Bi-seok. He passed away in 1961, in the midst of the serialization of a novel for Modern Literature (Hyeondae Munhak). His stories in this collection include “Like a Chicken on a Folding Screen” (Byeongpung-e Geurin Dalk-i), “Idiot Adada,” and “Counting Stars.”

About “The Human Arachnid” “The Human Arachnid” was first published in 1928 in Joseon Jigwang (The Light of Joseon), a journal affiliated with the proletarian literature movement of the late 1920s and early 1930s. This story deals with the chance meeting of two friends, Gyeong-su and Chang-o, who had labored together in a place that was presumably Japan, before being separated in the chaos and violence following an earthquake that was presumably the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. With the story’s focus on the labor conditions faced by Koreans under the Japanese Empire, it is unsurprising that many of the details linking the story to contemporary events have been redacted by the censors. The overall arc of the story, beginning with an account of the despair of the working classes and ending with a hopeful message of the benefits if workers come together, reflects a theme common in proletarian literature. 3

The Human Arachnid

1. An industrial exhibition had opened in the city of S. People tied back their hair and poured like a human ocean into the exhibition grounds from the early morning to see the spectacle. Magic troupes, theater companies, and performers of this sort and that, had come from all over to take advantage of the opportunity and were drawing the people in with all manner of boisterous antics. On this day, as on others, Gyeong-su had been wandering around the square with an empty carrying frame on his back in the hope of finding some work. Fed up, he was just about to return home when he suddenly heard a barker advertising a ‘human spider’ and stopped to listen. “Come and see—for the cost of only five jeon—the Human Spider from far away India. Yes, it is a strange beast indeed, with the head of a man and the body of an arachnid.” In the dead-end alley across the way, a tent of sacks and straw mats had been erected. A new muslin banner with a peculiar, brightly colored drawing of a spider with a man’s head hung above the entrance. A man stood in front of the door in a wornlooking suit, shouting at the top of his lungs. The people filing out of the tent, one after another, muttered to themselves in disbelief, “Well, wasn’t that just the strangest thing I’ve ever seen! Ha! Who would’ve imagined there was such a thing as a spider with a man’s head?” Gyeong-su squeezed in between the people coming and going from the tent, muttering to themselves, and took a long look at the painting above the door. He debated whether he should go in or not, but it had the cheapest viewing fee, so he set down his carrying frame and decided to spend the five jeon—the cost of a pack of Danpung cigarettes—to see the show. He entered, and what did he see but a human spider. The eyes, the nose, the mouth—its face was exactly the same as that of a man! And it was even handsome. It had a slender face with well-formed features and hair parted on the left, with the back clipped short in a “high-collar” cut. But the body below that was about a half-meter in both directions, and legs like the claws of a crab were spread out around it. It was nothing else but the body of a giant, disgusting spider. Two large trees, dense with branches just beginning to show the colors of fall, had been set to both sides of this monster, and it hung between them on webs like thick rope. No matter how closely he looked at it, it was obviously a spider with the head of a man. 4

“Oh, just look at that face… He would’ve been rather handsome if he were a man,” a woman, who looked as though she might be a gisaeng, exclaimed as she went closer to get a better look When she did that, the spider stuck out its tongue and goggled its eyes, craning its neck forward as it plucked at its web with its front legs, almost as though it might strike. “Oh my!” Thinking she might actually be attacked, the gisaeng nearly fainted and stumbled backwards as all the other spectators grabbed their sides in laughter. But Gyeong-su didn’t laugh. He was making a peculiarly concerted effort at examining the strange creature, trying to figure out what it might be. But no matter how closely he looked at it, it really seemed to be a human spider. He thought to himself, “Even if it were a man disguised as a spider, where could they have put his legs? If his legs were tucked up in there, you would still be able to see both of his knees sticking out…” When he first saw it, he thought it might be made of rubber and animated with electricity, but that wasn’t the case. It was obvious that there was warm, red blood flowing under the flesh of its face. Was it actually the strange creature claimed—a human spider? But there was no way such an animal could exist. Just as Gyeong-su was trying to work out the answer to this sphinxian riddle, he saw the creature teasing the gisaeng and guessed that it must know what people are. He tried speaking to it. “How old are you?” The creature shook its head. It seemed to be indicating that it didn’t speak. “Can you understand me?” This time, it shook its head, seeming to say that it couldn’t. That was when Gyeong-su caught on that it was able to understand what he was saying. So he took a step closer and tried asking it another question. “Why are you shaking your head? What does that mean?” The creature didn’t respond. It just stared piercingly at Gyeong-su. But then! The corners of its eyes twitched and, strangely, its expression changed to a look of regret. Then copious tears began pouring from its eyes. Not having any idea what had happened, everyone in the tent turned to look at the creature—Gyeong-su, the other spectators, and even the creature’s owner. Gyeong-su thought maybe it was because the creature wanted to say something, but was unable to form the words. The startled expression of its owner, however, told him that it was not at all normal for the creature to act like it was. But what Gyeong-su couldn’t for the life of him figure out though, was why the creature had started crying after looking at him, of all people. “Why’d looking at me make it cry?” Gyeong-su mumbled unconsciously to himself, staring back at the creature. The whole situation was bizarre. But the creature just started crying even harder. Soon, it began sobbing, its face filled with sadness.

2. Seeing this, the owner suspected that there might be some connection between Gyeong-su and the creature. But rather than asking, the owner became flustered, not knowing what to do and concerned that the true identity of his creature might be revealed to the detriment of his business. Just then, the sound of a propeller was heard loudly overhead, and the crowd rushed out of the tent. Gyeong-su also wanted to get a look at the plane. But he was even more curious about the identity of the creature, so he stayed where he was, staring at the creature. The owner and Gyeong-su were the only two people left inside. “Gyeong… Gyeong-su!” The creature suddenly yelled out Gyeong-su’s name and then looked over to its owner. Gyeong-su got goose bumps when he heard the creature suddenly call out his name. With no idea of what was going on, he stared at the creature as though transfixed. At that moment, the owner lightly plucked the spider from its web and set it on the ground. The creature quickly shed its spider shell to reveal the mangled body of a man whose legs had been amputated at the top of the thighs. He crawled toward Gyeong-su. “Oh, Gyeong-su…! Even like this you don’t recognize me? It’s me, Chang…” the cripple cried out in a wavering voice. Then he suddenly grasped Gyeong-su’s wrist and Gyeong-su knew. He had realized who the man in front of him was. This man with no legs could be no one other than Chang-o. Chang-o, who he had thought was dead. Chang-o had been one of Gyeong-su’s friends from long ago, but they had been separated in the chaos after the earthquake. Not having heard any word of Chang-o in the three or four years since, Gyeong-su had assumed that his friend was surely dead. Even in his dreams, he couldn’t even have hoped that they would be reunited this way. Gyeong-su rushed to Chang-o and grasped his arm excitedly. “Oh, Chang-o!” he shouted in a voice beginning to crack with emotion.

3. Not only had Gyeong-su and Chang-o grown up in the same village, they had been especially close. Whether they were going to gather wood or going to work, they went together. But they were poor tenant farmers working land they didn’t own, and when that land came into the possession of [censored] they lost their livelihood. But they couldn’t just sit around and starve, so they decided to go someplace where they could make a bit of money working as laborers. They’d heard that there was money to be made in [censored], and so they set off on their wandering road. Quickly, however, they discovered that contrary to what they had heard, there wasn’t anyone willing to give a job to a couple of backward idiots who didn’t know the language. They travelled from [censored] to [censored] and then back to [censored] like 6

beggars, and then there was the horrific [censored], and that tragedy spawned another when they were separated. Neither knew what had happened to the other, and each had thought the other was dead. At that time, Gyeong-su had come close to death on several occasions, but he was able to stay hidden and make it back to his homeland. Chang-o, however, had been caught by the [censored], and after receiving a severe [censored], he was locked up in [censored] for a month. “But what happened after that so that you ended up like this?” Gyeong-su asked, pushing Chang-o to speak more quickly. “Ah, after everything calmed down they let me go. But then I needed to figure out how I was going to eat… Because the thought of [censored] terrified me, I headed to the [censored] coal mine. One of the friends I met in prison had suggested going there,” Chang-o said, before sighing weakly. “And then…?” “Luckily, I was able to get a job without any difficulty. But the next spring, there was a mine collapse. I went inside to help dig out the coal, and that was when my legs were crushed…” He continued his story. He had very nearly died… but the men he worked with had saved his life, even if both of his legs were broken. He didn’t even know how many of their countrymen had been killed when the tunnel collapsed, but he was carried to the hospital. There, they could do nothing for him but amputate his ruined legs at the thighs and he spent several months hovering on the verge of death. When he was finally released from the hospital, he was thrown out on the street without any compensation, and became another crippled beggar. With no other choice, he had to beg his way from town to town, propping his chin onto the thresholds of strange doors. Two years later, he was finally able to drag himself back to his homeland, where, wanting to escape a life of begging, he worked day and night with another cripple he knew from the mine to come up with his current scheme. The idea had first occurred to them in [censored], where they combined their money—money that Chang-o had earned begging in the streets and parks, and money that the other man had earned through rather easier work—to go to a magician living in that city, explain their situation, and ask him to make them a spider costume. The magician had not only agreed to help them immediately, he had even gone to the police there and arranged for them to receive an entertainment permit. From that point on, Chang-o and the other man had been able to make good money everywhere they went, somewhat reducing their suffering and even making it possible for them to make it back over the sea. When Chang-o returned to his homeland, he resolved to stop what he had been doing, but than when he got to the place he had formerly called home, his parents had passed away and his wife had already started a new family. With no work available—and being unable to work anyhow—he was struggling to get by. So when he heard rumors that an exposition would be happening, he started up his old act again in the hope of making a bit of money. 7

Gyeong-su ached to the bones when he heard this story. He was sad that he didn’t have a house of his own he could take Chang-o to. “Is that what happened to you…? I wish I could say something that would make it better… But seeing you like this… I’ve got it! If you know how to do an act like that, you could use it to get a bit of consolation, couldn’t you? [censored] If you can just [censored]! As badly as you’ve been hurt, it could actually [censored] take and who [censored] in our [censored], right?” Gyeong-su looked straight at Chang-o as he said this. “Of course, that would be great. But what can a cripple like me do? Who would want to work with someone as mangled as I am? They wouldn’t see me as anything but a crippled beggar… Ah! I told you what happened to me, but what about you? How did you end up here?” Chang-o looked back resentfully at Gyeong-su. “I’m all on my own and wandering, the same as you. But I haven’t ever felt alone since I arrived here. I’m living day-to-day as a laborer, but there are hundreds of strong, healthy men just like me amongst our [censored], and together we take pleasure in learning about [censored] together. You should join me, it doesn’t make any difference in my life whether there’s one more or less person, but I know that if you just go to [censored] there will be plenty of work.” “Oh, could it… could it be true? If that’s true, of course I’ll go. I’d go even if it kills me… Now that I’ve seen you, I’ve got to tell you, after I ended up like this I thought I had nothing left to live for. I wanted to know how my parents and my family were doing—see them one last time before I die—so I came back here to our hometown. After how that ended up, though, I was hopeless… Nothing would be a greater honor than to go, but when I get there, what work for me [censored]...” “Stop all that blathering and let’s leave right now, if you can go… It was good that I came here today! If today hadn’t been my day off, I wouldn’t have come here, and then I wouldn’t have met you, would I?” Gyeong-su grasped Chang-o’s hand and shook it once more vigorously. “I’ll go then! Of course I’ll go… but I’ve just gotten started here, and the exhibition has only a few days left, so I’ll come to find you when we leave.” “And I’ll come to see you the night after next.” “Alright! I’ll see you then.” “Sounds good!” Gyeong-su let go of Chang-o’s hand, and Chang-o got back into the spider costume. “Come and see the strange creature from far away India—a spider with the head of a man. Five jeon per viewing…” As Gyeong-su left, he could hear the sound of the barker’s call. He shuddered at the memory of Chang-o’s appearance earlier. Gyeong-su’s eyes suddenly brimmed with

tears, and his fists tightened. Without even realizing what he was doing, he yelled out into the sky. [censored].