Relentless Investigation of Death Existing within Life
‘Tengo derecho a destruirme’
Artificial Intelligence Conversation Application for Smartphones
‘SimSimi’
Written by Kim Young-ha, Translated by Kim Hyeon-kyun, Buenos Aires: Bajo la luna, 112 pages, ARS58.00 (US$13.50)
Free download app, available in Korean and English
In November 2011, I visited Guadalajara, in western Mexico, to attend the city’s internationally renowned Guadalajara International Book Fair. As one of the side events, Korean novelist Kim Young-ha met with local readers and the media to discuss his book “I Have the Right to Destroy Myself.” To the surprise of the Korean organizers, the 100-seat conference room was filled to capacity with a Spanish audience eager to hear the words of the Korean writer. I believe this enthusiastic reception among Spanish readers can be attributed to the universal resonance of the novel’s theme. Kim’s literary realm encompasses the meaning of life and death, and the unfathomable solitude experienced by individuals amidst Seoul’s fast-paced metropolitan environment. The nameless narrator is the specter of a designer who had committed suicide. The narrator, believing that suicide is an artistic means to overcome the triviality of life, and a rite to realize aesthetic fulfillment, searches out the lonely and hopeless to help them end their lives by killing themselves. In an ominous first-person voice, the novel depicts the suicide of two women characters: Se-yeon (Judity), a bar girl who likes to have sex with a lollipop in her mouth, and Mimi, a performing artist. Mimi asks a video artist to film her while she is drawing pictures with only her long hair covering her naked body. Watching the video of herself, she slashes her wrists. The reasons for her suicide are not explained in the novel. Like a Möbius strip that transcends the binary division of the exterior and interior, Kim’s novel interweaves death and life, the real and surreal. It may be an attempt to validate a desire for death, which seems to be rather prevalent in post-modern urban life. “I Have the Right to Destroy Myself” was Kim’s debut novel, published in Korean in 1996. Today, as the author of six novels and numerous short stories, the highly popular Seoul-based writer’s works have been translated into 15 foreign languages, including English, German, French, Chinese, and Japanese. His debut novel has been the most widely translated. A review by the German daily “Süddeutsche Zeitung” made note of the novel’s departure from the modern Korean works of previous decades, which were mostly concerned with the ideological conflicts rooted in such experiences as territorial division, war, and military dictatorship which continued until the 1980s. In contrast, Kim represents the post-democratization generation, who cherish the individual over communal values, and seek to investigate the post-modern affliction of self-alienation and isolation, rather than the era’s historical demands.
Smartphones seem to offer users an endless variety of functions, which now includes an interactive chatting partner. “SimSimi” is one of the bestknown conversation applications available for free downloading. When the user enters a message, such as “I had a test at school today,” SimSimi quickly comes up with a cheerful response: “Wow, really? Hope you did well!” This conversation application was launched in June 2010, as an upgrade to the original 2002 version, which MSN Messenger used to provide as part of its messenger packet. It was developed by Choi Jeong-hoi, 37, then a Seoul National University student, and his colleagues. When U.S. service began early this year, it proved to be a huge hit with 2.2 million downloads during the first week of its launch. Much of the instant success can be attributed to the rappers Ace Hood and Soulja Boy who Tweeted about how much they enjoyed using SimSimi. In the United States, more than 1 million people are now using SimSimi on a daily basis. The application can be downloaded from Apple’s App Store or Android Market. Currently, Korean and English versions are available. SimSimi’s attraction is its ability to provide interactive conversation at any time and anywhere. The user can even teach his/her preferred vocabulary to SimSimi, which learns to adopt this vocabulary over time, much like a real-life friend. Thanks to the interactive feature, SimSimi is capable of demonstrating amusing wit and humor. For instance, if you ask “Will you marry me?” it might respond: “How much money do you have?” Making a hit application like SimSimi is the dream of program developers anywhere. The scale of Korea’s smart contents market is estimated at 1.5 trillion won (about $1.2 billion), according to the “2011 Smart Contents Market Report,” published by the Korea Creative Contents Agency in February 2012. The domestic contents industry encompasses some 1,270 businesses of various sizes, staffed by 18,637 employees nationwide, the survey says. The actual number of people involved with this sector is greater than the count of employees, industry watchers say, since application development has attracted large numbers of free-lancers in recent years. The number of application developers registered with T-Store, the app store operated by SK Telecom, is already 29,000, with 26,000 describing themselves as self-employed. One such individual is Kim Hyun-soo, 26, who developed the Archery Worldcup application on his own. This iPhone-based video game boasts 4.4 million downloads worldwide.