Tower by Korean author Bae Myung-hoon is a mirror of society; a sci-fi depiction of social and political issues. It is intense, subtle and funny.
Location: fictional setting
Tower synopsis
Tower is a series of interconnected stories set in Beanstalk, a 674-story skyscraper and sovereign nation. Each story deals with how citizens living in the hypermodern high-rise deal with various influences of power in their lives: a group of researchers have to tell their boss that a major powerbroker is a dog, a woman uses the power of the internet to rescue a downed fighter pilot abandoned by the government, and an out-of-towner finds himself in charge of training a gentle elephant to break up protests. Bae explores the forces that shape modern life with wit and a sly wink at the reader.
Book review
Tower is a book that makes you think. It is not a very lighthearted read because you have to keep an eye on the logistics and politics within the Beanstalk. There are meanings within meanings and I’m sure each reader will draw his or her own conclusions, and none of those conclusions will be the same as mine.
Especially the contrast of “individuals” who do their jobs well, intending no harm, versus what all those well-meaning individuals can do together, impressed me. You can get carried away by one innocent act and end up at the center of political machinations in Beanstalk, a globally recognized sovereign state of 500,000 people.
Although this short story collection is labeled as sci-fi, the stories are more of a social and political nature. The technology is not very advanced. Tower outlines a society similar to any major metropolis, only this time the society is fully 3D, which adds a new layer to the power fields. A new world to explore.
Food for thought
I like Bae Myung-hoon’s writing style and Sung Ryu’s translation. The sentences flow smoothly into each other. Sometimes the detailed descriptions of the inner workings of the Beanstalk get a little tiresome, but that’s the only way for the reader to understand what’s going on. The book is more intense – in a quiet and roundabout way – than I expected. All stories want to convey a situation, an issue, and the narrators exist only to facilitate that.
It is called a political satire and rightly so. Sometimes the stories are funny – let’s include the dog – but even then it’s hard to ignore the mirror that’s being held up to you. Having no experience with 3D thinking, I assume that even when there are no surveillance cameras, at least one of the walls in the Beanstalk reflects the events in the tower and shows you and others what you don’t want to see. It’s a vision you don’t easily escape: when you want to leave the tower, you have to combine vertical and horizontal transport to traverse several floors until you find yourself back in a flat 2D world.
Memorable stories
Let’s talk a little more about the stories. Although I still have mixed feelings about the lost soul of the robot, I am very glad that the dog was included. Jokes aside, the first two stories – Three Wise Recruits and In Praise of Nature – were very entertaining. Through these stories, the visible and invisible force fields are explored. In the Appendix, the dog (Actor P) talks about life as if he were a human with unequal rights. The later stories focus more on logistics, but also show the power of the masses, what hype can do, and how the association with something sacred rubs off on those around it.Â
Sometimes you have to work hard to grasp the meaning; in one of the stories – The Elevator Maneuver Exercise – this is taken to a whole new level. There are so many details that it feels like you’re reading a report for work. There are stories within stories, invisible force fields that are merely alluded to, that you have to read between the lines. A subtlety that goes as deep as you want, but that you have to dive into yourself.
The story that touches me the most (especially this year) is Café Beans Talking in the Appendix. This café shows the power of local community places, how gatherings of people lead to humanity. Once that community is taken away, the people of that tower floor become people of a nation again; faceless people without identity. All that remains is a record of their precious lives and experiences that stretched horizontally across the space. They, like us, have to be careful not to become a vertical coordinate.
Interested?
Get your copy of Tower from Amazon.
Book details
Title: Tower
Author: Bae Myung-hoon
Translator: Sung Ryu
Publisher: Honford Star
Pages: 253
ISBN (13): 9781916277120
Publication date: 15 February 2021
About the author and translator
Bae Myung-hoon is one of the most popular science fiction writers in South Korea, having written over a dozen novels and short story collections. His works are often dark political satire, and he has received both science fiction and literary awards.
Sung Ryu is a Korean translator based in Singapore. Her forthcoming translations include Shoko’s Smile by Choi Eunyoung and I’m Waiting for You: And Other Stories by Kim Bo-young (co-translated with Sophie Bowman).
