Bae Myung-hoon (; born 1978) is a South Korean science fiction writer. He has written ten novels, over fifty short stories and novellas, and numerous essays. He is best known for his composite novel ''Taweo (''타워 Tower) and short story collection ''Anyeong, ingongjonjae'' (안녕, 인공존재 Hello, The Artificial Being!). He was named one of the “ten best science fiction writers in South Korea” by ''The Science Times'' in 2012.

Life

Bae Myung-hoon was born in

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

, South Korea in 1978. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in international relations at

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

. He made his literary debut in 2005 when his short story “''Seumateu D''” (스마트D Smart D) won the SF Creative Writing Contest for best short story.

Writing

Bae Myung-hoon started writing science fiction from 2005. His debut, "Smart D", portrays the a struggles of a sf novelist who is forced to abandon the use of the letter D out of legal troubles with a multinational corporation. Myung-hoon blurs the line between genre fiction and literary fiction. South Korean literary circles tend to make a clear distinction between the two; critics and writers who associate themselves with literary fiction rarely show interest in genre fiction. Yet Bae is a notable exception, attracting the attention of literary critics and publishers since the publication of his first full-length book ''Taweo'' (타워 Tower) in 2009. A

social science fiction Social science fiction or sociological science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually (but not necessarily) soft science fiction, concerned less with technology or space opera and more with speculation about society. In other wor ...

novel with strong satirical undertones, ''Taweo'' is considered to be his breakthrough work. That same year, his short story “''Anyeong, ingongjonjae''” (안녕, 인공존재 Hello, The Artificial Being!) appeared in the literary journal ''Munhakdongne'', which was unusual considering that science fiction in South Korea is often published in online communities instead of more traditional outlets such as literary journals or publishers. The short story won the 2010 Munhakdongne Young Writers’ Award, receiving the following comment from a judge: “Based on his impressive knowledge of space science, Bae Myung-hoon successfully portrays the pent-up frustrations of human existence erupting in the vast universe.”Wansuh Park, “심사평,” in ''2010 제1회 젊은작가상 수상작품집'' (Munhakdongne, 2010). Bae expanded “''Anyoung, ingongjonjae''” into a collection of short stories and published it in 2010. In the afterword to the book, literary critic Shin Hyeong-cheol writes: “his works have a stylistic variety that cannot be defined by a single genre, but that variety is only a means to an end . . . his ultimate goal is to explore serious anthropological questions."Hyeong-cheol Shin, “그는 상상력이다,” in Afterword to ''안녕, 인공존재'' (Munhakdongne, 2010). While imaginative science fiction elements help differentiate Bae’s works from mainstream South Korean fiction, some critics see them as a creative limitation. In the same afterword quoted above, Shin Hyeong-cheol notes that “Bae’s stories are delightfully clear, but that clarity seems to come at an inevitable price. His characters are too clear . . . rather than having a palpable presence, they are there to serve a function; once you finish reading, the story leaves a vivid impression but the people fade away.”

Works

* 빙글빙글 우주군 (2020) * 고고심령학자 (2017) * 푸른파 피망 (2017) * 예술과 중력가속도 (2016) * 첫숨 (2015) * 맛집 폭격 (2014) * 가마틀 스타일 (2014) * 청혼 (2013) * 총통 각하 (2012) * 은닉 (2012) * 신의 궤도 (2011) * 끼익끼익의 아주 중대한 임무 (2011) * 안녕, 인공존재! (2010) * 타워 (2009)

Works in translation

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Awards

* 2010: Munhakdongne Young Writers’ Award * 2005: SF Creative Writing Contest for best short story * 2004: SNU Press Literary Award

References