Murder case in corona in Japan, K-defense with semiconductor… Corona in the novel

“In the winter of 2020, everything has changed. Not only this region, but Japan, or the whole world, has changed. Of course, it is because of the impact of the novel coronavirus.”
It is a part of the content of the mystery novel “Black Showman and the Murder of an Unknown Village” (RH Korea) published simultaneously around the world on the 30th of last month by Japanese best-selling author Keigo Higashino (62). Kim Jin-myeong (62)’s new feature novel “Virus X” (Etabooks), released on the 6th of last month, unfolded a conspiracy theory that the international conflict between the United States and China over responsibility for the spread of Corona 19 will lead to another virus pandemic. In March of this year, after eight months of the official declaration of the World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic, Corona 19 began to appear as a major subject in the novel.

The two works that dealt with Corona 19 quickly rose to 3rd and 9th in the Kyobo Bookstore’s novel sales ranking in the third week of last December (16-22). The scenery of the corona seen by famous writers aroused the curiosity of readers.
『Ikaborg』 (Literary Handbook Little Book), published in Korea on the 18th, is a free serialization and completion of works that have been unfinished for more than 10 years by’Harry Potter’ author JK Rowling for children stuck in their homes due to coronavirus. It is a novel. Corona 19 has had an external influence on the works of such known authors, but cases included in the contents of the novel are still rare.

“Black Showman…” (Artist’s words), which Keigo Higashino described as “a work that attempted a new method of solving mysteries” 』Is the stage in 2021, more than a year after the outbreak of Corona 19. A retired junior high school teacher who was revered in a local tourist city where the business district died because of the loss of tourists was found murdered at home before a meeting with his students. The victim’s younger brother and former magician Takeshi, along with his older brother’s daughter Mayo, set out to find a criminal. ‘Black Showman’ is Takeshi’s stage name when he was a magician. It is the new detective character of Keigo Higashino, who created detectives Galileo and Kaga detectives who are genius physicists. Takeshi outruns the masked police with a deceptive deception and penetrates people’s complex circumstances. The depiction of the near future of Japanese society hit by Corona 19 is also striking.
“For example, if a request was issued to refrain from moving from Tokyo to another prefecture, it was not unavoidable that we had no choice but to follow it.” “If a real name was leaked, it was subject to criticism on the Internet.” In addition to the reasonable explanation, “It was said that various treatments for pneumonia caused by the novel corona have emerged, and effective vaccines are also in the development stage, but will the day when the past will come back? Isn’t that a common idea of ​​the people?” The author’s depressing prospects engraved in the characters’ hearts are also seen.
Mayo, the protagonist, and his uncle Takeshi, along with his father’s murder clues, retrace his life-long journeys and overlap with the experience of taking a fresh look at the true nature of someone close to him through the corona 19 confirmed cases. Married couple relations, which had already “stripped the rubber cords together until they were cut off”, are at worst due to economic difficulties and working from home. Corona 19 is a tweezers and a microscope to pick out pus that already existed in the history of the world. It is the capture of the corona era like Keigo Higashi-no, who has been paying attention to the hearts of people while breathing flexibly with the contemporary.

On the other hand, “Virus X” is a novel by Kim Jin-myeong, who has quickly dealt with current affairs from his debut film “The Rose of Sharon Blooms”, which sold more than 4.5 million copies amid the North Korean nuclear crisis in 1993. It is a work. Author Kim argues that the Corona 19 virus is “only about 30,000 bytes of data” made up of base sequences, and it should be recognized and prevented in vitro with advanced semiconductor technology. In the novel, Yeon-soo, a pathologist at the Vagina Control Administration, drew a multinational activity to uncover another virus outbreak with a mysterious man from the United States.
In addition to actual cases related to Corona 19, such as a lawsuit for damages filed against China by 10,000 citizens, including the United States and the United Kingdom, for the spread of Corona 19, and a joint experiment between the Wuhan Research Institute and the University of North Carolina in the United States, real countries, institutions, companies, etc. He also boldly wrote his real name. In particular, when it comes to the development of an in vitro virus detector, it is even mentioned that “I would immediately inform Samsung Electronics of this enormous information and take a look at it.” Regarding this, Kim said in an interview with Newsis on the 18th of last month, “It is possible to find any virus with modern nano, information and communication, laser technology, etc., but the whole world is not aware of it.” It is a kind of criticism because Samsung Electronics, which has all of these technologies, has not been able to change awareness.”

Writer Choi Eun-mi (42), who won the 66th Contemporary Literature Award in the novel category last month, also included the world after the mask. This is the story of Sumi, a working mother, who has just opened a studio free from a cramped house, and her working mother,’I’, who has been closed due to corona, and her daughter’s non-face-to-face class screen are exposed to the stress of family discord. “Sumi came to me and spent her disaster subsidies. / And I’m dizzying minds that I can’t meet Sumi right now.” “Sumi is number 67 at the appointed time of the day. I have become a confirmed case”.
Novelist Kim Seong-joong, who participated in the trial, left a review saying, “The material that captures the reality of the corona attracts attention first, but this work has exceeded the limits of the Setae novel.” Writer Choi Eun-mi, who won the Daesan Literature Award for her feature novel, “The Ninth Wave,” said, “There are times when I can’t stand the word’safety’. “It was the most painful thing to record in the spring of 2020 that it touches someone in a way that makes the world where he can stand in a narrower and narrower way,” he said.
“Before Corona 19, there have been novels that have considered quarantine problems, such as Pyeon Hye-young’s “Ash and Red” and Choi Jin-young’s “To the Setting Sun”, said, “Before Corona 19, there have been novels that have been through SARS and MERS. It seems a bit early for pure literature to respond to the incident, but by the spring of next year (more pure literature works dealing with Corona 19), he predicted.

Reporter Na Won-jeong [email protected]