OH HE'S A DEAR
Tower by Bae Myung-hoon; translated by Sung Ryu
Honford StarFebruary 2021Selected by Anthony Bird and Taylor Bradley
Author Bae Myung-hoon has commented on the noticeable lack of space empires in Korean sci-fi compared to its English-language version. He theorises this is due to Korea never having been an imperial power, which results in a more down-to-earth sci-fi scene. This collection of interconnected stories bears this out. “Tower” takes place in Beanstalk, a two-kilometre-tall building-sovereign nation that acts as a metaphor for the hyper-urbanised megacities that dominate the world and allows Bae to explore the incongruities of urban life. In “The Buddha of the Square”, the authorities have imported an elephant to break up protests around city hall; the only problem is the beast’s amusingly peaceful nature. – Anthony Bird and Taylor Bradley
Your sister will understand everything once she sees me on the job. I did share unpleasant details, but this is, in fact, quite specialised work you know. People gape up at me when I sit impressively on the elephant and patrol the city. † It’s true. Some people may stare with curiosity, but I definitely feel there is something more. Admiration, perhaps? Of Amitabh obviously. That’s the name of our elephant.
Amitabh is a nice fellow. He has the kindest eyes. He is too gentle if anything. Why, minus the fact that he’s huge and strong, he acts exactly like a puppy. He’s good at recognising people, and those flappy ears of his, oh he’s a dear. Someone told me he used to follow Buddhist monks around, but as they were fasting all the time, they couldn’t feed him properly and eventually handed him over to a zoo. They thought he had the temperament of a Bodhisattva.
The trouble is he’s also such a scaredy-cat. I guess all animals are. Horses are apparently more easily frightened than humans, so they need rigorous training to be able to subdue a human. Elephants are the same. Although Amitabh is the first elephant I’ve ever taken care of, he certainly seems more faint-hearted than horses. But he really shouldn’t be. If protestors realise he’s scared, they may provoke him on purpose. The mere ring of a mobile phone makes him jump, which in turn makes us jump, in case we get stepped on by accident. This is some delicate profession, wouldn’t you say?
Also, being an elephant, he can’t walk just anywhere. He can only walk on floors reinforced to distribute weight, otherwise they might give way. As protests nearly always happen at the Level 321 square in front of city hall, he just needs to make his way to and through the square. So, we lined the reinforced path with flowers to guide him. Perhaps that’s why the negative public reaction to using an elephant for protest control has turned around. People seem intrigued. Some come just to see the elephant. Most people here have never seen one since, again. Beanstalk has no zoo.
Whenever we do a manoeuvre exercise at City Hall Square, young parents pushing strollers actually set up camp along the flower path. Now that makes us anxious to death. As much as we love that Amitabh has recovered from his ordeal, watching him sniff flowers as he moseys distractedly along the crimson flower path is downright nerve-racking. Nevertheless, I feel more at peace somehow on days I’ve taken Amitabh on a walk. Peering into his large, slowly blinking eyes, I think he’s one ugly fella, but then a corner of my heart warms up. I feel more relaxed. Perhaps because he has such a slow gait. Watching him puts me in a daze.
Other people seem to get dazed too. When I look down from the elephant, I see people staring up at me, open-mouthed. An elephant must appear much more massive to locals than to you or me. I think that will be a big help in real situations. And they wouldn’t be overly scared since by now everyone knows Amitabh is a gentle giant.
The mayor seems keen to piggyback on Amitabh’s popularity. Whenever anything good happens, the man loves to brag that he’s done it, too. This time, he’s claiming to have sponsored some wildlife-rescue association in Africa for 15 years and that he was always a true-blue elephant person or whatever. Amitabh is actually an Indian elephant. ◉
† Several cases have been recorded in India where elephants have been used in demolition drives. In 2017, local police used elephants to evict hundreds of people living illegally in a protected forest area in Amchang wildlife sanctuary in Assam state.