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| "Super Minority Hero" by Beom Yoo-jin et al. / Courtesy of Safehouse |
By Park Han-sol
If there were heroes in our time who remain unseen and marginalized instead of being under the constant spotlight, in what way and form could they come to us?
In Beom Yoo-jin's short story "Captain Grandma Oh Mi-ja," it is the spring of the year she turns 80 when the titular character begins her first lessons in the Korean alphabetical system Hangeul. When the months-long public lessons are cut short due to the county office's budgetary constraints, she starts writing a sentence every day to continue the sessions on her own.
One day, after her old cow painfully gives birth, she writes "a calf gives birth to a cow," an obvious mistake she only finds out much later.
In the middle of the night, from a wobbling calf comes out a full-grown cow at least three times bigger than its "mother." The bizarre incident opens her eyes to her newfound psychic powers, which turns the very first sentence she writes in her notebook each day into reality.
The story continues as Oh cures her fellow aged villagers, brings in all the coins from the local supermarket without lifting a finger and makes herself strong as an ox. But it comes at a price, of course. Her powers cannot bring people back to life. Neither do its effects last long. And she has to physically go to each place for her powers to take effect.
After contemplating how in the world she could use her powers wisely, she comes across a familiar TV commercial with subtitles, which her illiteracy had previously prevented her from understanding. Being able to finally know the words that a destitute child in a foreign land utters onscreen, she decides to travel to Somalia for the biggest mission of her life.
"Grandma, do you have supernatural powers?" Ya, a young panhandler whom Oh meets along the way, asks her.
"Yes, of course. I might be stronger than that Superman guy." / "Superman's not popular these days." / "Then who is?" / "Captain America or Iron Man." / "Okay, then I'm Captain Oh Mi-ja. That's what I am."
Beom's fantasy story is one of five winners of last year's literary contest themed "Super Minority Hero," co-hosted by the publisher Safehouse and film distribution company Megabox Plus M.
In the anthology of the same name featuring these winners, each story asks the question "Do only those with immense supernatural powers deserve to save us and the world?"
In addition to Captain Grandma from the countryside, the heroes depicted in the book include a high schooler who can breathe underwater (Cheon Seon-ran's "Surf Beat"), a college student with a secret crush (Dae Hyum-soo's "Mass Weapon of Love"), a shy girl who becomes the first one to realize her classmate's hidden power (Pyo Guk-chung's "Fickle") and a factory worker in search of his lost pet turtle (Kang Myung-gyun's "Metamon").
These protagonists with seemingly trifling powers do not appear all that different from us. What can one really do with the ability to make a wish come true followed by a long list of restrictions, to borrow someone else's power for a split second or to shift the call of nature to someone else?
But precisely because of the petty nature of these powers, the heroes' moments of epiphany in the face of real-life adversities feel more special, especially in the current time when everyone is in search of an inkling of hope.
The unique literary collaboration with the film distribution firm Megabox Plus M presents another interesting chance for readers to imagine the vivid, descriptive scenes in the pages coming to life in moving pictures in the future.
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