Han Kang’s unpublished manuscript shall be unsealed in 2114 as a part of the Future Library artwork challenge. (Future Library)
Creator Han Kang’s unpublished manuscript which has been sealed and locked away in Oslo, Norway is getting renewed consideration following her Nobel Prize in literature win. The manuscript is shrouded in thriller — its content material, size and format unknown — solely its title, “Expensive Son, My Beloved,” has been revealed.
The manuscript is a part of the Future Library artwork challenge launched in Norway in 2014. Every year, a author is invited to contribute a manuscript that explores the themes of creativeness and time. The finished manuscripts are saved on the Deichman Library in Oslo. In 2114, 100 years after the challenge’s launch, the curators will print the texts — unseen by anybody till then — for the primary time.
Han was the fifth author and the primary Asian author to take part. Contributors embody famend authors reminiscent of Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell and Karl Ove Knausgard.
In Might 2019, Han visited Norway to ship the manuscript and wrapped it in a ceremonial white material historically utilized in Korean rites for newborns or as a mourning gown for funerals.
“It was like a marriage of my manuscript with the forest, or a lullaby for a century-long sleep, softly touching the earth all the best way,” Han stated through the ceremony.
On condition that Han has a son, there may be hypothesis that the work could comprise her message to humanity relating to the current and future, framed as a letter to her son.
“It felt like a prayer for the longer term,” Han stated concerning the challenge throughout a chat on the Seoul Worldwide E-book Honest in 2019, describing it as “an act of uncertainty a couple of future the place we are going to all be gone.”
Han Kang leads a procession by means of Nordmarka forest throughout a handover ceremony in Oslo, in 2019. (Future Library)
Han Kang attends a manuscript handover ceremony in Nordmarka forest, simply outdoors Oslo, in 2019. (Future Library)