- 웹소설 탐구
- 국내 웹소설 중에서 예상치 못한 장기 연재에도 불구하고 오랫동안 독자의 사랑을 받아온 <달빛조각사>, <랑야방>의 서사 구조와 인기 비결 등을 알아보고, 각각의 웹소설이 모바일 게임과 TV 드라마라...
Web novel-related books, which were virtually non-existent in the past, are now being actively published. Is this not evidence that interest in web novels has skyrocketed not only within a specific niche but also across society as a whole?
I myself also attempted to write a web novel, and in the process, I read famous works posted on platforms like Munpia and Joara, conducting my own analysis, and explored various related books. These included "Web Novel Writer Survival" by Kim Hui-bin, a current romance web novel author, the translated version of "The Impact of Web Novels – How Internet Novels Conquered the Publishing Market" by Iida Ichishi, and "The Technique of Never-Failing Web Novel Serialization" by San-gyeong, an author with over 50 million cumulative paid views. However, these resources fell short of fully quenching the thirst I felt while actually creating a few web novels.
The book I recently read, "Exploring Web Novels," offers a slightly different perspective. The unfamiliar term "palimpsest" helped me string together the scattered bits of knowledge I had accumulated about web novels into a cohesive whole. A "palimpsest" refers to the early practice of record-keeping where writing was layered onto parchment, resulting in repeated rewrites and creative transformations. This term perfectly captures the characteristic of today's web novels, where readers enjoy the intertextuality of fictional works derived from a single original source.
Let's examine the chapter titled "The Blurring Lines Between Author and Reader." It's evident that today's web novel writers must have encountered something that sparked their enjoyment in some work, and it's also clear that they are readers who respond to that enjoyment through comments, views, and purchases. Moreover, because they can receive financial rewards for producing entertaining works, they are essentially compelled to engage in activities as readers to keep up with web novel trends. Readers' tastes are becoming increasingly diverse, and in order to create dishes that cater to these varied tastes, authors have no choice but to read other works.
There is a viewpoint that both readers and writers who enjoy web novels possess a strong "fanatic" (덕후) quality, and that this quality is not universally shared. However, these individuals are more numerous than one might think and are active consumers of their preferences. This is very similar to fandom culture, where fans enthusiastically purchase albums and related merchandise for idol groups. Popular works not only receive numerous messages and comments but also generate derivative products, including fan art (illustrations created by fans depicting scenes from the novels).
Readers form a kind of fandom for each work and enthusiastically respond as the story unfolds in a way that satisfies their tastes, enjoying live serialization. They literally open their wallets and become patrons of the works they favor. Authors who receive this patronage then purchase and read other works, drawing inspiration from them to create similar yet distinct new worlds. It's like the legendary snake Ouroboros, endlessly circling to bite its own tail.
That's precisely what the author of "Exploring Web Novels" discusses in the chapter "The Laws and Variations of Genre." Here, the author elaborates on the concept of palimpsest. If there's an original story that someone painstakingly created, it's the act of playfully using this original to create secondary derivative works, and by creating new variations of the original's rules, resulting in stories that are similar yet distinct, that truly captures the essence of web novels. The examples provided, such as the famous game The Witcher and the famous novel Moonlight Sculptor, significantly aided my understanding.
Having met a few web novel writers, I was baffled by the unimaginable income they were generating at such a young age (early twenties). However, approaching web novels through the lens of the book's concept of palimpsest, or the evolved form of fan fiction, provided me with a deeper understanding. In essence, fandom phenomena have extended beyond idol groups to include novels. These phenomena involve the real-time reading and writing of novels, dynamically building virtual worlds, and engaging in this activity as a form of play culture, serving as a novel means of communication. Thankfully, this book helped me realize these aspects.
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