The Library of Musical Instruments (Korean Literature) by Jung-hyuk Kim

Author:Jung-hyuk, Kim [Jung-hyuk, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Published: 2016-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

B and I

I’M ALLERGIC TO SUNLIGHT . Half an hour or longer in the sun and my body turns dazzling white. Well, that’d be cool. What really happens is that my skin burns red. While my skin burns red and develops rashes, my whole body swells up like a monster, a terrible sight to be avoided at all costs. Going on a picnic with cold white wine and sandwiches was an impossible dream. Although it might be fun to watch people’s reactions, gasping at me in horror as I became a monster, I wouldn’t try it because I’d feel pain once my allergy set in. My whole body hurts as my skin starts to swell up, threatening to burst.

I wasn’t born allergic to sunlight. As a boy, I was fine playing in the schoolyard until I got a suntan. As a military serviceman, I was fine standing sentry under the blistering sun all day long. Basically I was a healthy child and a strong young man, never short on exposure to sunlight. It was four summers ago that I developed a sun allergy.

In the spring before that summer, I was clerking at a record shop. Although my job description was selling records online, I spent more time working at the shop, basically saying “How may I help you?” or “Have a nice day,” as the case may be, helping the customers find the records they might like, helping them pay and giving them change. I was willing to work hard but hardly working because there weren’t many customers to serve. The record industry was going downhill fast like a car with no brakes—it’s hit the bottom now—and there were record shops in every other building in the neighborhood, so getting a customer was like drawing blood from a stone. At any given moment, there were always more clerks in our shop than there were customers. If and when a customer walked in, the three or four clerks who were lounging around the shop would stare at him with a look that said they were ready to, if not really going to, serve him with all their heart, taking his bag, giving him a shoulder massage, serving him a refreshing beverage. No wonder they’d scare him off. Most customers would leave as soon as they arrived, after a quick walk around the shop. It’s not like the music shop is a stadium marathoners run around in at the beginning of a race.

Some customers would ask us clerks to help find certain records. I enjoyed the songs of singer A the other day, so I’ve been wondering if there is any other artist doing similar music . Then all the clerks would get together for a conference. How about B or C? Aren’t they a little bit similar to A? Not really. A is from the same music family as D, not B or C. What’re you talking about? E is the closest to A in groove alone. Nonsense! In groove alone, F is identical to A.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.