Seven People with the Same Name and Their Discreet Moments

This week, I am analyzing the short story titled “Seven People with the Same Name and Their Discreet Moments” by Han Yujoo and translated by Erica Chung. As the title suggests, the story follows seven individuals and their moments interacting with others, and sometimes with each other. The stories are set in Korea during 2014, and tells their pensive and melancholic reactions to their surroundings.

The stories seem pretty disjointed from one another, but close to the end of the seven stories, it is revealed that the sixth narrator had seen the old woman in the first story, and that the old woman in the first story is actually the seventh narrator, who suffers from dementia. I thought these connections were pretty interesting, and are really interesting to analyze using Google Fusion Tables, especially because of the seemingly disjointed nature of the stories. Another exception is the fifth narrator, who does not interact with any other characters at all, but merely expresses her thoughts.

I decided to use Google Fusion Tables to track the characters who share the same scene with others, and here is what I found. You can access the Google Fusion Table by clicking the link here.

As expected, there are some disjointed networks due to the nature of the story; meanwhile, there is a large network that connects the first, sixth and the seventh narrators and their interactions. One limitation, however, is that the fusion tables do not show the depth of interaction within or between the characters. In particular, the monologue by the fifth narrator is not represented at all in the table.

Nonetheless, I found that the fusion table is a unique way to represent interactions between people. I was initially rather intimidated to create the table, as I thought it would be a long and complicated process; however, after watching the tutorial, I found the process rather simple. I can see our group potentially using the tables to figure out connections between the accused witches during the Scottish Witch Trials.

Overall, the story was really interesting. The narrative style and the final reveal created a unique hook to the story, and the melancholic mood across all narrators throughout the different stories tragically, but aptly, describes the nihilism of life, the horrors of dementia, and the hopelessness of fighting back. The overall pensive sadness of the stories is very reflective and contemplative, which made me thoroughly enjoy the short story.