Surviving as a Plagiarist in Another World

Chapter 69: Side: The Twisted Anti-Reading Theorist

If one adopts a rational, 20th-century, rationalistic attitude towards a foolish problem, there is a reason for every foolishness.

Most people are not as foolish as we think.

Even the value systems we can hardly understand “rationally”—the prejudices that seem so absurdly foolish—have their reasons. It’s just that these “reasons” form in specific, private contexts, so we cannot recognize them as “reasons.”

For example.

If ordinary people who view reading as a “noble and scholarly hobby” are considered “rational,” then those who view reading as “an addictive and harmful pastime” would seem to be foolish people at first glance.

Yes, that’s me.

I was, without a doubt, a foolish person.

“Senior, cheers!”

“Yeah, cheers.”

“The grease stains won’t come off. The paper will smell like oil.”

“I figured that… Oh, but I was a bit surprised earlier!”

“Surprised? Why?”

“I didn’t expect you to say that reading is a harmful hobby. You really dislike anti-reading theorists, right?”

“Isn’t it also true that something can be useful because it’s harmful? You know, there’s that saying that all medicine is just a controlled poison. If something has no effect, it wouldn’t be harmful or beneficial.”

“Ah, I see…”

“I said reading is like a drug. It’s all about the dosage. Storytelling is the most effective means of injecting ideas, values, empathy, or even disgust into the brain. And if you repeat it enough times, most people become relativists or nihilists. ‘Your words are right, and your words are right. So what?'”

“Senior, you’re being so cynical today…”

“Well, um, I’ve gotten a bit rough because I was rambling… Anyway, the point is this. People are beyond books. Don’t waste the precious time of your life getting too absorbed in reading—that’s what I mean.”

“That sounded a bit like an old man’s advice.”

“Heh, that’s because I’m an old man. This is all advice that becomes part of you as you live. Back in my day, you know?”

“Are you drunk?”

“Hmm, maybe a little?”

In that sense, the “book addicts” who waste the precious time of their lives on reading and the “anti-readers” who have never read a book are, in some ways, in the same social context.

Both of them know that reading is useless.

Reading is a hobby that has no practical or direct benefits. You can learn something through reading, but many people end up being trapped by prejudice and preconceived notions because of reading. So, the benefits of reading are peripheral and ultimately depend on the social and private context of the person.

If you simply say, “Reading is beneficial,”

Isn’t that just justifying the dogmatism of someone who has read a book or two? Therefore, despite my own distaste for anti-reading theory as an avid reader… reading is a useless hobby. ???????

And.

The book addict says that such uselessness is valuable because it is “eternal,” while the anti-reader says that such uselessness is worthless because it is “old.”

So, how does the “foolish” book addict react?

“Honestly… I just don’t understand the shorts and reels that young people like these days. What kind of benefit can you get from a 30-second video, and how can you contemplate anything in it…?”

“Senior, you’re not that much older than me.”

“Hey. When I was discharged from the army, you were in middle school.”

“I don’t really feel it, though…”

“When you were studying for the college entrance exam, I was a senior returning to school after four years.”

“Wow, now I can really feel it…”

In order to negate the opponent’s logic, they dismiss the values that the opponent venerates as wrong.

In this case, things like “novelty” are likely the targets.

Efficiency, speed, videos, shorts, reels, YouTube, influencers, SNS, mukbang, memes, modern philosophers who pretend to be influencers on YouTube and SNS while selling books—. No, that’s just my personal dislike.

Anyway.

After negating the values that the opponent venerates and achieving a mental victory,

They suddenly fall into self-loathing. After all, this is not the attitude of someone who enjoys “contemplative hobbies.” Mental victory and confirmation bias have no room for contemplation. What exists there is nothing but anxiety to obtain certainty and prejudice that no longer wants to question.

“Anyway, yes. People are beyond books. Take a walk, watch trending TV shows, comment while watching shorts, and that’s more like the human life, right? Even if I say, ‘Yesterday, I read Jang Gang-myeong’s “The New Moon, or the Way You Remember the World,”’ how many people would understand? Most people wouldn’t even know who Jang Gang-myeong is. If I say I envy the Japanese people living in the same era as the literary giant Haruki, what would I hear? Probably just that I’m a Japanophile. Heh…”

“Senior, you’re really drunk.”

“My beloved junior… I am scared. I am scared that no one reads books… and that people consider it normal. I am scared that literature will no longer be eternal… That Don Quixote will only be remembered as a madman charging at windmills, and that the Bible will only be a tool of religion… I’m scared that the age is coming when no one will read anymore…”

“Senior…?”

“Rather than talking about South Korea’s fertility rate dropping to 0.7 and the country having no future, for someone like me, the fact that 6 out of 10 adults read zero books is even scarier… Am I not a proper human being?”

“…….”

“Literature is no longer ‘popular culture’….”

That’s right.

In my previous life, I think I might have made a wish.

A world where classics are no longer dismissed as “outdated.”

A world where people recognize the eternal and universal value of literature.

But that was an impossible dream.

People existed outside books.

No matter how much someone like me, who despises people outside books, wishes for it, people wisely strive to do “useful” things.

People can move forward without literature.

Without fairy tales, they can nurture creativity with Pinkfong, Pororo, and Secret Jouju.

Without reading educational books, they can find useful knowledge through YouTube, Shorts, and Wikipedia.

Without reading A Christmas Carol, they can still enjoy Christmas.

Without reading The Sorrows of Young Werther, they can still ponder over suicide.

Without reading The Little Prince, they can still reminisce about childhood.

Without reading Alice in Wonderland, they can still dream.

Literature turns ignorance into scandal.

But SNS, Shorts, influencers, online communities, Naver news comments, hate groups, human rights organizations, and everything absurdly interconnected in this era—turn everything into scandal.

Then literature was truly useless.

That truth frightened me.

Living in such a reality frightened me.

It was hard to endure the uselessness of literature.

That’s why I escaped further into literature.

Like the drunkard in The Little Prince who drinks to forget the fact he drinks.

Like a drug addict, I sank deeper into literature.

“Ugh… Damn the entire Korean literary world… Damn the fixed book price system…”

“Senior.”

“Blegh.”

“So, are you satisfied?”

“What?”

“You’re living in the very world you wished for, aren’t you?”

“What are you—”

And then.

I woke up from the dream.

“—Huh! Oh, where did the dream begin?”

“Are you all right, my lord?”

“Ah, yes. Sion. You were here… What were you doing?”

“You were sweating in your sleep, my lord, so I was watching over you to ensure your condition didn’t worsen. It seems you had a nightmare.”

“Ah, yes. It seems so.”

Nightmares. I often had them.

The recurring nightmares of my early days in this world, where I did nothing but cry, unable to do anything else.

But the nightmare I just had was different from those.

It was about a past even older than that.

And at the same time, it might have been about a future that could someday come to this world.

My head felt stifled.

I tried to read a book but ended up putting it down without even turning the first page.

“…Sion.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“I think I’ll go for a night walk. Prepare for it.”

“Yes.”

In the end, there was only one solution when my head felt stifled.

Get out and get some fresh air.

.

.

.

The night streets of the imperial capital were peaceful.

The magical streetlights and incandescent bulbs illuminated the streets, and a few people hurried somewhere, even at this late hour.

Despite living in an era where one could be threatened by knives or pistols at any moment.

It wasn’t because the people of this world were particularly virtuous compared to those of my previous life.

Of course, that wasn’t entirely untrue either—but.

There was a more obvious reason.

.

“Sion.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Isn’t the capital unusually quiet?”

“…….”

If you can’t find beggars in a society, an optimistic person might think like this:

Ah! Our society is so healthy and great that there aren’t even beggars.

A slightly cynical person might think differently:

Oh! Our society must be oppressive, driving all beggars away or locking them in rooms!

Every year, statistics show an increase in the poor, so why is there not a single beggar on the streets?

And.

I was someone whose thoughts were utterly twisted.

.

.

.

[“I could have been crucified for humanity if necessary.

But I could not live in the same room with someone else for two days.

Even the mere presence of someone near me made me uncomfortable.

After one day, I started hating them—one for taking too long to eat dinner, another for blowing their nose constantly due to a cold.

Yet, the more I personally hated individuals, the more I found myself loving humanity as a whole.”]

[“I loved humanity—but the more I loved humanity as a whole, the less I loved individuals, falling into this contradiction.”]