“You have to see even what you can’t see.”

There is a place called Goseong Unification Observatory near thedemilitarized zone in South Korea. With a diverse amount of informationabout the division of Korea on display, it allows us to peer into North Korea,which we cannot visit. Through the telescopes that operate on 500 woncoins, you can take an even closer look at the North Korean landscape.During my visit there on a cloudy evening, I overheard a conversationbetween a young child and his mother. He was nagging his mother to lethim look through the telescope. She scolded him, telling him he would onlybe wasting money since he would not be able to see anything anyway. Thenthe child declared authoritatively, “You have to see even what you can’t see.”The child is right. What I want to discuss now is fantasy. Fantasy ismaking visible the invisible. It requires the curiosity and ability to seethe invisible, and children are readily capable of doing so. Adults give nothought to the invisible, which they cannot think of any reason or need tosee. Children, however, are different. They believe that certain things areinvisible and yearn to see them, assuming that the invisible can be seen; theytherefore also invent invisible things. This is what constitutes imaginationand creativity. It is the most fundamental basis and ultimate goal ofliterature. Herein lies the importance of children’s literature, especially thevalue of fantasy as a literary genre.The young child’s insistence on seeing the invisible that I mentionedabove struck me as very meaningful. On the one hand, it captures the basicspirit of fantasy; and on the other hand, it seemed like the teaching of a sageon how to overcome the division of the country. The message I heard was:We should sustain our efforts to see North Korea, tightly sealed off andinvisible, using our curiosity, imagination, and devotion.For people around the world, the first image that comes to mind whenthey think of Korea is that of a divided country. There is so much that is outof sight, hidden behind this image. One such example is children’s literature.The fact that children’s literature in Korea has seen many remarkable writersand books during its century long history is unknown to most people.In this issue of list, we introduce children’s fantasy books from Korea.The magazine surveys the basic fantasies of Koreans through booksthat contain Korean myths, legends, and folktales. This will serve as anintroduction to the reception of Western fantasies in Korea as well asuniquely Korean fantasies, and into the imaginative games that unfold insome lovely picture books. I hope you will also see the diverse imaginationand curiosity with which Korean children’s book writers have been makingvisible the invisible.

By Kim Inae