The avant-garde writer Yi Sang’s dreamlike 1937 short story Child’s Bone (pdf) – one of 20 modern Korean classics now available free online – opens dramatically:
This is the scene that my feelers detect.
After a long period of time I open my eyes to find myself on my own, lying in a neat, empty room on the city’s outskirts. When I look around me, the room settles like a memory. The window is dark.
Soon after, I’m shocked to discover a suitcase that I must guard. I also discover a young woman placed like a potted plant beside the suitcase.
When I continue to look at this strange sight, would you believe it, she gives me a smile! Ha ha, this I remember. I think hard. Who is it that loves this woman? While I’m still thinking, I start by asking, “Is it dawn? Or is it dusk?”
She nods and then smiles again. Her skirt and jacket, which are suitable for May, swish as she opens the suitcase. She takes out a gleaming knife.
The Dish 