The latest smartphone and goblins from traditional Korean tales meet!
The protagonist, Song Ji-u discovers an odd smartphone in the school library one day. It turns out to be a smartphone used by dokkaebi, or legendary Korean goblins! The place he travels to after receiving a call from a goblin in the middle of the night is a lair of these creatures, where all kinds of amazing things happen. However, it differs considerably from the space described in traditional Korean stories. Goblin children carry smartphones instead of goblins’ clubs. In using smartphones, they converse with one another through messengers and enjoy games by using shapeshifting with apps or creating virtual reality. These creatures use smartphones also when buying things or requesting courier services. Playing with his smartphone together with his gobbling friends, Ji-u experiences many amazing things.
A problematic work captivating children who live with smartphones
Having come to possess a goblin phone, Ji-u visits the creatures’ den and plays there to his heart’s content every night. In the human world, he uses the goblin phone to finish his school homework quickly, to solve problems on workbooks readily, and to speak English fluently as well. The boy also uses shapeshifting to play pranks on his friends. Hooked on the goblin phone, he is unable to let go of the device even after learning that whenever he uses it, energy seeps out from his body so that he becomes weak. Thus unable to shake free from the temptation of the goblin phone, the hero strongly resembles children in reality. The author admits that smartphones have many advantages. He affirms that, by using these devices, we can communicate with diverse people and learn new science and technology. Based on such awareness, he guides Ji-u to find ways of living with smartphones on his own. Step by step, he shows the process through which the protagonist undergoes worries and conflicts at first and finds the correct way of using these devices in the end. As such, the author provides readers with a chance to look back at themselves instead of presenting a didactic or moralistic conclusion. Through Would You Like to Establish a Goblin Phone Connection? young readers will have opportunities to think on their own about ways of using smartphones.