Bone and Flesh. This world divides humans into two categories. Although a crack exists between the two states, crack itself does not signify a completed form but rather a process of becoming Bone, and thus humans can be divided into two states: Flesh and Bone. Freshness (flesh) refers to hardware equipped with the most up-to-date software after being updated, and at the same time, the human body (flesh) is no longer an organic body composed of skin, sensation, sweat, saliva, blood, flesh, muscle, and organs, but rather an entity functioning as a component of society, a data unit that processes specific tasks—in other words, a human as data.
JOO SLA does not focus on the confusion of identity arising from the crack between the two. She assumes updating as inevitable and leads us toward a rather pessimistic conclusion. The novel “Crack” does not present a moral narrative of a protagonist restoring humanity to those who have lost it through the separation of bone and flesh, nor does it celebrate the liberation of humanity. By introducing Hajin as an “omitted human” at the beginning, the audience and reader naturally empathize with her, but like the central server in the novel, in a world where bone and flesh are no longer necessary, Hajin is merely an error that fails to function as data.
Memory. As Hajin becomes Bone, she quietly murmurs, “...I don’t want to live recalling the past....”(Crack, p.7) To recall the past is to retain memory, which is equivalent to having the ability to reflect. Reflection is a uniquely human ability: humans condense experiences and store them in the mind as memory. This is the only thread that secures individual continuity from past to present. Yet when one becomes Flesh, individual memory seems to disappear.
A world without personal memory! How efficient and pure it would be. Without individual memory, people no longer mistake themselves as special beings different from others. Therefore, no events occur—from trivial arguments to creative acts circulated under the name of art. Society is safe, relationships are peaceful, and communication is transparent. No seeds of conflict can sprout. Conflict grows from the soil of individual memory. Here, without memory, there is no conflict, no events, no life.
