I’ve been thinking a lot about biyoo, or specifically the scene where she gets her name.
We all know how important names are in ORV and in Korean culture in general. Dokja was named “Dokja” because his mother wanted him to be a reader, and his father wanted him to grow up independent, someone who does not rely on others. And he becomes exactly that. A reader. Alone. A “dokja” in every sense of the word.
In Korean, “Biyoo” means “metaphor” or “analogy.” I have been thinking a lot about how Biyoo serves as a metaphor in the story. Honestly, it is hard to narrow her down to just one thing, because she embodies so many.
But the first thing that came to mind was “change”. She has been the 41st Shin Yoosung, a disaster, a wandering soul, a reincarnation, a dokkaebi. She takes on multiple forms throughout the novel. She is never just one fixed existence.
Dokja’s name put him in a box. It defined him before he had the chance to define himself. He was the reader, the observer, the one outside the story. But Biyoo, the “metaphor,” is not confined to one literal meaning. A metaphor shifts depending on context.
While Dokja’s name trapped him, Biyoo’s name allows her to become something fluid. Something that changes. Something that can mean more than one thing at once.
(I doubt this was the intended meaning, but honestly I don’t think it matters. Death of the author and all that)
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