고등학교 영어Ⅱ (YBM 박준언) 연계 글

Today, readers are rarely made to wait for a new story, since a book can often be downloaded in seconds. In a forest just outside Oslo, Norway, however, a collection of writing is being prepared for readers who have not been born yet. The project, known as Future Library, was begun in 2014 by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson. That summer, a thousand young trees were planted in the Nordmarka forest to supply the paper for one anthology. By 2114, the trees will have grown for a century, and they will then be cut down so that every text can finally be printed.

Until then, a trust that manages the project invites one writer each year, and the writer may choose any genre and any length as long as the work has never been published. Each spring, the new manuscript is carried into the forest and handed over at a ceremony that anyone may attend. It is then stored in a quiet room in Oslo's public library, a room lined with wood from older trees that were cleared to make space for the young forest. Visitors may step inside, but they are made to settle for the writers' names and titles, because no page may be read before 2114.

Future Library's first contributor was the Canadian author Margaret Atwood. She has predicted that language will have changed by 2114 and that readers may need an expert to translate parts of her text. Like every writer who has followed her, she agreed to tell no one what her text says. In 2019, the South Korean novelist Han Kang handed over the fifth manuscript in the forest. Only its title has been revealed; its contents remain unknown. By the time it is printed, her text will have waited ninety-five years for its first reader. Even Katie Paterson, the artist who designed the project, is made to wait by her own rules: she has said that she will not read a single word.

Why would writers give their work to readers who will arrive long after them? Paterson has explained that the project questions a common habit of our time: thinking in short spans and making decisions only for people alive now. By 2114, a hundred writers will have entrusted their words to strangers, and the forest will have been cared for through an entire century. Whoever opens the finished books will have received a gift from people who chose to believe in a future they could not see.