English Summary
Title: A Thinking Trip with Pinocchio
Korean Original: 피노키오와 함께하는 생각 여행
This book invites readers to a thinking trip with Pinocchio in search of answers to seven essential questions.
Book Summary
This book describes a thinking trip that Pinocchio, a fifth-grade elementary school student, takes with a fairy believed to exist only in our imagination. Pinocchio meets a fairy wearing a green cone-shaped hat and embarks on seven journeys over seven days. The story unfolds across two worlds: the real world and the imaginary world. Inspired deeply by Hermann Hesse during her adolescence, the author borrows the framework of the dual worlds from Demian as an homage to Hesse’s novel.
During the thinking journey with the fairy, Pinocchio reflects on his own questions through inquiry and dialogue, reminiscent of the Socratic method. On the first day, he travels through the imaginary world and discusses the works of surrealist painters such as Salvador Dalí. On the second day, he explores the theme “different is not wrong,” which forms the core message of this book. On the third day, he reflects on what is truly precious in life. On the fourth day, he encounters Hermann Hesse and discusses The Glass Bead Game, gradually finding answers to his own questions.
On the fifth day, Pinocchio and the fairy contemplate birth and death as two sides of the same coin. On the sixth day, he is invited to an underground festival where he meets the Goddess Gaia and continues his search for meaning. Finally, on the seventh day, Pinocchio arrives at an ultimate conclusion encompassing all of his questions.
A Thinking Trip with Pinocchio is structured as seven journeys over seven days, each centered on a single question. At the end of each day’s journey, a “ring of thinking” — a concise sentence connecting the question and its answer — is presented in a witty, poetic form reminiscent of children’s verse. This structure encourages readers to pause and reflect on the questions and insights they might otherwise overlook.
The repeated practice of forming these “rings of thinking,” introduced with the phrase “thoughts follow one after another,” continues through all seven chapters. As readers grow familiar with the pattern of “Oh, that?” followed by a poetic answer, they naturally begin to cultivate their own way of thinking. The book is further enriched by distinctive illustrations that enhance the imaginative journey, including appearances by philosophers such as Nietzsche and Chuang-tzu.
Translation supported by the Publication Abstract Translation Grant Program of the Korea Publishing Industry Promotion Agency (KPIPA).