Unraveling the Dark Allure of The Midnight Shift with Cheon Seon-ran
Discover Cheon Seon-ran’s The Midnight Shift (translated by Gene Png): a genre-bending novel of vampires, mystery, and queer love.
What happens when noir detective fiction collides with vampire fantasy? Cheon Seon-ran’s The Midnight Shift, translated by Gene Png, explores themes of aging, loneliness, and love through a gripping tale of hunters, detectives, and immortals. In this Q&A (answers also translated by Gene Png), Cheon Seon-ran shares what inspired this genre-bending story, why vampires capture the essence of loneliness, and how queerness and marginalization shaped the heart of the novel.
With The Midnight Shift having a global audience, do you feel like you have to become a “spokesperson” for South Korea’s views on mental health, aging, and marginalisation through the story?
I don’t feel like I have to be a spokesperson. What I can do is to be one voice amongst the marginalised. But if that one voice can reach an audience, then that’s all I could ever ask for. I don’t think about representing anyone, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop talking about the marginalised.
In fact, when you first started writing Midnight Shift, did you know it would be translated, and by Gene Png?
I had no idea! And not just for this book, but for my other novels as well. I thought it’d be a long time before I met overseas readers, so I’m really glad that my books are being translated.
We love the genre crossover between the noir-style detective fiction, and vampire fantasy. What drew you to blend these two seemingly different genres?
I’ve always been a fan of vampires and mysteries, and I feel like vampire novels always have a splash of mystery in them. After all, encountering unknown entities always brings about a similar tension. After thinking about how I can tease out that thrill, I realised that detectives and hunters had similar vibes, and so I ended up creating these two characters. A detective tracks down humas, and a hunter chases after vampires. I thought a meeting of the two would be interesting.
Why do you think vampires work so well for this story?
Vampires are creatures who live for a really long time. I always think that love is unfair to the person who lives longer. It’s the same with parents and their children, humans and their pets. That’s why I think no one understands loneliness better than vampires.
And why did you choose to intertwine queer love with themes of elderly loneliness?
The loneliness one feels in old age is due to feeling the absence of someone, and I think that’s similar to loving someone but not being able to be with them (due to social judgement, etc.).
Readers have many interpretations to the story, especially vampires. Have you ever been surprised by any interpretation or do you prefer to leave readers to find their own meanings?
I love that readers are able to find their own meanings in my stories. There are many moments when I realise something about my work after hearing their interpretation!
