Inspired by a song "Dream of a Square" by W.H.I.T.E

 “IF YOU take a look around, the world is full of squares,” sings W.H.I.T.E in his famous tune that is now considered as one of the classics in Korean culture. A glance around a library where all of the world’s knowledge is stacked will reveal that rectangular books are stored in fixedbook shelves. The angled tomes and its racks seem identical with little creativity. Nonetheless, a close look at each rectangular pages itself unveils that the stories written on the pages are not confined in the boundaries of angled frames.

   A square world is where one does not make a voice or try to make a change but merely adapt oneself to what is given. On the other hand, a round and liberated world is where things roll and change with flexibility. Just like the stories in the books, a square vision of a creative world. It dreams outside of the rectangular pages and onto the vast world that the words paint.
 
As one “wakes up in a square bed, goes through a square door and gets on an orthogonal bus,” all one sees is a panoramic scope of rectangular buildings. Even when one looks through a round mirror, the world that is reflected is still full of squares. In a reality full of quadrates and confinements the four sides provide, square rocks are not scattered around the land as they are supposed to be, but are locked and packed up in steel-barred boxes. Moreover, the scenery is seen through a rectangular frame, which limits and angulates our view. The rocks and scenery inside steel-barred boxes remind of us. Our lives are poured into the same rectilinear molds and therefore become mundane. One day, our dreams might also be casted in boxes. However, as the veins grow in steel bars fancying the idea of heading the sky, square has its hopes too.
 
“When we gaze at the globe, the Earth we are living is round, but why are all the components all square?”
 
Despite living in a world full of angles, square has a hope of dreaming freely and roundly. Children draw creative and original paintings on angled figures. This allows the squares to envision being distinctive and lively like the round and bright minds of the young painters. As no one can predict what is at the end of a railroad made up of rectangular steels, so is a dream of a square. It draws a plowable future and craves freedom. Imagine the world we are living in as a manuscript paper, and it would be full of square notes that make dull music. One day, however, square believes it to be filled with diversified figures making a witty and animated tune.
 
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The song goes, “high and mighty adults say we should live a round and happy life,” but that is just from the teeth forward. In reality, they put angular frames onto our creative dreams, trying to shape them into something more familiar. Where stability and conformity are highly appreciated, why don’t we envision a round and liberal dream that can roll freely?
 
저작권자 © The Yonsei Annals 무단전재 및 재배포 금지