There is a reading-group which has read one writer's books only over 30 years. An old gentleman aged about 70 says ??When I climbed up that steep stairs for the first time I was pretty bulky but now it is too hard for me. Well, it??s been already thirty years since then.?? Their conversation starts from commenting on Damien HURST, one of the hot artists in recent art world. They say ??Both price and honor hit the bottom. Although a celebrity purchases the work, its value doesn??t soar up.?? These strict and inflexible people think the real art doesn??t spread like a trend. They distrust the world in which high price guarantees artistic value. The author they have been hanging on over 30 years is James JOYCE. This even seems to be somewhat religious. As faithful believers read, interpret and think about the bible, they read what James JOYCE wrote line by line. Having always a renewed mind, like wandering around a cave of deep irony, they travel between sentences. So to speak, they are more than just readers. The reading-group is a sort of society and church and sometimes it??s a place for self-training. As they say, reading James JOYCE carefully allows them the time of self-discovery and healing. In a sense, this seemingly anachronistic reading-group??s anachronism itself reflects pure spirit of the times. They think real literature can??t exist within current trends. Watching them looking into James Joyce??s lines reverently, they resemble monks more than readers. Their conversation does so. The important thing is that they don??t study nor talk about Joyce to be rewarded. They don??t write a Ph.D. thesis on James JOYCE or commercialize him. They just read JOYCE with the most active way to understand their beloved author. Without an expected reward, their studies and conversations are very pure and deep. Just like the aged coach in Million Dollar Baby reads Yeats?? poems every day, they find riddles of life in Joyce. (KANG Yu-jung)