Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Dylan Chung wp2 Original Submission Draft
Dylan Chung wp2 Original Submission Draft
The Social
What’s at the bottom of the Cavern? The ability to change the world; that’s what lies at
the bottom of the Cavern. Everything almost anyone could want and more. These would all be at
Chapter 1
The air trembles slightly as inaudible echoes sail throughout the Caverns.
A person and a floating crystal make their way through the Caverns, clearing for
“There are two main types of people we’ve met wandering around the Caverns this deep:
the Explorers and the Defenders. Those are really just nicknames I’ve given them but I’m sure it
won’t be too hard to tell the two apart from the other.”
Iris’s words echo into static as the only audible word, other, continues to reverberate
“Ok then… Maybe you’re a visual learner. Perhaps actually getting to see some of these
people would be helpful. Let’s take a look over there. This time, really try to remember them. I
can’t count how many times I’ve already told you this.” Den points out into the dark as the subtle
“What’s the reason for stopping? It looks like there’s literally nothing but a normal tunnel
in front of us.”
The member at the front of the group, while hunched over, looking out into the darkness,
responds, “I’m not sure. Just a feeling.” He straightens his back to an upright position. “You get
sometimes too, right? C’mon, we all get that. Don’t make me feel that this kind of a job doesn’t
require paranoia.”
“... I’m sure we all do, buddy, we all do.” He sighs. Everyone sighs a little bit.
“Everything all good down there? Anything new, dangerous, or expensive to report?”
The voice echoes by, coming from seemingly where the Caverners came in from.
The guy at the front responds, “Nope, literally nothing. This place is desolate. Just a
bunch of water puddles for Bert to splish splash around in. But I want to signal that maybe this
place has been harvested already. There’s no way that it could be this empty.”
“Ok. Noted. We won’t be sending any others down to that area for a while. I’ll be
notifying Patron 14 his goods may be delayed further. Also, make sure to keep an eye out for
radishes in the area; our next buyout “The White Light” requires radishes.” And then the voice
fizzles out.
“We’re coming back up now. The team’s all tired and wet. I’m done for today.”
The team trudges away as the swooshing and the splish splashing quiets down to
complete silence.
“They’re much more interesting than Defenders. Defenders just zip in and out for the
resources the Caverns offer. The Explorers are special in the way that they use the Caverns.
They’re not just here to harvest goods. They’re using the Caverns to communicate as well as
harvest valuables. Did you see the tools they had hanging at their waists? They use those to pick
away at the tunnels for echo communication. They’re almost too communicative with one
another to a fault.”
Den trudges through the Caverns in his own personal Iris-drilled tunnels. Den continues
to follow alongside the tunnels the Explorers followed until they disappear out into the Above.
Den pauses before turning around to face Iris, who seems to be floating back towards the
“I think it’s time I go out to see the Above world. Perhaps there’s someone there that can
“Well, behave as you see fit.” Iris shrinks as it returns to Den. Den lifts the shrunken Iris
and places it back into his eye socket. With that, he ventures off into the Above world, into the
unknown.
Chung 4
Chapter 2
The Above world seemed like it would be much brighter than the Caverns but that ended
up not being the case. As Den approached the entrance to the Caverns, he peeked through it
before fully making his first step out into the Above. To Den, the Above wasn’t actually much
different in terms of physical environment; the ceilings of the Above just felt slightly higher. The
biggest difference was the number of people that Den could see.
An average month in the Caverns would leave Den with just about one or two group
encounters. And in front of him was a month’s worth of people talking to each other.
Two people dressed in lacy and puffy red clothing were listening to the Explorers that
“Alright so all we did here today was provide communication tunnels. Along the way
there were some goods that we have picked up and taken as payment per our agreements so no
payment is necessary. Just put in a good word at the Authority for us.”
The people chuckle as they walk the Explorers to the entrance of the building.
“You know we can’t do that. Just keep working the way you are and I’m sure that the
Thud!
“Those two seem to be part of a new group of people I haven’t met yet.” Iris’s voice
Den’s eyes widen as he watches the two move around. The expressions of the two other
people remaining in the building seemed quite normal, bored even. This was the exact opposite
Chung 5
of how Den’s face was, which was intensely focused and serious as he observed every little
Den thought back to Iris and the time he spent walking around with his floating
companion. He had spent months walking around in the Caverns with Iris. But being a part of
himself, there were no surprise or unexpected interactions between Iris and Den. The two across
from Den and Iris were completely different. They interacted with each other so smoothly,
moving things across the room with one another and getting to their tasks at hand. And yet, it
was as if the two didn’t even know each other, as they referred to the other by their names each
“Here we are. Pob, process task 3 as according to guidelines E4. Then refer back to
“Pob, it’s my pleasure.” Craw puts down the guidebook with a thud.
“Quite an odd set of fellows, huh.” Iris chimes in, “It’s almost like these guys are on
strings, living life according to someone else’s guidelines. These people will be known as the
Autocrats. Or rather, they are the unfortunate underlings of the Autocrat. How pitiful. They’re
like tools to fulfill another’s purpose; they aren’t free to live according to their own desires but
rather must live according to their leader’s rules. We can at least be thankful for them that their
Den evades their vision and walks to an exit of the building they are in. Den nonchalantly
walks outside of the door, expecting merely another connection outside of the buildings, just as
he expected the tunnels in the Caverns to connect smoothly to one another. But at the sight of the
Chapter 3
The Caverns have very few areas with rather high ceilings, reaching over several times
Den’s height, so Den had been quite surprised to see the high ceilings of the building inside. But
the real Above world was on a whole different level. As far as the eye could see, there was
absolute black and darkness in the sky. With not a single source of light, not even a faint twinkle,
the Above world seemed to be an even gloomier and darker place than the Caverns were.
When Den looks around for other buildings, the one that stood tallest is the one he just
left from. In fact, that is about the only one that is standing, as the rest of the buildings are fully
underground. The only thing that signals that something exists in that area of the world are
Fast footsteps pass by behind Den as he gazes around at the flat world around him.
Three people lift a hidden cover not made of stone but rather dirt and jump into the hole,
Den beckons Iris out from within him and the crystal returns, floating by Den’s side. “Go
follow them, Iris. Tell me what you can find out about them and come back to me.”
The floating crystal quickly rises up and down and then hurriedly rushes after the people
as they close the entrance behind them. These three are quick on their feet yet silent, barely
making the typical pitter patter sounds as they hurry off into their hole.
As they make their way deeper underground, the light pitter patter of their footsteps turns
into taps as they reach a tunnel area that is made of stones rather than dirt. Here, they get to work
picking up whatever goods they can find on the walls and ceilings of the tunnel.
Chung 8
“Ah, I see why Den would send me out now. If those two Craw and Pob fellows dubbed
Autocrats were people under the rule of an autocrat, these people are the exact opposite. They
don’t have any rules to shove them this way or that, they do as they best see fit. Maybe I can
Tap, tap, tap… The three seem to stop moving for a moment.
The three Caverners make their way back towards the direction Iris is and head up and
out of the hidden Caverns. Iris embeds itself in the wall until the first person passes, slipping into
The Caverners repeat their silent runs among various different hidden Caverns until the
“In terms of weight we have 1100 tops worth of goods. But to get home we need 20 extra
tops. Let’s hop in the Authority’s comm tunnels and hop back out.”
With that, the Anarchist Caverners make their way into the building of Craw and Pob.
Chung 9
Chapter 4
Iris rises up and down to signal his understanding and then floats away. Den watches as
Although his guide is missing, Den goes around the stone holes and puts his ear up
against each to check whether there are people inside or not. There is the occasional whisper and
Unsatisfied, Den continues to walk around, in search of others who are awake. After
several hours of searching, Den is able to find another building. This one, like the building he
This new building is split down the middle at the entrance into two sides. Den first enters
into the left side of the building. Here, there is a large table around which about 10 people sit. At
the center of the table is a pile of materials. Each person sitting takes a grab at the materials in
the center and makes a tool. Some make shovels and pickaxes, while others make spoons and
rakes, while yet others make novel tools that Den has never seen.
“Ok then…” Den mutters to himself as he walks right back out. “Not too much to see
there.”
Entering into the right side of the building, Den sees an image that is similar, yet
completely different. Here, there are four different levels, with a table at each. At the very top
there was one person writing something out on pieces of paper. After they were done, these
pieces of paper were handed down to the next level down where four people would construct
tools just like all the others did at the other table. After completing each tool, the tool would be
passed down to the next table down, where 10 different people completed construction of the
The tools were gathered up from both sides and then shipped out in large containers to
Den ran up to the very last of these containers and hitched a ride to wherever they were
going. As they passed by countless underground living quarters, Den saw many other buildings
that looked exactly like the split building from before. However, this still left him unsatisfied, as
it was clear that these people could do nothing for him and his memory.
On the way to who knows where, Den summed up the two groups of people, just like Iris
Den tilts his head slightly to the right as he clears his mind for a moment.
“The right side… brutal. Working at different levels like that, having to look up for your
next instruction; that’s gotta hurt their neck. And what happens if the guy at the top is missing?
Den tilts his head slightly to the left as he reflects on the left side.
“But at least they didn’t make spoons. Who uses spoons in the Caverns? And rakes? They
didn’t seem to know what they were doing but at least they didn’t have to wait like dogs for
instructions from above. And plus that thingamajig that one of those guys made, although
unorthodox, wasn’t the worst thing ever. They shall be dubbed the Networkers.”
“I guess this is the Above, huh. It seems so pathetic now to think that I had high hopes.
And even fears. I could get used to this dreary place; it’s basically a cavern above the Caverns. ”
Feeling lonely, Den decides to take a short moment to catch up with Iris. As he closes his
remaining eye, he opens up the socket that is empty and gazes into Iris’s vision.
Chung 11
Chapter 5
Iris certainly seems to be in trouble, as Den sees the crystal being carried away in some
sort of goods bag. Noticing Den’s presence, Iris explains its situation and what events led to
where it is now.
As per the rules of their work area, Craw and Pob have left the premises so there was
very little resistance. Perhaps the two had put too much faith in the sign that said “No trespassing
unless allowed by the Authority.” If Craw and Pob had seen it, they would have certainly backed
The now audible light pitter patter of the three people’s feets signaled some unrest in the
The three make their way down the tunnels carved out by the Explorers who set up the
“Do something Hana. We’re going to be left out of the Transport if we don’t leave now.
Transport? Barrier? These were terms Den was aware of but never in this context. But it
seemed like all four of them, even Iris, understood the importance of these two simple words.
“Ok. Dol and Sett, do you remember the smaller tunnel we saw near the entrance that was
not quite tucked away? We check that one. If there’s not enough resources for all three of us in
there, we’re playing rock paper scissors for the two who can board the Transport.”
“What? We can’t do this. We have to find enough resources. For all three of us. What
could we do if we were split up from one another? We’ve always been together.”
Chung 12
Dol agrees with Sett, “You know we could never split up. We need to stay as three. For
The three remain in silence for ten seconds as they make their way back up the tunnel
towards the exit of the smaller secondary tunnel Iris cleared out.
With Sett in the lead, Dol and Hana follow one by one into the tunnel. The walls were by
their shoulders with barely enough room for the three to stand in. Sett was especially having
problems, as he was the most well built out of the three of them.
“I’m stuck.” Sett’s bigger frame had gotten the worst of him in the tunnels.
Heok!
The instant the last “k” sound came out of Sett’s mouth, Hana pushed the two down
harder into the tunnel, leaving Dol with Sett. At that, Sett began to shrink. But along with his
physical abilities, Sett’s mental capabilities collapsed, as he became unable to think. Dol was
fine, but he stuck strongly to Sett’s side, as he needed him. Without him, he would become
But Hana never got to see this transformation. Hana was out of the tunnel far before this
transformation ended. Now by himself, Hana was able to think, run, and act faster than before,
Chapter 6
Tucked away in Hana’s bag, Iris was rapidly approaching Den as the two made their way
Whoooooooooooo~sh!
The wind blew by Hana’s face as he ran and ran and ran. Oh how he loved the feel of the
wind on his face. Here and now, there were no problems, no feelings, no baggage that could
weigh him down. But perhaps there was something by the barrier that could.
By the barrier, there were once again two groups of people, standing opposite to one
another. The group closer to Hana as he approached the circular dome that was the Barrier was
where he could find the people he was familiar with. The group farther from Hana and closer to
the wall also included people Hana was familiar with, but not friends with.
“We can’t keep gathering resources the same way we have! We’ve been tracking our tops
earnings and our resource earnings so, though the Authority tries their best to alter the value of
tops in order to quiet suspicion, it’s clear to see that resources are becoming more and more
Iris’s voice is heard in Den’s ears, “These will be known as the Modernists. They are
flexible and open to change. They don’t just mindlessly mine like most of these people. Rather,
they respond to the feedback they’ve been getting from the Caverns. And, lately, the feedback
The group closer to the wall shouts in rejection, “To do that would be to reject the gifts
available in the Caverns. Do you not remember what lies at the bottom? All of our problems can
be fixed if we can just reach the bottom of the Caverns. Stop abandoning your past and confront
Chung 14
it now! We do not scavenge the Caverns simply to sustain ourselves. The main goal is to reach
Iris’s voice is once again heard in Den’s ears, “These will be known as the Conservatives.
They’ve been taught to do things one way and have continued to follow in their own footsteps
ever since. Since the majority of the population are Conservatives, it’s hard to see dramatic shifts
From opposite the Barrier, several containers begin to approach the two groups.
“Of course, we’ll always do our work in remembrance of the old goals. But now is the
time to look forward, to broaden our horizons. To cross new boundaries and achieve greater
things.”
The containers empty their contents out onto the ground. The group standing closer to the
“But… what if… there really is something beyond the Barrier of value.”
“Then you, me, and everyone against this will have no choice but to follow. This unroots
The tools are picked up and the people begin to pick away at the Barrier.
“There’s no way that this is all you guys prepared. You believed that just picking at the
Barrier would suffice? Something like this requires the command of the bottom of the Caverns.”
Iris tears through Hana’s bag and makes its way to the last container, in which Den is
“Yup. It’s been a long day. Why don’t you say we go on back to the Caverns. There’s an
“I’m all for it. Let’s go. Time to just lie down and do nothing.”
Den makes his way underground again, straight to the bottom of the Caverns.
Chung 16
Chapter 7
Den makes it back to the bottom of the Cavern, still unable to have found anything out
Sigh.
“Iris, do you reckon it’s even possible to fix my memory?” Den rubs his forehead as he
says this. “Do you think there’s anything more to what I can do for my memory?”
Morphing its crystal body into something like a pod, Iris lifts the unconscious Den into
the air and guides him to the Above again. Den is lifted higher and higher as Iris guides him
towards the upper limit of the Barrier. Iris accelerates itself and Den until the very last moment
before Den hits the barrier. Here, the Barrier seamlessly morphs itself around Iris’s pod-shaped
body.
As the two continue to rise, Iris finds itself in close contact with another Barrier, as Den
phases through the Barrier into what looks like another Cavern. Here, Den takes on a new form,
similar to his previous, but not quite. The most stark difference involves his eye sockets, both of
“We’re going to take a little stroll through the Caverns, like usual. Who knows perhaps
Although academic articles can be entertaining for the select few that crave the
information the articles’ research yields, scholarly articles can sometimes feel somewhat flat;
there is no plot progression or worldbuilding. Information is straight to the point and defined
according to the knowledge of the expected audience. This is the case in the article “Elements of
strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework,” written by Reto Felix, Philipp A.
Rauschnabel, and Chris Hinsch1. Of the many genre conventions present in business research
articles, the jargon is perhaps one of the hardest to truly understand. Words such as
organizational culture, B2B, and hierarchy are easy enough to define generally. But when put in
a professional business context, these words can have more than just differences in meaning that
newcomers may have a hard time beginning to even imagine. Because of this, new readers, those
not accustomed to business jargon, may have a harder time truly grasping the concepts
introduced, even if they are sometimes defined or put into easier terms. This is where a
translation from an academic article to a different genre, such as adventure fantasy, can prove
helpful in understanding the article and providing the topic an audience outside of the business
field.
referred to “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources,” by Karen Rosenberg2 to
help me extract the key concepts from the business article. Doing this also allowed me a better
understanding of the primary genre’s discourse community. According to her guidance, many
things, such as the audience, title, introduction, and the conclusion must be carefully considered2.
Accordingly, I was able to understand the level of diction, tone, intended audience, main
1 Felix, Reto, Philipp A Rauschnabel, and Chris Hinsch. "Elements of Strategic Social Media Marketing: A
Holistic Framework." Journal of Business Research 70, no. C (2017): 118-26.
2 Rosenberg, Karen. “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources.” In Writing Spaces: Readings
on Writing, vol. 2, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, 210–220. Parlor Press, 2011.
Chung 19
purpose, and the future goals of the authors. Due to the holistic nature of the business article, the
diction was not particularly specialized, but it was also not the layman’s diction. The intended
audience and level of diction combined with the tone and main purpose of creating a holistic
framework suggested that the discourse community involved with this article was primarily
made up of business students, researchers, and teachers. Not only that, but specifically those
within the business discourse community that were interested in social media marketing. The
future goals complement this finding, as the conclusion sounded the authors’ desires for
additional comprehensive analysis. This meant that, although the diction was accessible, there
were a few undefined terms that still went over the heads of readers not directly a part of the
community. Due to this, I believed a depiction of the key concepts at their extremes would help
to differentiate the in-article concepts that are often blended together in real life. The goal of my
allow the concepts to really “pop” and differentiate themselves. Essentially, the implicit
preconceptions that usually only readers within the discourse community can understand are
being revealed through the usage of a genre translation and discourse community shift.
In creating the sandbox world necessary for the demonstration of Felix’s marketing
concepts, I drew upon the webtoons Tower of God written by SIU, The God of High School by
Yongje Park, and Solo Leveling by Chu-Gong. Being of the same genre, the three authors share
certain similarities, yet also differ in many ways to allow them each to shine in their own
respective fields. Tower of God’s SIU makes use of many long-lasting mysteries, some that are
over a decade old, to entice readers. The God of High School’s Park Yongje makes use of a
concurrent story-telling method that allows for the story to split off into several groups to allow
Chung 20
for more expansive worldbuilding and character insight. Solo Leveling’s Chu-Gong makes use of
a darker world, literally and metaphorically, that allows the story to take on a more serious and
sinister tone. A few similarities that all three of these stories share are the use of onomatopoeias,
cliffhangers, and ongoing stories. Onomatopoeias seek to bring in a sense of sound to a usually
deaf imagination. Cliffhangers and ongoing stories ensure that the story can be continued, even
years and years after the initial release or even if the story had been discontinued in the past. But
the most prominent similarity is the massive worldbuilding. Due to this, the stories are able to
put the characters in tens and even hundreds of different and new settings. Though it often takes
months of story building to reach this point, the world eventually comes to feel as though it is
constantly running, even without the reader’s attention. Another element that is shared is the use
of a metaphorical comparison. This allows for the underlying metaphor of social media as the
Caverns to remain while adhering to the adventure fantasy genre. Though these elements might
seem cheap, cliche, or even unentertaining, the inclusion of these elements has allowed these
stories to become massive commercial successes with an even more massive audience, even after
years of production. The use of these elements allows for a gripping story that can yield a fruitful
The adventure fantasy genre is a constantly changing beast; every author is always able to
bring something new and fruitful to the drawing board, even things from another genre. But even
so, there were some changes that had to be made to the business article content in order for the
story to mesh well for the new adventure fantasy discourse community. Including all pieces of
information in the academic article while providing an adventure fantasy story is out of the
question due to the shift in discourse communities. As explained in Janet Boyd’s “Murder
(Rhetorically Speaking),” a genre can be generally defined as “when the traits or attributes
Chung 21
considered normal to or typical of a particular kind of creative piece, such as in literature, film,
or music, make it that kind and not another.”3 Specific business jargon and educational
assumptions made the scholarly article part of the business discourse community, as well as the
intensely educational content. But now there is a new audience and thus discourse community
with a different expected knowledge set and different expectations. This means that many of the
genre conventions of the business article, such as using graphs to depict data or even being used
purely as a form of educational content, are not allowed in normal contexts. While things are
being taken away from the business genre, this shift means the opposite for the adventure fantasy
genre; certain subtler conventions, like using generic words like Authority to signal some
authoritative governing power, are going to be added. This genre was chosen to provide an equal
playing ground to a new set of readers that have little to no knowledge about the business field.
However, being directed to a different discourse community, there are now words that those in
the original business discourse community may find somewhat difficult to decipher.
Just like the genre and the various role model stories listed above, I see my story as a
continuously changing organism; just a small part of the whole in-story universe has been
discovered as of yet. Though it initially didn’t seem this way, this ongoing story convention
nicely complements the genre conventions of scholarly articles as well. At the end of the
business paper, Felix believes that “future research could use quantitative approaches,” as a way
of digging deeper into the material. Though not exactly the same as the neverending adventure
fantasy stories, the ending of “The Social” was left open as a nod to the similarity of the two
genre’s conventions. This choice to leave the ending open allows for further deliberation on the
story itself, expanding upon the adventure fantasy portions of the story, as well as the characters
3 Boyd, Janet. “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking).” In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 2, edited by
present in the story, allowing for further deliberation of the key concepts present in the business
article.
In the end, my goal was to create an adventure fantasy story that would help broaden the
range of readers interested in this business research article. Though sacrifices were made to the
business article genre conventions, thanks to these sacrifices, an additional discourse community
has been unlocked. By utilizing the common adventure fantasy conventions of worldbuilding,
adventure fantasy was created. By combining the key concepts of Felix’s article and the
aforementioned adventure fantasy conventions, “The Social” invites readers not normally
interested in social media marketing to find out how their online social experience is handled.
Chung 23
Bibliography
Felix, Reto, Philipp A Rauschnabel, and Chris Hinsch. "Elements of Strategic Social
(2017): 118-26.
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 2, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel
Writing, vol. 2, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, 87-101. Parlor Press,
2011.