Literally Reruns – Harrison Kim

To date Harrison Kim has published more than thirty stories on the site. Each one is completely different from the others and yet there is a common thread of humanity in all.

He can be a challenging read because he looks at people who do not appear much in stories other than as objects to be derided or avoided. Nor does he provide many answers to the questions such lives ask. Still, as you will see in The Purpose of Screaming Harrison’s work exceeds the sum of its words.

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Now a word from Harrison:

“The Purpose of Screaming” is based on a true story, when I applied to teach at a remote school on a First Nations reservation in Northern Canada.  I’m sure glad I didn’t get the job.  Thing is, I was living in a hammock at the time and needed the money.  The Government even paid for my flight to the interview.  Most of what happened to Reid (the protagonist of the story) was part of my interview experience.  In my opinion, he had more guts than brains to pursue going up to the reserve.  I guess he’s kind of an idealist. I flew back to my hammock home and was eventually hired as a janitor at Canada Place for the World’s Fair in Vancouver.  I kept that Place spic and span, he he, then moved out of the woods and was eventually hired as a teacher at a hospital for mentally disordered offenders. I worked there many years and the times somebody screamed at me could be counted on one hand.