Random Word Grotesqueries

By Aim Han

Six stories, each based on three random words.
1) golf, skin, king
When incest persists for many centuries, one of the results is that the chin may protrude and the arrangement of teeth may become chaotic.
...
2) sneakers, harmonica, boast
Several days before attending an audition at the world's best music academy, a destitute boy—who was called a child prodigy—was gifted a pair of white sneakers by his grandmother.
...
3) mail, fried rice, art
If you send an electronic mail to the account managed by the devil, a fantastic piece of inspiration comes back in response. This rumor had existed at the Royal Art Academy for quite some time.
...
4) scalp, drum, wallet
There is a way to forever honor the resonance of a human soul after its death.
...
5) tap water, scribble, backcountry
In the backcountry, where not a single shabby shack stands in the one-hundred-kilometer radius, there are said to live many folks who perform strange art.
...
6) trial, fever, chin
Officially, it was called a trial, but in reality, it was more like a Hanging Announcement Ceremony.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Imaginarium Kim
• Release date: Jun 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781637931455

Book preview

THE HOW AND WHY

Sometimes I flipped open a paper dictionary at a random place and pointed a finger at the page. At other times, I clicked Go! on an online random word generator. Lastly, some friends and family members contributed a word each—never knowing the identities of the other words that I had already collected and would go on to collect in the future.

Whichever way I chose, I lined up the thusly gathered words, neatly, in one row.

Then I cut them up into chunks of three words.

No switching out the words!

No changing the order!

No cheating!

Whatever fate or chance put the words in that order in that line, the game was to tell a story using each given set of three words as is, no matter how ridiculously unrelated the words may seem.

The results are in this collection. They are my maps of random—possibly closer to the workings of my subconscious than any other stories, because I faced the task of connecting the random dots, making sense of the senseless. With great likelihood, I sought comfort in what felt most natural to me. Perhaps I pulled up parts of my dreamscape to the surface of my consciousness.

But then again, when challenged thusly, who can say that we’re ever ourselves? Maybe what happened was the opposite. Maybe this is me, driven to a most uncharacteristic, unrepresentative writing style.

Either way, the dots are connected. The deed is done. Words that had no associations whatsoever are now forever tied together.

For me, this binding process is one of the lovely aspects of stories. Once made sense, senselessness rarely returns. There’s always a faint trace of memory somewhere in the background, albeit shrouded by a hazy fog. I believe this sense of having made sense once upon a time is enough to guide us through the uncertainties of life.

Scattered dots fill every tiny physical and mental space of our daily activities. Only in hindsight can we decide which dots to connect and which story to tell. But the awareness that regardless of the nature of the dots, humans will be able to connect them and tell their stories, greatly relieves me.