Short stories are hard for many authors, they take a certain skill set to make them good, and many authors struggle with that. Dystopia, as I have mentioned many times, is not a hard theme to fit into pretty much any particular genre. I believe that dystopian ideas are somewhat harder with short stories because not only does the author face the normal challenges of a short story, but they often lack the time to fully explore the society they are set in, a crucial element to most dystopian genres. Perhaps that is why dystopian short stories are so much less popular than some of the other genres. That being said, I think that sometimes the lack of time is beneficial, as the author does not have to go into depth on the entire society they have created, rather, they can show the aspect of that society that they think is important, and let the reader come up with the rest. The author, the reader, publisher, and often even other authors are influences are impacted by this genre.

 

Ten With a Flag by Joseph Paul Haines

https://lauriedavis.webs.com/Ten%20With%20A%20Flag.pdf

This short story takes place in a society where a mother can learn more about their child before birth than we can in this day and age. An expecting mother is told that her child is going to be extremely gifted (though not exactly why), the father deems the child dangerous, and the government ends up determining the father a traitor… I liked the ending to this story, though I would not necessarily call it happy. It was witty, well written, not too detailed, and yet it still was oddly disturbing in its theme. The short story aspect of this story left the reader with questions, but it did have a good plot line that was easy to follow. Overall, I would recommend it.