parable^(1/0)

Short stories are modern parables

While reading The Space Traders by Derrick Bell it struck me that short stories are the modern world’s parables. The genre’s are different: parables are bare-bones and have one main point, while short stories can expand beyond a single point and include details which don’t develop the message directly. This was a fascinating discovery, since I’ve been pondering what it’d be like to develop my own parables. Would it be possible, like Jesus, to craft a short message in a cryptic parable that I could share with friends and family that wouldn’t be immediately understood but might later produce a light-bulb moment.…