“Truth Fly, Don’t Bother Me,” one of my flash stories, was published by Flame Tree Press in their November, 2019 newsletter. Flame Tree Press announces themes for each newsletter; in this case the science fiction theme was “dystopia.” This article contains story notes.

WARNING: There are spoilers in this article, so please take the few minutes required to read this one thousand word story: Click Here to read “Truth Fly, Don’t Bother Me” in the Flame Tree Press newsletter archive. (Scroll down a bit on that page, it’s the first story in the newsletter).

Story Origins

This story came from a dream (as many of my stories do.) In the dream, a fly talked to me and pointed out an error I’d made, and I responded, “Don’t bother me.” When I woke up I recalled the traditional children’s song “Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me” and for some reason I just thought of making it “Truth Fly” instead of “Shoo Fly.”

We’ve all been bombarded by claims of “fake news” (by both wings of the political aisle). There have been calls for commissions to determine truth, there are websites like Snopes that purport to be authorities on truth. That’s all well and good when it comes to debunking urban legends, but should there ever be any single human authority that has a monopoly on all truth? If there were one single authority, wouldn’t powerful people do their utmost to corrupt it in order to promote their own agendas?

Now combine political tussles over defining truth with our ever-increasing surveillance state. Could we come to a time where the government instantly judges everything we say, text, or email as either true or false? And they then helpfully “offer” a correction?

This isn’t so far fetched. We have information appliances like Amazon Echo and Google Home, and many people ask them questions. Who determines what answers come out? Those devices can listen to us, sometimes in situations where we don’t expect it. How much of a stretch would it be for them to start “correcting” us when we have opinions that don’t conform to the powers behind those technologies?

This story explores these themes.

Orwellian Overtones

I certainly had Orwell’s “1984” in mind when writing this. In my story, the government has passed a law called The Truth Shall Set You Free Act of 2060, and as in Orwell’s masterpiece what the government calls something is often the opposite of what it really is. In this case, the “Truth Shall Set You Free” act is really used to enslave people by enforcing lies meant to keep the current government in power indefinitely. The act’s name is a quote from the Bible (and famously used by MLK). But this law is anything but holy.

The government’s truth is disseminated and enforced by tiny robots called truth flies. At first, the act only requires the truth flies to hover around political opposition (to “protect” voters from “confusion”). But as the story opens, the regulations have expanded to include ordinary citizens, much to the chagrin of the main character.

Overreach and Redefinition

These, too, are themes of the story: government overreach and redefining words to enforce one view of reality. (Also strong themes in “1984” with doublespeak, etc.). We’ve certainly seen plenty of this, again by both ends of the political spectrum and all across the world stage.

At first, the main character tries to defeat the truth fly’s pronouncements using logical arguments, but at every turn he finds that the law has literally redefined the meaning of the word “truth” and legislated how every person must interpret it. Even philosophical reasoning on the meaning of truth has been effectively outlawed.

Fighting Back

The story ends with the main character deciding to defy the law by crushing his own truth fly. But he goes beyond that by coining a rallying cry to incite other citizens to join in the revolt.

But revolutions are painful and uncertain, and this is made clear by the final line of the story. I wanted an ending that gave some hope that things would improve, without sugar coating the enormous uphill struggle to come.

Story Submission History

This story was written in a single sitting in early September, 2019. I workshopped and revised it then submitted it to F&SF on September 16. It was rejected with a personal note that the story had an interesting premise but the editor wanted to see more in-depth character development (in other words he wanted it longer than Flash length). I always envisioned this as a flash story so I didn’t take Charlie’s advice this time around. (I usually do.)

I submitted it to Flash Fiction Online on September 30. It was declined two weeks later, just as the call for submissions came out from Flame Tree Press.

I had originally wanted to submit this to Nature, because it’s right up their alley, but they were sitting on another story from me and they have very long cycle times (3 to 4 months typically) so I took a shot at Flame Tree (with a delightfully short two-week decision guaranteed by their publishing schedule.) Glad I did! I got the good news while on vacation in LA.

Flame Tree Press is a pro market, and this was my third pro credit in 2019.

In Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this little story, and always remember to decide for yourself what rings true.

See also: “Gator and the Big Buzz” Accepted by FFO
See also: Turning Everyday Life into Science Fiction Story Ideas