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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48831
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Somebody who used the (very) short form as a congenial tool is the German Marxist poet [Bertolt Brecht,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht) known for the [_Three Penny Opera._](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Threepenny_Opera) He wrote a series of [very short stories (link in German)](https://nosologoethevlc.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/brecht-geschichten-keuner.pdf) about a fictional character Mr. Keuner.

Maybe a little background is in order to appreciate these stories. In very short stories much must be left to the reader's imagination because there is no room to flesh it out. This fit well with one of Brecht's political-poetic core principles. His goal was to provoke his audience into thinking for themselves, instead of passively accepting given stories, in the news as well as in the arts. His strategy was _alienation:_ A story would not provide closure; or contain other unusual elements which would interrupt any "reception trance" in the audience. These stories are examples for his method.

I'll translate one of the more famous stories:

> **The Reunion**
> 
> A man who hadn't seen Mr. K in a long time greeted him with the words: "You haven't change one bit!" – "Oh!" said Mr. K. and paled.

Generations of students have wondered in their interpretations why Mr. K was put off by this remark; Brecht achieved his goal.

Original score: 10