Daily Science Fiction – May 19, 2020
“The Cages” by Hilary Rose Berwick (327 words)
Tiny piece from a child’s point of view about a classroom with cages in the back. I get the sense that there’s an undercurrent of political commentary—normalizing the separation and brutalization of some children compared to others, it seems—but the piece didn’t paint a clear enough picture for me to get an impression of what issue in particular is being critiqued. I suppose the piece is meant to be open-ended for readers to project their ideas onto it, as there’s no description of the children and only a brief glimpse of deep-seated prejudice, but the overall effect for me is a muddled piece that is too vague to make a powerful point.
