Anyone know of any short stories exploring with the idea of parasites?

SamantaHolland said:

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You will rot in hell as a low-life scum-sucking spammer who enables cheaters.

Sorry I missed this post, something! I actually have a short story regarding parasites in the anthology in my signature. Unfortunately, it's not available solo, but it is a good anthology.

There are parasites (usually a hostile invasion) and symbiotes (usually a mutual agreement where the symbiote and host cooperate).

Which are you primarily interested in?

You might try this Kelly Robson story in Clarkesworld, "The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill":

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/robson_02_15/

There is another Clarkesworld horror story about parasitic relationships which I can't for the life of me remember. But it had a great line "and then he entered her" which has stuck with me, because it was such a play on bad sex scenes married with the vision of actually "entering" a person's body. (Shivers!!)

Pompilid by Nghi Vo is about an invertebrate being eaten by a parasite. http://www.unlikely-story.com/stories/pompilid-by-nghi-vo/

Well, all I can say is, I'm itching to hear more

something said:

I think the kernel of my current story's idea is something to do with parasitical relationships. Just wondering if there's any stories that people know of that deal with this issue, be it literally, metaphorically etc. Thanks!

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The titular short story of Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild deals with parasites both literally and metaphorically in fascinating ways. Several of the other stories in that collection tackle adjacent themes. It’s really a tremendous collection. Highly recommended.

Not a short story, but you could read the first part of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion as a kind of novella directly on point here as well.

Here are some articles referencing a number of well-known treatments of parasitism in spec fic:

http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/parasitism_and_symbiosis
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/novakova_10_18/

If you’re willing to branch out to visual media, Junji Ito’s tremendous horror manga stories deal with parasitism pretty extensively. Most — even the series — can be read in a single sitting, much like a short story.