As usual, Shakespeare nails it.
Three allusions in a dozen words.
“As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods, They kill us for their sport.”
As I was thinking through some of the implications of some dramatic scientific research these words from King Lear slipped back into view.
Shakespeare compresses into one sentence the anxiety that we don’t matter to the powers that be; that clever experimentation may not be carried out with the highest ethics. Since this is King Lear, we find it hard to tell the difference between power and love.
