#the physicists

(I'm going to refrain from ranting about how catastrophically my former teacher misunderstood this play; because this is the only school reading I ever did voluntarily, and I still like it.)

If dry, dialogue-based comedy is your thing, give this play a shot? It's a very interesting time capsule, theme- and setting-wise, of the Atomic Age circa 1960. You just have to be okay with a bit of bleak absurdism. Also, maybe read his essay "Modell Scott" as a companion piece, I found it insightful.

Aging is a very interesting thing, for art. The Physicists speaks of science corrupted, not by its methods, not by its own, noble aims taken down sinister paths, but by what conventional power might, can, and will do with it. It is patently obvious how scared the play is of the atom bomb, drawing from it the lesson that scientific advancement may have reached, if not already overshot, the limit of what humanity can handle, and that science will need to be reigned in and restricted in the future, in order to prevent bigger disaster.

Which, you know, is an understandable conclusion to reach from two levelled cities. And I guess I just never thought about how that conclusion has aged... not in terms of good or bad, mind you, but in terms of... how has the popular image of a good scientist changed since then, and why?

Today's art and pop culture often depicts science as (part of) the solution to countless global crises, something that isn't listened to enough, something that should be heeded by the powers that mostly ignore it, and provided with resources and the independence to do the right and noble thing (which is science). And that has grounding in reality, too - in anti-vaxxers and mask protests, in climate change denial and terfism, aka people who ignore science and make up their own reality.

Hell, 1961 was pre moon landing... Maybe The Physicists' idea has always been temporary. Or maybe we have gotten used to nuclear power and now can no longer imagine what other horrible, weaponizable thing science could discover.