Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice takes on a whole new meaning when viewed as a metaphor for mankind’s uncovering of knowledges such as organic chemistry and particle physics - real world magic and alchemy - which started a chain reaction of unforseen hazards we still can’t close the flood gates to.
To truly grasp the horror of the story, you have to understand the context of early 19th century Europe; people had just began dabbling in more complex chemistry: for every one new discovery that was helpful, there were 20 more that were poisonous and corrosive. The history books will tell you the names of a few famous chemists and their discoveries, but what they don’t tell you is there was several generations of thousands of people blowing themselves up, giving themselves irreversible brain damage, and suffering from chemical exposure that destroyed living tissue in horrific ways no one knew existed and which weren’t explained until well into the 20th century. Sorcery would seem to be more alive and real than science, especially seeing as how we’re all still trucking down the rabbit hole, every answer unearthing 5 more questions.