Spider and neuron

Spider and neuron

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on”, said Shakespeare. Dreams and nightmares. Childhood fears. Monsters lurking in the shadows, in the dark, ready to leap out. What though? A spider, or the Kraken rising up from the abyss? No, this is a nerve cell, one of the brain cells, with extensions that allow it to communicate with so very many other brain cells and the body, spinning an immense web that propels forth our dreams and our fears.

Another brain cell? Or rather of a spider evoking our childhood fears? A spider on the ceiling? Yes, but this one is animated by both tenderness and malice: this is  L’araignée souriante (The smiling spider), by the painter Odilon Redon.