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A group of former college students meet at a reunion twenty years after graduation and discuss their achievements. One of the ex-students, now an animal behaviorist, is tormented by his ability to read the thoughts of his former friends in their small behavioral tics and gestures. He reflects on his
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researcher, fights off the flies that continually crowd around him. Unbeknownst to all but the behaviorist, the flies' behavior is caused by their belief that he is
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The reference is to the lines "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods,— they kill us for their sport."
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life and research, as well as the pain it has brought him, while one of his friends, a
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Works originally published in The
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
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111:Asimov, Isaac (1969). "Preface to "Flies"".
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37:Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
138:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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306:What Is This Thing Called Love?
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371:Science fiction short stories
356:Short stories by Isaac Asimov
313:The Machine That Won the War
184:Nightfall and Other Stories
115:Nightfall and Other Stories
43:Nightfall and Other Stories
16:Short story by Isaac Asimov
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299:Unto the Fourth Generation
271:It's Such a Beautiful Day
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292:The Up-to-Date Sorcerer
285:Insert Knob A in Hole B
222:Breeds There a Man...?
327:Eyes Do More Than See
320:My Son, the Physicist
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264:Nobody Here But—
236:In a Good Cause—
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46:(1969).
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