#148 Out of the darkness: Flowers for Algernon (1966) by Daniel Keyes

Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction classic which crossed over into the mainstream. Originally published in novel form in 1966, Daniel Keyes' only fully-fledged SF book not only won a Nebula, but was adapted to film, and frequently appeared on school curricula. It has even been called "arguably the most popular SF novel ever published".  Welcome to a landmark story of intelligence, compassion, and what it means to be a good person.

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Transcript

In 2000, the US author Daniel Keyes was given the Author Emeritus award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Unusually, this honour was given largely on the strength of just one piece of work - his landmark novel Flowers for Algernon (1966). Rooted in Keyes’ experiences as a high school teacher, it crossed over into the mainstream, becoming a fixture of school curricula and being adapted for film.

Set in New York City, the novel focuses on Charlie Gordon, a young man with a mental disability who works in a bakery. He is recruited by a group of scientists as a test subject for an experimental treatment which hugely, and rapidly, increases his intelligence. Charlie’s worldview and relationship with others is radically altered as he becomes a knowledgeable genius. But when the previous test subject - a mouse named Algernon - quickly declines, Charlie must reckon with the possibility that his transformation is temporary.

Famously moving, Flowers for Algernon is a genuinely profound classic of 1960s science fiction which explores intriguingly the concepts of intelligence, compassion, and what it means to be a good person. 

The genesis and legacy of Flowers for Algernon

In 1957, Keyes (1927 - 2014) was teaching English to students with disabilities when one of them asked if, by working hard and “becoming smart”, they could hope to be moved into a mainstream class. This incident helped to crystallise an idea Keyes had years earlier, a tragic story in which a person gains - and then loses - enhanced intelligence. During his time working for Marvel Comics, Keyes considered submitting the concept to Stan Lee, but it finally saw print as a short story in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (or F&SF). It earned Keyes the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. 

Keyes expanded the story into the novel, which was first published in 1966 and won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1967. Flowers for Algernon has been adapted to film multiple times, regularly appeared on school curricula, and has been called “arguably the most popular SF novel ever published”. Keyes wrote only a handful of other books, most notably the non-fiction The Minds of Billy Milligan (1981), but his place in SF history is assured.

Meeting Charlie Gordon

Flowers for Algernon has a straightforward story, and much of its excellence comes not from what happens but rather how the tale is told. It is written in first person, chiefly as a series of progress reports written by Charlie. Keyes has the style, spelling, and complexity of these reports reflect Charlie’s changing mental state. This clever move means that the novel’s style helps to drive home both the novel’s plot, and its tremendous emotional impact.

When the novel opens, Charlie is undergoing assessment to establish whether he is a good candidate for the experimental procedure. He is confused by the “raw shock” tests he is shown, but excited by the possibility of becoming more intelligent. His colleagues at the bakery mock and exploit him, but he genuinely cares for them and sees them as friends. Following the operation, Charlie is at first slow to change but then his mental capabilities escalate rapidly. 

Charlie overtakes his colleagues, tutors, the scientists, and then the foremost experts in various fields. He becomes possibly the most intelligent person alive, and hungers for esoteric knowledge of all kinds. However, he struggles with his relationships with others, particularly women, and bridles at his treatment by the scientists as an experimental subject, not a human being. When he realises that the mouse Algernon is declining in intelligence, Charlie begins to prepare to descend from the light of intelligence back into the darkness of his mental disability.

Intelligence and compassion

Keyes’ achievement with Flowers for Algernon is that it is a science fiction novel which is powerful on both intellectual and emotional levels. This is apt, given that intellect and emotion, thought and feeling, are its subjects. One of Keyes’ premises is that intelligence does not make someone a good person. Charlie’s scientific overseers are intelligent men, but they too often treat him not as a human being, but as an object. After his intellect is enhanced, Charlie himself is often dismissive of others, and callous to those he considers inferior. 

It is often the women in Charlie’s life who try to teach him that his kindness is his best quality - a quality he possessed before he was experimented upon. One of the tragedies of the novel is that he realises too late that intelligence without compassion is of little real value in itself, and cannot lead to happiness. As writer Joanne Harris has put it, the novel’s message is one of “love over knowledge; of hopefulness over achievement; of compassion over intelligence. These [...] are the things that make us human”.

Progress and ego

The novel also reflects an abiding theme in science fiction, the desire to fix or perfect human beings. The scientists who experiment on Charlie see him as a vanguard, the first of millions to benefit from a “normal” intelligence and view of the world. But this apparently noble desire is complicated by Charlie’s experiences. He finds that the scientists are at least as concerned with their own ego and professional advancement as they are with scientific or social progress. 

Without understanding how or why, Charlie’s capacity to love and be compassionate is also compromised by his treatment. With their knowledge of him limited to written progress reports, the scientists cannot understand what they have taken from Charlie, only what they have given to him. Their world is one of measurements and IQ tests, of things they can test and quantify. It may be that Charlie’s personal tragedy could be a good thing for society, if it dissuades scientists from trying to meddle with what makes us human.

Keyes’ message seems to be that rather than trying to perfect people, we should instead care for and value them as they are - celebrating rather than trying to “correct” what makes them different.

A deserving classic

There is too much going on in Flowers for Algernon to discuss in depth here. It touches movingly on human relationships, the treatment of people with disability, scientific ethics, and Charlie’s series of conceptual breakthroughs as his intelligence rises. At its core, the novel is as David Pringle describes it: “a narrative tour-de-force, very moving, beautiful and remorseless in its simple logic”. This is the kind of classic science fiction to which the genre should aspire - entertaining and profound, appealing and troubling, and consistently memorable in its intellectual and emotional effect.