Daniel Keyes-Flowers For Algernon

-Apologies for the absence Constant Readers! I had the flu and had to take a few days off!-

In the world of reviewing literary fiction, genre fiction is often pushed to the wayside as not being highbrow. Flowers for Algernon, a 1966 novel by Daniel Keyes, expanded from his short story of the same name, is an exception to this rule. Flowers for Algernon is not the first science fiction story I have reviewed, and I find this elitist divide between literary fiction and genre fiction to be asinine. Flowers for Algernon was first published in the 1959 issue of "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science", and won the Hugo award 1960. Expanded into a novel in 1966, it was the joint winner for that year's Nebula Award for Best Novel. It deals with Algernon, a mouse given a surgery to give it super intelligence, and the same procedure given to a man named Charlie Gordon. Charlie Gordon is mentally disabled, and the novel touches often on the themes of societal acceptance of the disabled. This book was on the 100 most challenged books at number 43. Reasons given are not for it's portrayal of the mentally disabled, but because of scenes where Charlie explores his sexuality as he gains intelligence. Nothing scares America more than a vagina, or maybe communism. A communist vagina.

Daniel Keyes himself was born in New York City to a Jewish family in 1927. He attended New York University before joining the United States Maritime Service. He returned in 1950 and obtained his Bachelor's of Psychology from Brooklyn College. In the perfect example of "it's a small world after all", this happened. A month after graduation, Keyes joined publisher Martin Goodman's magazine company, Magazine Management. He eventually became an editor of their pulp magazine Marvel Science Stories (from Nov. 1950 – May 1952) after editor Robert O. Erisman, and began writing for the company's comic book lines Atlas Comics, the 1950s precursors of Marvel Comics. After Goodman began to focus on men's adventure books and paperbacks, Keyes became an associate editor at Atlas Comics, under none other than the legendary Stan Lee as his editor-in-chief. After Marvel Science Stories folded, Goodman offered Keyes a job under Lee. To quote Keyes;

"Since my $17.25-a-month rent was almost due, I accepted what I considered a detour on my journey toward a literary career. Stan Lee ... let his editors deal with the scriptwriters, cartoonists, and lettering crew. Writers turned in plot synopses, Stan read them, and as a matter of course, would accept one or two from each of the regulars he referred to as his "stable." As one of his front men, I would pass along comments and criticism. ... Because of my experience editing Marvel and because I'd sold a few science fiction stories by then, Stan allowed me to specialize in the horror, fantasy, suspense, and science fiction comic books. Naturally, I began submitting story ideas, getting freelance assignment, and supplementing my salary by writing scripts on my own time."

One story idea that Keyes came up with did not go to Lee for consideration. This piece was called "Brainstorm" and would go on to become the novel "Flowers for Algernon". The synopsis read ""The first guy in the test to raise the I.Q. from a low normal 90 to genius level ... He goes through the experience and then is thrown back to what was." Keyes thought the idea did not fit a comic book format. A favorite thing for me is the prose. At the beginning of the novel, Keyes writes in broken sentences and misspelled words. As Charlie's mental faculties improve so does the prose. Once he begins to regress and lose himself the prose returns to its original broken form. While this can be distracting for some it's a stylistic choice I really enjoy and really immerses you into what Charlie has to gain and is missing.

Flowers for Algernon follows the first human patient of an experiment to increase intelligence. The procedure was previously given to a mouse named Algernon. We follow this man, named Charlie Gordon, as the procedure changes him and his relationships with his peers. Charlie, whose previous co-workers at his job at a bakery used to mock and tease him for his low intelligence now fear and shun him out of envy and have his boss fire him. He confronts the scientists behind the experiment, saying that they did not see him a human before the procedure, as just another lab rat. Through the novel, Charlie is charged with writing up progress reports of Algernon, the mouse given the surgery before him. He notes a flaw in the operation, one that could cost him his new gifts. His theory is broken true as Algernon breaks down and slowly dies. Facing this fact, Charlie does his best to mend his broken relationships with his friends and family before he fully regresses. He manages to succeed with his sister Norma who hated him before his operation, but tragically finds his mother who wanted him institutionalized a dementia victim who only recognizes him once. His father who had cut ties to the family does not recognize him at all. As Charlie slowly regresses completely he remembers only that he used to be a genius, and intolerant of the pity of his circles decides to move into a State Home for the mentally disabled. He leaves instructions to leave flowers on the grave of Algernon in the postscript of his writings.

Flowers for Algernon is a masterpiece for how it handles the subject matter it does and for several other reasons. It shows the societal dismissal of those not considered "nuerotypical" and even with his newfound intelligence makes it clear Charlie is a victim to a system he cannot control. Charlie is now intelligent enough to realize the people using them for their own gain, and his only true friend through the novel is his teacher Alice Kinnian. Kinnian put him up for suggestion on the procedure based on his desire to change and learn. Through the novel Charlie works through his issues with his mother and her abuse to fall in love with Alice, and it's all the more tragic as he regresses and forgets everything about their relationship. Flowers for Algernon shows not only the darker side of society's obsession with intelligence, but the darker side of consciousness as a whole. It is said that there are things worse than death. As you see Charlie struggle and fight to maintain what he's earned, to have his happy ending, you are hostage and witness to a man who's mind is literally falling apart. In a twisted parallel to both Algernon the mouse, as Charlie is seen by his mentors and arguably himself, and his dementia ridden abusive mother. She who had scorned him for his mental faculties is herself prisoner to her own deteriorating mind. It's one thing to lose everything. It's another kind of existential fear to be fully aware of what's missing.