I'm Climbing Up Those Walls Again

I'm sitting here, typing away in the small hours of the night again, so I can tell you about this book I've been reading over the past week. There's a good chances you've seen a movie based on it, called Charly, possibly in school.

The book is called Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, and although I'm only half-way through it, I've already been very very touched by it. It's not easy for a guy to say something a soppily sentimental as 'I was touched by it' but there is no other way to describe my incredible feeling for this book. For those of you not familiar, I'll tell you a bit about it.

The book is presented in diary form. We follow the life of Charlie Gordon, a 31 year old retarded man, who is to undergo an experimental surgical procedure that will attempt to enhance his intelligence. The first few chapters are a little hard to read, as Charlie is really just a child in an adult's body, and so the reader must suffer through atrocious spelling and simpleton thoughts.

Before he undergoes the procedure, Charlie races a mouse called Algernon in a maze puzzle (this is all part of the experiment) and loses quite badly. It is revealed that Algernon underwent the same procedure, and now is a lot brighter than the average mouse.

Finally Charlie follows in Algernon's footsteps and has the procedure done. It takes quite a while for the effects to be notice, but bit by bit Charlie actually begins to learn for the first time. As he reaches average intelligence, his writings and thoughts processes get better, and he is excited. As he begins to exceed average intelligence, he begins to realize how much he's been taken advantage over all his life, and how people viewed him as a retarded man. He also begins to remember his childhood, which was far from happy.

As more time passes, Charlie moves from the ranks of the intellectual to the solitude of the genius. He is as alone at the top of the smarts ladder as he was at the bottom. The huge intellectual change conflicts with the emotional change that must follow.

Then, something foreboding happens. Charlie's friend, the mouse Algernon, begins to lose his intelligence, and eventually fades to normality, and dies. Must Charlie be forced to endure the same fate, to watch everything that he has now become crumble to dust?

The book puts you right into the mind of Charlie, and you certainly find yourself feeling for him. For me, it's a personal story I can relate to.  I was convinced as a child that I was slow, despite the fact that everyone told me otherwise. I've seen realized that I must be fairly bright if I've lasted this far, but it took a while for me to be completely convinced.

All my life I've felt my intellect growing. As I broke out of middle school into high school, I felt new ideas popping into my head almost every day. They all seemed like grand and amazing epiphanies. This continued until it eventually leveled out sometime within the first year of college. Since then, as I've stopped growing, I no longer feel that open space in the back of my mind, waiting to be filled with more knowledge. I can no longer sit here and say, "I'll understand this eventually, because eventually I'll be older and smarter." I'll definitely be wiser as years pass me, but I'll never be smarter. This plateau that we all his around this age is scary as hell, and I understand how scared Charlie would have been when he realized he couldn't go up any further.

At least I don't have to come back down, right? Well, our family does have a slight history of Alzheimer’s, which, to me, is the scariest disease for an old person to forget. Someday, will I have to sit there and watch my world slowly vanish from my perception? Will I have to watch my mind drain away, as I become a  dumbed-down individual? It's scary as hell, although not something I usually think about. Flowers for Algernon brings these questions back to mind.

It really is a lovely story, and although it is classified as science-fiction, it's not at all like a typical sci-fi book. I'm looking forward to renting the movie, Charly, after I've finished this great book.