FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON: A Science Fiction Masterpiece That Still Makes Readers Cry

Charlie Gordon has an IQ of 68 and wants nothing more than to be smart. When scientists offer him an experimental surgery that has already transformed a laboratory mouse named Algernon into a genius, Charlie sees his chance—but becoming intelligent means finally understanding the cruel truth about the world around him.

Support our Halloween “Overcoming the Darkness” campaign to help people with depression: https://weirddarkness.com/HOPE

IN THIS EPISODE: The short story by Daniel Keyes, “Flowers for Algernon” became so popular it was later turned into a full novel, and then eventually made its way to movie screens. The short story was written in 1958 and first published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and was so loved that it won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960.

SOURCES:
BOOK: “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964”, https://amzn.to/3SePNlh
=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: October 12, 2023
EPISODE PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/FlowersForAlgernon
ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
#WeirdDarkness #FlowersForAlgernon #ClassicSciFi #ScienceFiction #DanielKeyes #AudioDrama #SciFiStory #LiteraryFiction #HeartbreakingStory #ClassicLiterature

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore,
the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Tonight.
It's the short story by Daniel keyes Flowers for Algernon

(00:31):
that became so popular it was later turned into a
full novel and then eventually made its way to movie screens.
The short story was written in nineteen fifty eight and
first published in the April nineteen fifty nine issue of
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and was so
loved that it won the Hugo Award for Best Short
Story in nineteen sixty. Algernon is a laboratory mouse who

(00:54):
has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence. The story is
told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon,
the first human subject for the surgery, and it touches
on ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of
the mentally disabled. Although the book has been challenged for
removal from libraries in the United States and Canada, sometimes successfully,

(01:18):
it's frequently taught in schools around the world and has
been adapted many times for television, theater, radio, and as
the Academy Award winning film Charlie. Honestly, I don't see
any reason this should be banned anywhere. It's brilliantly written,
and aside from one off color word used to describe Caucasians,
which may bother some people, I personally don't find anything

(01:41):
offensive in it. I'll admit I did find it challenging
to bring some of the areas of the book into
audio form, especially with the intentionally misspelled words, but hopefully
the slower reading and more lazy pronunciation I used in
those sections helps to convey that message. And when Charley
begins using punctuay, I do, for a very short moment

(02:02):
read the punctuation marks as well as it was the
only way I could think of to make it known
what was being written. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows,
turn off your lights, and come with me into the
weird darkness. Rog Riss Report, one March five, nineteen sixty five.

(02:35):
Doctor Strauss says I should write down what I think
and everything that happens to me from now on. I
don't know why, but he says it's important, so they'll
see if they will use me. I hope they use me.

(02:57):
Miss Kennyon says, maybe they can make me smart. I
want to be smart. My name is Charlie Gordon. I'm
thirty seven years old and two weeks ago was my birthday.
I have nothing more to write now, so I will
close for today Progress report to March six. I had

(03:26):
a test today. I think I failed it, and I
think it maybe now that won't use me. What happened
is a nice young man was in the room. He
had some white cards with ink spilled all over him.
He said, Charlie, what do you see on this card?

(03:47):
I was very scared, even though I have my rabbit's
foot in my pocket, because when I was a kid,
I always failed tests in school and I spilled ink too.
I told him I saw an ink block. He said
yes and made me feel good. I thought that was all,

(04:09):
but when I got up to go, he stopped me.
He said, now sit down, Charlie, we're not through yet.
Then I don't remember so good, but he wanted me
to say what was in the ink. I didn't see
nothing in the ink, but he said there was pictures there.

(04:33):
Other people saw some pictures. I couldn't see any pictures.
I really tried to see. I held the car close
up and then far away, and I said, if I
had my glasses, I could see better. They usually only
wear my glasses in the movies or TV. But I

(04:56):
said there in the closet in the hall got him.
Then I said, let me see that card again. I
bet i'll find it now. I tried hard, but I
still couldn't find the pictures. I only saw the ink.
I told him, maybe I need new glasses. He wrote

(05:18):
something down on a paper, and I got scared of
failing the test. I told him it was a very
nice ink blot with little points all around the edges.
You looked very sad, so that wasn't it. I said,
please let me try again. I'll get it in a

(05:39):
few minutes. Because I'm not so fast. Sometimes i'm slow
reader too in Miss Kenyon's class for slow adults. But
I'm trying very hard. Gave me a chance with another
card that had two kinds of ink spilled on it,
red and blue. He was very nice, talked slow like

(06:04):
Miss Kennyan does, and he explained it to me that
it was a raw shock. He said, people see things
in the ink. I said, show me where he said, think.
I told him I think an ink block. But that

(06:26):
wasn't right either. He said, what does it remind you?
Pretend something? I closed my eyes for a long time
to pretend. I told him I pretended a fountain pen
with ink leaking all over a tablecloth. And he got
up and went out. I don't think I passed the

(06:50):
raw shock test Progress report three March seven. Doctor Strauss
and doctor Neimer say it don't matter about the ink blots.
I told him I didn't spill the ink on the
cards and I couldn't see anything in the ink. They

(07:14):
said that maybe they will still use me. I said,
Miss kennyon never gave me tests like that one only
spelling and reading. They said, Miss kenny and told that
I was her bestest pupil in the adult not school
because I tried the hardest and I really wanted to learn.

(07:38):
They said, how come you went to the adult not
school or by yourself, Charlie, How did you find it?
I said, I asked people, and somebody told me where
I should go to learn to read and spell good.
They said, why did you want to? I told him

(07:59):
because all my life I wanted to be smart and
not dumb, but it's very hard to be smart. They said,
you know it would probably be temporary. I said, yes,
miss Kenny, and told me I don't care if it
hurts later. I have more crazy tests today. The nice

(08:26):
lady who gave it me told me the name, and
I asked her how do you spell it? So I
could write it in my progress report. Thematic I perception test.
I don't know the first two words, but I know

(08:46):
what test means. You got to pass it or you
get bad marks. This test looked easy because I could
see the pictures. Only this time. She didn't want me
to tell her the pictures that mixed me up. I said,
man yesterday, said I should tell him what I saw

(09:09):
in the ink. She said that don't make no difference.
She said, make up stories about the people in the pictures.
I told her, how can you tell stories about people
you never met? I said, why should I make up lies?

(09:29):
I never tell lies anymore because I always get caught.
She told me this test and the other one, the
raw shock, was forgetting personality. I laughed so hard. I said,
how can you get thing from ink blots and photos?

(09:50):
She got sore, put her pictures away. I don't care.
It was silly. I guess I failed that test too. Later,
some man in white coats took me into a different
partner of the hospital gave me a game to play.
It was like a race with a white mouse. They

(10:13):
called the mouse at Algernon. Algernon was in a box
with a lot of twists and turns, like all kinds
of walls. And they gave me a pencil and a
paper with lines and lots of boxes. One I said start,

(10:37):
On the other end it said finish. They said it
was amazed that Algernon and me had the same amazed
to do. I didn't see how we could have the
same amazed if Algernon had a box and I had paper,
But I didn't say nothing. Anyway, there wasn't time because

(11:03):
the race started. One of the men had a watch.
He was trying to hide so I wouldn't see it,
so tried not to look. And that may be nervous. Anyway.
That test made me feel worser than all the others
because they did it over ten times with different amazes,

(11:27):
and Algernon won every time. I didn't know the mice
was so smart. Maybe that's because Algernon's a white mouse,
maybe white mice or smarter than other mice. Progress report
for March eighth. They're going to use me. I'm so

(11:52):
excited I can hardly write. Doctor Neimur and doctor Strauss
had an argument about it. First. Doctor Niemer was in
the office when Doctor Strauss brought me in. Doctor Neimer
was worried about using me, but Dr Strauss told him

(12:12):
Miss Kennyan recommended me the best from all the people
who was teaching. I like Miss Kennyan, and she's a
very smart teacher. And she said, Charlie, you're going to
have a second chance. If you volunteer for this experiment,

(12:32):
you might get smart. They don't know if it'll be permanent,
but there's a chance. That's why I said okay. Even
when I was scared because she said it was an operation,
she said, don't be scared, Charlie, you done so much,
was so little. I think you deserve it most of all.

(12:57):
So I got scared. When doctor Neimer and Dr Strauss
are good about it. Doctor Strauss said I had something
that was very good. He said I had a good motivation.
I never even knew I had that. I felt proud

(13:19):
when he said that, not everybody with an IQ of
sixty eight had that thing. I don't know what it
is or where I got it, but he said Algernon
had it too. Algernon's motivation is the cheese they put
in his box. But it can't be that because I

(13:41):
didn't eat any cheese this week. And he told Doctor
Nemur something I didn't understand. So while they were talking,
I wrote down some of the words. He said, Doctor Neimer,
I know, Charlie is not what you had in mind
as the first of your new breed of intellect. Couldn't

(14:07):
get the word superman. But most people of his lowment
our hosts and uncoop. They're usually dull, up path and
hard to reach. He has a good nature. He's in

(14:28):
arrested and eager to please. Doctor Neimur said, Remember, he'll
be the first human being ever to have his intelligence
tripled by surgical means. Doctor Strauss said, exactly, Look how

(14:50):
well he's learned to read and write for his low
mental age. It's as great and achiever as you and
I learning. I Ensteam's theory of the vitty with help
without help. That shows the intense motivation it's compared to

(15:19):
tremend to achieve. I say, we used Charlie. I didn't
gall the words. They were talking too fast, but sounded
like doctor Strauss was on my side and like the
other one wasn't. Then doctor Niemer nodded. He said, all right,

(15:42):
maybe you're right. We'll use Charlie. He said that. I
got so excited I jumped up and shook his hand
from being so good to me. I told him, thank you, Docy.
You won't be sorry forgiving me a chance. And I

(16:02):
mean it, like I told him after the operation, I'm
gonna try to be smart. I'm gonna try awful hard
progress ripped five March tenth. I'm scared. Lots of people
who work here, and the nurses and the people who

(16:25):
gave me the tests came to bring me candy and
wished me luck. I hope I have luck. I got
my rabbit's foot and my lucky penny and my horseshoe.
The only black cat crossed me when I was coming
to the hospital. Doctor Strauss says, don't be super cittis Charlie.

(16:49):
This is signs anyway, I'm keeping my rabbit's foot with me.
I asked doctor Strauss if i'll beat Aldrin on in
the race. After the operation, he said, maybe if the
operation works, I'll show that mouse I can be as

(17:12):
smart as he is, maybe smarter. Then I'll be able
to read better and spell the words good and no
liss of things, be like other people. I want to
be smart like other people. If works permanent, they'll they'll

(17:34):
make everybody smart all over the world. They didn't give
me anything to eat this morning. I don't know what
that eating has to do with getting smart. I'm very hungry.
Doctor Neimer took away my box of candy. Doctor Niemer

(17:54):
is a grouch. Dr Strauss says I can have it
back after the operation. He can't eat. For Operation Progress
report six March fifteen. The operation didn't hurt. He did

(18:15):
it while I was sleeping. It took off the bandages
from my eyes and my head today, so I can
make a progress report. Doctor Neiemur, who looked at some
of my other ones, said I'd spell progress wrong, and
he told me how to spell it and report too.

(18:36):
I gotta try and remember that I have a very
bad memory for spelling. Doctor Strauss says it's okay to
tell about all the things that happened to me, but
he says I should tell more about what I feel
and what I think. But I told him I don't
know how to think. He said, try all the time

(19:02):
when the bandages are on my eyes. I tried to think.
Nothing happened. I don't know what to think about. Maybe
if I ask him, he'll tell me how I can think.
Now that I'm supposed to get smart. Oh do smart
people think about fancy things? I suppose I wish I

(19:27):
knew some fancy things already. Progress Report, seven March nineteen.
Nothing is happening. I had a lot of tests and
different kinds of races with Aldronon. I hate that mouse.
He always beats me. Doctor Strauss said I gotta play

(19:51):
those games, and he said sometime I gotta take those
tests over again. Those ink lots are stupid, and those
pictures are stupid too. I like to draw a picture
of a man and a woman, but I won't make
up lies about people. They got a headache from trying

(20:14):
to think so much. I thought doctor Strauss was my friend,
but he don't help me. He don't tell me what
to think or when I'll get smart. Miss Kennyan didn't
come to see me. I think writing these Progress reports
are stupid too. Progress Report eight March twenty third. I'm

(20:41):
going back to work at the factory. They said it
was better. I should go back to work, but I
can't tell anyone what the operation was for, and I
have to come to the hospital for an hour every
night after work. They're gonna pay me money every month
for learning to be smart. I'm glad I'm going back

(21:04):
to work because I miss my job and all my
friends and all the fun we have there. Doctor Strauss
says I should keep writing things down, but I don't
have to do it every day. Just when I think
of something or something special happens. He says. Don't get
discouraged because it takes time and it happens slow. He

(21:31):
says it took a long time with Algernon before he
got three times smarter than he was before. That's why
Algernon beats me all the time, because he had that
operation too. That makes me feel better. I could probably
do that amazed faster than a regular mouse. Maybe someday

(21:56):
I'll beat Algernon poor. That would be something. So far,
Algronon looks like he might be smart. Permanent March twenty five.
I don't have to write progress report on top anymore.
Just when I handed in once a week for doctor

(22:18):
Niemer to read, I just have to put the date on.
That saves time. We had a lot of fun at
the factory today. Joe Carp said, Hey, look where Charlie
had his operation. What they do Charlie put some brains in?

(22:38):
I was gonna tell him, but I remember Doctor Strauss
said no. Then Frank Riley said, what'd you do, Charlie?
Forget your key and open your door the hard way.
That made me laugh. They're really my friends when they
like me. Sometimes somebody'll say, hey, look at Joe or

(23:03):
Frank or George. He really pulled a Charlie Gordon. I
don't know why they say that, but they always laugh.
This morning, names Borg, who is the fore man at Donagan's,
used my name when he shouted at Ernie, the office boy.

(23:26):
Ernie lost a package. He said, Ernie, for God's sake,
what are you trying to do? Be a Charlie Gordon.
I don't understand why I said that. I never lost
any packages. March twenty eight, Doctor Strauss came to my

(23:49):
room tonight to see why didn't come in like Gouy's
supposed to. I told him I don't like to race
with Algernon anymore. He said, I don't have to for
a while, but I should come in. He had a
present for me, only it wasn't a present, but just
for land. I thought it was a little television, but

(24:12):
it wasn't. He I got to turn it on when
I go to sleep. I said, you're kidding. Why should
I turn it on when I'm going to sleep? Whoever
heard of a thing like that? But he said, if
I want to get smart, I gotta do what he says.
I told him I don't think guy's gonna get smart,

(24:34):
and he put his hand on my shoulder and said, Charlie,
you don't know it yet, but you're getting smarter all
the time. You won't notice for a while. I think
he is just being nice to make me feel good
because I don't look any smarter. Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

(24:56):
I asked him when I can go back to the
class Miss Kenyan's school. He said I won't go there.
He said that soon Miss Kennyan will come to the
hospital start and teach me special. I was mad at
her for not coming to see me when I got
the operation, but I like her so maybe we will

(25:21):
be friends again. March twenty nine. That crazy TV kept
me up all night? How can I sleep with something
yelling crazy things all night in my ears? And the
nutty pictures? Wow, I don't know what it says when

(25:43):
I'm up, So how am I gonna know when I'm sleeping?
Doctor Strauss says it's okay. He says, my brain's are
learning when I sleep, and that will helped me. When
Miss Kenyan starts my lessons in the hospital. I found
out it isn't a hospital, it's a laboratory. I think

(26:06):
it's all crazy. If you can get smart when you're sleeping,
why do people go to school? That thing I don't
think will work. I used to watch The Late Show
and The Late Late Show on TV all the time,
and it never made me smart. Maybe you have to

(26:26):
sleep while you watch it. Progress Report nine April thirteen.
Doctor Strauss showed me how to keep the TV turned low,
so now I can sleep. I don't hear a thing,
and I still don't understand what it says. A few

(26:49):
times I play it over in the morning to find
out what I learned when I was sleeping, and I
don't think so. Miss Kennyan says, maybe it's another language
or something. Most times as sounds American. It talks so fast,

(27:09):
faster than you have missed gold who us my teacher
in sixth grade, and I remember she talked so fast
I couldn't understand her. I told doctor Strauss, what good
is it to get smart in my sleep? I want
to be smart when I'm awake. He says, it's the
same thing. And I have two minds. There's the subconscious

(27:34):
and the conscious that's hate spell it, and one don't
tell the other one what it's doing. They don't even
talk to each other. That's why I dream. And boy,
if I've been having crazy dreams. Wow. Ever since that

(27:55):
night TV Late Late, late, late late show, I forgot
to ask him if it was only me or if
everybody had those two minds. I just looked up the
word in the dictionary doctor Strauss gave me. The word
is subconscious ad a dj of the nature of mental operations,

(28:23):
yet not present in consciousness as subconscious conflict a conflict
of desires. There's more, but I still don't know what
it means. This isn't a very good dictionary for dumb
people like me, anyway, the headache is from the party.

(28:45):
My friends from the factory, Joe Carp and Frank Riley,
invited me to go with him to Muggi's saloon for
some drinks. I don't like to drink, but they said
we'll have a lot of fun. I had a good time.
Joe Carp said I should show the girls how I
mop out the toilet and the factory, and it got

(29:05):
me a mop. I showed him and everyone laughed. When
I told that, Mister Donnogan said I was the best
janitor he ever had because I like my job and
do it good and never come late or miss a
day except for my operation. I said. Miss Kenyon always said, Charlie,

(29:26):
be proud of your job because you do it good.
Everybody laughed. We had a good time and they gave
me lots of drinks, and Joe said Charlie is a
card when he's potted. I don't know what that means,
but everybody likes me and we have fun. I can't

(29:46):
wait to be smart like my best friends Joe Carp
and Frank Riley. I don't remember how the party was over,
but I think I went out to buy a newspaper
and coffee. For Joe and Frank. When I came back,
there was no one there. I looked for them all

(30:06):
over till late then. I don't remember so good, but
I think I got sleepy or sick. A nice cop
brought me back home. That's what my landlady, missus Flynn says.
But I got a headache and a big lump on
my head and black and blue all over. I think

(30:29):
maybe I fell, but Joe Carp says it was the cop.
They beat up drunks sometimes. I don't think so. Ms
Kenyon says cops are to help people. Anyway, I got
bad headache and I'm sick and hurt all over. I
don't think i'll drink anymore. April sixth I beat Algernon.

(30:57):
I didn't even know I beat him until Bert the
tester told me. And the second time I lost because
I got so excited I fell off the chair before
I finished. But after that I beat him eight more times.
I must be getting smart to beat a smart mouse
like Algernon, and I don't feel smarter. I wanted to

(31:22):
race Algernon some more, but Bert said that that's enough
for one day. They let me hold him for a minute.
It's not so bad. He soft like a ball of cotton.
He blinks and when he opens his eyes they're black
and pink on the edges. I said, can I feed him?

(31:43):
Because I felt bad to beat him and I wanted
to be nice and make friends. Bert said no. Algronon
is a very special mouse with an operation like mine,
and he was the first of all the animals to
stay smart so long. He told me, Algernon is so

(32:03):
smart that every day he has to solve a test
to get his food. It's a thing like a lock
on a door that changes every time Algernon goes in
to eat, so he has to learn something new to
get his food. That made me sad, because if he

(32:23):
couldn't learn, he'd be hungry. I don't think it's right
to make you pass a test to eat. How doctor
Neimer like it to have to pass a test every
time he wants to eat. I think I'll be friends
with Algernon. April nine, Tonight, after work, Miss Kenyon was

(32:47):
at the laboratory. She looked like she was glad to
see me, but scared. I told her, don't worry, miss Kenyan,
I'm not smart yet, and she laughed. She said, and
I have confidence in you, Charlie, the whey you struggled
so hard to read and write better than all the others,

(33:08):
and worse, you'll have it for a little while. Man,
you're doing something for science. We're reading a very hard book.
I never read such a hard book before. It's called
Robinson Crusoe, about a man who gets marooned on a
desert hand. He's smart and figures out all kinds of

(33:33):
things so he can have a house and food, and
he's a good swimmer. Only I feel sorry because he's
all alone, has no friends. But I think there must
be somebody else on the island because there's a picture
with his funny umbrella looking at footprints. I hope he
gets a friend, not be lonely. April ten, Miss Kennyon

(34:01):
teaches me to spell better. She says, look at a
word and close your eyes and say it over and
over until you remember. I have lots of trouble with
through that you say through and enough and tough that

(34:23):
you don't say new and two you got to say
enough and tough. That's how I used to write it
before I started to get smart. I'm confused, But Miss
Kennyan says, there's no reason in spelling. April fourteen, finished

(34:45):
Robinson Crusoe. I want to find out more about what
happens to him, but Miss Kennyan says that's all there
is why. April fifteen, Miss Kennyan says, I'm learning fast.
She reads some of the progress reports, and she looked

(35:07):
at me kind of funny. She says, I'm a fine person,
and I'll show them all. I asked her why. She said,
never mind. But I shouldn't feel bad if I find
out that everybody isn't nice like I think. She said,
for a person who God gave so little to, you

(35:27):
done more than a lot of people with brains they
never even used. I said, Oh, my friends are smart people,
but they're good. They like me. They never did anything
that wasn't nice. Then she got something in her eye
and she had to run out to the ladies room.

(35:50):
April sixteen. Today I learned the comma. This is a
period with a tale. Miss Kennyan says it's important because
it makes writing better. She said, somebody could lose a

(36:15):
lot of money if a comma isn't in right place.
I don't have any money, and I don't see how
a comma keeps you from losing it. But she says
everybody uses commas, so I'll use them too. April seventeen,

(36:43):
I use the comma wrong. It's punctuation. Miss Keennyan told
me to look up long words in the dictionary to
learn to spell them. I said, what's the difference if
you can read it anyway? She said, it's part of
your education. So now I'll look up all the words.
I'm not sure how to spell. Takes a long time

(37:05):
to write that way, but I think I'm remembering. I
only have to look up once and after that I
get it right anyway. That's how comma. I got the
word punctuation right. It's that way in the dictionary. Miss
Kenneyan says period is punctuation too, and there are lots

(37:27):
of other marks to learn. I told her I thought
all the periods had to have tales, but she said, no,
you got to mix them up. She showed question mark,
me quotation mark, How period to mix exclamation point them?
Left parentheses up, kamma, period and now semi colon. I
can exclamation point mix up all kinds quotation mark, punctuation,

(37:51):
comma in exclamation point my writing question mark there Comma
are lots exclamation point rules question mark to learn, but
I'm getting apostrophe g them in my head. Period. One
thing I questioned Mark like about Comma, Dear Miss Kennyan,
colon left parentheses. That's the way it goes in a

(38:13):
business letter if I ever go into business right question mark?
Is she Comma always gives me apostrophe or reason when
I ask period, She's a genius exclamation point. I wish
exclamation point I could apostrophe d be smart quotation mark
like Comma her semicolon left parentheses, punctuation. Comma is semicolon

(38:35):
fun exclamation point right semicolon April eighteen, What a dope
I am exclamation point. I didn't even understand what she
was talking about. Period. I read the grammar book last night,
and it explains the whole thing. Then I saw it

(38:57):
was the way as Miss Kenyan was trying to telling me,
but I didn't get it. Got up in the middle
of the night and the whole thing straightened out in
my mind. Miss Kenny and said that the TV working
in my sleep helped out. She said, I reached a plecteau.
It's like the flat top of a hill. After I

(39:20):
figure out how punctuation worked. I read over all my
old progress reports from the beginning. Boy did I have
crazy spelling and punctuation. I told Miss Kenny, and I
ought to go over the pages and fix all the mistakes,
but she said no, Charlie, Doctor Niember wants them just

(39:42):
as they are. That's why he lets you keep them
after they were photos statted to see your own progress.
You're coming along fast, Charlie. That made me feel good.
After the lesson, I went down and played with Algernon.
We don't race anymore. April twenty I feel sick inside.

(40:08):
Not sick like for a doctor, but inside my chest
it feels empty, like getting punched in a heartburn. At
the same time, I wasn't going to write about it,
but I guess I got to because it's important. Today
was the first time I ever stayed home from work.

(40:31):
Last night, Joe carp and Frank Riley invited me to
a party. There were lots of girls and some men
from the factory. I remembered how sick I got last
time I drank too much, so I told Joe I
didn't want anything to drink. He gave me a plain
coke instead. It tasted funny, but I thought it was

(40:52):
just a bad taste in my mouth. We had a
lot of fun for a while. Joe said I should
dance with Ellen and she would teach me the steps.
I felt a few times, and I couldn't understand why,
because no one else was dancing besides Ellen and me.
All the time, I was tripping because somebody's foot was

(41:12):
always sticking out. Then when I got up, I saw
the look on Joe's face. They gave me a fun
of feeling in my stomach. He's a scream, one of
the girls said. Everybody was laughing. Frank said, I ain't
laughed so much since we set him off for the
newspaper that night at Mugsies and ditched him. Look at him.

(41:35):
His face is red, he's blushing. Charlie is blushing. Hey Ellen,
what'd you do to Charlie? I never saw him act
like that before. I don't know what to do or
where to turn. Everyone was looking at me and laughing,
and I felt naked. I wanted to hide myself. I

(41:58):
ran out into the street and I threw up. Then
I walked home. It's a funny thing. I never knew
that Joe and Frank and the others like to have
me around all the time to make fun of me.
Now I know what it means when they say to
pull a Charlie Gordon. I'm ashamed. Progress Report eleven April

(42:25):
twenty one, still didn't go into the factory. I told
missus Flynn, my landlady, to call and tell mister Donnegan
I was sick. Missus Flynn looks at me very funny
late laylike she's scared of me. I think it's a
good thing about finding out how everybody laughs at me.

(42:46):
I thought about it a lot. It's because I'm so dumb,
and I don't even know when I'm doing something dumb.
People think it's funny when a dumb person can't do
things the same way they can. Anyway, Now I know
I'm getting smarter every day. I know punctuation and I

(43:07):
can spell good. I like to look up all the
hard words in the dictionary and I remember them. I'm
reading a lot now, and Miss Kennyan says I read
very fast. Sometimes I even understand what I'm reading about,
and it stays in my mind. There are times when

(43:28):
I can close my eyes and think of a page,
but it all comes back like a picture. Besides history, geography,
and arithmetic, Miss kenny In said I should start to
learn a few foreign languages. Doctor Strauss gave me some
more tapes to play a while I sleep. I still
don't understand how that consciousness and unconscious mind works, but

(43:51):
doctor Strauss says not to worry yet. He asked me
to promise that when I start learning college subjects next week,
I wouldn't read any books on psychology, that is, until
he gives me permission. I feel a lot better today,
but I guess I'm still a little langry. At all
the time people were laughing and making fun of me

(44:14):
because I wasn't so smart. What i'd become intelligent, like
Dr Strauss says, with three times my IQ of sixty eight,
then maybe I'll be like everyone else and people will
like me and be friendly. I'm not sure what an
IQ is. Doctor Niemer said it was something that measured

(44:39):
how intelligent you were, like a scale in the drug
store weighs pounds. But doctor Strauss had a big argument
with him and said an IQ didn't weigh intelligence at all.
He said an IQ showed how much intelligence you could get,
like the numbers on the outside of a measuring cup.
He still had to fill the cup with stuff. Then,

(45:02):
when I asked Bert, who gives me my intelligence tests
and works with Algernon, he said that both of them
were wrong. Only I had to promise not to tell them,
he said. So Bert says, the IQ measures a lot
of different things, including some of the things you learned already,
and it really isn't any good at all. So I

(45:24):
still don't know what IQ is, except that mine is
going to be over two hundred soon. I didn't want
to say anything, but I don't see how if they
don't know what it is or where it is, I
don't see how they know how much of it you've got.
Doctor Neimer says, I have to take a Rorshak test tomorrow.

(45:47):
I wonder what that is. April twenty two found out
what a rorshak is. It's the test I took before
the operation, with the ink blots on the pieces of cardboard.
The matter gave me. The test was the same one.
I was scared to death of those ink blots. I

(46:10):
knew he was going to ask me to find pictures,
and I knew I wouldn't be able to. I was
thinking to myself, if only there was some way of
knowing what kind of pictures were hidden there. Maybe there
weren't any pictures at all. Maybe it was just a
trick to see if I was dumb enough to look
for something that wasn't there. Just thinking about that made

(46:31):
me sore at him. All right, Charlie, He said, you
seen these cars before? Remember? Of course, I remember the
way I said it. He knew I was angry, and
he looked surprised. Yes, of course. Now I want you
to look at this one. What might this be? What
do you see on this card? People see all sorts

(46:52):
of things in these ink blots. Tell me what it
might be for you, what it makes you think of
I was shocked. That wasn't what I had expected him
to say at all. You mean there are no pictures
hidden in those ache blots? He frowned and took off
his glasses. What pictures hidden in the ache blots? Last

(47:15):
time you told me that everyone could see them, and
you wanted me to find them too. He explained to
me that the last time he had used almost the
exact same words he was using now. I didn't believe it,
and I still have the suspicion that he misled me
at the time, just for the fun of it. Unless

(47:36):
I don't know anymore. Could I have been that feeble minded?
We went through the cards slowly. One of them looked
like a pair of bats tugging at something. Another one
looked like two men fencing with swords. I imagined all
sorts of things. I guess I got carried away, but

(47:58):
I didn't trust him anymore, and I kept turning them
around and even look on the back to see if
there was anything there I was supposed to catch. While
he was making his notes, I peeked out of the
corner of my eye to read it, but it was
all in code that looked like this, WF plus a
d DF minus ad ordge period wfus a sf plus OBJ.

(48:27):
The test still doesn't make sense to me. Seems to
me that anyone could make up lies about the things
that they didn't really see. How could he know I
wasn't making a fool of him by mentioning things that
I didn't really imagine. Maybe I'll understand it when doctor
Strauss lets me read up on psychology. April twenty five,

(48:52):
I figured out a new way to line up the
machines in the factory. Mister Donogan says it'll save him
ten thousand dollars a year labor and increased production. He
gave me a twenty five dollars bonus. I wanted to
take Joe carp and Frank Riley out to lunch to celebrate,
but Joe said he had to buy some things for
his wife, and Frank said he was meeting his cousin

(49:15):
for lunch. I guess it'll take a little time for
them to get used to the changes in me. Everybody
seems to be frightened at me. When I went over
to amos Borg and tapped him on the shoulder, he
jumped up in the air. People don't talk to me
much anymore or kid around the way they used to.

(49:37):
Makes the job kind of lonely. April twenty seven, I
got up the nerve to day to ask Miss Kennyon
to have dinner with me tomorrow night celebrate my bonus.
At first, she wasn't sure it was right, but I
asked Doctor Strauss and he said it was okay. Doctor

(49:59):
Strous and Doctornember don't seem to be getting along so well.
They're arguing all the time this evening. When I came
In asked doctor Strauss about having dinner with Miss Kenyon.
I heard him shouting. Doctor Niemer was saying that it
was his experiment and his research, and doctor Strauss was
shouting back that he contributed just as much because he

(50:21):
found me through Miss kenny In and he performed the operation.
Doctor Strauss said that someday thousands of neurosurgeons might be
using his technique all over the world. Doctor Neemer wanted
to publish the results of the experiment at the end
of this month. Doctor Strauss wanted to wait a while
longer to be sure. Doctor Strauss said that doctor Neemer

(50:45):
was more interested in the chair of psychology at Princeton
than he was in the experiment. Doctor Niemer said that
doctor Strauss was nothing but an opportunist who was trying
to ride to glory on his coattails. Left afterwards, I
found myself trembling. I don't know why for sure, but

(51:05):
it was as if I'd seen both men clearly for
the first time. I remember hearing Bert say that doctor
Niemer had a shrew of a wife who was pushing
him all the time to get things published so that
he could become famous. Bert said that the dream of
her life was to have a big shod husband. Was
doctor Strauss really trying to write on his coattails? April

(51:31):
twenty eight I don't understand why I never noticed how
beautiful miss Kinneyan really is. She has brown eyes and
feathery brown hair that comes to the top of her neck.
She's only thirty four. I think from the beginning I
had the feeling that she was an unreachable genius and

(51:53):
very very old. Now every time I see her she
grows younger and more lovely. We had dinner and a
long walk. When she said I was coming along so
fast that soon I'd be leaving her behind. I laughed,
It's true, Charlie. You're already a better reader than I am.

(52:14):
You can read a whole page at a glance. Well,
I can take in only a few lines at a time,
and you remember every single thing you read. I'm lucky
if I can recall the main thoughts and the general meaning.
I don't feel intelligent. There are so many things I
don't understand. She took out a cigarette and I lit

(52:34):
it for her. You got to be a little patient.
You're accomplishing in days and weeks what it takes normal
people to do in half a lifetime. That's what makes
it so amazing. You're like a giant sponge now, soaking
things in facts figures general knowledge, and soon you'll begin
to connect them too. You'll see how the different branches

(52:55):
of learning are related. There are many levels, Charlie, like
steps on a giant ladder that take you up higher
and higher to see more and more of the world
around you. I can only see a little bit of that, Charlie,
and I won't go much higher than I am now,
but you'll keep climbing up and up and see more
and more. An eat step will open new worlds that

(53:16):
you never even knew existed. She frowned. I hope, I
just hope. To God, what never mind, Charles, I just
hope I wasn't wrong to advise you to go into
this in the first place, I laughed, How could that be?
It worked, didn't it? Even Algernon is still smart. We

(53:38):
sat there silently for a while, and I knew what
she was thinking about as she watched me toying with
the chain of my rabbit's foot and my keys. I
didn't want to think of that possibility anymore than elderly
people want to think of death. I knew that this
was only the beginning. I knew what she meant about

(54:00):
levels because I'd seen some of them already. The thought
of leaving her behind made me sad. I'm in love
with miss Kiddean Progress Reports twelve April thirty I've quit

(54:21):
my job with Donnogan's plastic box company. Mister Donagan insisted
that it would be better for all concerned if I left.
What did I do to make them hate me? So?
The first I knew of it was when mister Donagan
showed me the petition, eight hundred and forty names everyone
connected with the factory except Fanny Gerdon. Scanning the list quickly,

(54:46):
I saw it once that hers was the only missing name.
All the rest demanded that I be fired. Jill carp
and Frank Riley wouldn't talk to me about it. No
one else would either, except Fan. She was one of
the few people I'd known who set her mind to
something and believed it no matter what the rest of

(55:07):
the world proved, said or did. And Fanny did not
believe that I should have been fired. She been against
the petition on principle, and despite the pressure and threats,
she had held out, which don't mean to say. She
remarked that, I don't think there's something mighty strange about you, Charlie,
them changes, I don't know. You used to be a good, dependable,

(55:29):
ordinary man. Not too bright maybe, but honest. Who knows
what you've done to yourself to get so smart? All
of a sudden, like everybody around here has been saying, Charlie,
it's not right. But now can you say that, Fanny?
What's wrong with a man becoming intelligent and wanting to
acquire knowledge and understanding of the world around him. She

(55:50):
stared down at her work, and I turned to leave
without looking at me. She said, it was evil when
Eve listened to the snake and from the tree of knowledge.
It was evil when she saw that she was naked.
If not for that, none of us would ever have
to grow old and sick and die once again. Now

(56:12):
I have the feeling of shame burning inside me. This
intelligence has driven a wedge between me and all the
people I once knew and loved. Before they laughed at
me and despised me for my ignorance and dulness. Now
they hate me for my knowledge and understanding. What in
God's name do they want from me. They've driven me

(56:33):
out of the factory. Now I'm more alone than ever before.
May fifteen. Doctor Strauss is very angry at me for
not having written any progress reports in two weeks. He's
justified because the lab is now paying me a regular salary.

(56:54):
I told him I was too busy thinking and reading.
When I pointed out that writing was such a slow
process us that it made me impatient with my poor handwriting,
he suggested that I learned to type. It's much easier
to write now because I can type nearly seventy five
words a minute. Doctor Strauss continually reminds me of the

(57:14):
need to speak and write simply so that people will
be able to understand me. I'll try to review all
the things that happened to me during the last two weeks.
Algernon and I were presented to the American Psychological Association,
sitting in convention with the World Psychological Association last Tuesday.

(57:34):
We created quite a sensation. Doctor Nimer and doctor Strauss
were proud of us. I suspect that doctor Niemer, who
is sixty ten years older than doctor Strauss, finds it
necessary to see tangible results of his work. Undoubtedly the
result of pressure by Missus Niemer. Contrary to my earlier

(57:55):
impressions of him, I realized that doctor Niemer is not
at all a genius. He has a very good mind,
but it struggles under the specter of self doubt. He
wants people to take him for a genius. Therefore, it
is important for him to feel that his work is
accepted by the world. I believe that doctor Niemer was

(58:16):
afraid of further delay because he worried that someone else
might make a discovery along these lines and take the
credit from him. Doctor Strauss, on the other hand, might
be called a genius, although I feel that his areas
of knowledge are too limited. He was educated in the
tradition of narrow specialization. The broader aspects of background were neglected,

(58:38):
far more than necessary, even for a neurosurgeon. I was
shocked to learn that the only ancient languages he could
read were Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and that he knows
almost nothing of mathematics beyond the elementary levels of the
calculus of variations. When he admitted this to me, I
found myself almost annoyed. It was as if he'd hidden

(59:01):
this part of himself in order to deceive me, pretending,
as do many people I've discovered, to be what he
is not. No one I've ever known is what he
appears to be on the surface. Doctor Nimer appears to
be uncomfortable around me. Sometimes when I try to talk

(59:23):
to him, he just looks at me strangely and turns away.
I was angry at first when doctor Strauss told me
I was giving doctor Nimer an inferiority complex. I thought
he was mocking me, and I'm over sensitive at being
made fun of. How was I to know that a
highly respected psycho experimentalist like Nimer was unacquainted with Hindustani

(59:46):
and Chinese. It's absurd when you consider the work that
is being done in India and China today in the
very field of his study. I asked doctor Strauss how
Nimer could refute Russia Jamani's attack on his method and
results if Niemer couldn't even read them in the first place.
That strange look on doctor Strauss's face can mean only

(01:00:07):
one of two things. Either he doesn't want to tell
Neimer what they're saying in India or else, and this
worries me. Doctor Strauss doesn't know either. I must be
careful to speak and write clearly and simply so that
people won't laugh. May eighteen, I am very disturbed. I

(01:00:32):
saw Miss Kinneyan last night for the first time in
over a week. I tried to avoid all discussions of
intellectual concepts and to keep the conversation on a simple,
everyday level, but she just stared at me blankly and
asked me what I meant about the mathematical variance equivalent
in Doberman's fifth Concerto. When I tried to explain, she

(01:00:54):
stopped me and laughed. I guess I got angry, but
I suspect I'm approaching her on the wrong life. No
matter what I tried to discuss whe her, I am
unable to communicate. I must review Rostat's equations of levels
of semantic progression. I find that I don't communicate with
people much anymore. Thank God for books and music and

(01:01:16):
things I can think about. I am alone in my
apartment at missus Flynn's boarding house most of the time
and seldom speak to anyone. May twenty I would not
have noticed the new dishwasher, the boy of about sixteen,
at the corner diner where I take my evening meals.
If not for the incident of the broken dishes. They

(01:01:40):
crashed to the floor, shattering and sending bits of white
china under the tables. The boy stood there, dazed and frightened,
holding the empty tray in his hand. The whistles and
cat calls from the customers, the cries of hey, there
go the prophets mazzled off, and well he didn't work
here very long, which invariably seemed to follow the breaking

(01:02:01):
of glass or dishware in a public restaurant, all seemed
to confuse him. When the owner came to see what
the excitement was about, the boy cowered as if he
expected to be struck, and threw up his arms as
if to ward off the blow. All right, all right,
you dope, shouted the owner. Don't just stand there, Get
the broom and sweep that mess up. A broom A broom,

(01:02:23):
you idiot, it's in the kitchen. Sweep up all the pieces.
The boy saw that he was not going to be punished.
His frightened expression disappeared, and he smiled and hummed as
he came back with the broom to sweep the floor.
A few of the rowtier customers kept up the remarks,
amusing themselves at his expense. Here's suddy over here, there's

(01:02:44):
a nice piece behind you. Come on, do it again.
He's not so dumb. It's easier to break them than
to wash him. As his vacant eyes moved across the
crowd of amused onlookers, he slowly mirrored their smiles and
finally broke into an unser and grin at the jokes,
which he obviously did not understand. I felt sick inside

(01:03:07):
as I looked at his dull, vacuous smile, the wide,
bright eyes of a child, uncertain but eager to please.
They were laughing at him because he was mentally retarded,
and I had been laughing at him too. Suddenly I
was furious at myself at all those who were smirking

(01:03:30):
at him. I jumped up and shouted, shut up, leave
him alone. It's not his fault. He can't understand, he
can't help what he is, but for God's sake, he's
still a human being. The room grew silent. I cursed
myself for losing control and creating a scene. I tried
not to look at the boy as I paid my

(01:03:50):
check and walked out without touching my food. I felt ashamed.
For both of us. How strange it is that people
have honest feelings and sensibility who would not take advantage
of a man born without arms, or legs or eyes.
How such people think nothing of abusing a man born
with low intelligence. It infuriated me to think that not

(01:04:14):
too long ago, I, like this boy, had foolishly played
the clown, and I had almost forgotten. I'd hidden the
picture of the old Charlie Gordon from myself because now
that I was intelligent, it was something that had to
be pushed out of my mind. But today, in looking

(01:04:37):
at that boy for the first time, I saw what
I had been. I was just like him. Only a
short time ago I learned that people laughed at me.
Now I can see that unknowingly I joined with them
in laughing at myself. That hurts most of all. I

(01:05:01):
have often re read my progress reports, and seeing the illiteracy,
the childish naivete, the mind of low intelligence. Peering from
a dark room through the keyhole at the dazzling light outside,
I see that, even in my dulness, I knew that
I was inferior, and that other people had something I lacked,

(01:05:22):
something denied me in my mental blindness. I thought that
it was somehow connected with the ability to read and write,
and I was sure that if I could get those skills,
I would automatically have intelligence too. Even a feeble minded
man wants to be like other men. A child may

(01:05:45):
not know how to feed itself or what to eat,
yet it knows of hunger. This, then, is what I
was like. I never knew even with my gift of
intellectual awareness, I never really new this day was good
for me. Seeing the past more clearly, I've decided to

(01:06:08):
use my knowledge and skills to work in the field
of increasing human intelligence levels. Who is better equipped for
this work? Who else has lived in both worlds? These
are my people. Let me use my gift to do
something for them. Tomorrow I will discuss with doctor Strauss
the manner in which I can work in this area.

(01:06:31):
I may be able to help him work out the
problems of widespread use of the technique which was used
on me. I have several good ideas of my own.
There's so much that might be done with this technique.
If I could be made into a genius, what about
thousands of others like myself? What fantastic levels might be achieved?

(01:06:52):
By using this technique on normal people on geniuses, there
are so many doors to open. I am impatient to
begin progress. Report thirteen, May twenty three. It happened today.
Algernon bit me. I visited the lab to see him,

(01:07:13):
as I do occasionally, and when I took him out
of his cage, he snapped at my hand. I put
him back and watched him for a while. He was
unusually disturbed and vicious. May twenty four, Bert, who's in
charge of the experimental animals, tells me that Algernon is changing.

(01:07:34):
He is less cooperative. He refuses to run the maze anymore.
General motivation has decreased, and he hasn't been eating. Everyone
is upset about what this may mean. May twenty five.
They've been feeding Algernon, who now refuses to work the
shifting Locke problem. Everyone identifies me with Algernon in a way.

(01:07:59):
We're both the first of our kind. They're all pretending
that Algernon's behavior is not necessarily significant for me, but
it's hard to hide the fact that some of the
other animals who were used in this experiment are showing
strange behavior. Doctor Strauss and doctor Niemur have asked me
not to come to the lab anymore. I know what

(01:08:21):
they're thinking, but I can't accept it. I'm going ahead
with my plans to carry their research forward. With all
due respect to both of these fine scientists, I am
well aware of their limitations. If there is an answer,
I'll have to find it out for myself. Suddenly time
has become very important to me. May twenty nine. I've

(01:08:48):
been given a lab of my own and permission to
go ahead with my research. I'm on to something, working
day and night. I've had a cot moved into the lab.
Most of my writing time is spent on the notes,
which I keep in a separate folder, but from time
to time I feel it necessary to put down my
moods and my thoughts out of sheer habit. I find

(01:09:10):
the calculus of intelligence to be a fascinating study. Here
is the place for the application of all the knowledge
I've acquired. In a sense, it's the problem I've been
concerned with all my life. May thirty one. Doctor Strauss
thinks I'm working too hard. Doctor Nimer says, I'm trying

(01:09:31):
to cram a lifetime of research and thought into a
few weeks. I know I should rest, but I'm driven
on by something inside that won't let me stop. I've
got to find the reason for the sharp regression in Algernon.
I've got to know if and when it will happen
to me. June four Letter to doctor Strauss copy Dear

(01:09:57):
Doctor Strauss, under separate. I am sending you a copy
of my report entitled the Algernon Gordon Effect, a Study
of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence, which I would
like to have you read and have published. As you see,
my experiments are completed. I have included in my report
all of my formulae, as well as mathematical analysis in

(01:10:19):
the appendix. Of course, these should be verified because of
its importance to both you and doctor Neimer, and need
I say to myself too, I have checked and rechecked
my results a dozen times in the hope of finding
an error. I'm sorry to say the results must stand.
Yet for the sake of science, I am grateful for

(01:10:40):
the little bit that I here add to the knowledge
of the function of the human mind and of the
laws governing the artificial increase of human intelligence. I recall
your once saying to me that an experimental failure or
the disproving of a theory was as important to the
advancement of learning as a success would be. Now that

(01:11:00):
this is true, I am sorry, however, that my own
contribution to the field must rest upon the ashes of
the work of two men I regard so highly yours, truly,
Charles Gordon and Repped June five. I must not become emotional.

(01:11:24):
The facts and the results of my experiments are clear,
and the more sensational aspects my own rapid climb cannot
obscure the fact that the tripling of intelligence by the
surgical technique developed by doctor Strauss and Niemer must be
viewed as having little or no practical applicability at the
present time to the increase of human intelligence. As I

(01:11:47):
review the records and data on Algernon, I see that
although he is still in his physical infancy, he has
regressed mentally. Motor activity is impaired. There's a general reduction
of glandular activity. There's an accelerated loss of coordination. There
are also strong indications of progressive amnesia, as will be

(01:12:10):
seen by my report. These on other physical and mental
deterioration syndromes can be predicted with statistically significant results by
the application of my formula. The surgical stimulus to which
we were both rejected, has resulted in an intensification and
acceleration of all mental processes. The unforeseen development, which I

(01:12:31):
have taken the liberty of calling the Algernon Gordon effect,
is the logical extension of the entire intelligence speed up.
The hypothesis here proven may be described simply in the
following terms. Artificially increased intelligence deteriorates at a rate of
time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase. I
feel that this in itself is an important discovery. As

(01:12:56):
long as I'm able to write, I will continue to
record my thoughts in these progress It is one of
my few pleasures. However, by all indications, my own mental
deterioration will be very rapid. I've already begun to notice
signs of emotional instability and forgetfulness, the first symptoms of
the burnout June ten, deterioration progressing. I've become absent minded.

(01:13:26):
Algernon died two days ago. Dissection shows my predictions were right.
His brain has decreased in weight, and there was a
general smoothing out of cerebral convolusions, as well as a
deepening and broadening of brain fissures. I guess the same
thing is or will soon be happening to me. Now
that it's definite, I don't want it to happen. I

(01:13:49):
put Algernon's body in a cheese box and buried him
in the backyard. I cried. June fifteen. Doctor Strauss came
to see me again. I wouldn't open the door, and
I told him to go away. I want to be
left to myself. I become touchy and irritable. I feel

(01:14:12):
the darkness closing in. It's hard to throw off thoughts
of suicide. I keep telling myself how important this introspective
journal will be. It's a strange sensation to pick up
a book that you've read and enjoyed just a few
months ago and discover that you don't remember it. I
remember how great I thought John Milton was, But when

(01:14:34):
I picked up Paradise Lost, I couldn't understand it at all.
I got so angry. I threw the book across the room.
Got to try to hold on to some of it,
some of the things I've learned. Oh God, please don't
take it all away. June nineteenth. Sometimes at night I

(01:14:57):
go out for a walk, last I couldn't remember where
I lived. A policeman took me home. I have the
strange feeling that this has all happened to me before,
a long time ago. I keep telling myself, I'm the
only person in the world who can describe what's happening
to me. June twenty one. Why can't I remember? I've

(01:15:25):
got a fight, A lie in bed for days, and
I don't know who or where I am. Then it
all comes back to me in a flash. Fugues of amnesia,
symptoms of sinility, second childhood. I can watch them coming on.
It's so cruelly logical. I learned so much and so fast.

(01:15:49):
Now my mind is deteriorating rapidly. I won't let it happen.
I'll fight it. I can't help thinking of the boy
in the restaurant, the blank expression and the silly smile,
the people laughing at him. Oh please, not that again.
June twenty two. I'm forgetting things that I learned recently.

(01:16:14):
It seems to be following the classic pattern. Last things
learned are the first things forgotten? Or is that the pattern?
I'd better look it up again. I re read my
paper on the Algernon Gordon effects, and I get the
strange feeling that it was written by someone else. There

(01:16:35):
are parts I don't even understand. Motor activity impaired. I
keep tripping over things, and it becomes increasingly difficult to type.
June twenty three, I've given up using the typewriter completely.
My coordination's bad. I feel that I'm moving slower and

(01:16:57):
slower at a terrible shock. Today, I picked up a
copy of an article I used in my research, Kruger's
Uber psychicy Genzite, to see if it would help me
understand what I'd done. First I thought there was something
wrong with my eyes, and then I realized I could
no longer read German. I tested myself in other languages,

(01:17:21):
all gone. June thirty, a week since I dared to
write again. It's slipping away like sand through my fingers.
Most of the books I have are too hard for me. Now.
I get angry with them because I know that I
read and understood them just a few weeks ago. I

(01:17:43):
keep telling myself, I must keep writing these reports so
that somebody don't know what's happening to me. But it
gets harder to form the words and remember spellings. I
have to look up even simple words in the dictionary now,
and it makes me aatient with myself. Doctor Strauss comes

(01:18:03):
around almost every day, but I told him I wouldn't
see or speak to anybody. He feels guilty. They all do,
but I don't blame anyone. I knew what might happen,
but how it hurts. July seventh, I don't know where

(01:18:25):
the week went. Today's Sunday. I know that I can
see through my window people going to church. I think
I stayed in bed all week, but I remember missus
Flynn bringing food to me a few times. I keep
saying over and over, I got to do something, but
then I forget, or maybe it's just easier not to

(01:18:47):
do what I say I'm going to do. I think
of my mother and father a lot these days. I
found a picture of them with me taking it a beach.
My father has a big ball under his arm and
my mother is holding me by the hand. I don't
remember them the way they are in the picture. All
I remember is my father drunk most at the time

(01:19:11):
and arguing with my mom about money. He never shaved much,
and he used to scratch my face when he hugged me.
My mother said he died, but cousin Milty said he
heard his mom and dad saying, my father ran away
with another woman. When I asked my mother, she slapped
my face said my father was dead. I don't think

(01:19:34):
I ever found out which was true, but I don't
care much. He said he was going to take me
to see cows on a farm once, but he never did.
He never kept his promises. July tenth, my landlady, missus Flynn,
is very worried about me. She says, the way I

(01:19:56):
lay around all day and don't do anything. I remind
her of her son before she threw him out of
the house. She said she doesn't like loafers. I'm sick,
it's one thing, but if I'm a loafer, that's another thing,
and she won't have it. I told her, I think
I'm sick. I try to read a little bit every day,

(01:20:18):
mostly stories, but sometimes I have to read the same
thing over and over again because I don't know what
it means, and it's hard to write. I know I
should look up all the words and the dictionary, but
it's so hard. I'm so tired all the time. Then
I got the idea that i'd only use the easy

(01:20:40):
words instead of the long, hard ones. That saves time.
I put flowers on Aldronon's grave about once a week.
Missus Flynn thinks I'm crazy if it flowers on a
mouse's grave, but I told her that Algernon was special. Fourteen.

(01:21:01):
It's Sunday again. I don't have anything to do to
keep me busy now because my television said it's broke.
I don't have any money to get it fixed. I
think I lost this month's check from the lab. I
don't remember. I get awful headaches. Aspirin doesn't help me much.

(01:21:22):
Missus Flynn knows I'm really sick, and she feels very
sorry for me. She's a wonderful woman whenever someone is sick.
July twenty two, missus Flynn called a strange doctor to
see me. She is afraid I was going to die.

(01:21:42):
I told the doctor I wasn't too sick and that
I only forget sometimes. He asked me did I have
any friends or relatives. I said no, I don't have any.
I told him I had a friend called Algernon once,
but he is a mouse. We used to run races together.

(01:22:03):
He looked at me kind of funny, like he thought
I was crazy. He smiles when I told him I
used to be a genius. He talked to me like
I was a baby, and he winked at missus Flynn.
I got mad and chased him out because he is
making fun of me the way they all used to.
July twenty four. I have no more money, and missus

(01:22:25):
Flynn says, I gotta go to work somewhere and pay
the rent because I haven't paid for over two months.
I don't know any work but the job I used
to have Donnegan's Plastic box company. I don't want to
go back there because they all knew me when I
was smart, and maybe they'll laugh at me. But I

(01:22:47):
don't know what else to do to get money. July
twenty five. I was looking at some of my old
progress reports, and it's very funny, but I can't read
what I wrote. I can make out some of the words,
but they don't make sense. Miss Kennyan came to the door,

(01:23:09):
but I said go away. I don't want to see you.
She cried, and I cried too, but I wouldn't let
her in because I didn't want her to laugh at me.
I told her I didn't like her anymore. I told
her I didn't want to be smart anymore. That's not true.
I still love her and I still want to be smart.

(01:23:31):
But I had to say that so she'd go away.
She gave missus Flynn money to pay the rent. I
don't want that. I got to get a job. Please
please let me not forget how to read and write.

(01:23:51):
July twenty seven. Mister Donogan was very nice when I
came back and asked him for my old job of Janetor.
First he was very suspicious, but I told him what
happened to me, and then he looked very sad, put
his hand on my shoulder and said, Charlie Gordon, you

(01:24:12):
got guts. Everybody looked at me when I came downstairs
and started working in the toilet, sweeping it out like
I used to. I told myself, Charlie, if they make
fun of you, don't get sore, because you remember they're
not so smart as you once thought they were. And besides,

(01:24:33):
they were once your friends. And if they laughed at you,
that don't mean nothing, because they liked you too. One
of the new men who came to work there after
I went away made a nasty crack. He said, hey, Charlie,
I hear you're a very smart fella, real real quiz kid,

(01:24:54):
say something intelligent. I felt bad, but Joe Carp came over,
grabbed him by the shirt and said, leave him alone,
you LIZI cracker, or I'll break your neck. I didn't
expect Joe to take my part, so I guess he's
really my friend. Later, Frank Riley came over and said, Charlie,

(01:25:15):
if anybody bothers you or tries to take advantage you,
call me or Joe. We'll set him straight. I said, thanks, Frank.
I choked up, so I had to turn around and
go into the supply room so he wouldn't see me cry.
It's good to have friends. July twenty eighth. I did

(01:25:40):
a dumb thing today. I forgot I wasn't in Miss
Kenyon's class at the Adult Center anymore like I used
to be. I went in and sat down in my
old seat in the back of the room. She looked
at me funny, and she said, Charles. I didn't remember
she ever called me that before, only Charlie. So I

(01:26:01):
said hello, Miss Kenyon and read from my lesson today.
Only I lost my reader that we was using she
started to cry and run out the room. Everybody looked
at me. I saw that they wasn't the same people
used to be in my class. There, all of a sudden,
I remember some things about the operation and me getting smart. Now,

(01:26:26):
I said, holy smoke, I really pulled at Charlie Gordon
that time. I went away before she come back to
the room. That's why I'm going away from New York
for good. I don't want to do nothing like that again.
I don't want Miss Kenyon to feel sorry for me.

(01:26:46):
Everybody feel sorry factory. I don't want that either. So
I'm going someplace where nobody knows. Charlie Gordon was was
a genius. And now I can't even read a book
or write good. Take a couple books along, even if
I can't read them all. I'll practice hard, and maybe

(01:27:07):
I won't forget everything I learned. If I try real hard,
maybe I'll be a little bit smarter than I was
before the operation. I got my rabbit's foot? Am I
lucky Penny? And maybe they'll help me. If you ever
read this, Miss Kenyon, don't be hard for me. I'm

(01:27:28):
glad I got a second chance to be smart because
I learned a lot of things that I never even
knew were in this world. I'm grateful that I saw
it all for a little bit. I don't know why
I'm dumb again or what I did wrong. Maybe it's
because I didn't try hard enough. But if I try

(01:27:49):
and practice very hard, maybe I'll get a little smarter
and know what all the words are. I remember a
little bit how nice I had feeling with the blue
book that has a torn cover when I read it.
That's why I'm gonna keep trying to get smart so
I can have that feeling again. It's a good feeling

(01:28:12):
to know things and be smart. I wish I had
it right now. If I did, i'd sit down and
read all the time. Anyway. I bet I'm the first
dumb person in the world who ever found out something
important for science. I remember I did something, but I

(01:28:35):
don't remember what, so I guess it's like I did
it for all the dumb people like me. Goodbye, Miss
Kenyon and doctor Strauss and everybody, and ps, please tell
doctor Nimur not to be such a grouch when people
laugh at him, and he have more friends. It's easy

(01:28:58):
to make friends if you let people laugh at you.
I'm gonna have a lot of friends where I go pps. Please,
if you get a chance, put some flowers on Algernon's
grave and backyard. Thanks for listening. If you like the show,

(01:29:28):
please share it with someone you know who loves the
paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries
like you do. Flowers for Algernon was written by Daniel
Keys and I read it from the book The Science
Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume one, nineteen twenty nine to
nineteen sixty four, which I found on Kindle. I'll place
a link to the book in the show notes. Weird

(01:29:50):
Darkness is a registered trademark copyright Weird Darkness. And now
that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you
with a little light. Proverbs one seven Fear of the
Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise
wisdom and discipline. And a final thought, the true sign

(01:30:11):
of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination, Albert Einstein. I'm
Daryn Marler. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.