In this book, a retarded man enlists in an experimental program to make him smarter after trials were successfully done on rats. The story is told in the first person through his prognosis reports, where we see the effects of his IQ jumping from 70 to 180. He shares his realizations as his intelligence increases:
I think it’s a good thing about finding out how everybody laughs at me. 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.
[…]
Most of them felt the way Joe and Frank and Gimpy did. It had been all right as long they could laugh at me and appear clever at my expense, but now they were feeling inferior to the moron. I began to see that by my astonishing growth I had made them shrink and emphasized their inadequacies. I had betrayed them, and they hated me for it.
[…]
I don’t know. I’m like an animal who’s been locked out of his nice, safe cage.
His emotional intelligence is lagging behind that of his intellect, causing a lot of problems in his relations with people. There is a red pill element to this book as the protagonist, Charlie, makes his way out of the cave and into the light.
“Just that you’ve come a long way kind of fast,” he said. “You’ve got a superb mind now, intelligence that can’t really be calculated, more knowledge absorbed by now than most people pick up in a long lifetime. But you’re lopsided. You know things. You see things. But you haven’t developed understanding, or— I have to use the word— tolerance. You call them phonies, but when did either of them ever claim to be perfect, or superhuman? They’re ordinary people. You’re the genius.”
His intellect becomes so strong that he identifies a major flaw in the experiment that indicates his intelligence will degrade back to its starting point. His suspicion is confirmed when a rat used in the experiment, Algernon, starts to lose his intelligence. He realizes that there is now a clock ticking for him to get everything done while he still considers himself whole. I consider this a parable to life itself. Don’t we all have clocks over our heads where we will be unable to do what we currently take for granted?
What has happened to me? Why am I so alone in the world?
[…]
No, you don’t understand because it isn’t happening to you, and no one can understand but me. I don’t blame you. You’ve got your job to do, and your Ph.D. to get, and— oh, yes, don’t tell me, I know you’re in this largely out of love of humanity, but still you’ve got your life to live and we don’t happen to belong on the same level. I passed your floor on the way up, and now I’m passing it on the way down, and I don’t think I’ll be taking this elevator again.
Charlie’s decline was gripping because deep down you know it will happen to you in one way or another. If you’re the sentimental type then don’t read the end of this book while in public. Highly recommended.
Read More: “Flowers For Algernon” on Amazon
It’s nice to see Roosh review a book he likes. Another takeaway from Keyes’ story: the way people react to Charlie’s increasing intelligence is analogous to what a man can expect from his social circle should he choose to take the red pill and begin improving himself.
“Another takeaway from Keyes’ story: the way people react to Charlie’s increasing intelligence is analogous to what a man can expect from his social circle should he choose to take the red pill and begin improving himself”
Excellent, man. So true.
An old man is twice a child.
The Seven Ages of Man
by
William Shakespeare
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
5 His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
10 Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
15 Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
20 Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
25 And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Bravo to you for typing this all out.
Flowers for Algernon is an incredible book.
For an even better experience check out the film Limitless with Bradley Cooper from 2011. That one should really blow your mind if you haven’t already seen it, or see it again.
Don’t read any spoilers online if you want to get the full benefit from the film
Limitless shows the usefulness of enhanced intelligence, and not just in better game, but also in making fortunes and in surviving dangerous situations, like in the ice skate scene. Kind of like how I imagine it would feel going to bed as a black person and waking up as an East Asian. : )
Seriously, though, if we could raise everyone’s IQ by only ten points, that would revolutionize our world for the better – not by making the smartest people marginally smarter, but by making billions of dumbasses like the Jeantels of the world dramatically smarter. The IQ boost would push hundreds of millions of dullards past a threshold so that they would become more educable and employable, less criminally inclined, more likely to save money and plan for the future and forth.
In other words, these people could start to run their own lives properly without needing the rest of us to provide zoo-keeping for them.
I know what you mean, but IQ is a measure with the mean arbitrarily set to 100 points. If everyone’s IQ increased by 10 points, they would all end up getting the same score once the test was revised with an average of 100…
Excellent book. It’s been 15 years since I read this. Time to put it on the re-read list.
This is a must read, and thank you for the critique. Will look into it.
I am not saying I have an IQ of 180 or better. I will however say I got an IQ that is up there, and I am tall and very athletic. I know this will make me seem really arrogant, and I don’t mean to but here goes anyway: When the one was quoted as saying “But you’re lopsided. You know things. You see things. But you haven’t
developed understanding, or— I have to use the word— tolerance. You call
them phonies, but when did either of them ever claim to be perfect, or
superhuman? They’re ordinary people. You’re the genius.”
That kind of struck a cord with me for some reason as I have never really tolerated stupidity in public, and barely in private when younger. I was very very smart, and very very talented. Part of it was that some of the people I worked with just chose the easy way out, or were just plain cruel. I have no compunction for a guy who knows what he is doing is wrong, and keeps doing it anyways. However, others were just trying to get by.
To read someone’s take on someone who got on that level that I will never be and put it into context is much appreciated. I use to call out a lot of people, and although I might still call them out, it puts it into a perspective that they were just trying to get by and I was making it worse for the wear I think?
Either way, will buy this book for giggles, and maybe some introspection.
Gads, I hate weepy books (and movies.)
Thanks for the warning!
I’m I the only one who misses Roosh’s book review posts over on his blog?
Add me to THAT list.
Roosh, these books (and reviews) probably have GREAT long-term impact on most people then the typical articles.
It’s just a transfer of location. They are the same reviews.
I have a decently high IQ, not the highest, but I’ve got some game. It’s enough… enough to do more than be in this world and only be dimly aware of it, which is how so many people seem to exist. The most terrifying thing to me in the world is the prospect losing my intellect, slipping first into mediocrity, then into senility, and finally losing myself to the rot of ages altogether.
If I ever feel myself taking that elevator ride down, I hope society will grant me the dignity to have an end of my choosing, and not force me to live all the way to the bottom floor.
Society won’t.
“If I ever feel myself taking that elevator ride down, I hope society will grant me the dignity to have an end of my choosing, and not force me to live all the way to the bottom floor.”
I feel the same way about me. Regardless of what society mandates, one can always terminate their life. What can they do? Arrest a dead guy?
But the elites push for de-population will probably result in mass extermination of people ejo no longer serve the purpose of the matrix.
Working in a military hospital (I’m sure civilian ones are the same) and talking to the geriatric patients, you see this same sort of consciousness. Retired senior enlisted/officers lamenting about how accomplished and respected they used to be. Then, after multiple surgeries, developed mental disorders, and a daily Pez dispenser worth of pills, they struggle with even the most menial tasks. I can certainly understand when they (sometimes angrily) refuse assistance. Wanting to maintain a sense of dignity is pretty important. Combine that with years of accomplishment that turn into being a burden to the people in their lives. I know I don’t want to live past the age where I can’t even wipe my own ass.
I’m almost 30 and feel great but I know very well something could happen at any time and that life is all too short. I also went through a process of being stupid and taking the red pill at many different times in my life feeling I’ve come to a next level of understanding. I try to live in the moment and not procrastinate.
What’s amazing is that we were actually forced to read this book back at highschool. I started off hating it, then began to really enjoy it
This was a prescribed book for us in school and I never forgot the story of Charlie Gordon. It was and is a fantastic story that will stay etched in my mind and imagination forever. There are so many times when I am pondering about the universe or another “what if” thought and I think back to this story. Great read!
The Simpsons did a parody of Flowers for Algernon way back when. They won an Emmy for the episode, definitely memorable. You can watch it here: http://wtso.tv/movie/351-1209_HOMR.html
Good episode. Interesting to note how it was asserted there is a fine line between intelligence and happiness. I have colleagues whose IQ is up at genius level and they suffer from unhappiness many times, whereas a lesser intelligent person may be happier because he fits in easier socially.
Shit, i’ve got emotional just reading the review.
Good story – read it in jr high english – thats not an insult – but rather a reflection on quality English class I had.
Two things come to mind:
1. What happens when technology and culture takes potential genuises and turns them into morons? Oh shit thats right, that’s already happening.
2. True we all have some kind of click that ticks. One example as we enter old age with dementia alzheimers, and we are already are perfecting test that can determine this ahead of time. Imagine knowing in advance you are going to evolve to a helpless scatter brain crapping your pants everday?
FFA made me cry in high school, and I was the guy who screamed out “TAKE IT ALL, BITCH!” in the movie theater when Old Yeller died.
Great story — read it in school. Though most people hate it, I always liked the movie version as well (“Charly”) even though there were liberties taken with the story line.
Strangely fascinating split-screen techniques, psychedelic montages, a killer soundtrack by Ravi Shankar, even an uncomfortable borderline rape scene.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/m4fkywz
Still, a sad movie, and the final scene hits you like a brick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r01ozNVCvMU
Off topic, but I would like to recommend “Sometimes a Great Notion” by Ken Kesey (Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest) to you. Lots of great themes about manliness.
It’s like Homer with the Crayola in his brain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu8YkneQEfM
@ Roosh does the name Burt from your post “My name is Burt” @ rooshv.com came from this book?