Flowers for Algernon

Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction story written by Daniel Keyes. It was originally written as a novella, winning a Hugo award for Best Short Story in 1960, and it was later extended into a full-length novel by the same name, which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1966. It has also been filmed twice, as Charly and later under its own title, dramatized for BBC Radio 4 with Tom Courtenay as Charlie, and even made into a musical. But to many people, the most moving and successful version of the story is the original novella.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The story is about a young mentally retarded janitor named Charlie who volunteers to take part in an experimental intelligence-enhancing treatment. Algernon is a laboratory mouse who is also 'enhanced'. The story is told from Charlie's point of view and written as a journal which he was asked to keep as part of the experiment. Succeeding entries trace Charlie's ever-increasing comprehension and intelligence as both treatments continue, until he reaches super-genius level. All seems to be proceeding according to plan, with results light-years better than what had been anticipated, until an flaw is discovered. The neural enhancement cannot be sustained, and the young man is doomed to return to his original self, with his decay recorded in the journal. The reference to Algernon in the title refers to the laboratory mouse, which Charlie adopted as a pet.

In British Columbia, Canada, in January 1970, the Cranbrook School Board banned this grade nine text from the curriculum and the school library, after a parent complained that it was "filthy and immoral". The president of the BC Teachers' Federation criticized the action. This book was part of the BC Department of Education list of approved books for grade nine and was recommended by the BC Secondary Association of Teachers of English. A month later the board reconsidered, and returned the book to the library; they did not, however, lift its ban from the curriculum. [Mind War: Book Censorship in English Canada, p. 37; Not in Our Schools! p. 9] It should be noted that whereas the full novel does contain material about the character's personal life that may be highly objectionable to many people, the original short story is squeaky clean in this regard.

In 2004, an episode of the television series Century City had a plot line in which a formerly retarded man sues to keep the implant which had given him superior intelligence. It was discovered that the implants were causing their recipients to die.