Flowers fo Algernon

By Daniel Keyes

“This experiment was calculated to raise your intelligence, not to make you popular. We had no control over what happened to your personality,and you’ve developed from a likeable（人缘好的）,retarded（智力迟钝的）young man into an arrogant（自大的，傲慢的），self-centered, antisocial（反社会的，不爱交际的）bastard.”

“The problem, dear professor, is that you wanted someone who could be made intelligent but still be kept in a cage and displayed when necessary to reap（收获）the honors you seek. The hitch（问题，故障）is that I’m a person.”

He was angry, and I could see he was torn between（难于抉择）ending the fight and trying once more to beat me down（击败）.

“You’re being unfair, as usual. You know we’ve always treated you well—done everything we could for you.”

“Everything but treat me as a human being.You’ve boasted（夸耀，吹嘘）time and again（一次又一次）that I was nothing before the experiment, and I know why. Because if I was nothing, then you were responsible for creating me, and that makes you my lord and master. You resent（怨恨）the fact that I don’t show my gratitude（感激）every hour of the day. Well,believe it or not, I am grateful. But what you did for me—wonderful as it is（尽管很奇妙）—doesn’t give you the right to treat me like an experimental animal.I’m an individual now, and so was Charlie before he ever walked into the lab. You look shocked! Yes,suddenly we discover that I was always a person—even before—and that challenges your belief that someone with an I. Q. of less than 100 doesn’t deserve consideration. Professor Nemur, I think when you look at me your conscience（良心）bothers you.”

“I’ve heard enough,” he snapped（厉声说）. “You’re drunk.”

“Ah, no,” I assured him. ”Because if I get drunk,you’ll see a different Charlie Gordon from the one you’ve come to know. Yes, the other Charlie who walked in the darkness is still here with us. Inside me.”

“He’s gone out of his head（昏了头）,” said Mrs.Nemur. “He’s talking as if there were two Charlie Gordons. You’d better look after him, doctor.” Dr.Strauss shook his head.

《献给阿尔吉侬的花束》电影海报

天生弱智的Charlie Gordon渴望变得聪明，他被说服做了一个脑部手术。手术后的Charlie智力过人，但是他的生活却没有因聪明变得更加快乐。作者Daniel Keyes通过Charlie的进度报告，记录了他实验和手术的过程以及智力提高前后各方面的变化和感受。手术前Charlie的IQ只有68，手术后达到185。过人的智力使他成名，但他却失去了朋友和往日简单平静的生活。不仅如此，他还发现以前的Charlie总是跟随着他，时不时出现在黑暗中，跟现在的Charlie相互较量。最后他在老鼠Algernon身上发现，人工催熟的智力也将使他们加速早衰。

作者丹尼尔·凯斯（1927—2014）出生于纽约，曾在布鲁克林学院修习心理学，毕业后曾从事多种行业，包括杂志编辑、高中老师等。1959年首次发表短篇小说《献给阿尔吉侬的花束》即荣获雨果奖。1966年他将故事改成长篇后再次获得星云奖。1966年起，凯斯在美国俄亥俄大学教授英语与写作课程。他的作品以科幻小说为主，其中以《献给阿尔吉侬的花束》最广为人知，他以擅长描写多重人格的人物而著称，这与他在大学所学心理学专业有密切的关系。

“No. I know what he means. It’s come up recently in therapy sessions（治疗期间）. A peculiar dissociation（分裂）has taken place in the past month or so. He’s had several experiences of perceiving（感知）himself as he was before the experiment—as a separate and distinct individual still functioning in his consciousness—as if the old Charlie were struggling for control of the body.”

“No! I never said that! Not struggling for control.Charlie is there, all right, but not struggling with me.Just waiting. He has never tried to take over or tried to prevent me from doing anything I wanted to do.”Then, remembering about Alice, I modified（更正）it.“Well, almost never. The humble, self-effacing（谦逊的）Charlie you were all talking about a while ago is just waiting patiently. I’ll admit I’m like him in a number of ways, but humility（谦卑）and self-effacement（不出风头）are not among them. I’ve learned how little they get a person in this world.

“You’ve become cynical（愤世嫉俗的）,” said Nemur. “That’s all this opportunity has meant to you. Your genius has destroyed your faith in the world and in your fellow men.”

“That’s not completely true,” I said softly. ”But I’ve learned that intelligence alone doesn’t mean a damned thing. Here in your university, intelligence,education, knowledge, have all become great idols. But I know now there’s one thing you’ve all overlooked: intelligence and education that hasn’t been tempered（锤炼加工）by human affection isn’t worth a damn.”

“Don’t misunderstand me,” I said. ”Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts（天赋）. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love. This is something else I’ve discovered for myself very recently. I present it to you as a hypothesis（假设）: Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis（神经衰弱症）, and possibly even psychosis（精神病）. And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered end, to the exclusion of human relationships, can only lead to violence and pain.

“When I was retarded（智力迟钝的）I had lots of friends. Now I have no one. Oh, I know lots of people.Lots and lots of people. But I don’t have any real friends. Not like I used to have in the bakery（面包店）. Not a friend in the world who means anything to me, and no one I mean anything to.” I discovered that my speech was becoming slurred（发音含糊的）,and there was a lightness in my head. “That can’t be right, can it?” I insisted. “I mean, what do you think?Do you think that’s…that’s right?”

“I always try to do the right things. My mother always taught me to be nice to people because she said that way you won’t get into trouble and you’ll always have lots of friends.”

I could see by the way he was twitching（抽搐）and writhing（扭动）that he had to get to the bathroom. Oh, my God, not there in front of them. “Excuse me, please,” he said, “I got to go...”Somehow, in that drunken stupor（恍惚）, I managed to turn him away from them and head him toward the bathroom. He made it in time, and after a few seconds I was again in control. I rested my cheek against the wall, and then washed my face with cool water. Still groggy（虚弱的，昏昏沉沉的）, but I knew I was going to be all right.

That’s when I saw Charlie watching me from the mirror behind the washbasin. I don’t know how I knew it was Charlie and not me（这里的Charlie指的是以前的Charlie，me指的是手术后的Charlie）. Something about the dull, questioning look in his face. His eyes,wide and frightened, as if at one word from me he would turn and run deep into the dimension（维度）of the mirrored world. But he didn’t run. He just stared back at me, mouth open, jaw hanging loosely（下巴松弛地垂落）.

“Hello,” I said, ” so you’ve finally come face to face with me.” He frowned, just a bit, as if he didn’t understand what I meant, as if he wanted an explanation but didn’t know how to ask for it. Then,giving it up, he smiled wryly（表情冷漠地）from the corner of his mouth.

“Stay there right in front of me,” I shouted. ”I’m sick and tired of your spying on me from doorways and dark places where I can’t catch up with you.” He stared.

“Who are you, Charlie?” Nothing but the smile.I nodded and he nodded back. ”Then what do you want?” I asked. He shrugged.

小说《献给阿尔吉侬的花束》

“Oh, come now,” I said, ”you must want something. You’ve been following me—” He looked down and I looked at my hands to see what he was looking at. ”You want these back, don’t you? You want me out of here so you can come back and take over where you left off. I don’t blame you. It’s your body and your brain—and your life,even though you weren’t able to make much use of it. I don’t have the right to take it away from you.Nobody does. Who’s to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who’s to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?”

“But I’ll tell you something else, Charlie.” I stood up and backed away from the mirror. ”I’m not your friend. I’m your enemy. I’m not going to give up my intelligence without a struggle.I can’t go back down into that cave（洞穴，这里指“无知状态”）. There’s no place for me to go now,Charlie. So you’ve got to stay away. Stay inside my unconscious where you belong, and stop following me around. I’m not going to give up—no matter what they all think. Now matter how lonely it is.I’m going to keep what they’ve given me and do great things for the world and for other people like you.” As I turned toward the door, I had the impression he was reaching out his hand toward me. But the whole damned thing was foolish. I was just drunk and that was my own reflection in the mirror.

I was seeing myself as I really had become: Nemur had said it. I was an arrogant, self-centered bastard. Unlike Charlie, I was incapable of making friends or thinking about other people and their problems. I was interested in myself,and myself only. For one long moment in that mirror I had seen myself through Charlie’s eyes looked down at myself and saw what I had really become. And I was ashamed. I let myself into my apartment quietly and stood there for a while in the dark, not daring to move, not daring to turn on the light. Just stood there and felt the whirlpool（旋涡）in my eyes. What has happened to me? Why am I so alone in the world?

4: 30 A. M.—The solution came to me, just as I was dozing off. Illuminated（豁然明亮）!

Everything fits together, and I see what I should have known from the beginning. No more sleep. I’ve got to get back to the lab and test this against the results from the computer. This, finally, is the flaw（瑕疵，缺点）in the experiment. I’ve found it. Now what becomes of me?

August 26—Letter to Professor Nemur (Copy)

《献给阿尔吉侬的花束》剧照

作者丹尼尔·凯斯

Dear Professor Nemur: Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of my report entitled: “The Algernon-Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence,” which may be published if you see fit. As you know,my experiments are completed. I have included in my report all of my formulas（公式）, as well as mathematical analyses of the data in the appendix（附录）. Of course, these should be verified（被证实）.

The results are clear. The more sensational（轰动的）aspects of my rapid climb cannot obscure（掩盖）the facts. The surgery-and-injection（手术加注射）techniques developed by you and Dr. Strauss must be viewed as having little or no practical applicability（适用性）, at the present time, to the increase of human intelligence. Reviewing the data on Algernon: although he is still in his physical youth, he has regressed mentally（智力倒退）.Motor activity impaired（肌动活动受损）; general reduction of glandular（腺的）functioning;accelerated（加速的）loss of coordination（协调）; and strong indications of progressive amnesia（健忘症）.As I show in my report, these and other physical and mental deterioration syndromes（衰退症）can be predicted with statistically significant（统计上显著的）results by the application of my new formula.Although the surgical stimulus（手术刺激）to which we were both subjected（我们两个都受制于的）resulted in an intensification（强化，加剧）and acceleration of all mental processes, the flaw, which I have taken the liberty（擅自）of calling the “Algernon-Gordon Effect,”is the logical extension（延伸）of the entire intelligence speed-up. The hypothesis here proved may be described most simply in the following term:

Artificially-induced intelligence deteriorates at a rate of time directly proportional to the quantity of the increase（人工诱发的智力衰退的速度跟增加的数量在时间上成正比）.

As long as I am able to write, I will continue to put down my thoughts and ideas in these progress reports（进度报告）. It is one of my few solitary pleasures and is necessary to the completion of this research. However,by all indications（各方面的指标显示）, my own mental deterioration will be quite rapid. I have checked and rechecked my data a dozen times in hope of finding an error, but I am sorry to say the results must stand.Yet, I am grateful for 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.

The other night Dr. Strauss was saying that an experimental failure, the disproving of a theory（证明一个理论的错误）, was as important to the advancement of learning as a success would be. I know now that this is true. I am sorry, however, that my own contribution to the field must rest upon（依赖于）the ashes of the work of this staff, and especially those who have done so much for me.

Yours truly,

Charles Gordon