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（人緣好的）,retarded（智力遲鈍的）young man into an arrogant（自大的，傲慢的），self-centered, antisocial（反社會的，不愛交際的）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（收獲）the honors you seek. The hitch（問題，故障）is that I’m a person.”

He was angry, and I could see he was torn between（難于抉擇）ending the fight and trying once more to beat me down（擊?。?

“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，吹噓）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（盡管很奇妙）—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（厲聲說）. “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（昏了頭）,” 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.

《獻(xiàn)給阿爾吉儂的花束》電影海報

天生弱智的Charlie Gordon渴望變得聰明，他被說服做了一個腦部手術(shù)。手術(shù)后的Charlie智力過人，但是他的生活卻沒有因聰明變得更加快樂。作者Daniel Keyes通過Charlie的進(jìn)度報告，記錄了他實驗和手術(shù)的過程以及智力提高前后各方面的變化和感受。手術(shù)前Charlie的IQ只有68，手術(shù)后達(dá)到185。過人的智力使他成名，但他卻失去了朋友和往日簡單平靜的生活。不僅如此，他還發(fā)現(xiàn)以前的Charlie總是跟隨著他，時不時出現(xiàn)在黑暗中，跟現(xiàn)在的Charlie相互較量。最后他在老鼠Algernon身上發(fā)現(xiàn)，人工催熟的智力也將使他們加速早衰。

作者丹尼爾·凱斯（1927—2014）出生于紐約，曾在布魯克林學(xué)院修習(xí)心理學(xué)，畢業(yè)后曾從事多種行業(yè)，包括雜志編輯、高中老師等。1959年首次發(fā)表短篇小說《獻(xiàn)給阿爾吉儂的花束》即榮獲雨果獎。1966年他將故事改成長篇后再次獲得星云獎。1966年起，凱斯在美國俄亥俄大學(xué)教授英語與寫作課程。他的作品以科幻小說為主，其中以《獻(xiàn)給阿爾吉儂的花束》最廣為人知，他以擅長描寫多重人格的人物而著稱，這與他在大學(xué)所學(xué)心理學(xué)專業(yè)有密切的關(guān)系。

“No. I know what he means. It’s come up recently in therapy sessions（治療期間）. 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（謙遜的）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（謙卑）and self-effacement（不出風(fēng)頭）are not among them. I’ve learned how little they get a person in this world.

“You’ve become cynical（憤世嫉俗的）,” 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（錘煉加工）by human affection isn’t worth a damn.”

“Don’t misunderstand me,” I said. ”Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts（天賦）. 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（假設(shè)）: Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis（神經(jīng)衰弱癥）, and possibly even psychosis（精神?。? 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（智力遲鈍的）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（發(fā)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（扭動）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（虛弱的，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（這里的Charlie指的是以前的Charlie，me指的是手術(shù)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（維度）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.

小說《獻(xiàn)給阿爾吉儂的花束》

“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，這里指“無知狀態(tài)”）. 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（旋渦）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，缺點）in the experiment. I’ve found it. Now what becomes of me?

August 26—Letter to Professor Nemur (Copy)

《獻(xiàn)給阿爾吉儂的花束》劇照

作者丹尼爾·凱斯

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（附錄）. Of course, these should be verified（被證實）.

The results are clear. The more sensational（轟動的）aspects of my rapid climb cannot obscure（掩蓋）the facts. The surgery-and-injection（手術(shù)加注射）techniques developed by you and Dr. Strauss must be viewed as having little or no practical applicability（適用性）, 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（肌動活動受損）; general reduction of glandular（腺的）functioning;accelerated（加速的）loss of coordination（協(xié)調(diào)）; and strong indications of progressive amnesia（健忘癥）.As I show in my report, these and other physical and mental deterioration syndromes（衰退癥）can be predicted with statistically significant（統(tǒng)計上顯著的）results by the application of my new formula.Although the surgical stimulus（手術(shù)刺激）to which we were both subjected（我們兩個都受制于的）resulted in an intensification（強化，加?。゛nd 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（人工誘發(fā)的智力衰退的速度跟增加的數(shù)量在時間上成正比）.

As long as I am able to write, I will continue to put down my thoughts and ideas in these progress reports（進(jìn)度報告）. It is one of my few solitary pleasures and is necessary to the completion of this research. However,by all indications（各方面的指標(biāo)顯示）, 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（證明一個理論的錯誤）, 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（依賴于）the ashes of the work of this staff, and especially those who have done so much for me.

Yours truly,

Charles Gordon