Couple of stories from Galaxy magazine

Both these stories are from Galaxy, August 1958, & are online. McIntosh's story has last few sentences missing in the online copy, but that didn't come in the way for me. Keyes' is only the second story I've seen of the author yet, besides the seminal "Flowers for Algernon".

Both stories are humorous, but I'll prefer McIntosh's from among these two.

1. J T McIntosh's "In Black and White" (B): A couple of alien traders selling
   "ergeron", the stuff needed to fuel interstellar craft, have arrived on earth. Since humanity is barely on the verge of reaching moon, they've to help expedite the process of colonizing solar planets - so there will be demand for their product a few of centuries down!
   
   And the way to do this is by introducing a rejuvenation elixir - so mankind is fitter & less neurotic...
2. Daniel Keyes' "The Trouble with Elmo" (B): "Elmo" is "ELectronic MOnitor", an AI. Originally built to solve humanity's problems, but now on the death row because it's expensive to maintain. To stay alive, it designs solutions that invariably create new & bigger problems!
   
   Eventually, Elmo & its human attendant, Jake Busby, will figure out a way to keep Elmo alive, but without taxing the US taxpayer.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", August 1958 (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Links on author fetch more of author's fiction. If I have a longer post on a story, link on story title goes there.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [ss] J T McIntosh's "In Black & White" (B): A salesman launches a target audience towards a more prosperous future, so they can later feel the need for the product he's selling!
2. [ss] Daniel Keyes' "The Trouble with Elmo": An AI on the death row, with the help of its human operator, figures out a way to stay alive...
3. [novella] Theodore Sturgeon's "To Marry Medusa": "Problem: the human race is complex; answer: put the problem in a nutshell--& this was the organization that could do exactly that!"
4. [novelet] Poul Flehr's "Seven Deadly Virtues": "With fares so high & colonists so scarce, something had to be done to prevent frontier killings ... like ruthlessly enforcing the ..."
5. [ss] Charles Scatterfield's "Third Offence".

Fact sheet.

Download full text from Internet Archive (does not include the text of 3 stories - "To Marry Medusa", "Seven Deadly Virtues" & "Third Offence"; "In Black & White" has a few sentences missing near end).
Labeled: Vol 16 No 4.
Related: Fiction from Galaxy (whole issues only); fiction from "pulps"; fiction from 1950s.

Free fiction: Galaxy, August 1958

At Internet Archive in multiple formats.

"The pages for the stories 'To Marry Medusa' by Theodore Sturgeon, 'Seven Deadly Virtues' by Paul Flehr, and 'Third Offense' by Charles Satterfield; have been deleted from the files since the Copyright was renewed".

That leaves only two full stories, including one by Daniel Keyes.

Editor: H L Gold.

Related: Fiction from Galaxy; Old pulps.

Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" (novelette): Don't make fun of the mentally retarded, please

First raw impressions: fabulous first half, ok to good next quarter, & good last quarter.

This note is based on the original novelette version of the story. This version was later expanded into a full length novel of the same title. There is a movie adaptation of the same title too. And innumerable other adaptations.

For a story this widely dissected, different people are bound to see different things in it. I was most reminded of otherwise sensible people making fun of a hapless mental retard - because I've actually seen it & felt bad.

For Indian readers - another take on this story: If you've seen last year's superb movie "Lage Raho Munnabhai", there is a scene where the girl in restaurant calls Munna at radio station seeking advise on how to judge the man she's about to meet at the advise of her dad. Munna consults the ghost of Mahatma Gandhi, & is given this advise: "If you want to judge a man, observe how he behaves with those below his social station." There are strong echoes of it in this story.

When I looked around the web, I found rather varied takes of different individuals from this story. Here are a few that I can still recall:

1. A case for being compassionate with your social inferiors.
2. Pain of an Alzheimer's patient. While the last quarter sees the protagonist getting into loss similar to this, it's super-quick compared to Alzheimer's & also has some differences if my experience with someone who eventually died of it is any indication.
3. Abstracting human growth - from child who finds everyone superior to decay in old age. Except that normal human children don't really consider themselves inferior, nor get defensive when they grow up with an inferiority complex vis-a-vis their elders.
4. There is a cross-section of readers that feels the last quarter is fantastic because it's a tragedy & it makes them cry.

I've collected some quotes from this story. They don't have many pearls of wisdom, but they probably give a feel of the story & sentiments.

Story summary.

Story is set in New York (I suppose "City" is meant).

It's is in the form of diary entries, dated "martch 5, 1965" to July 28, of Charlie Gordon, 37, mentally feeble at the beginning of the story & a janitor at "Donnegan's Plastic Box Company".

Over the course of the story, a new experimental surgery will transform him into a genius; & then a mental decay back to old state & almost certain death (as a side effect of surgery). He is writing diary at the insistence of Dr Strauss, neurosurgeon who performed the surgery. He is free to write whatever comes to mind.

Story is not really about surgery or what goes into making a supermind. It's about human issues - Charlie getting routinely mistreated by those he trusts; then recognizing this & getting bugged by it; then lapsing again & seeking company of those old "friends" - only the friends have also changed for the better.

Characters.

1. Charlie Gordon: The protagonist. Initially feeble minded, but goes on to see greatness & mental decay.
2. Algernon: A laboratory mouse who also has got the surgical treatment to triple his intelligence. In the beginning of the story, Charlie has many "races" with him - of solving mazes. Algernon keeps beating Charlie, until the transformational point in Charlie's treatment. Charlie will develop soft feelings for the little mouse - even make a grave for him when he dies to decay that will eventually set as side effect of surgery. Title comes from the flowers Charlie regularly puts at the grave of Algernon.
3. Dr Strauss, 50, neurosurgeon who operated upon Charlie & is normally monitoring him.
4. Dr Nemur, 60, "psychoexperimentalist". He seems to have a key role in discovery of this treatment for intelligence, though we are not given details. Prodded by an overbearing wife, he is driven by social status & recognition from others.
   For a while, during his shining days, Charlie will give him an inferiority complex & will take his work further in the form of a paper titled "The Algernon-Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence" that says the treatment is effectively no good & will always end up killing the subjects.
5. Miss Kinnian, 34. She teaches at a school for the mentally feeble. Charlie was her student, & she recommended him to Dr Strauss. During his shiny days, Charlie will fall in love with her but the relationship has always been doomed.
6. Joe Carp, Frank Reilly: Charlie's coworkers at factory. While Charlie thinks of them as friends, they treat him as joker. Relationship will strain when Charlie gets smart. In the end, with Charlie lapsing again, they will become real friend & defend him against those who now abuse him.
7. Amos Borg: Foreman at Charlie's factory. Another man who makes jokes at Charlie's expense. Has a very small role in story.
8. Mr Donnegan: Proprietor of Charlie's factory.
9. Mrs Flynn: Charlie's land lady. A woman with a golden heart.
10. Burt: A lab assistant at hospital. Will play a role in helping Charlie figure out the world as he gets smarter.

See also.

1. C L Moore's "Daemon" (1946): There is so much similarity between Moore's & this story that I'll be very surprised if Moore's version wasn't a major direct influence on Keyes'.
   
2. Ted Chiang's "Understand" (1991): Obviously inspired by this story of Keys'. While it's not the best of Chiang, now that I've read both, I think Keys' version is incomparably more competent.

Collected in.

1. Robert Silverberg (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964".

Fact sheet.

"Flowers for Algernon", short story, review
First published: F&SF, April 1959.
Rating: A
Listed in Contento's Top Ten Most Reprinted Stories.
Winner of Hugo Award 1960 in "short fiction" category. This category is now-a-days split into short story, novelette, & novella. I didn't do word count, but I have a feel this story is novelette length.
This story was expanded in 1966 to novel length under the same title.

Quotes from Daniel Keyes' "Flowers for Algernon" (novelette)

This document is a companion to the main post on this story. Many of the quotes below will probably make sense only if read in the context of main post.

Quotes are in order they appear in the story. Misspellings are normally not mine but from the story (they are a feature of the story, not a bug). Of course, I might have added typos of my own.

Most quotes are not pearls of wisdom, but capture the sentiment of the story. Charlie Gordon is protagonist.

1. "some men in white coats took me to a difent part of the hospitil and gave me a game to play. It was like a race with a white mouse. They called the mouse Algernon... They said it was amazed and that Algernon and me had the same amazed to do. I dint see how we could have the same amazed if Algernon had a box and I had a paper but I dint say nothing...
   that test made me feel worser than all the others because they did it over 10 times with difernt amazeds and Algernon won every time. I dint know that mice were so smart."
2. "she said ... If you volenteer for this experament you mite get smart. They dont know if it will be perminint but theirs a chance. Thats why I said ok even when I was scared because she said it was an operashun."
3. "If the operashun works I'll show that mouse I can be as smart as he is. Maybe smarter."
4. "I had lots of tests and different kinds of races with Algernon. I hate that mouse. He always beats me."
5. "Sometimes somebody will say hey look at Joe or Frank or George he really pulled a Charlie Gordon. I dont know why they say that but they always laff."
6. "If you can get smart when your sleeping why do people go to school... I use 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 sleep while you watch it."
7. "I told Dr Strauss what good is it to get smart in my sleep. I want to be smart when Im awake. He says its the same thing and I have two minds. Theres the subconscious and the conscious... And one dont tell the other one what its doing. They dont even talk to each other. Thats why I dream... I forgot to ask him if it was only me or if everybody had those two minds."
8. "Mr Donnegan said I was the best janiter he ever had because I like my job and do it good and never come late or miss a day except for my operashun."
9. "I beat Algernon! ...
   Then the second time I lost because I got so exited I fell off the chair before I finished. But after that I beat him 8 more times. I must be getting smart to beat a smart mouse like Algernon...
   I said can I feed him because I felt bad to beat him and I wanted to be nice and make frends."
10. "It's a funny thing I never knew that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around all the time to make fun of me."
11. "People think it's funny when a dumb person can't do things the same way they can."
12. "I guess I'm still a little angry that all the time people were laughing and making fun of me because I wasn't so smart."
13. "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 still don't know what IQ is except that mine is going to be over 200 soon... 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."
14. "Dr Nemur wanted to publish the results of the experiment at the end of this month. Dr Strauss wanted to wait a while longer to be sure. Dr Strauss said that Dr Nemur was more interested in the Chair of Psychology at Princeton than he was in the experiment. Dr Nemur said that Dr Strauss was nothing but an opportunist who was trying to ride to glory on his coattails...
    Dr Nemur had a shrew of a wife who was pushing him all the time to get things published so that he could become famous."
15. "Mr Donnegan insisted that it would be better for all concerned if I left. What did I do to make them hate me so?
    ... Mr Donnegan showed me the petition. Eight hundred and forty names, everyone connected with the factory, except Fanny Girden. Scanning the list quickly, I saw at once that hers was the only missing name. All the rest demanded that I be fired."
16. "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 dullness; now, they hate me for my knowledge and understanding."
17. "I realize that Dr Nemur is not at all a genius. He has a very good mind, but it struggles under the spectre of self doubt. He wants people to take him for a genius."
18. "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 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."
19. "Dr Strauss told me I was giving Dr Nemur an inferiority complex. I thought he was mocking me and I'm oversensitive at being made fun of."
20. "I saw Miss Kinnian last night... 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 Dorbermann's Fifth Concerto...
    No matter what I try to discuss with her, I am unable to communicate."
21. "How strange it is that people of 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."
22. "even in my dullness I knew that I was inferior, and that other people had something I lacked - something denied me."
23. "Last night 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."
24. "I put flowers on Algernons grave about once a week. Mrs Flynn thinks Im crazy to put flowers on a mouses grave".
25. "Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you. Im going to have lots of frends where I go."