"The dotor Strauss dicie skrivvere what I should think and remembrance and all that I sucederà dora inavanti. I do not know why but he dicie that important because it will see if I can serve cualcosa. I hope so because Miss Kinnian dicie that maybe make me inteligiente reuse. I wanted to exercise inteligiente. Michio Charlie Gordon and lavvoro nela paneteria Donner indove that Mr Donner gives me in the weekdays at $ 11 and bread or cake if volio. I'm 32 and next month will be my birthday. O Strauss and the dotor told the professor that I do not know Nemuro skrivvere well but not to tell their importance only doverei skrivvere as I speak and how the center skrivvo comprosizzione scollastco for addulti ritardatati, nela de la clase Miss Kinnian where I go three times to do my hours weekdays at the Libbie. The dotor dicie Strauss Institute of skrivvere much of what I think and what I tuto suciede my veins but I do not think of anything else because I did not noffink by skrivvere perogi and so close to your ... Perfected Charlie Gordon. "
This track is the beginning of a very valuable book, written by Daniel Keyes in 1966 (Flowers for Algernon , trans. Com. Longaesi, Milan, 1973). One of those "books-friends" who keeps me company for many years and which today I'll talk a bit '.
The text has had a foretaste in 1959: the publication of the same name, a short story (about thirty pages). The story won the Hugo Award for best short story in 1960 and what motivated the author to develop that theme with few variations, and many in-depth psychological turning it into a book. The book has had some success but, in my opinion, not what they deserved. Too deep to appeal to intellectuals and too moving to please the general public, even as it is placed in the publishing of science fiction. The short story was in fact published by Einaudi in 1973 in an anthology of fiction entitled The Wonders of possible .
The story is basically simple. Charles Gordon, who everyone called Charlie, is retarded, being offered the opportunity to develop intelligence with a new type of surgery so far tested only on animals. As the story opens, Charlie is very frustrated because the mouse Algernon (which has tripled its intellectual capacity with the intervention) than ever in the trial of the maze.
The operation succeeds well and reports of California (which constitute the fabric of the book) are changing both in terms of grammar, and on that understanding of the facts, because they include more and more connected with the knowledge gradually assimilated. From the peak reached, however, includes the first Charlie scholars who had worked and later that Algernon is regressing and that he will inevitably return to its original level of intelligence.
In the book, more than in short stories, describes in detail the inner world of Charlie in all its nuances and is carefully analyzed the relationship between Charlie and his family of origin and the relationship between Charlie and Alice Kinnian The teacher who accompanies him to school is delayed in the beginning, both in his studies. Between the two will create a poignant love, obviously complicated by the strangeness of the whole situation and the changes experienced by Charlie.
The story is intriguing and it is not strange that it seems a good starting point for reflection on certain themes: the relationship between the people who have learning disabilities and normal people, codes of ethics of scientific research, the personal ambitions of scientists , the expectation of death (in the case of the character is waiting for the return to the condition of late). Essay by Ralph Keyes Nelson has been made into a film ( The two worlds of Charly, 1968). Despite the fine performance by Cliff Robertson (who won an Oscar), the director is not riuscito però, a mio parere, a cogliere lo spessore umano e la delicatezza del “mondo interno” di Charlie, e nemmeno la complessità dei sentimenti di Alice.
Cercherò ora di “scavare” un po’ nel testo di Keyes (facendo citazioni dal romanzo, non dal racconto breve) sia per riconoscerne i pregi, sia per evidenziare alcuni temi importanti abitualmente ignorati da filosofi e psicologi, ma importanti per il nostro cammino personale.
Il libro si presta ad un equivoco, ovvero all’idea secondo cui la nostra lucida e profonda partecipazione alle esperienze della vita dipenda dalla nostra intelligenza, poiché le vicende narrate si sviluppano in relazione allo sviluppo ed all’involuzione del quoziente intellettivo di Charlie. Tuttavia tale lettura sarebbe superficiale e fuorviante. In realtà, tutti conosciamo persone indiscutibilmente intelligenti o anche superiori alla media, ma decisamente “povere” sul piano umano. Tutti conosciamo anche persone che sicuramente non brillano per il loro Q.I. o per la loro cultura, ma sono profondamente sagge [cfr. il POST Crimini di tempo ]. Ci si deve chiedere quindi se implicitamente l’Autore voglia davvero suggerire l’idea banale secondo cui le nostre “capacità umane” sono riconducibili alle nostre capacità intellettive. Alcuni brevi passaggi possono indurci ad appoggiare questa interpretazione: Alice perceives, when Charlie became a genius, to be away from him as when he was a fool and then you can not have a sentimental relationship with him. Furthermore, the two love each other just in the "downturn" in Charlie when they meet on the same level intellectually. However, it would be simplistic to attribute the author overestimates the intelligence of interpersonal relationships. In fact, Alice is not allowed to Charlie in his "ascending phase" for two quite different reasons: in this stage Charlie is "upset" by the continuous changes and above all he is struggling to achieve emotional maturity comparable to the intellectual. The two will meet, then when Charlie has acquired a greater awareness of self and a deep self-respect.
Understanding the decline in the course makes Charlie more compassionate and less superficial, that is more "human" and thus able to love himself and a woman. Only in this new, intense and painful but positive situation, Alice feels she can trust him and to express an affection that had always been and that it had already become attractive, but was not expressed.
At Charlie was unattractive, not because "less intelligent" Alice, why do not smart enough to be self-aware and degli altri. Egli rideva con i suoi colleghi di lavoro quando gli facevano scherzi crudeli perché non comprendeva le loro intenzioni. Non era “meno intelligente”, ma era come un bambino. D’altra parte, anche se molte persone sono così disturbate emotivamente da non rendersene conto, ciò che rende buono un rapporto di coppia o di amicizia o un rapporto fra genitori e figli non è una simile condizione intellettiva, ma una buona capacità di contatto emotivo, di rispetto e di empatia.
Purtroppo l’idea che elevati standard di intelligenza (o, in altri casi, elevati standard di bellezza o di successo) ci rendano amabili è un’idea molto diffusa. Le persone hanno “ambizioni” proprio perché normalmente, in un mondo normalmente folle , credono di poter essere amabili per via di qualità che le rendono semplicemente stimabili .
E’ ovvio che per certi incarichi si richiedano competenze intellettive e conoscenze superiori alla media; è pure ovvio che le persone di bell’aspetto cerchino in genere dei partner fisicamente attraenti o che una banca conceda prestiti più alti a chi ha più ricchezza, ma questo non dimostra che gli Enti amino i loro funzionari o che le donne belle amino i loro compagni (e viceversa) o che le banche amino i loro clienti. Questa idiozia di massa che porta tanta gente a sentirsi in imbarazzo con persone “superiori” sotto qualche aspetto o che porta tanta gente a leggere un certo libro solo perché “lo hanno letto tutti”, come ogni idiozia, non sta in piedi. Resta in piedi pur non avendo solide basi, perché ha basi psicologiche profonde, anche se irrazionali: i genitori, quando detestano i figli, non conoscono il motivo della loro ostilità e quindi trovano delle scuse : “sei il solito stupido”, “fatti onore”, “non deludermi”, “non far soffrire la mamma”. I bambini, proprio perché sono piccoli preferiscono credere a queste stronzate [cfr. il POST Stronzate e analisi filosofica ] piuttosto che sentirsi non amati. Vogliono credere that if they are better at school, more good with his grandmother or more orders, then will also be loved. Cling (unknowingly) to this shit and make it a reason to live, either in childhood or in later times, looking for love "elbowing" before school or in sport and then at work, looking for love "hard talking" even if does not help, try love to "tweak the lines" when they get older. Keyes' book is then, after all, just an antidote to this "mental drugs", since when Charlie becomes a genius points out that there was a human being before and therefore deserved the same respect. In the novel
è chiarito bene che l’attaccamento di Charlie all’idea di diventare “inteligiente” ha profonde radici nella nevrosi di sua madre, una donna fragile emotivamente ed incapace di accettare il ritardo mentale del figlio. Una donna orientata a scaricare sul figlio la propria mancanza di rispetto per se stessa. Il padre è molto più sereno nei confronti dei limiti del figlio, ma non riesce a “fare il padre” e ad intervenire quindi in modi opportuni. Charlie comprende il nesso fra il proprio passato e la propria esigenza di “progredire”: “Ma io, suppongo, non smisi mai di desiderare di essere il bambino intelligente che lei avrebbe voluto, affinché potesse amarmi” (p. 128).
If we see the book from this angle, we can find it in quite a profound recognition of the value of capacity "human" in human beings, despite their intellectual merits or limits.
Not surprisingly, when Charlie begins to feel sexual attraction to Alice, you realize you do not have an "inner strength" comparable to the cultural strength now been achieved and reflected on it this way: "How can a man learn how to behave to a woman? The books are not that great "(p. 75). You learn it growing up in a family emotionally balanced and intense. You learn to be loved first and then to love. The capacity to love develops later sexually, of course.
When Charlie realizes that they have little time before returning to the "dark" in the "non-self-awareness" from which he emerged, he realizes that having to "live his life." Feels he has little time, but had to do some experiences that are missing, and between the experience of loving a woman. This experience seems important because, although they managed to have sex with a friend, had never let go of a person who truly loved her. After making love with Alice, wrote these words: "I do not pretend to understand the mystery of love, but this time it is was more than pure sex. I was relieved by the dark cell of my mind and I became part of something else "(p. 255). Not by chance-and this is another point in favor of the author-this "elevation interior" is made possible by the experience of letting Charlie go to a woman, and not by the studies.
Happiness has to do with our ability to love each other, to keep us company, to accept us for who we are, but it has a lot to do with "the confidence to embrace another person that it is possible only love. This is the true "discovery" of Charlie, the true discovery di questo ingenuo divenuto un uomo eccezionale che comprende l’importanza di essere semplicemente un essere umano.
Lo sviluppo intellettivo eccezionale porta Charlie a capire cose che nemmeno gli studiosi che lo avevano seguito riuscivano a capire, ma ciò che di meraviglioso egli raggiunge, uscendo dal tunnel della propria ottusità iniziale, è soprattutto la capacità di accettare sia ciò che è, sia ciò che era . Di accettare Alice. Di accettare Alghernon anche sulla via del declino e dopo la sua morte. Assistendo al declino di Algernon egli prova compassione per quell’animaletto che gli era stato tanto vicino. E decide che il topolino suo amico non deve finire nell’inceneritore del laboratory. After his death bury him in their garden and will continue to lay flowers on the small grave. Hence the title of the book.
This inner wealth becomes a stable element of Charlie and these will keep the love for Alice and Algernon in the weeks of involution, which will return to write reports ungrammatical. The last of these (and the last page of the entire book) about his feelings for his friend buried in the garden: "please if posono methane cualke flower on the grave of Algernon in kortile.
Gianfranco
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