Flowers for Algernon or pulling a real Charly Gordon

Flowers for Algernon was written by Daniel Keyes as a short story in 1959 and then expanded to novel
length in 1966. It was adapted to film in 1968, it was adapted again in 2000 as a TV movie.
I'll be covering the TV movie and the Film Adaptation and also on a future episode of Take Me to Your
Reader.

Firstly will start with the plot of the story. Charly Gordon is a 37yr old man with an IQ of 68 who works at
a Bakery during the day and goes to School at night to learn to read and write. His teacher, Ms Alice
Kinian gets him the opportunity to be a human test subject for an experiment that would increase his
intelligence as they have for a small white mouse named Algernon.

Keyes writes Flowers for Algernon through Progress Reports that Charlie writes, so that the narrative is
from Charly's point of view. At first glance Keyes' writing seems almost condescending but by the end of
the first third of the story, you realise all the effort that he must have put into writing the earlier parts. The
spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are so well thought out that the gradual improvements in Charly's
writing are as surprising to the reader as they are to the character.
The main difference between the short story and the novel are the addition of a couple of subplots. One
involves Charly's sexual exploration and maturation. Which is interesting in the framing of it as almost a like
second puberty, even down to things moving at an accelerated pace and with the ease of growing intellect
to learn from his missteps.
The other is to do with Charly's family, his father, mother and sister as well as the circumstances of how
Charly ended up in the situation that we meet him with at the beginning of the novel. The second subplot is
the more interesting of the two as we learn that Charly's mother was pushing Charly to one treatment or
another to make him normal and as soon as she knew his sister had normal IQ that he was rejected and
pushed aside by his mother, his father being the only person being concerned for Charly's well being.
This turns a different path when he locates his father and gets a haircut from him in his barber's shop. Even
though he is successful and what he deems normal, he can't bring himself to introduce himself to his father
who defended him all those times as a child. This is made even more tragic when he finally tracks down his
mother and his sister (who had signed the release for his operation) and finds his mother in the early stages
of dementia and his sister caring for her. The cruellest irony is that his sister while attempting to salvage her
relationship with her brother, doesn't realise that Charly knows that he is in decline and that the person that
she believes that he is now, will soon no longer exist. Charly leaves his newly found family and starts to plan
for his impending decline. And gradually one by one he pushes away everyone that matter to him, until he
eventually ends up in the home that he has organised to be put into.

So with any adaptation stuff is going to be left out but Charly/Flowers For Algernon is a good example of
being too faithful an adaptation is almost as bad as being not paying homage to the original source of the
story. Good place to start with this is the plot line which is largely missing from both adaptations, the family
dynamic as they deal with Charly. The tv adaptation focuses more on a minor incident in Charly's past that
forced the changing of schools and started causing the rift between him and his sister and the Film
Adaptation glosses over it completely. This is a missed opportunity because it could have been conveyed in
the visual medium, Charly and his mother interacting together as they both longed for before they both take
their parallel paths blissful ignorance. The TV movie is a more close adaption of the novel but I as previously
stated it does not make it better. While the movie is not as close an adaptation it at least treats the
characters in a three dimensional way. To me this comes down to two factors, the first being that the late
Cliff Robertson passion for the projector. He pushed for the film Charly to be made since he had already
played Charly Gordon on television seven years prior. Robertson believed in the project so much that he
paid William Goldman, writer of the Princess Bride, thirty thousand dollars to adapt it out of his own pocket.
Unhappy with Goldman's draft, he then got Stirling Sliphant write whose screenplay was the one that was
ultimately shot. Although the Charly is a product of its time (the late sixties) mainly through the use of split
screen and the counterculture of the time, the way the Director shot the film in a very cinema verite style
allows the story to be very accessible. The one scene that does change completely from the novel is when
Charly is at the bar and the young man who it is implied has the same mental acquity as Charly once had,
drops the glasses and all the patrons laugh at him. In the novel, Charly attempts to chastise the patrons for
their behaviour which does appear to have a negligible effect. The film deals with this in a more profound
way with Cliff Robertson's performance. Charly doesn’t say a single word. His silent dignity and empathy to
simply help reduces the room to silence. In effect, his actions lead the room to reflect on their own guilt and
culpability in the way that they had treated the young man minutes earlier. While the film doesn't cover
Charly's deterioration in much detail like the short story and omits the bittersweet title drop in the final lines
of both the short story and the novel. But in doing so it evades a pitfall that the TV Movie heads directly into.
In comparison the TV Movie is almost slavishly adapting the book which isn't necessarily a good thing. It
would be a good companion piece if one was teaching this text, but the screenplay isn't really updated for
the time it was shot in 2000. While it has some shots of computers being used, it could be from anytime
which is a shame. The one thing that the TV Movie does get right like the Film Adaptation is the use of
clothing and hairstyling to subtly show Charly's rise and decline without having to resort to exposition.
Unfortunately while getting a lot of the text right, it makes a large change towards the end. Gone are the
characters of Charly's Father and Mother and the subplot of his mother's dementia which to me is a shame.
The other change is the ending, where the Charly Gordon in the novel makes great pains to spare Alice
Kinian from seeing his decline as does the movie Charly Gordon where as the TV movie version, makes
great professions of his love for Alice Kinian but then proceeds to make no changes in the face of his
deterioration, he gets his job back at the bakery and back into Alice Kinian's class with only a passing
statement to the home that he will be moving into. This is the bit that just seems cruel from Alice Kinian's
perspective, to have to see the man that she loved every single day and for him not to recognise her or
remember their love would be torture in my opinion. While it is utilised as a way for Charly to ask Alice to put
flowers on Algernon's grave, it could have been in the scene prior and conveyed that much better. On the
whole I found the short story and novel extremely well written and thought out.
The movie and the TV movie are good companion pieces to the novel if only to show the difference
between adapting too close to the material and also leaving something out and also when something should
have been left in. It is also a very thought provoking story as well, delving into ideas such as treatment of the
intellectually disabled, how intelligence can be linked to identity and the differences between emotional
intellect and pure intellect are. It comes highly recommended.

Chocky or an Advanced Alien Intelligence meets the English Education System

Chocky was written by John Wyndham in 1963 in novellette form and finally published as a novel in 1968, a year after the BBC had first adapted it for radio. It would be adapted again in 1998 but before then in 1984 it was dramatised for television on ITV by Anthony Read which is the adaptation I will be comparing the novel to. The TV dramatisation is six episodes of 30 minutes in length. Produced in 1984 it was seen in the UK as well as Canada and Australia. It was followed by a second series: Chocky's Children in 1985 which was wholy original as was the final series in 1986, Chocky's Children. In Australia they were screened on the national broadcaster, the ABC on a Tuesday afternoon at 5pm on a weekly basis which meant that the original would have lasted for around six weeks and was like most things of that time, rerun at a later time during the year.
 Chocky is the story of the atypical English family, the Gores. The father David, mother Mary, adopted son Matthew and natural born daughter Polly. They have the normal issues families have with the biggest issue being the accommodation of Polly's imaginary friend Piff, that is until Matthew starts asking questions that are beyond his 11 year knoweledge...
 The book is very interesting when you know that the Author, John Wyndham never had children and it was the final book published while he was alive, yet he writes both the worries of the parents and Matthew with equal deftness. The only thing that doesn't date well or possibly doesn't translate to non-english cultures is Matthew calling his father Daddy at every turn even though he's eleven. Thankfully this is addressed in the TV dramatisation as part of the updating. My use of the word dramatisation and not adaptation is intentional. It is used in the opening credits and it is very apt as Chocky is a very straightforward story and so is the tv show. The tv show and the book it is based on are very economical, nothing is wasted. No subplots, no extraneous characters. This allows you to ponder the questions that the story raises but both are products of their time. The TV adaptation raises questions of identity like the Midwich Cuckoos but also questions of, at least in Matthew's eyes that his accomplishments are Chocky's accomplishments, until he begins to at least with the artwork, takes ownership that it may have been Chocky that initiated the art but it was Matthew that had the latent talent, the malleable mind that Chocky was seeking. This is made even more obvious in the first episode of the tv show as Chocky hovers unseen in the classroom until Chocky selects Matthew. On the whole Chocky seen with the passage of time seems both quaint and prescient at the same time. The family only having to worry about their privacy being invaded by the press on the phone, radio and at their house. But also Chocky's thoughts on the primitiveness of the new car and our society being a sun-based economy and I wonder if John Wyndham had read John Christopher's The Death of Grass (later adapted in film under the title No Blade of Grass) and that had some small influence. We shall probably never know as his wishes were that after his death that his personal papers and correspondence were to be destroyed. All that remains is the work and Chocky is the pinnacle of that work. It is still a cozy catastrophe as his work has been characterised but like his first book, Day of the Triffids its the simplicity of the prose and the story that draws the reader in and lets them envision themselves in those extraordinary circumstances and can be adapted or dramatised without major changes and is situable for all ages both the book and the TV series which was released on DVD in Zone 2 & 4 (UK & Australia/New Zealand) in 2010.

Day of the Triffids or Do you like your catastrophes cozy ?

In my first review of TV Series vs Book on Literary Square Eyes, I look at The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and compare it with TV Adaptations produced in 1981 and 2009 as well as the Radio Drama from the 60s.

  For those unaware, John Wyndham wrote The Day of the Triffids in 1951. It details an apocalypse caused by a meteor shower that blinds all that see it and plants called Triffids that have been cultivated worldwide for their oil become mobile and carnivorous. Biologist Bill Massen finds himself as one of the only sighted people in a hospital after his eyes were protected from the meteor shower after being injured by Triffid Poison and having to be covered as part of his treatment. After removing his bandages, Bill ventures out into Post Apocalyptic London, one where a majority of the population are blind and carnivorous plants roam the streets.

  As the book is John Wyndham's first published work the story is very straight forward. Throughout the story, ideas are presented but not really explored, but the reasons for the current state of affairs are never completely confirmed which adds verisimilitude to Wyndham's story. Although a majority of the attitudes are of their time, especially when it relates to women and to the blind. While Josella is independent and takes care but she waits for Bill to find her and then her life starts with Bill. During the story Josella is something to be obtained and when obtained Josella is relegated to duties around the home and having a baby as per gender norms of the time. The blind are burdens to be endured and gotten rid of, not valuable people that can contribute but helpless and needing continual help. But to me, the most frustrating part of the story is the cozy catastrophe of it all. All the issues are easily overcome and the biggest issue comes towards the end of the story with the presentation of the last minute villain that threatens their escape to the promised land by Bill's former nemesis. And with this final hurdle, the story abruptly ends. In saying this I'm not saying that the Triffids are not great creations, but the book and the works adapted from suffering from the same malaise.

The radio series was adapted in the 60s and it shows as of all the adaptations it seems to stick the closest to the text and is pretty much paint by the numbers and if you don't feel like reading the book, due to the verisimilitude of the radio series, it comes recommended as another way to experience the story.

The 2009 adaptation like the movie is a less faithful adaptation. The story is tweaked from the Triffids being created through genetic manipulation that the Triffids are now newly found flora in Zaire. They kill the protagonist's mother which of course leads him to be an expert in them. Due to the changes to the story, the indigenous knowledge that up until this point of the narrative has not been any part of the discourse becomes important to the plot and essentially makes that if the indigenous information had been followed that the problem of the Triffids would have been resolved. While I accept that by nature an adaptation requires change for the original source to work in its new medium, but to me, this change doesn't work as it doesn't feel organic. It would have felt more organic if Bill had been changed to being an African from Zaire and the information that the triffids were not to be trifled with would have changed Bill into a character that was straddling the modern world and the world of his ancestors as well as reconciling the knowledge that he had passed down to him and his modern teachings. Much more relevant and compelling in today's society and an interesting take on what Wyndham was saying on the dangers of not only acceptance of technologies without thinking of the consequences but also that if we abuse Nature that Nature could abuse humans with great ease.

  In conclusion, the book is a science fiction classic, but not without its flaws. The radio series and the 1981 tv series are both products of their time but very close adaptations and the 2009 tv miniseries while changing the story, the wrong things and misses a lot of opportunities but due to its straying from the source material too much hurts it from being a better adaptation and possible update.

The Shape of Things to Come or A Beginning

This blog has been a long time coming. It came from a discussion between a friend and who does a podcast with some other friends reviewing Science Fiction movies adapted from Science Fiction books. I mentioned the new TV series based on the book by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale. While my friend said that he wasn't sure when they would cover it, like all good friends he said why don't I do something with it? Not one to back down from a challenge, I pondered the idea and I remembered the shows I watched in my childhood. Chocky, The Tripods, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left. While not all the titles may not be familiar as the names of John Wyndham, John Christopher, Douglas Adams, and Robin Klein. But it is my hope that on this journey we'll find some great books and some great tv.