あなたはゆっくりと変わっていく　とても小さく (You're changing slowly)

少しずつ膨らむパンを眺めるように (Like gazing at a tiny bread plumping up little by little)

あなたはゆっくりと走っていく (You keep on slowly running)

長い迷路の先も恐れないままで (Unafraid of what lies beyond the long maze)

(Official translation from the YouTube page)

So goes Algernon by Yorushika. Can you tell I like this artist? I talk about them a lot haha. Their recent album Magic Lantern is full of songs that reference literature and famous books. I don't know what most of them reference, but Algernon, 451, Matasaburo and The Old Man and the Sea are obvious. I already read Fahrenheit 451 many years ago, but I always wanted to read Flowers for Algernon. Strangely, my first introduction to this book was from a tabletop roleplaying podcast. One of the main characters was named Algernon and much of the discussion about that character went over my head. After listening to this album, and this song, many many times, I finally decided to read Flowers for Algernon for myself.

The story follows Charlie, a man who is (I don't know how to say this politely) a retard. This word is considered a slur in modern speech, but it's also the medical word for being developmentally disabled (I guess that's how). He writes a diary, and that's the point of view for the story. His diary entries start very stilted and grammatically incorrect. They're full of spelling mistakes and are difficult to read. Much like mine 😅He works in a bakery, not as a baker, but just cleaning up the stores. He undergoes an experimental operation that accelerates his development, after successful tests in mice. One mouse, Algernon, was a particularly smart example. Charlie's diaries get more sophisticated and longer. He realises that everyone was taking advantage of him and his stupidity, and he breaks free from his life. Because he didn't make many friends growing up, he doesn't know how to interact with people, so he is difficult to work with and kind of haughty and annoying. He remembers his childhood, and his parents, and his sister. They loved him. He visits them again and they don't like what he has become. Over time, he misses his old, simpler life. Algernon begins acting erratically and finally dies. Charlie digs a grave for the mouse and lays flowers on the freshly dug soil. And finally, his own mind begins to fail him. He feels himself returning to the way he once was. There is a kind of freedom and bliss in his final diary entry.

Charlie grew like a rising loaf of bread. Slowly at first, then quickly all at once. First walking, then running. He compares the city he lives in to a maze. Before his operation, he gets lost a lot. Afterwards, he laughs at how he used to get lost in this simple, grid-like city. And yet he is lost, in the social interactions with people around him and in his own mind. Yet finally, when he reaches the end of that maze, he is not scared. It's a beautiful song that captures the feeling of the book.

Myself, I related to Charlie quite a bit. I was always the smart one in class; often my homework was the one people were copying right before handing it in to the teachers. I didn't mind. When I arrived in university and knowing things became less important than being able to do things, and it turned out I was not really capable of doing anything, I had a crisis. I was clinically depressed and socially inept so I didn't even have friends to help me. It was a very tough time in my life. I'm still not really over it. I find it hard to connect with other people, to care about the things they care about. I don't really know what I care about. I was, and am, lost in my own maze, a maze of my own creation. Charlie looks aloof down on the other people in his life, even those he loves. He is so much smarter than them that they can't really understand each other. At the end, he is isolated and alone, with only a mouse for a friend. I hope I don't end up that way.