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It is a story as old as time, or at least as old as Warner Bros.: a super-smart laboratory mouse along with his sidekick strategy to conquer their captors and take over the entire world in Flowers for Algernon. Alright, so our main man, Charlie, is a bit more into living an experimental operation than creating minions bow to his greatness--and he also is not a mouse (although his sidekick is)--but writer Daniel Keyes is surely interested in what happens when you futz around with intellect of the artificial sort.

.. and let's just say it is not all rainbows and butterflies. In reality, he was so interested in telling Charlie's story that he enlarged it from a brief story in a science fiction mag to some big honkin' book.

Individuals with disabilities are gradually gaining civil rights, but discrimination still happens on the routine.

What exactly does Charlie fit into this equation?

He is a lonely man who thinks smarts will skyrocket him to popularity, but there's a significant reality check heading his manner--super-intelligence is not precisely the status quo, after all. And for a decade known for radical ideas, there sure is a great deal of emphasis put on conformity.

In case you're looking for a few real 1960s taste, then check out Charly, the 1968 movie based on Flowers for Algernon. You get plopped right into the discussion on tinkering with intellect whilst sampling some candy 1960s cinematography. And when Charly's somewhat on the hefty side, TiVo Pinky and the Brain for some comic relief.

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