

It was clear that even in the 21st century the Hugo-winning science fiction novel was one of the most widely read that concerns the mentally disabled. They nearly unanimously praised it a few spoke of how it was the only book that interested them in high school.

When I informed a few classes, however, that I was working on Daniel Keyes's Flowers for Algernon and the role mental disability had in the novel, the emotional attachment students had to the book was clear. In my short career of teaching undergraduates, I have found that their interest in my own scholarly work is often, at best, tepid.
