One for the Books story

as1985e1x23 · 1986-05-11

Elderly college janitor Fred finds that his brain can instantly absorb any fact of any subject taught in any classroom he cleans. When this discovery becomes public, he becomes subject to a heated debate among campus professors Rand, Gilbert, and Smith about the abilities and limitations of human intellect, proving to be more than he can handle. Directed by: Lesli Linka Glatter. Story by: Richard Matheson.

8 total · 1 choice · 5 major · 2 minor

Theme	Level	Motivation
speculative experience	choice	Fred mysteriously found himself crammed full of all the knowledge contained in the university library. He found the ordeal distressing, and with the help of his wife sought out help from a professor of psychology at the university.
academic occupation	major	Fred and Eva besought a university psychology professor, Dr. Fetlock, for aid in their bewilderment after Fred exhibited signs of super intelligence. They later demonstrated Fred's knowledge to an audience of professors drawn from various fields.
alien experiment	major	An interpretation of the story is aliens used Fred for some unfathomable purpose.
covert alien observers	major	An interpretation of the story is aliens used Fred as a vessel to beam to them the sum total of human knowledge.
husband and wife	major	The janitor, Fred, and his loving wife, Eva, were at the center of the story.
super intelligence	major	Fred inexplicably found himself to be a master of both mathematics and physics. Also French, though that is neither here nor there. It is unclear how well he understood the things his mind recalled, seemingly at random, but from some angle of seeing things he might have been called extraordinarily intelligent.
embarrassment	minor	Fred and Eva were somewhat upset at being laughed at by a room full of esteemed scientists.
flying saucer	minor	The story concluded with a saucer-shaped flying object in to, seemingly, collect the information that had accumulated in Fred's head.