Stories of Your Life and Others

Leon Greco is the protagonist of the story “Understand.” Portrayed as an anti-hero, he is originally a man of regular intelligence who works as a digital designer, but after a drowning accident he is left in a vegetative state. A treatment with a new, experimental drug, Hormone K, brings him back to awareness and full physical ability. Soon, the drug influences Leon in unexpected ways, as he develops superintelligence which allows him to grasp the workings of reality and of the physical world in a completely new way. Leon’s character changes radically as his intelligence grows. He develops arrogance and a profound sense of superiority that moves him to envision himself as the potential ruler of the world.

His need to run and hide from the government also motivates elements of his change into a solitary, self-serving character, but the true dimensions of his transformation become visible only when he discovers there is another man, Reynolds, with abilities similar to his own. Leon views this man as a threat, a feeling which only intensifies when he learns that, unlike himself, Reynolds wants to use his new powers to change the world for the better.