Give him super strength and send him off to Viet Nam.
I would write a completely different story, with different characters, setting, and premise, and no connection whatsoever to the original. And in a post-modern twist, I also wouldn’t describe it as a sequal; I’d leave that to the readers to figure out.
Am I imagining things, or did I recently hear that Daniel Keyes was indeed riting a sekwol?
Sir Rhosis
If you wanted to take it to the realm of science fiction or fantasy, you could have Charlie’s superintelligence return intermittently, so one moment he could be discussing relativistic physics with some top scholars and the next, be unable to do simple arithmetic. I’ve always thought that a character that goes through periods of genius and retardation would be a good idea for a story, but I’m not a writer so I can’t do anything with it.
The book Flowers for Algernon gave me the impression that he was going to end up worse-off than before, so I’m not sure how you could have done a sequel with that.
As a metaphor for the unpredictability of Alzheimer’s, it could strike a chord with baby boomers who have to deal with their own aging parents and contemplating their own inevitable decline. If such a film gets made, though, I’m sure it’ll be played for cheap laughs, with the main character flipping between incoherent intellectual jargon and childish ramblings, with the audience expected to sympathize more with the latter.
we’ve certainly been approached by the powers that be to film a sequel, but for reasons of national security, charly and I have always turned down the offers. no matter how lucrative.
i don’t want to be too specific for obvious reasons, but i’m very happy with my life as a computer hacker – the positive kind, not the ones who write malware etc. i work for the department of homeland security.
last i heard, charly is working in a secret lab at the nsa. my understanding is that he’s been in discussion with hawking on the nature of dark energy and that the answer will soon provide the source for a new, horribly powerful weapon.
what about our deaths you ask. well, they were faked of course. the government had use for our special intelligence, and they wanted it only for themselves.
obviously, i can’t say any more. i put myself at risk everytime i post here at the sdmb as it is. unfortunately, as a mouse, it is a bitch that i can’t use the shift key. my tail just isn’t strong enough to hold it down while i hop from key to key, like my idol archie the cockroach.