Algernon, Charlie, and I: A Writer's Journey by Keyes Daniel

Author:Keyes, Daniel [Keyes, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Writing, Biography
ISBN: 9780156029995
Amazon: 0156029995
Goodreads: 123166
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 2000-12-01T08:00:00+00:00

While all this was going on, I began a second version of a novel I'd 'worked on based on my Merchant Marine experiences. Someone once said, "The way you learn to write a novel is by writing a novel." And, I thought, the way to learn to write a novel better is to do it over.

During a break in the writing, I read an article in Life magazine about an accident in an industrial plant that used radioactive isotopes. There were photographs of the technician who had been contaminated, and of his home where decontamination specialists had cut away parts of the rug and drapes because he'd unknowingly tracked particles of radioactive dust into his home.

I was saddened by the pictures of his wife, whose hair had to be cropped, and of the son, who had developed radiation sickness. Their expressions moved me.

In the winter of 1961, I put aside the Merchant Marine novel and began A Trace of Dust, a novel about the effects of an industrial radiation spill on Barney and Karen Stark, a young couple who—after many disappointments—are finally expecting their first child. How would the community react to having been contaminated? How would Karen endure her pregnancy, wondering if she would give birth to a mutant? This was long before it was possible to examine a fetus in the uterus.

Usually, as I work on a story, it crowds in on me during non-writing hours, and I compose and edit and revise. But once its published, I go on to other things—if I'm lucky, to other writing. But I discovered that something else was going on in my mind at the same time—Charlie Gordon was haunting me.

Although I had set aside the sea novel to sketch out the radiation novel, changing the title to The Contaminated Man, Charlie kept surfacing. I was recalling scenes from his childhood, memories of his parents, of his normal sister, other events during his growing up. I jotted down notes, and put them aside. I stayed with the radiation novel, now calling it The Midas Touch. I had already become wise to the tricks the writer's mind plays on itself. There you are, writing along, smooth sailing, and then you get another idea you're sure is better than the one you're working on. It feels so hot it demands to be written, but after you start that one, you get another idea, and then another, and before you know it you've got a chain of unfinished works. How do I know this? I've got dozens of them. Are they dead or just dormant in my root cellar? I won't know until I try to replant them.

I tried resisting Charlie Gordon, but he wouldn't let up. He demanded my attention. I remember sitting at my typewriter one summer's day, when I had an unexpected thought.

As a super-genius, Charlie would probably have total recall of scenes and events back to his childhood. But, I wondered, how would he have perceived his childhood world before

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