Unlikely Sequels

I know that it's considered a terrible faux pas among the artistically correct, but I'm quite fond of Andrew Lloyd-Weber musicals. I especially like Sunset Boulevard. To continue this stream of consciousness, it seems to me that there are a lot of good stories out there that don't have sequels. In the case of Sunset Boulevard, there would seem to be some substantial obstacles to a sequel, like the demise of one central character and imminent incarceration of another. These odds have not daunted many previous authors.

The Illiad ends with the slaughter of all the Trojan men, but Vergil didn't let this stop Aeneas. Sherlock Holmes survived his death and the dislike of his author to triumph again.

It's true that sequels are rarely very good, but there are some outstanding counterexamples. Most often cited are Huckleberry Finn and The New Testament, but how about The Lord of the Rings, and Seven Pillars of Wisdom? Not to mention Tolstoy's Anna Karenina Redux or Shakespeare's greatest comedy, Juliet and her Romeo: Married with Children.

So, Sir Andrew, or Lord Lloyd, or whatever they call you these days, how about an SB sequel. I see Joe as merely wounded, and Norma, after the shock of her arrest and incarceration, coming out to join Max in becoming a major 50's and 60's sitcom team. And Andy - some author has already written about the posthumous adventures of Eva Peron.

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