Forget the movie. Please.
It occurred the me that there might be some who haven't read Richard Matheson's classic novel, I Am Legend. I understand that not everyone enjoys reading the classics, but this book? There are classics, and then there are legends of the field.
Matheson's I Am Legend is probably the greatest horror-SF novel of the 1950's. Its influence is immeasurable. The story of a world taken over by vampires has inspired several motion pictures. The Last Man on Earth (with Vincent Price) and the movie of the same title are directly from the book. Neither do it justice, but the Price movie comes much closer than the Will Smith debacle.
I Am Legend inspired The Omega Man, and George Romero admits that he used the novel as a template for Night of the Living Dead.
So I guess it is the illegitimate father of the Zombie subgenre. Don't blame Richard Matheson for the sins of later generations.
I Am Legend is almost certainly the first story to use scientific analysis to examine and explain the vampire in fiction. The lone survivor of a vampire breakout attempts to learn what created the epidemic. Even while he grapples with his sanity in the process.
It also examines the archetypes of the human tribe and definitions of the outcast, the hero, and how time, happenstance, and perspective determine who are the monsters among us.
Matheson's novel is one of the most important stories in the genre's history. It is a marriage of the traditional monster and the modern age of reason and logic. It's also a devastating nightmare vision of a future that seems all to possible.
Vampires? Assuredly not, but virulent pestilence, human prejudice, ignorance, or fear-induced violence? It seems more likely by the day.
If you are one of the readers who has not experienced Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, you owe it to yourself to do so. Then maybe you can move on to other Matheson classics like Hell House, Somewhere in Time, The Beardless Warriors, or his many superlative short stories.
And if you have read it, perhaps it is time to go back and see how well it was done long before most of us were born.
It occurred the me that there might be some who haven't read Richard Matheson's classic novel, I Am Legend. I understand that not everyone enjoys reading the classics, but this book? There are classics, and then there are legends of the field.
Matheson's I Am Legend is probably the greatest horror-SF novel of the 1950's. Its influence is immeasurable. The story of a world taken over by vampires has inspired several motion pictures. The Last Man on Earth (with Vincent Price) and the movie of the same title are directly from the book. Neither do it justice, but the Price movie comes much closer than the Will Smith debacle.
I Am Legend inspired The Omega Man, and George Romero admits that he used the novel as a template for Night of the Living Dead.So I guess it is the illegitimate father of the Zombie subgenre. Don't blame Richard Matheson for the sins of later generations.
I Am Legend is almost certainly the first story to use scientific analysis to examine and explain the vampire in fiction. The lone survivor of a vampire breakout attempts to learn what created the epidemic. Even while he grapples with his sanity in the process.
It also examines the archetypes of the human tribe and definitions of the outcast, the hero, and how time, happenstance, and perspective determine who are the monsters among us.
Matheson's novel is one of the most important stories in the genre's history. It is a marriage of the traditional monster and the modern age of reason and logic. It's also a devastating nightmare vision of a future that seems all to possible.
Vampires? Assuredly not, but virulent pestilence, human prejudice, ignorance, or fear-induced violence? It seems more likely by the day.
If you are one of the readers who has not experienced Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, you owe it to yourself to do so. Then maybe you can move on to other Matheson classics like Hell House, Somewhere in Time, The Beardless Warriors, or his many superlative short stories.
And if you have read it, perhaps it is time to go back and see how well it was done long before most of us were born.
The author does not allow comments to this entry
No comments