Wednesday, December 26, 2007
I Am Legend
By Robert Matheson - 1954When I first heard of the vampire science fiction novel “I am Legend”, it was years ago after viewing the 70’s movie “Omega Man”, starring Charlton Heston. I picked it up years later after hearing Will Smith was slated to play Aaron Neville in the 2007 version. Similar to the neo-noir science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick, Robert Matheson is a former scriptwriter for the original 60’s series - “The Twilight Zone”, whose works and ideas have often been made into Hollywood movies or television shows. Although I anticipate the current film adaptation will have plenty of explosions and mind-blowing special effects, Matheson’s original story, published in 1955, is a successful blend of sci-fi horror story, thought provoking social commentary, interesting plot twists, and a not so optimistic vision of a post-apocalyptic world.
Aaron Neville is the last man on Earth. The world has been swept by an incurable plague he was lucky enough to have immunity. He is located in a metropolitan area populated by him and the stricken survivors, to whom the plague has turned into bloodthirsty, nocturnal vampire/zombie-like creatures bent on his death. Sequestered in his fortified house at night, the depressed, alcoholic, sexually frustrated Neville scavenges for food and supplies in the day, losing hope to find other survivors who might be out there. Lurking in the shadows are the infected, who wait for the sun to fall to descend on what remains of the former civilization.
To the vampires, Neville is a serial killer, a monster that comes during the daylight hours and kills them mercilessly. “To them he was some terrible scourge they had never seen, a scourge even worse than the disease they had come to live with. He was an invisible specter who had left for evidence of his existence the bloodless bodies of their loved ones.” (74)
Matheson’s Neville also is in inner-conflict, dealing with the fairness of his survival over the rest of the planet. Neville’s self doubt and conflict consumes him - “Who decides who is on the right side? Who am I to determine the fate of others?”(130), as he endures attacks and exterminates what he deduces as vermin. The character of Robert Neville is used to show readers just what each of us truly is, at the core of our being - the best and the worst of humanity all rolled into one very human character. In the end, Robert Neville has risen above what he was before the plague took it all away.
His discoveries, both scientific and philosophical, show him to be much more than a mere factory worker (an interesting metaphor in a book that presents the failed idea of forced collectivism on unwitting classes of a new society). Ultimately, it is Neville, the novel's hero, who becomes the scourge of this new society. And as new societies go, this one isn't any different than others that have gone before. Neville is different, and different is dangerous.
Although I Am Legend is a fairly short novel at 175 pages, the few plot twists it contains make it interesting and keeps me reading. The story progress over a couple years as Neville, as the reluctant protagonist, survives and wonders that while surviving the plague wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, it beats becoming one of “them”. Although life as a survivor seems empty, bleak, and driving him to insanity, his hopes are raised a few times, discovering a dog, and running across another survivor, which leads to the eventual dark ending.
Part of its brilliance is in Matheson’s writing, which gets right into the main character’s head, and feels just detailed and realistic enough to relate to. His writing style compliments the eerie solitude with vivid descriptions of the empty city.Certain mental images - like former best friend but now pudgy vampire Ben Cortman standing outside, constantly yelling at Neville to come out, stick out as a good example of Matheson's macabre humor. I Am Legend should be required reading for anyone even remotely interested in the horror genre.
The book raises a lot of interesting questions on superstition's relation to science, normalcy, and the benefits of society and civilization. Written from the point of view of Neville, the reader enters his thoughts, feelings, and questions about being the sole survivor after watching everything he knew in the world was slowly destroyed. Although the premise of I Am Legend has been rehashed many times in film and literature, it is interesting to read a novel written from a time when such ideas originated. Even after 40 years, Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend still feels fresh and original.
B+
// posted by wormdog @ 9:06 AM 
