Some may prefer to think of an M-16-packing Will Smith as the protagonist of Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND. Some may picture OMEGA MAN’s Charleton Heston driving a convertible Mustang through darkening streets, his submachine gun slung on the seat beside him. But when others read LEGEND, they see a dusty man in baggy clothes. There’s nothing glamorous about him, not a hint of the jaw-clenching confidence of a Hollywood star. He’s thin. His eyes are red-rimmed and he appears to be as mad as Don Quixote alone a hundred years into purgatory, tilting at corpses.
What is it about early postwar sci-fi that makes its worlds seem so dark and realistically shabby? Proximity to nuclear annihilation? The poorly forgotten horrors of World War Two? The rote mediocrity of peace after the time of global death and flame ended, the famished beginning of the age of mass consumption? Or is it only that we’ve been conditioned by the black-and-white movies of that time?
Whatever it is, Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND is shot through with it. This book is wonderfully dark. Neville drinks. He sweats and laughs and cooks and eats and cries and, in between bouts of near-insanity, he kills people. It seems as if killing is the most rational thing left to do. And Matheson puts the reader right there with him.
Of course the people Neville kills aren’t people anymore. He’s the only unmutated person left alive, as far as he knows. He’s alone and manic and the others aren’t fully human and they want to kill him, and so his extreme paranoia is justified. It’s a classic “bunker” book, almost completely sociopathic but for Neville’s doomed attempts to cure the afflicted. And the ending provides a sardonic chill, a lovely black hole for hope.
But is I AM LEGEND the darkest post-apoc book ever written? Can it match THE ROAD’s poetic blasts of human depravity? Is it in the same league as ON THE BEACH?
What do you think?
(This is Terry DeHart’s second post on post-apocalyptic tales. The first explored A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ . His own contribution to the literature itself, his debut novel THE UNIT has been called by Publishers Weekly “a striking picture of human vulnerability and strength.”)
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The Unit
One ordinary suburban family must take up arms in this brutal and unforgettable debut set in an America devastated by a nuclear attack.
"... a striking picture of human vulnerability and strength." — Publishers Weekly
AL
June 21, 2010
at 11:02 am
George Romero also acknowledged that Night of The Living Dead was inspired by I Am Legend – so it also gave us zombies! But I think for darkness you need more people. THE ROAD was shattering because of the father and son. The last-man-on-earth approach somehow doesn’t have the same impact for me.
Terry DeHart
June 22, 2010
at 3:28 pm
Wow. I didn’t know that about George Romero. Nice post-apoc trivia mastery, there.
The more people in extreme danger, the better (in fiction!).
John Walsh
June 21, 2010
at 11:22 am
The first time I read I AM LEGEND I was spooked for days. I agree with AL that the ROAD was darker, but I AM LEGEND is maybe number 2?
GREAT post!
Terry DeHart
June 22, 2010
at 5:16 pm
Thanks, John!
I’m torn. THE ROAD is a journey through the valley of the shadow, etc., but the ending of I AM LEGEND goes fully dark.
Mithril Wisdom
June 21, 2010
at 2:44 pm
I loved reading I Am Legend. The desolation in the daytime coupled with the constant barrage of attacks from the mutated at night was quite unsettling. No movie adaptation could do proper justice to it (as we’ve seen). A classic novel.
I haven’t read much other post-apocalyptic fiction other than Legend, however. I’ve heard good things about The Road so maybe I’ll give that a shot. I Am Legend will still be my basis for comparison.
Terry DeHart
June 22, 2010
at 5:46 pm
I’d love to see Hollywood remake I AM LEGEND without a hint of bling.
Yes, Mithril, for more of that unsettled post-apoc feeling, read THE ROAD!
Matthew Bradley
June 22, 2010
at 10:06 am
An excellent write-up, demonstrating that I AM LEGEND was perhaps the ultimate creation of the man whose family affectionately nicknamed him “Mr. Paranoia.” And while Mithril Wisdom is correct that no official feature-film version has done true justice to it, the first one, THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, is pretty faithful (albeit low-budget) and, in the person of Vincent Price, much closer to Matheson’s vision than the macho Heston/Smith interpretations. Interested parties can learn more about all three adaptations in my forthcoming book RICHARD MATHESON ON SCREEN.
Terry DeHart
June 22, 2010
at 5:48 pm
Thanks, Matthew. Gotta love that “Mr. Paranoia” handle.
I’ll keep an eye out for your book.
Matthew Bradley
August 20, 2010
at 10:19 pm
Many thanks. It’s now tentatively set to be published in early October. Of course, you can always pre-order it.
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-4216-4
Rachael Adams
February 22, 2011
at 7:08 pm
I am about to start writing my Final year Dissertation on these two books and my thesis statement is along the lines of:
When an order in society is demolished what is left when nothing is left at all.
The story of hope and the battle of the rising social groups in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Richard Matheson’s I am legend.
It’s only really a basic idea, and I definitely need to define it ever so slightly – I just seem to be hitting a brick wall, can anybody suggest an ever so slightly more specific title which formulates around both the theme of hope and how society is ever changing causing a conflict of opposing groups which can be seen in both of these titles.