Just finished the book. It is one of two things: a) a very deeply witty satire of the horror genre that I, a novice, cannot appreciate because the tropes fly so fully over my head. b) trash. Not fun trash, either, icky distracting, poorly written trash.
I am Legend has a really interesting premise (which the three movies based on it banked on) and a kind of cool twist at the end. The final sentence is really quite brilliant. A kind of cool twist. And the appeal ends there.
Robert Neville is a self-loathing and unlikeable fellow. The other characters, briefly as they appear, are unrealistic and also unloveable. Dialog is sparse of course, but wooden and splintery when it comes up. Meh: not compelling, not that interesting, no climax to speak of.
This could be Matheson's intent. Truth be told, the inner and external dialog sounds a lot like it's being thought by a man who doesn't have much experience with conversation. The emotional climax of the film resolves with Neville understanding that overwhelming hope is not the path to sanity, but an abiding plodding effort. Maybe Matheson is inviting us inside Neville's head by creating just this kind of environment.
The last issue I had with the book (and understand, I am a critical and demanding reader, but really tried to enjoy this story for what it was. I'm not great at that, but I put forth an effort) was that Neville was bizarrely driven by sex and violence. Possibly this is a guy thing. Maybe it's beyond my understanding. I definitely read things with my feminist glasses on (they suit me smashingly), but am not sure that the psychology of the character could really hold water. Any thoughts?
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
I am Legend
Posted by Kjerstin Evans Ballard at 8:20 PM
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3 comments:
P.S. A lot of what bothered me about the book was that Neville is trying to figure stuff out about the vampires, trying to rationalize his experience and their evolution, but it's really shoddy reasoning. Somewhere someone wrote that that's the joke, that's the point: we want to rely on reason but we can't, as shown through Neville's character. If it were more scary I would believe it maybe...hhmmm.
On the sex and violence thing, without having read the book, I guess it's hard for me to comment. But, I will say that it's hard to underestimate the pull of these things on the "natural man," and it's kind of a common trope in the apocalyptic/dystopia genre. See, e.g. Fight Club or Blindness.
How does I am Legend compare to The Road?
In a cagematch: If you armed I am Legend with a butterfly knife, barbed wire, and a trenchpike; tied one of The Road's arms behind its back and broke its nose The Road could still take I am Legend. I would give The Road a minute and a half.
It's actually an interesting comparison--the post-apocalyptic thing, the passing on the torch thing, the question of what you do when society is turned upside down and how do you keep sane. The Road is on a whole different dimension of quality though. There is nothing like its themes and questions and oh just the beauty of the prose in Legend. The characters, too, are more fully drawn and though human are much more thoughtful and less frustrating. Also, ironically, The Road is like a thousand times more frightening than Legend. McCarthy does horror brilliantly. Michael Chabon wrote on this, check out: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19856. Interesting.
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