I Am Legend (Book Club)

[dwndrgn]

Go ahead and begin June's discussion of I Am Legend. I'll make this a sticky and you guys can discuss away!

 

[littlemissattitude]

*footsteps echo as she walks into an apparently empty room*

Hello? Anyone in here? Anyone else finished with the book and ready to discuss?

I finally finished the thing this morning (Sunday). It seemed an awfully long slog for such a short book. Didn't knivesout say somewhere that he read it all in one sitting? I don't know. I admire the book, but I don't know that I can say I enjoyed it, exactly. Probably why it took me so long to read it.

I do have one question burning question, an issue I'd like to get other opinions on, but I'm afraid that if I ask it now, it will give something away for those who haven't finished it yet. So I will wait a bit before I introduce that issue.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Oh, I quite liked the book - it isn't what I'd call enjoyable though. And that isn't a bad thing by any means. In a literary world overrun by sensual, seductive vampires it was a blessed relief to see them shown as the creepy bloodsuckers they were meant to be, albeit with a scientific basis of some sort for their condition.

Nevermind all that.

If Matheson's The Shrinking Man put some in mind of Kafka's Metamorphosis, this book reminded me most of Allbert Camus' The Outsider. In both, the protagonist pays the ulitmate price for being different from the dominant society around him. I'll venture a bit further to say that Neville's experiences in the book are analogous to those of everyone who attempts to follow a path off the mainstream. I've spent many restless evenings with the windows boarded up and the music up loud to drown out the endless cries and entreaties to 'come out, Neville'.

Of course, I do not mean to suggest that Matheson meant this book as an allegory for the plight of an outsider in society. But it does relate quite well. In today's increasinly consumerisitic (vampiric?) and standardised society, indeed, in any society that has ceased to value originality and diversity, the non-conformist, whether by conviction or nature, cannot help but feel at times like 'anathema and black terror to be destroyed'.

As a book I found it commendably economically written. The beginning is the hardest part, with its slow tracking through the minute details of another night in Neville's lonely citadel. The passages in which his memories of the death of his wife are explored are emotionally painful, as they should be. Neville's faltering quest to understand the vampire bacteria, his relapses into drunken despair, his alternating euphoria and frustration at possibly finding a dog who can be his companion in this terribly lonely state, all ring true in many ways and are depicted in a clear, non-superfluous prose that is a Matheson trademark, apparently.

But finally, I think the book's real message, for me at least, is that 'good and evil' is rarely anything more than a layering of social obfuscation over 'us and them'. By the end, it is 'them' who are the majority, and therefore 'good'. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

 

[littlemissattitude]

I think you are right on the money about the fact that "otherness" vs. comformity is a major theme in "I Am Legend". Considering the fact that the book was published in 1954, do you think it is possible that the use of that theme might have been a commentary on some of the things going on in the world and in the United States at the time? It was a time when the Cold War was a very serious thing. During the time that Matheson was writing the book, McCarthyism was at its height (McCarthy was finally censured by the Senate in the year Matheson published the book). Conformity was a key value at the time. I haven't read anything about Matheson's thoughts at the time he was writing the book, and I certainly don't know what his politics were. But as a creative person (and the creative tend to be looked at as "other" by the rest of society), and as someone who, I believe, worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter (one of the segments of society most seriously hit by McCarthy's witch-hunts), I can imagine that it was something he might have thought a lot about.

I don't know. I may be completely off-base in this analysis. But it certainly seems to fit the time period in which it was written.

I do think it is interesting, knivesout, that you seem to have answered the question I've had in my head about the ending of the book without me even asking it. That question is, do you think that the ending of the book was inevitable, given the facts of the story? Forgive me if I misundersand what you wrote, but it seems to me that your answer would be yes. And I tend to agree with that. I won't expand on why I think this is so, not just yet, for fear of posting spoilers - I don't want those who haven't quite finished the book yet to get upset with me for that.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

My answer would indeed be, 'yes, the ending was inevitable'.


And I do believe that your analysis of the theme of the book in relation to its times is pretty accurate. That edgy sense of constant paranoia is certainly a trademark of much fiction from the Cold War era, and the rest of it - the relation to McCarthy's witch hunts, for instance, seems plausible enough to me.


OK, I'll also hold off on further spoileristic speculation until more people have finished the book.


BTW, Matheson did indeed work as a scriptwriter, adapting his own novel The Shrinking Man and contributing regularly to The Twilight Zone.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Hasn't anyone else read it yet?


Well, to keep the ball rolling, what did you think of the book stylistically, littlemiss? I've said I found it commendably economical, but a friend opined that it was a bit too dry at times, which tended to deaden the emotional impact of certain scenes.

Also, how realistic do you think the depiction of Ruth was?

 

[littlemissattitude]

Actually, I didn't find the depiction of Ruth to be all that believable. It felt to me almost like Matheson hadn't decided yet, when he first introduced her, whether she was one of the vampires or not. Now, I know that part of that was probably because he had Neville going back and forth on the issue - was she or wasn't she - and naturally he didn't want to telegraph too much to the reader. But, still, it felt very much as if he were making it up as he went along and didn't decide until he actually wrote the words whether she was there to set Neville up or not. And because of that, it didn't feel to me as if he really created an authentic character in Ruth, but more of a plot device.

I think that your friend, knivesout, had a point about the dryness of the storytelling. I know I found it difficult to get emotionally involved in the story. I thought that Neville was an interesting character, but I didn't get to the point where I was emotionally invested in what happened to him, really. The thing that really bothered me stylistically, however, was how Matheson handled the flashbacks. I didn't really think that worked very well at all. The transitions were too abrupt.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I'd have to agree with you on the depiction of Ruth - she did not seem too well-fleshed out to me either. As for the emotional impact - I believe it is a matter of taste. Personally, I came to identify with Neville and to share his exultation and despair.

The flashbacks are a technique Matheson also uses in The Shrinking Man, so perhaps I've been prepared for that aspect of his writing style a bit. I find it an interesting way to tell a story, really, though I can see how it may not be the easiest thing to pull off, and it is on this aspect that the narative flow here occasionally falters.

 

[Devillishgirl]

I just started reading it today so once I get a little further into it, I'll comment on what I think.

 

[littlemissattitude]

You're probably right, knivesout, that emotional impact is a matter of perspective or taste.

As far as the flashbacks...I don't have a problem with flashbacks in general. I just didn't think Matheson handled them well. It was like I'd be reading along and all of a sudden thinking that I'd missed something because it felt like the flow was off. Then I'd realize that he'd gone into a flashback. It just seemed jarring to me, pulled me out of the story because I had to figure out what was going on.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I have a few more discussion points I'd like to bring up, but I'm waiting for Devillishgirl (and anyone else!) to finish the book and pitch in first.

I re-read some of the book and I must agree that the transitions to or from some of Neville's flashbacks are not the smoothest.

 

[Devillishgirl]

I'm a little under halfway through the book and it's kept my interest so far but I have to say the flashbacks are a little disorienting. You can't always tell when he's flashing back or when its done.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Well, I'm glad it wasn't just me, then.

 

[Devillishgirl]

Still not done, I have a little under 100 pages to go but I have to say that so far, Matheson's writing is pretty dry. I found myself wanting to find out what happened to Neville so I kept reading but now that he's removed the focus from Neville and gone on to other parts of the story, I'm having a hard time staying interested. The main reason I'm going to finish the book is to see if he's really going anywhere with these little vingettes in the second half of the book.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Once again, I seem to be in a minority as far as asessements of readability go. This unnerves me quite a bit as someone who would like to write stories that other people might want to read. As a reader of course, it does not bother me at all.

 

[littlemissattitude]

knivesout, just because you enjoy reading things that other people sometimes find a bit dry does not mean that what you write will necessarily turn out to be dry as well.

 

[ravenus]

I didn't find Matheson's writing 'dry' at all. It's in the mold of a survivor's diary and it fits beautifully for the kind of atmosphere he's trying to generate...a credibility through establishing a routine, a day-night cycle, a rational perspective. I also think it fleshes out Neville's character beautifully, building up our realization of the utter isolation he faces, something that is far more frightening than the prospect of being taken by the vampires. It makes us understand what Neville means when he feels like opening his door and rushing out to give himself up to the madness that surrounds him.

I feel that it is the way the book is written that makes it such a beliveable and compelling experience. I also appreciate it's eschewing of any stylistic flourishes that would reveal it more obviously a concocted 'story' than a retelling of an 'experience'.

 

[polymorphikos]

I got my copy ordered in from the bookshop yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Neville was well-developed, and I cared, and the bit where his watch stops made my heart stop, by I just felt that at the beginning of the book Matheson had visions of a novel that was both terrifying and emotional, but sold out the former in favour of the latter, and made it less tense in some scenes than it could have been. You undestand his contempt of the vampires, and his wanting to rush out, but you never see any fear, or worry, that transmits across the two feet from the page to you. It's there, quite obviously, but it just didn't strike me very much. Still, his relationship with Cortman and all of that is excellent, and the ending was excellent. I just think that the book could have done with being thirty pages longer to flesh-out the bit with the dog and Ruth, because the dragging sense of one day to the next at the beginning of the book becomes lost.
I really like this book, but it has a few weaknesses, like any classic.