15 - I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

I was really impressed with the way this book was written. It definitely tugs on that part of me that is always fascinated by apocalyptic stories. I am intensely curious (morbidly so?) about the end of the world. It colors my dreams and my own writing, as well as my taste in plays and literature.

However, even in my focus on the end of the world I tend to maintain my sunny optimism. Usually, in my dreams, I am a member of a band of survivors/resistors who are struggling to ensure the survival of mankind. Because of this, I didn't want Ruth to turn out the way she did and I didn't want the book to end the way it did.

Considering the social climate when this book was written, I don't think it's terribly surprising that it ended the way it did. Although no one really thought that a vampiric bacterial infection with spores spread by mammoth dust storms would be the downfall of mankind, people certainly did think that Communism could be the downfall of society and possibly the human race. I have no idea of Richard Matheson intended this to be a statement about the dangers of Communism, but I can definitely see bits and pieces of that as a possible interpretation.

I know that I do not intend my own writing to have a "higher meaning" and I certainly, at this stage at least, am not filling it with complex metaphors or statements of higher purpose. I don't know how I would feel if someone who read it tried to find layers of meaning like that when I am simply trying to write a nice fantasy story. It is impossible, though, to separate the author from his place in history and there will always be influences apparent in a work of literature.

On a completely different note, I think I am ready to watch the new movie. There have been many movie versions of this story. There was The Omega Man in 1971 and The Last Man on Earth in 1964. I am unconvinced about how true either of this movies is to the original novel. For that matter, I am unconvinced that the 2007 movie will be all that true to the novel. We shall see.