I have not read a horror novel for a long time, and really the only ones I ever read were Stephen King. Since he stared sucking (sorry, I feel blasphemous writing that given my adolescent relationship with him, but it's true) I have not read much in that genre. What I have read has been kind of ho-hum.
You all know of my love for the Twilight Zone. This is the stuff that freaked me out as a child and I still love to see it. Richard Matheson was a writer for the show for many years. He wrote the book What Dreams May Come, which is really good. He also wrote I am Legend, which I finally read this past week.
I stayed away from the movie version starring Will Smith. I can't take another movie with him fighting some sort of creature and touting off quotable, macho lines.
The book is very short and easy to read. I wanted to take it for what it was when it was written 50 years ago. Matheson did not write just another book about vampires. This stuff was pretty intense for back then, and very original. It really influenced the vampire and zombie movies that were to come. The story kept me engaged, and I felt in touch with the main character. I felt heartbreak for him when he was so lonely and he tried to make friends with the dog. The details were brilliant about the virus and why it caused a disease that resembled vampirism. I loved the ending.
I was in love with reading every page of this book, and I am now going to read more of his stories. Maybe then I will get back into the horror genre of books by looking into the old horror ones, done by the masters.
2 comments:
I HATED that book. I read it a couple of years ago, and all I could see were the millions of plot holes and Matheson's infuriating lack of vocabulary for explaining the main character's emotions. Every time the protagonist experienced any unusual sensation or emotion, "his throat moved." His throat moved, his throat moved, HIS THROAT MOVED. GRRRR.
I have read and enjoyed other books and short stories by Richard Matheson, so I was utterly devastated and outraged when I finished reading I am Legend. His writing style in that book seemed so lax and inattentive. Oh, well, at least I can still enjoy his other stories. I loved What Dreams May Come as well.
And maybe I'm being too nitpicky here, but it also annoyed me how he kept referring to the vampire situation as simply "the germ." I don't know, I would've preferred "virus," "plague," "epidemic," "sickness," "disease," "infection," "Dracula-ism," anything but "germ." "Germ" just sounds so unofficial and un-scary to me. Germs are things that are easily taken care of. Germs are what you get from playing in the dirt or shaking hands with other people, and they are effortlessly eradicated with soap and water.
Sorry, didn't mean to rant on and on about it. I couldn't help myself; I'm so pet peeve-y about so much of his chosen vocabulary in this book, and it really stuck with me for some reason. I know, I'm a freak. =p I'm glad you enjoyed it though. Happy Week-Before-Halloween!! =D
You're right about the throat moving. And a few other things that were repeated too often. But I don't care. I guess I'm not very pet peave-y!
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