“The Funeral”
What I found most useful in this story is the sense of perspective, and how the POV character needn't necessarily be the main character. The story is told from Morton Silkline's perspective - the Director of a little cut-rate funeral home. While the story is his, I would argue that he doesn't really experience any change and isn't really the main character. It's the vampire Ludwig Asper who is looking for a change, and ultimately receives it in the form of the funeral he never had.
There's a good sense of humor in this story as well, a gather of undead to give one of their own a proper burial. I think Matheson does well at portraying each of these individuals - a witch, a mad scientist, Ygor - with their own personalities beyond the stock characters they're derived from. The brief interactions we see during the funeral get the reader beyond the standard images.
“Mad House”
Matheson uses a great focus technique to bring the reader into this story. The first four sections of "Mad House" are told in present tense, after which the story switches to the usual past tense. These first four sections, which cover only a few pages, are very special. They are tightly focused on the main character and his anger problem. They are very action oriented, walking the reader through several incidents of conflict between the main character and his surroundings. We get no narration on who this guy is or why he's so angry. We get pure action and emotion. By the time the reader reaches the last section, there's a mountain of questions that have developed and drive the reader on through the rest of the piece.
The transition between the fourth section and the rest of the story give almost the sense of a camera pulling back from tight focus to reveal a broader context.
So though the days and nights. His anger falling like frenzied axe blows in his house, on everything he owns. Sprays of teeth-grinding hysteria clouding his windows and falling to his floors. Oceans of wild, uncontrolled hate flooding through every room of the house; filling each iota of space with a shifting, throbbing life.
Matheson fills in the context, builds the story out around the tight focus on anger and this mans interaction with his house. Matheson also has a great sense of pacing in these first four sections. The language is quick and short, fast beats matching the agressive behaviour.
“Dress of White Silk”
Telling a story from a child's point of view is a challenge. Telling it in a child's language is a challenge as well. This piece was a little difficult for me to get engaged with because of Matheson's lack of punctuation and the poor grammar (both intentional). This has the feel of an experimental piece.
I think that to be an effective writer at this sort of thing takes a lot of practice. I kept thinking of Cormac McCarthy and his breaking of the rules. I think the challenge put to the reader must be rewarded by the payoff, and in this case, I don't think the payoff was worth it. A good story, yes, but I think it would have been just as effective told with more conventional grammar and just using the child's point of view.
“Witch War”
Why didn't someone tell me there were so many vignette's in "I Am Legend"?
Anyhow, this little snippet is almost poetry. It's a great collection of images given in clear, if abrupt, language:
Sky clearing its throat with thunder, picking and dropping ling lightening from immeasurable shoulders. Rain hushing the world, bowing the trees, pocking earth. Square building, low, with one wall plastic.
It's what really stands out to me here. Matheson's use of imagery is overpowering here, which is okay since there's not much other than an intriguiging incident here. Not even a main character to speak of, nor a clear conflict other than the generic conflict we find in any war. As a writer, the poetics of this piece really appeal to me, and I think it's a good example of how to work poetic images into narrative.
“Prey”
This vignette by Matheson gives an interesting parallel between a horrible little Zuni fetish doll, and the power of a parent over their child. As a reader, I enjoyed the chase and suspense of the woman being hunted by this little hunter. It's a cool little encounter.
What I found most valuable as a writer, though, is the phone conversation between mother and daughter, as well as their family dynamic. Mother is manipulative and demanding, and is preying on her daughter's emotions. It felt a little bizarre at first, having Matheson take us from this emotionally charged interaction into this physically charged chase. But, I found myself hoping that this little chase would give Amelia the strength (change her character) to stand up to her mother and start taking control of her own life.
Not quite what happens, but the ending is still satisfying to me as a reader.
“The Near Departed”
Another interesting little vignette by Matheson. To be honest, though, I didn't find anything particularly interesting from a writer's perspective. The dialog is plain, there's little action, no real sense of tension, and the ending is standard "Twilight Zone" material.
“Buried Talents”
This vignette by Richard Matheson presents an interesting technique for escalation. It's brief story of an odd man who plays a game at the fair, the one where you chuck ping-pong balls into a fish bowl, and never misses.
The escalation is just that - the man never misses. It is, by nature of the scene, repetitive, but it's the repetition of the man's success that builds the story, bringing the reader along. Will he ever miss? Is he a shill? The carny gets first annoyed, the suspicious, and finally upset as this stranger drops ball after ball in the same fish bowl.
As a writer, this story presents a fine example of escalation through repetition.
As a reader, I'm left without answers. But, such can be the nature of a vignette.
“I Am Legend” (Ch. 17 – 21)
These are the final chapters. Matheson does a great job of continuing to create change in Neville. He's encountered another human who is apparently immune as well, Ruth. He's cold and distrustful at first, now having been in isolation for about 3 years.
He suddenly realized that he had become an ill-tempered and inveterate bachelor again. He no longer thought about his wife, his child, his past life. The present was enough.
But one night, he wakes to see Ruth standing in the shadows, and confuses her with his long dead wife. It breaks him, and he is reduced to tears, embracing Ruth in a moment of common comfort.
I have one issue with how Matheson starts Chapter 17. It may seem small, but it pulled me out of the story. Neville wakes, crying out "Virge!". So far as I can tell, unless I missed something, this is the first instance we have of Neville referring to his wife this way. Prior, it was always Virginia. As a reader, I was confused, as I've never heard Virge used as a nickname for Virginia, although I've heard it used for Virgil. It was only a page or so later that I made the connection. As a writer, this is something I try to avoid. I believe firmly that names need to be consistent throughout, and that any nicknames for characters must be established as early as possible. Okay - enough about that.
The rest of the piece was a surprise for me. I have to admit, I saw the movie, and so I think my expectations were tainted. Sure, there's similarities, but they are different stories. I wasn't surprised by Neville's resistance to moving out of the house, even after Ruth's stark warning. It fit perfectly with what I expected of a hermit who's so settled in his ways.
I was, however, surprised that he had resigned not to fight when they came for him. But, it wasn't enough to distract me from the story. Neville is captured and held prisoner. Even in the face of certain death, even after all he's been through, Neville has retained core human characteristics:
In spite of having lived with death all these years, in spite of having walked a tightrope of bare existence across an endless may of death -- in spite of that he couldn't understand it. Personal death still was a thing beyond comprehension.
What I find most interesting about how this ends is the parrallel Matheson draws between that last piece of humanity as it was (Neville) and the first establishment of humanity as it will be (the "Vampire" society). The interaction between Neville and Ruth at the end, the dialog, her assistance in his suicide, the kiss between them show there's a common thread that persists even though the biology has changed.
The realization at the end is powerful as well. Matheson has set things up very well to pull of what happens to Neville and what he thinks as he stares out the window at the new society, preparing to kill himself:
Then sudden silence, as though a heavy blanket had fallen over their heads. They all stood looking up at him with their white faces. He stared back. And suddenly he thought, I'm the abnormal one now.
It is the stake in his heart, so to speak. A deep understanding that his fight for survival was a key part in the transition of the human race, and that his part was at an end. I can't imagine a more appropriate way to end this story, nor a more appropriate title:
I am legend.
“I Am Legend” (Ch. 12 – 16)
Here we find Neville hitting another brick wall. He thinks he's figured out what's causing the vampires - a Bacilli (germ) - but he can't attribute all the vampire behaviors to it. So, what's he do? Well, by this point we know Neville pretty well - a man who, although he's survived some pretty extreme circumstances, falls back to the drink when things get too challenging.
Man, it's time this guy get a new tune.
Matheson must have felt so, too. Because in the next few chapters, he introduces two significant new elements that further serve to change Neville.
The first of these is a dog. Just a dog. But this guy's been on his own so long, that the dog is a huge impact:
He stayed drunk for two days and planned on staying drunk till the end of time or the world's whiskey supply, whichever came first.
And he might have done it, too, if it hadn't been for a miracle.
It happened on the third morning, when he stumbled out onto the porch to see if the world was still there.
There was a dog roving about on the lawn.
This dog is renewed hope for Neville. It gives him something aside from himself to care for, to look after, to give purpose to what has become a repeatitive and almost meaningless existence. So the next few chapters are about Neville winning the dog's trust, him realizing the dog is infected, and trying to cure it. Chapter 14 ends with the dog dying.
So, I expected Neville to fall back to his old routine - get drunk, feel sorry for himself, beat stuff up, kill some vampires. But, Matheson makes the change in him permenant. Chapter 14 actually begins by saying as much:
There was no debauch of drinking. Far from it. He found that he actually drank less. Something had changed.
So now we have a new, improved Neville, one who attackes the problem of the Vampire Bacilli with a fresh perspective. His initial attempt at the solution relied solely on him learning biology. Matheson has an extremely creative solution here - he now has Neville teach himself psychology, and Neville is able to provide rational explanations for ALL the vampire symptoms by being either the Bacilli, or the result of hysteria. And this resolution brings closure for Neville, sealing the change in personality to that of a strong hermit.
Chapter 15 & 16 deal with Neville's next encounter with another living being. A woman - Ruth. I don't have much to comment on here yet, other than - either I'm an idiot or Neville is. She's pregnant. I guess I'll find out soon. The distrust that plays out from Neville is interesting, and I'm curious to see where this all leads.
“I Am Legend” (Ch. 9 – 11)
So here we get more of Neville's back story, the death of his wife, his determination to bury her instead of burn her, and the horror of her return as a vampire. It's interesting, but what really interested me more in these chapters is how Matheson shows us real change in Neville.
Neville has continued sobering himself up, tackling his situation like a real problem solver. He refers a few time to his father's belief in the scientific method as inspiration. It's an interesting character development, so see Neville set upon the library, reading and learning everything he can, teaching himself to use a microscope, learning to understand what he's looking at, and ultimately coming to the conclusion that this is a virus.
For me, it holds the same fascination as CSI or a police procedural. Matheson does a good job of making the process of discovery itself interesting without doing massive info dumps, giving just the information the reader needs to understand the conclusions.
There was an additional piece in chapter 10 that I found noteworthy. Neville has entered the library, which is still very neat, with all the chairs pushed in at the tables. He's imaging the poor librarian who pushed them in the last time:
He thought about that visionary lady. To die, he thought, never knowing the fierce joy and attendant comfort of a loved one's embrace. To sink into that hideous coma, to sink then into death and, perhaps, return to sterile, awful wanderings. All without knowing what it was to love and be loved.
That was a tragedy more terrible than becoming a vampire.
Even in the midst of his situation, Neville can imagine something worse. It's a clear sign that he's coming to grips with what's happening and is committing himself to doing what he can to fix it.
David L. Day
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