New issue of Autopsies: this time Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Bram Stoker Award winner, plays the role of Il Posto Nero coroner to dissect for us I Am Legen by Richard Matheson, a great book:
Brain: the plot
A plague has destroyed the world and transformed everybody into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except for one man. The last man. Robert Neville. He is immune to the disease and therefore an outsider. The vampires regard him as a legendary monster that kills them in their sleep. They seek to destroy him because he’s different and therein lies the irony of this tale.
A plague has destroyed the world and transformed everybody into blood-thirsty creatures of the night. Except for one man. The last man. Robert Neville. He is immune to the disease and therefore an outsider. The vampires regard him as a legendary monster that kills them in their sleep. They seek to destroy him because he’s different and therein lies the irony of this tale.
Heart: the atmosphere, the pathos
I Am Legend is probably one of the bleakest feeling novels you’ll ever have the pleasure to read. From beginning to ending, the description portrays a dying world seen through the eyes of the last survivor. Any happy moments from the past are not dwelled upon, for the horrors of the present and the future are too onerous. The devastation the last man feels permeates the narrative.
I Am Legend is probably one of the bleakest feeling novels you’ll ever have the pleasure to read. From beginning to ending, the description portrays a dying world seen through the eyes of the last survivor. Any happy moments from the past are not dwelled upon, for the horrors of the present and the future are too onerous. The devastation the last man feels permeates the narrative.
Stomach: blood, splatter contents
Robert Neville occupies his time by killing sleeping vampires during the day. This has been shown with ample amounts of blood in films, but here there are no violent scenes to speak of, all the gruesomeness of the task implied rather than stated.
Robert Neville occupies his time by killing sleeping vampires during the day. This has been shown with ample amounts of blood in films, but here there are no violent scenes to speak of, all the gruesomeness of the task implied rather than stated.
Lungs: the characters
Robert Neville is the main character, and one could argue, the only character of the novel. He does find a dog and a woman named Ruth, both of whom serve to betray him in their own unique way. There are also people from his past, now vampires, who make appearances, but it is Robert Neville, and he alone, who carries this story in his shaking, tired arms.
Robert Neville is the main character, and one could argue, the only character of the novel. He does find a dog and a woman named Ruth, both of whom serve to betray him in their own unique way. There are also people from his past, now vampires, who make appearances, but it is Robert Neville, and he alone, who carries this story in his shaking, tired arms.
Liver: the supernatural
The truly remarkable thing about I Am Legend is that the supernatural is nonexistent. Vampirism is a plague, explained scientifically, and a problem that Neville tries to handle in a technical way. Considering this novel published in 1954 this is indeed a stunningly creative path for the modern vampire tale.
The truly remarkable thing about I Am Legend is that the supernatural is nonexistent. Vampirism is a plague, explained scientifically, and a problem that Neville tries to handle in a technical way. Considering this novel published in 1954 this is indeed a stunningly creative path for the modern vampire tale.
Cause of death: summary
Dracula opened the castle door. Much later, Interview with a Vampire explored the never-trodden chambers beyond that door. But in between, you have a book that sent the concept of man-into-monster down a different corridor. The choices for vampire literature are mind-blowing now. You could choose something great, good, mediocre or you could go with something that transcends all other qualifiers. Legendary. This is that book.
Dracula opened the castle door. Much later, Interview with a Vampire explored the never-trodden chambers beyond that door. But in between, you have a book that sent the concept of man-into-monster down a different corridor. The choices for vampire literature are mind-blowing now. You could choose something great, good, mediocre or you could go with something that transcends all other qualifiers. Legendary. This is that book.
Guest Profile
Benjamin Kane Ethridge is the Bram Stoker Award winning author of the novel Black & Orange (Bad Moon Books). He wrote several short stories published in magazines and anthologies including: From the Bowels (Ante Mortem), Surgeon Delta (Fear Zone), Gorgon (Doorways), Chortle (Dark Recesses), Copse of Elms (Nth Degree). He also wrote a master's thesis entitled, Causes of Unease: The Rhetoric of Horror Fiction and Film. Available in an ivory tower near you. Benjamin lives in Southern California with his wife and daughter, both lovely and both worthy of better. When he isn't writing, reading, guitaring, he's defending California's waterways and sewers from pollution. Web Site
The book: Black & Orange
Forget everything you know about Halloween. The stories are distortions. They were created to keep the Church of Midnight hidden from the world. Every October 31st a gateway opens to a hostile land of sacrificial magic and chaos. Since the beginning of civilization the Church of Midnight has attempted to open the gateway and unite with its other half, the Church of Morning. Each year they’ve come closer, waiting for the ideal sacrifice to open the gateway permanently. This year that sacrifice has come. And only two can protect it.
Martin and Teresa are the nomads, battle-hardened people who lack identity and are forever road-bound on an endless mission to guard the sacrifice. Their only direction is from notes left from a mysterious person called the Messenger. Endowed with a strange telekinetic power, the nomads will use everything at their disposal to make it through the night alive.
But matters have become even more complicated this year. Teresa has quickly lost ground battling cancer, while Martin has spiraled into a panic over being left alone. His mind may no longer be on the fight when it matters most… because ever on their heels is the insidious physical representation of a united church: Chaplain Cloth.
Buy "Black and Orange" by B.K. Ethridge and "I am legend" by R. Matheson on Amazon
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