Vampires were trendy in 2012. The fifth Twilight film was racking up more
than $800 million in box office receipts. And bloodsucker brand extensions
were coming out thick and fast. (My award for the most implausible film of
the year goes to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.) Meanwhile, HBO was
serving up anemic episodes of True Blood, and new vampire books were
flooding an already saturated market, with new volumes coming out in
the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead, The Hollows series by Kim Harrison,
the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill, and many other genre
brands with high red blood cell count. The "vampire teen romance" section
at Barnes & Noble—which didn't even exist a few years before—was now a
favorite meeting place for the high school 'in' crowd.
The Horror Writers Association needed to jump on this
bandwagon, and decided to to give a special award for the
"Vampire Novel of the Century." Ah, but they bypassed
all these new upstarts, and other estimable candidates, in
order to honor a pulp fiction book that was almost sixty
years old: Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954).
They made the right choice. After Bram Stoker’s Dracula,
Matheson's work has been the most admired, and
influential, work in the category. Stephen King, the
bestselling horror writer of all time, has cited Matheson
in general, and I Am Legend in particular, as a source of
inspiration. In King's word, Matheson was "the author
who influenced me the most as a writer." Horror author
Ramsey Campbell has noted that this single book was able to "revolutionize
vampirism." Even Anne Rice, who had hoped to win the 'best of century'
honor for her classic Interview with the Vampire, admitted that it was hard
to complain about losing to an author "whose stories were inspiring me when
I was still a kid writing everything with a ballpoint pen in a school notebook."
RELATED ESSAYS
The Scariest of Them All: A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Hell House by Richard Matheson
What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson
Matheson was just as influential in the cinematic world. Director George
Romero has acknowledged I Am Legend's influence on his cult classic The
Night of the Living Dead. Steven Spielberg, who got his first big break
directing Matheson’s screenplay for Duel (if you haven’t seen, put it on
your 'to do' list), has praised the author’s storytelling brilliance, adding
"he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov." Orson Welles was
reportedly another admirer of I Am Legend, and may have introduced
Charlton Heston (who later starred in a film adaptation) to the book.
Others have seen I Am Legend as much more than genre thriller. Some
critics have praised Matheson for translating Cold War anxieties into the
context of horror fiction, or for making a thinly-veiled plea for racial
tolerance (the novel takes place in South Central LA, on the same streets
I frequented in my youth). Matheson’s book has also been
praised as a classic existential account of loneliness, in the mold of
Robinson Crusoe, and as anticipating the AIDS epidemic that would
arise a generation after the novel’s publication.
In fact, academics have now embraced I Am Legend as talisman of a host
of trendy theories and ideologies. The 2014 publication of Reading Richard
Matheson: A Critical Survey, edited by Cheyenne Matthews and Janet
Haedicke, heralded the start of this new phase in the life of the vampire
book that just won't stay dead. Here you will find a Foucaultian reading
of Matheson's novel, and a post-colonial interpretation, along with other
ways of turning this sixty-year-old novel into something suitable for new
millennium scholars. And though the academic jargon is sometimes
disconcerting (While the anomalous multitude germinates potentialities,
the novel shows that vampirism biopolitics absorbs difference...), I have
to admit that some of these new perspectives add to the resonance of the
book. There is, in the final analysis, more than a small degree of overlap
between the respective themes of Madness and Civilization, Discipline
and Punish and I Am Legend.
True, not everyone has celebrated this book, and criticisms were
often pointed back in the early days afters its initial publication. The
frequently snarky Damon Knight claimed that "the plot limps" and that all
of Matheson's good ideas are discarded almost as soon as they appear. At
the time of its first release, a reviewer in Galaxy reproached the author for
his novel's slow pace. But the complaint about Matheson's book that struck
me as most credible came from an online reviewer who grumbled: “I had
a nightmare about this book last night. Not fun.”
Matheson himself had a simple explanation for the book’s origins. After
seeing the movie Dracula at age sixteen, he decided that if one vampire was
scary, even more terrifying might be an entire world filled with vampires. As
to other theories of the book’s hidden meaning, he responds: "I don't think
the book means anything more than it is: the story of a man trying to survive
in a world of vampires."
Matheson breaks many of the most basic rules of horror fiction in this work.
Although this novel initiated the craze for stories about a zombie apocalypse
—a plot that is more popular nowadays than ever before—he actually opens
the book after the decimation of the population. The zombie wars are
finished, and the human race has dwindled down to a sole individual, our
hero Robert Neville.
Much of the book focuses on his day-to-day activities as a lonely survivor.
He plants garlic, and hangs garlands of it around his house. He boards
up windows and takes other steps to keep his home protected. During the day,
he hunts for sleeping vampires and hammers stakes through their hearts.
And occasionally he remembers the past, events he would prefer to forget.
Matheson deals with all these issues with a surprisingly light touch, focusing
on details that rarely come to the forefront of horror stories. The longest
chapter in I Am Legend deals with Neville's attempt to befriend a stray dog,
the only familiar creature he has encountered in the three years since
society collapsed. Few genre writers would know what to do with a sub-plot
of this sort, but Matheson not only makes it emotionally riveting, but even
finds a way conclude the chapter with perhaps the most chilling moments in
the novel.
Matheson also finds time to insert two
romance angles into his book, and not
with the kind of awkward grafting we
usually find in genre stories. Both
love interests are integrated into the
larger plot, and amplify the horror of
proceedings. The moment when his
first wife, who died in the vampire
epidemic, returns to her grieving
husband, is one of the most memorable
passages in the novel. But here again,
Matheson refuses to handle this
encounter in the expected manner,
instead deftly presenting this story in
bits and pieces over the course of the
book, some aspects described in
flashback, others in dialogue or interior monologue.
There is nothing flashy in this novel. Or in Matheson’s other books.
Matheson is a storyteller, not a prose stylist. He works with great economy,
and (as Damon Knight noted) often moves from scene to scene with
insistent forward motion. But he also knows when to linger—and almost
always because he sense an opportunity to amplify the emotional charge
of his tale. We see that here in the subplot about the dog, or the carefully
constructed adversarial relationship between Neville and Ben Cortman,
his former neighbor who is now the most deadly of the marauding vampires.
The book has filmed on several
occasions, but never with much
fidelity to Matheson’s original
vision. "I don't know why
Hollywood keeps coming
back to the book just to not
do it the way I wrote it," he
told an interviewer. "The book
should have been filmed as is
at the time it came out. It's too
late now." In fact, Matheson
wrote a script for Hammer Films
back in the 1950s—and at one
point director Fritz Lang was on
board to direct it. But the studio
ditched the project because they
anticipated problems with censors.
I believe this is Matheson’s best
work, and deserves a film rendition
that returns to his original vision.
But the author himself had a
different view. "They should just
stop trying," he said, when asked
about another movie version of
I Am Legend. "To me, vampires are totally passé anyway. They are
disgusting creatures who smell bad and are revolting in every way.
Turning female vampires into sexy creatures is absurd."
And, true, if you are seeking sexy vampires, you can skip Richard
Matheson's book. Or his other works, for that matter. But even his vampires
have redeeming qualities. Perhaps the most surprising twist, in book filled
with them, comes at the conclusion of I Am Legend, when our hero realizes
how much he has in common with the evil creatures of the night he has been
battling since page one.
But don’t expect a novel of sort to end with a happy love fest or truce between
the undead and the living. That’s not Richard Matheson’s style. Instead you
will learn exactly what it takes to become a legend. And why that’s a fate—the
example of Mr. Matheson himself notwithstanding—you should try to avoid
at all costs.
Yet the future of this book may have less to do with happy endings, and more
with the various ways the text can be applied to theories of narrative and
cultural hegemonies. I Am Legend may have spent its first half-century
as the great vampire novel, but in its new life it has turned into a classic text
of outsiders and victims, countercultures and marginalized communities.
I'm not sure that Richard Matheson would approve, but he didn't much
care for the movie versions and other 'straight' ways of interpreting his
horror story. For better or worse, he may have created a legend much
different from the one he anticipated.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His most recent book, Love Songs:
The Hidden History, is published by Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: March 7. 2016
than $800 million in box office receipts. And bloodsucker brand extensions
were coming out thick and fast. (My award for the most implausible film of
the year goes to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.) Meanwhile, HBO was
serving up anemic episodes of True Blood, and new vampire books were
flooding an already saturated market, with new volumes coming out in
the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead, The Hollows series by Kim Harrison,
the Chicagoland Vampires series by Chloe Neill, and many other genre
brands with high red blood cell count. The "vampire teen romance" section
at Barnes & Noble—which didn't even exist a few years before—was now a
favorite meeting place for the high school 'in' crowd.
The Horror Writers Association needed to jump on this
bandwagon, and decided to to give a special award for the
"Vampire Novel of the Century." Ah, but they bypassed
all these new upstarts, and other estimable candidates, in
order to honor a pulp fiction book that was almost sixty
years old: Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954).
They made the right choice. After Bram Stoker’s Dracula,
Matheson's work has been the most admired, and
influential, work in the category. Stephen King, the
bestselling horror writer of all time, has cited Matheson
in general, and I Am Legend in particular, as a source of
inspiration. In King's word, Matheson was "the author
who influenced me the most as a writer." Horror author
Ramsey Campbell has noted that this single book was able to "revolutionize
vampirism." Even Anne Rice, who had hoped to win the 'best of century'
honor for her classic Interview with the Vampire, admitted that it was hard
to complain about losing to an author "whose stories were inspiring me when
I was still a kid writing everything with a ballpoint pen in a school notebook."
RELATED ESSAYS
The Scariest of Them All: A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Hell House by Richard Matheson
What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson
Matheson was just as influential in the cinematic world. Director George
Romero has acknowledged I Am Legend's influence on his cult classic The
Night of the Living Dead. Steven Spielberg, who got his first big break
directing Matheson’s screenplay for Duel (if you haven’t seen, put it on
your 'to do' list), has praised the author’s storytelling brilliance, adding
"he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov." Orson Welles was
reportedly another admirer of I Am Legend, and may have introduced
Charlton Heston (who later starred in a film adaptation) to the book.
Others have seen I Am Legend as much more than genre thriller. Some
critics have praised Matheson for translating Cold War anxieties into the
context of horror fiction, or for making a thinly-veiled plea for racial
tolerance (the novel takes place in South Central LA, on the same streets
I frequented in my youth). Matheson’s book has also been
praised as a classic existential account of loneliness, in the mold of
Robinson Crusoe, and as anticipating the AIDS epidemic that would
arise a generation after the novel’s publication.
In fact, academics have now embraced I Am Legend as talisman of a host
of trendy theories and ideologies. The 2014 publication of Reading Richard
Matheson: A Critical Survey, edited by Cheyenne Matthews and Janet
Haedicke, heralded the start of this new phase in the life of the vampire
book that just won't stay dead. Here you will find a Foucaultian reading
of Matheson's novel, and a post-colonial interpretation, along with other
ways of turning this sixty-year-old novel into something suitable for new
millennium scholars. And though the academic jargon is sometimes
disconcerting (While the anomalous multitude germinates potentialities,
the novel shows that vampirism biopolitics absorbs difference...), I have
to admit that some of these new perspectives add to the resonance of the
book. There is, in the final analysis, more than a small degree of overlap
between the respective themes of Madness and Civilization, Discipline
and Punish and I Am Legend.
True, not everyone has celebrated this book, and criticisms were
often pointed back in the early days afters its initial publication. The
frequently snarky Damon Knight claimed that "the plot limps" and that all
of Matheson's good ideas are discarded almost as soon as they appear. At
the time of its first release, a reviewer in Galaxy reproached the author for
his novel's slow pace. But the complaint about Matheson's book that struck
me as most credible came from an online reviewer who grumbled: “I had
a nightmare about this book last night. Not fun.”
Matheson himself had a simple explanation for the book’s origins. After
seeing the movie Dracula at age sixteen, he decided that if one vampire was
scary, even more terrifying might be an entire world filled with vampires. As
to other theories of the book’s hidden meaning, he responds: "I don't think
the book means anything more than it is: the story of a man trying to survive
in a world of vampires."
Matheson breaks many of the most basic rules of horror fiction in this work.
Although this novel initiated the craze for stories about a zombie apocalypse
—a plot that is more popular nowadays than ever before—he actually opens
the book after the decimation of the population. The zombie wars are
finished, and the human race has dwindled down to a sole individual, our
hero Robert Neville.
Much of the book focuses on his day-to-day activities as a lonely survivor.
He plants garlic, and hangs garlands of it around his house. He boards
up windows and takes other steps to keep his home protected. During the day,
he hunts for sleeping vampires and hammers stakes through their hearts.
And occasionally he remembers the past, events he would prefer to forget.
Matheson deals with all these issues with a surprisingly light touch, focusing
on details that rarely come to the forefront of horror stories. The longest
chapter in I Am Legend deals with Neville's attempt to befriend a stray dog,
the only familiar creature he has encountered in the three years since
society collapsed. Few genre writers would know what to do with a sub-plot
of this sort, but Matheson not only makes it emotionally riveting, but even
finds a way conclude the chapter with perhaps the most chilling moments in
the novel.
Matheson also finds time to insert two
romance angles into his book, and not
with the kind of awkward grafting we
usually find in genre stories. Both
love interests are integrated into the
larger plot, and amplify the horror of
proceedings. The moment when his
first wife, who died in the vampire
epidemic, returns to her grieving
husband, is one of the most memorable
passages in the novel. But here again,
Matheson refuses to handle this
encounter in the expected manner,
instead deftly presenting this story in
bits and pieces over the course of the
book, some aspects described in
flashback, others in dialogue or interior monologue.
There is nothing flashy in this novel. Or in Matheson’s other books.
Matheson is a storyteller, not a prose stylist. He works with great economy,
and (as Damon Knight noted) often moves from scene to scene with
insistent forward motion. But he also knows when to linger—and almost
always because he sense an opportunity to amplify the emotional charge
of his tale. We see that here in the subplot about the dog, or the carefully
constructed adversarial relationship between Neville and Ben Cortman,
his former neighbor who is now the most deadly of the marauding vampires.
The book has filmed on several
occasions, but never with much
fidelity to Matheson’s original
vision. "I don't know why
Hollywood keeps coming
back to the book just to not
do it the way I wrote it," he
told an interviewer. "The book
should have been filmed as is
at the time it came out. It's too
late now." In fact, Matheson
wrote a script for Hammer Films
back in the 1950s—and at one
point director Fritz Lang was on
board to direct it. But the studio
ditched the project because they
anticipated problems with censors.
I believe this is Matheson’s best
work, and deserves a film rendition
that returns to his original vision.
But the author himself had a
different view. "They should just
stop trying," he said, when asked
about another movie version of
I Am Legend. "To me, vampires are totally passé anyway. They are
disgusting creatures who smell bad and are revolting in every way.
Turning female vampires into sexy creatures is absurd."
And, true, if you are seeking sexy vampires, you can skip Richard
Matheson's book. Or his other works, for that matter. But even his vampires
have redeeming qualities. Perhaps the most surprising twist, in book filled
with them, comes at the conclusion of I Am Legend, when our hero realizes
how much he has in common with the evil creatures of the night he has been
battling since page one.
But don’t expect a novel of sort to end with a happy love fest or truce between
the undead and the living. That’s not Richard Matheson’s style. Instead you
will learn exactly what it takes to become a legend. And why that’s a fate—the
example of Mr. Matheson himself notwithstanding—you should try to avoid
at all costs.
Yet the future of this book may have less to do with happy endings, and more
with the various ways the text can be applied to theories of narrative and
cultural hegemonies. I Am Legend may have spent its first half-century
as the great vampire novel, but in its new life it has turned into a classic text
of outsiders and victims, countercultures and marginalized communities.
I'm not sure that Richard Matheson would approve, but he didn't much
care for the movie versions and other 'straight' ways of interpreting his
horror story. For better or worse, he may have created a legend much
different from the one he anticipated.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and popular culture. His most recent book, Love Songs:
The Hidden History, is published by Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: March 7. 2016
The Vampire Book That Will Not Die After 4 film adaptations and two generations of readers, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend enters a new life as a talisman for academics |
Essay by Ted Gioia
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
This is my year of horrible reading.
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
I am reading the classics of horror fiction
during the course of 2016, and each week will
write about a significant work in the genre.
You are invited to join me in my annus
horribilis. During the course of the year—if
we survive—we will have tackled zombies,
serial killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, and
monsters of all denominations. Check back
each week for a new title...but remember to
bring along garlic, silver bullets and a
protective amulet. Ted Gioia
| Check out our sister sites: The New Canon Great literary works published since 1985 Great Books Guide Reviews of current books Postmodern Mystery Experimental works of mystery & suspense Fractious Fiction Radical, unconventional and experimental fiction |
My Year of Horrible Reading
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Week 1:
Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Week 2:
The Haunting of Hill House
By Shirley Jackson
Week 3:
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
By Edgar Allan Poe
Week 4:
Carrie
By Stephen King
Week 5:
The Passion According to G.H.
By Clarice Lispector
Week 6:
Tales
By H.P. Lovecraft
Week 7:
The Exorcist
By William Peter Blatty
Week 8:
The Woman in Black
By Susan Hill
Week 9:
Nausea
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Week 10:
I Am Legend
By Richard Matheson
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
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Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
I Am Legend
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
All rights reserved.
| Here you will find a Foucaultian reading of Matheson's novel, and a post-colonial interpretation, along with other ways of turning this 60-year-old novel into something suitable for new millennium scholars... |
Some of the covers of I Am Legend
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