Richard Matheson dies, aged 87 | Hacker News Reader

Richard Matheson dies, aged 87

bbc.co.uk

47 pointsalexholehouse10 comments

That's a shame.

For those that only know I Am Legend via the film, I definitely recommend reading the book. They don't have much in common apart from zombies and the title.

> They don't have much in common apart from zombies and the title.

According to the BBC, the book doesn't even have zombies: "Richard Matheson, who wrote the 1954 vampire novel I Am Legend"

I haven't read the book, so I might be making an unfair judgment here, but I was fairly sure it was about zombies as well.

That's pretty much a question of what the divide between zombies and vampires really is. They are, in essence, very similar, especially compiling variants of the myths. They are undead in some way feeding off of humans in a manner that, some percentage of the time or by some means, turns the human into one of them. Pre-Dracula vampires are generally hideous in manners that could be confused with some versions of zombies.

The book is pretty explicit about them being vampires including distinctly vampiric traits (nocturnal, traditional vampire weaknesses, killing them with stakes through the heart.

The film of the same title, however, rides the line pretty close, coming closer to vampires with the original ending. Their weakness to sunlight and their intelligence are clearly more vampiric, but it doesn't really do much more than that.

Either way, though, Matheson's influence on zombie fiction certainly makes the vampires look more zombie-ish from a modern perspective and can probably be uncontroversially explained at least as a stepping stone from between vampires and zombies.

Ahh great explanation. Thank you

Let's just go with Zombires. Or maybe Vampies.

nothing in common , the book is actually quite disturbing and carries a strong message. But we cant expect Hollywood adaptions to respect the original material ... ( i'm looking at you WWZ )

A somewhat closer adaptation was, I believe, the Charleton Heston version called 'Omega Man'. Albeit with some pretty overt religious overtones.

Richard Matheson was the Donald Knuth of horror and SF TV tropes. A giant has fallen.

As for _I am Legend_, _The Last Man on Earth_ was debatably the closest adaptation.

...a legend indeed ;)

He lived a long, great life and left a wonderful legacy behind and for that I thank him. Goodbye Richard, you will be appreciated more than you will be missed, a rare feat.

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