A BELATED TRIBUTERichard Matheson was my Ray Bradbury, the gateway drug to science fiction books as a teenager. I started with his short stories, probably his best and most consistent terrain, marked by no frills narrative, emotional honesty and often a twisting of the knife. Not long after I read I Am Legend, which is sort of the Velvet Underground of vampire novels, in that it influenced countless other properties many of which no doubt made more money than the original ever did. It’s a ridiculously economical book without an ounce of flab, poignant, haunting, and bitter. It’s one of three books read in those years that I remember most fondly (the others being Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human and Fredric Brown’s wonderfully pulpy What Mad Universe). He wrote a gonzo, batshit crazy haunted house novel, Hell House. He wrote many of the best Twilight Zone episodes, he wrote screenplays. He was revered by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, and many others. He died last year.He disdained bells and whistles. He saw human nature clearly enough that his work rarely dates, never seems tied to a particular decade or era. His material was readily adaptable, and several enduring genre images came from his mind and pen. The implacable, anonymous truck driver who menaces Dennis Weaver in Duel. The Zuni Fetish Doll that menaces Karen Black in Trilogy of Terror. The furry gremlin who menaces a pre-Starfleet William Shatner in Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. He wrote the scripts for several of the Roger Corman adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe, which managed both to be not remotely faithful to the original stories, yet somehow capture much of the mordant gloom of Poe. He wrote the teleplay for the first TV movie of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a '70s one-season monster-of-the-week wonder that itself would later be one of the main inspirations for The X Files. One of my favorite anecdotes, from an interview with Matheson, regarded his meeting with Alfred Hitchcock, who was looking for a script writer for his upcoming movie, The Birds. Matheson's idea was for the film to not actually show all that much of the birds.It was a short meeting. THIS PARTICULAR BOOKI'd owned a copy of The Shrinking Man for years but had somehow never read it. And, well...it's not bad but not one of his best. The central virtue is that Matheson clearly thought through the ramifications of a condition in which a man grows inexorably smaller, week by week, with no end in sight. He pulls no punches in detailing the psychic damage and increasing humiliation of the condition, nor the existential terror. That's not insignificant, but there are problems the novel can't overcome. Perhaps the main one is length. Even at 217 pages it feels padded, and I couldn't help thinking that this could have been a brilliant novella of maybe 60 or 80 pages. As it is, there's endless repetition. Scott Carey spends much of the story trapped in his cellar, maybe an inch tall. And while the scenes of him being menaced by a spider are suitably ghastly and visceral (and wisely, not too many of them), the detailing of just how massive formerly ordinary things are to him now--a refrigerator, lawn chairs, boxes--just goes on and on. Similarly, one starts to tire of what we might call The Incredible Kvetching Man. That's probably unkind, given there's no denying how much Scott's plight truly sucks, but when you begin to feel more sympathy for Scott's poor wife Lou (who truly has the patience of Job) than for the short guy himself, that's maybe not a good sign. When he has a moment of insight that "he was nothing but a horrid midget who screamed and ranted in a funny voice", one thinks, we know, Scott. There are some nicely drawn incidents--when Scott, appearing to be a young boy, hitches a ride with a melancholy possible pedophile; and in particular, a scene of brief connection, of solace really, with a little person, a woman with a traveling carnival, is beautifully rendered and nuanced. The ending of the novel goes existential in a big way. I'm not sure I bought it, but it is a welcome hopeful note to what is genuinely a dark and grim story. 16 RECOMMENDED SHORT STORIESBeingTrespassWhen Day is DunBorn of Man and WomanDress of White SilkShipshape HomeThe Holiday ManThe DistributorDay of ReckoningThe Likeness of JulieCricketsMuteGirl of My DreamsA Visit to Santa ClausPreyThe Finishing Touches 5 INDELIBLE POP CULTURE MARKS5. The Matheson ZoneMatheson wrote I think 15 episodes of The Twilight Zone, and contributed some of its best moments. As someone who returns to and rewatches some episodes every decade or so, one thing I notice is that as deft as creator Rod Serling (who wrote about a third of all the episodes) was with a twist ending, his episodes tend toward the socially conventional, and have an unfortunate tendency toward whimsical dreamer husbands with nagging, shrewish wives (usually because they wanted the husbands to go to their jobs and earn a paycheck, the scolds). But Matheson’s episodes resist becoming dated. He wrote Spur of the Moment, in which a woman marries for love instead of money and it turns out to be the worst decision of her life. Because Matheson knew that sometimes, one can act with the best of intentions and end up screwed anyway. He also wrote my personal favorite episode, The Invaders, in which Agnes Moorehead (wthout a line of dialogue) is a solitary woman in a farmhouse menaced by tiny invaders from space.4. The Baddest Haunted House EverHell House is quite bonkers, mostly in a good way, though it arguably flirts with going off the rails toward the end. At any rate, for my money it wipes the floor with The Haunting of Hill House, and I say that as someone who loves and reveres Shirley Jackson. In 1973 it was adapted into the best haunted house film ever, The Legend of Hell House, creepy, scary, violent, with a couple tremendous performances by Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowell. Do see it, but know that Emeric Balasco isn’t fucking around.3. The Last Omega Man on Earth? Not Exactly LegendI Am Legend has been adapted to film three times. None of these quite got it right, though all have their merits. The Last Man on Earth (1964) is an Italian ultra-low-budget effort. Mostly faithful, appropriately bleak tone and cinematography, it’s hampered by the miscasting of Vincent Price as the lead. Robert Neville should be an everyman, and while Price was good at many things, an everyman he was not. (Really, shouldn’t the mutants be more afraid of him?) Also, cinematography aside, the filmmaking here is barely competent, and that’s being generous. The Omega Man (1971), oh dear. Shall we say it’s not timeless? Shall we say the humans who team up with Neville appear to have just come from a Black Panther rally? On the other hand, Charlton Heston is well cast in the lead. This was during his Angry-Iconoclast-in-Dystopia period. As such, it’s better than Soylent Green, nowhere near as good as Planet of the Apes. And Anthony Zerbe is just great playing Mathias, leader of the mutants (though, don’t bother trying to find this character in the book). Besides, how many movies feature Heston quoting from Woodstock and having a love scene with Rosalind Cash? I leave it to others whether this is a good thing. Dated, cheesy, but never boring, it may be crap, but at least it’s crap on a motorcycle. And it nails the ending.I Am Legend (2007), in terms of filmic competence, is leagues above the others. Will Smith does just fine playing Neville. And I liked the liberty they took in giving him a German Shepherd companion. The story is mostly faithful in spirit, if not the details. But a couple major drawbacks. The film’s conception of the mutants is blatantly derivitive of The Descent and 28 Days Later. And it completely, COMPLETELY botches the ending.I’d rate the first two a 6 out of 10, the most recent a 7.2. Matheson x Karen Black x 3Ah, Trilogy of Terror. Does anyone who doesn’t remember the ‘70s even know of this? (Note—Netflix has it.) So this cult favorite was a TV movie anthology from 1975, adapting three Matheson short stories (The Likeness of Julie; Therese; Prey), all starring Karen Black. All are effective, but people only talk about the last one, in which Ms. Black is terrorized in her apartment by a Zuni Fetish Doll. It’s insane, hilarious, and terrifying. Sadly, Karen Black also died in 2013. She and Matheson added ‘Zuni Fetish Doll’ to the cultural lexicon, and this is no small thing.1. The TruckThere are people who will cite Duel, without irony, as their favorite Steven Spielberg movie. Certainly it has to be in the top three. The story is simplicity itself, Dennis Weaver, in the course of a long drive, somehow pisses off the wrong truck driver, who then terrorizes him for miles and miles, implacable, mysterious (you never see his face). Might sound routine, but brilliant in the execution.
Thank God it’s over.I wanted to like this book. I really did. From the moment I saw the cover (a tiny man fending off a spider with a spear-sized needle—how awesome is that?), I wanted to read this story by an author I thought could do no wrong.When I had 5 pages left, I almost stopped reading. Not because I was disappointed with the direction of the plot, but because I just couldn’t take it anymore.The Shrinking Man is the story of Scott Carey, AKA “The Flash” from DC Comics. (I figure he must be some sort of incarnation of the fleet-footed superhero in the red and yellow spandex, because no matter how small Scott Carey gets, he can always outrun whatever is chasing him. Apparently the shorter your legs are, the faster you move.)Logic.I’ve read a few other Matheson stories—the novels I Am Legend, Hell House and Woman, not to mention a few of his well-known stories like “Born of Man and Woman” and “Prey”—and I’ve loved them all. Some more than others, admittedly, but I’ve never walked away regretting the time I spent reading them.That all changed with The Incredibly Boring Man (Who Also Happens to be Shrinking, FYI). (--Original manuscript title.)Things start out great. Five-star book from the beginning. We see a tiny little man struggling to survive in a world that was not built for his size. Every simple task we take for granted—eating, sleeping, not getting eaten by bear-sized spiders—is an arduous endeavor for him. Early on, Matheson goes into great detail regarding just how much work it takes for Scott to survive.And he continues with that level of detail for the rest of the book.If you want to talk about every single foothold this tiny man has to use in climbing a chair 100x his size, great—that’ll really help the reader realize just how small Scott is. But it quickly becomes TOO DAMNED MUCH. (I’m sorry, but I’m experiencing a level of fury right now that can only be expressed through the magic of CAPS LOCK.) Every scene with Scott as a tiny man in the cellar was about 2-3x as long as it needed to be. I get that we’re supposed to experience his frustration, but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere—at a certain point, I feel like I’m the one having to put up with all these insurmountable obstacles, and guess what? It’s NOT ENJOYABLE.Or maybe this was some sort of Matheson meta-brilliance—Scott Carey feels like there’s no hope and that his world will never get better, and that’s the exact same feeling I got about myself while reading the book. Bravo, Mr. Matheson.(Just to be clear, I still think Matheson is an amazing writer. But man, was this story ever a stinker.)This book probably would have worked better as a novella. There are just pages upon pages of superfluous information. And I don’t necessarily mean there are scenes that needed to be cut—just that the existing scenes should have been chopped in half (or maybe even thirds).I went into this book thinking it was a classic. I was greatly disappointed. But, in the end, I still have one thing to be thankful for:At least it wasn’t Frankenstein.
What do You think about The Shrinking Man (2015)?
The book has effectively 3 components: The first component is the “adventure" story of the tiny man battling the alien environment of a normal cellar from an inch high perspective. The second thread is about coming to terms with / the reaction to a terminal illness. The third thread is about the connection between physical size and the perception by self and others of one’s worth as a "man". The “action” component is slowed by long description of every stage of the action – climbing the box, fin
—Matt
Really? This actually got positive reviews?It physically pains me to put a Matheson book on my Kill-Me-Now list. I cannot believe a man who can write such amazing books could write this drivel.This could've been great! I didn't give it 2 stars out of pity. The idea behind it was fantastic. The reason he shrank, the way it affected his wife and daughter, his rage against it, his struggle for survivial. This is all good stuff, great storytelling.But jesus fucking christ, will you just SHUT UP and
—Bunny
Posted at Shelf Inflicted After reading about white male privilege, racial oppression, and gender inequality, I found it interesting that I chose to read a book about a man who is losing his height at nearly an inch per week. Not only is he greatly inconvenienced because he can't reach high shelves, he is also losing his power and significance as a man and a human being and reduced to merely survival. It’s an adventure tale, and it has some horror and sci-fi elements. I like how the story didn’t feel dated, despite being written in the 50’s. Scott Carey was not always a likable character, but he was believable and I felt his anguish over every inch he lost and the changing relationship with his wife and daughter, his encounter with bullies, a child molester, and a predatory black widow spider. The ending is sad and surprisingly hopeful. I enjoyed most of the other stories in this collection. Among my favorites were: The Test - a story that explores how society deals with its aging population and one family’s moral quandary and emotional turmoil over an aging parent who must be tested to determine if he is fit to live. Sad, heartbreaking, and not entirely unrealistic. Mantage was about a writer who, after watching a movie with his wife, wishes he could fast-forward through the drudgery and struggles of his life in order to achieve success faster. Shoofly was about the battle between a harried businessman and the fly that lands in his office. There was so much tension in this story that I wasn’t sure who or what would die at the end. The ending was hilarious!Highly recommended.
—Nancy
