Dylanz Net

I watched the 2007 I am Legend movie on Netflix and glimpsed the May 2008 released alternate ending online.  I followed that up with Mattheson’s original 1954 I am Legend book (which is well summarized on Wikipedia).  That drove me to read H.G. Wells 1895 Time Machine (summarized on Wikedpedia) (and also found in the Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H.G. Wells).

All three have the same basic concept…that man has diverged into two separate and opposing species. 

• In Time Machine, there are the Eloi who live in the light of day, are docile as lambs, weak as sheep, small of stature, quite pretty and fun loving.  They fail to render assitance to any of their kind and have no fear of anything other than the night. They peform no labor and eat only the fruits that are readily available and appear t be planted just for the purpose of fattening them up.  They are paired against the Morlocks who have retreated below the surface, cannot stand light, and feast on the meat of the fair Eloi. The Morlocks only come out at night to snatch the Eloi for their meals.
• In Mattheson’s 1954 “I am Legend”, a bacteria has brought vampires back to the planet.  In this case, there are three kinds of beings: Neville, the sole remaining survivor of the plague who is immune to the conversion, those who live, but are vampires, and the un-dead…vampires who have returned from the dead, but have no faculties of thought.   In this version, Neville kills the sleeping vampires by day, unaware that there are both un-dead and living among them. The living vampires seek him out as a danger to their new society and eventually exterminate him.
• In the 2007 movie version, a “cure” for cancer turns out to convert the host into a vampire-like being that is rabid, does not converse, and has no remorse for others.  The disease sweeps through the planet and leaves only one remaining survivor.  It sleeps by day, and hunts by night. In this version Hollywood version however, a cure is found and so are the other survivors.  
• In the 2008 Alternate ending, the zombies are capable of jealousy, rage, and other complex emotions, and thus are not just blood-thirsty zombies as they are made out to be in the Hollywood version.

All of these left me wondering about the state of mankind.   They point to extremes in nature: the hunter and the hunted…and the reversal of fortunes through unplanned or unforseen changes in the environment or rather, unrecognized changes. 

Perhaps the message is not to lash out when we don’t understand.  Our first instinct is to treat the unknown as insignificant, without feelings, and with disdain…perhaps we should try to step in someone else’s shoes before we dismiss them so quickly…

Popularity: 2%