legend

   Guaranteed, Robert Neville is having a far worse day than you are. Imagine some blistering monotony with mortal danger thrown in and you have I Am Legend / Richard Matheson. (Does that make it sound like I didn't enjoy it? WELL I DID.) Someone somewhere compared this book to The Road / Cormac McCarthy and I'm inclined to agree. Different interpretations of a post-apocalyptic world, but both tremendously bleak. While reading, you may or may not find yourself saying "wow, life really is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". Once you get there mentally, you and Robert Neville will be on the same page (see what I did there) and you can carry on your merry way. By "your merry way" I clearly mean "your lonely, survivalist, vampire-hunting way".

   But wait! If we're comparing I Am Legend to The Road, then isn't Robert Neville carrying the fire? How can his life signify nothing? Also: the title of the book is "I Am Legend" and as we all know, legends have got to go beyond being full of sound and fury. Depends on what you mean by carrying the fire, and depends on what you mean by "legend", "sound", and "fury". You will have to read to find out.

   An aside: are you catching the references I'm making? I'm assuming you are but if not: go read The Road (which you should have done long ago. Come on.) and go read act 5 scene 5 of The Scottish Play (which also: why haven't you read yet). UGH FINE, I'll put the wee soliloquy here:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. (M------, act 5, scene 5, lines 17-28)

   So good. Also: a perfect companion to I Am Legend. (If I'm not careful, this post will turn into me recommending bits of Shakespeare to you.)

   So! Robert Neville is the last fully-human person in LA, and possibly the whole world. He is, naturally, rather upset by this. You'll notice I said last FULLY-human and that is because of VAMPIRES. Before you stop reading this post in utter disgust: these vampires don't sparkle or seduce teenage girls. Yay! They are regular ol' bloodthirsty, evil, night-dwelling baddies, thank goodness. (Vampires: something hipsters can't ruin because they are ALREADY DECIMATED. [fun fact: the word "decimated" means "one tenth destroyed" and comes from a practice in the Roman army where, as a severe punishment, the legion would be lined up and one out of every ten men would be executed.{oh my gosh, Glynis, quit it with the "interesting asides"}])

   Robert Neville is out staking vamps every day, and he is going nuuuuts. He is also trying to find a cure, but it is frustrating because science is hard. That's not a joke, actually, science really is hard especially when it is basically molecular biology and you used to work in some sort of factory, not in any sort of science-related field. A bunch of stuff goes down which I can't tell you, as I don't wish to spoil the book for you. In case you're worried: I read the synopsis of the movie and beyond the premise of one man left with a city full of vamps it is pretty much an entirely different story.I haven't seen the movie but I do recommend the book. It's spooky, creepy, bleak, and weirdly hopeful at the end.