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Robert Burns

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March 2009

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Books by Robert Burns

Average rating: 3.00 · 9 ratings · 4 reviews · 1 distinct work

The Unselfish Gene

3.00 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions

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Robert Burns is currently reading:

I am Legend: And Other Stories

by Richard Matheson

bookshelves: currently-reading

read in August, 2010

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Robert Burns said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

""I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine." -- Lou Reed

I tried to find a nostalgia quote that was linked to old age, but I stumbled across this one by Lou and was happy to have (sort of) a reason to use it.

Why nostalgia for a zombie novel that is mor...more "I don't like nostalgia unless it's mine." -- Lou Reed

I tried to find a nostalgia quote that was linked to old age, but I stumbled across this one by Lou and was happy to have (sort of) a reason to use it.

Why nostalgia for a zombie novel that is more than 50 years old? Why did I take time off reading D.H.'s The Rainbow, to read an apocalyptic horror novel? Good questions all, for which I have good answers -- I think.

First, a book such has The Rainbow deserves to be read in two or three consecutive sittings as it's about learning the inner desires of characters and how one life flows into another. Not that I am Legend doesn't have inner dialogue. In fact, it's more about the protagonist's thoughts about loneliness, despair and lost love than it is about zombies. The zombies are termed "vampires" in the novel, but they have a lot more in common with zombies. They stumble; they're mentally impaired and were made undead by a bacillus rather than by supernatural means. But let's not split – rather spill -- body fluids. Whatever they're called, the creatures in I am Legend serve more as the backdrop for the novel than the main plot line. They are "the situation," if you will, not the reason entendre of the story. The main theme of Matheson's novel is survival, of social isolation, and of, as I inferred above, extreme alienation. He is completely dispossessed. Even his dog dies.

First, though, if you've seen the Will Smith movie by the same name, forget it. Though supposedly based on Matheson's novel, it is about as much like it as a Big Mac and fries is like a dinner in a four-star restaurant. All the elements may be the same: meat, potatoes, a few vegetables, even some sort of special sauce, but the resemblance stops there. Both will fill you up, of course, but one will merely sate, the other leave you with a feeling you’ve done something good and memorable for yourself; a moveable feast, if you will

This allusion to Hemingway may offend some, but I actually think stylistically that Matheson is the better prose stylist. Like Hemingway, his word choices are economical. He trims away the fat, and like drunken Papa, he doesn't care much for lyrical prose. (What a departure both writers are from D.H. Lawrence!) But Matheson does have these little moments as a writer when he inserts a short insight into his narrative that is more like buried treasure; almost poetry.

BTW, there have been two other movie adaptations of this novel. The 1971 film, The Omega Man, with Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe and Rosalind Cash, was even less faithful to the novel than the Will Smith movie. The infected are purely zombies, but zombies who got a particularly nasty variety of fundamentalism along with their photosensitivity and flaking skin. You do get to see some brief nudity of Rosalind Cash – a real treat for twenty-something me when I first saw it. And the movie broached the inter-racial sex boundary of the early 70s, as I recall, when Charlie and Rosalind get it on. But the movie doesn't hold up, and if you enjoyed Matheson's novel, you feel rather cuckolded. Hollywood cheated again. Hollywood is a whore. What else is new? However, Charlie and Rosalind do get it on, inter-racial sex, which was a sort of courageous thing to do on film in the early 1970s. So Hollywood, in typical cliche fashion, is sometimes the whore with the heart of gold.

By far the movie most loyal to the 1951 novel is the 1964 film, The Last Man on Earth, with Vincent Price playing the part of Robert Neville, a.k.a. the last man, a.k.a, legend to the vampires. Though I thought the B&W movie very good -- which was filmed in Rome, Italy -- Matheson, who wrote much of the screen play, did not. He was evidently so embarrassed that he had his credits listed under an alias. You'll find him listed in the movie credits as Logan Swanson. Hmm… I wonder how Richard, a.k.a, Logan, would have done it differently?

Enough digression. Back to the novel and my allusion to zombie nostalgia. Why did I read this novel that is primarily about a man cut off from all he loved and all that loved him? Not to whine, but I suppose I was drawn to the novel because that's the way I was feeling last night. D.H.'s book is largely about family, love and connections, of which I have little to none these days. For some reason, reading the protagonist's (Robert Neville) continuing angst, his near failing in to alcoholism, his return to sanity or something like it, and then his contentment with what he calls his solitary bachelorhood, was a kind of therapy. No matter that the novel ends in another personal tragedy for Neville. (It's hard to do a spoiler on the book when Will, Vincent and Charlie all die at the end of their respective movies.) Despite all that, I came away from the novel feeling a bit more connected to people and the world at large. It's not if I not nearly as alone as Robert Neville. My lovers have all walked out the door, some to go back to their husbands, others for greener, younger haunts. My children are long gone and far away, and most the people I deal with day-to-day seem to be in some sort of consumer trance, buying what they can't afford, moaning over their huge debt loads, and still shopping like automatons anyway. But I'm good with all that, and I don't need a drink to deal with the stillness of my own thoughts. Now, perhaps, I can deal with the extended lyrical love poem that is The Rainbow without feeling depressed. Thanks, Richard.(less) "

Aug 29, 2010 06:03pm · see review

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Robert Burns is now friends with Timothy McGivney
Jan 19, 2012 07:09pm
Robert Burns made a comment on Suzanne's review of The Unselfish Gene "You might find my review of 11/22/63 interesting. "
Dec 12, 2011 09:26pm · see review
Robert Burns added a quote "I just don't hear anyone else making the music I'm making in my head, so I'll have to do it myself." — Bob Dylan
Dec 12, 2011 08:55pm · add quote added! · more quotes by Bob Dylan
Robert Burns made a comment on Sc's review of The Unselfish Gene "Obviously, not for prudes, but thanks for the honest, if blue-nosed review. "
Dec 12, 2011 07:36pm · see review
Robert Burns added: 11/22/63 by Stephen King read in December, 2011	My rating:
I guess one shouldn't read Stephen King if he or she is hoping for a happy ending, but though I was expecting things to end badly, I still was more than a little depressed with this book's ending. Looking back, I suppose this letdown is because of one...more
Dec 12, 2011 03:53pm · see review
Robert Burns is now following John's reviews
Dec 07, 2011 07:44pm
Robert Burns marked as to-read: The Man Who Mistook His Job for a Life: A Chronic Overachiever Finds the Way Home by Jonathon Lazear	My rating:
Jun 09, 2011 04:52am
Robert Burns made a comment in the group ¡ POETRY ! — PLEASE POST YOUR POEM FOR THE MAY 2011 GOODREADS' CONTEST! topic "How to Escape Commitment My love is nothing like she should be When I say be mine, She says I am only myself When I cry 'forever,' She drops her eyes And sa...more "
Apr 09, 2011 04:32pm
Robert Burns joined the ¡ POETRY ! group.
Feb 02, 2011 06:29pm · see group
Robert Burns made a comment on Suzanne's review of Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus (Dodo Press) "From a Jungian perspective, the creature was Dr. Frankenstien's shadow side, all the negative aspects of parts of his unconsciousness magnified repres...more "
Jan 23, 2011 01:29pm · see review