I am Legend...and Lem

Last week I wrote about The Futurological Congress, so this week I am going to write about I am Legend the movie. I thought we had a thorough conversation about it in class on Thursday, but I’ll just add a few concluding thoughts. I was most interested in the discussion about Will Smith’s portrayal as a strong black man as it compares to Robert Neville’s book portrayal as a blonde Aryan man. We questioned if Will Smith’s casting decision was as a critical refute of the book character, or if it was just because Will Smith is a good action hero. I personally agree with the latter statement, but I think there is definitely an essay to be written about how the movie’s racial portrayals refute the book’s racial portrayals.

After our class discussion, I don’t have much more to say about the book vs. the movie, so instead I am going to keep writing about The Futurological Congress. I think the end to the novel was a little bit open to interpretation, and I would be interested to know what everyone else thinks about it. The vague ending makes the reader wonder if any of the story really did happen to Ijon, or if the whole thing was a result of a drug overdose. Either way, the plot suggests that the drugs that could lead to the end of true humanity itself. Whether or not the trippy dream is real, it acts as a warning about how our society could change because of our dependences.