MSN posted news that Richard Matheson had died today. "Author and screenwriter Richard Matheson, an undisputed giant in the genres of science fiction, horror and fantasy, passed away on Sunday (June 23) at the age of 87." (msn.com/movies)
Stephen King dedicated his novel Cell to Matheson. Clark Collins at EW quotes King, "Without Richard Matheson I wouldn’t be around.”
I first became familiar with Matheson for his work on the original Twilight Zone series (which was in reruns when I saw them).
Famous for several novels and stories, I enjoyed The Incredible Shrinking Man most. When the film version was first released, Matheson didn't like it, feeling the movie drifted too far from his novel.
He told Clark Collins at Entertainment Weekly,
“I wrote about real people and real circumstances and real neighborhoods,” Matheson told me. “There was no crypt or castles or H.P. Lovecraft-type environments. They were just about normal people who had something bizarre happening to them in the neighborhood. I could never write about strange kingdoms. I could never do Harry Potter or anything like that. Even when I did science-fiction I didn’t write about foreign planets and distant futures. I certainly never did fantasies about trolls living under bridges. I had to write about realistic circumstances. That’s the way my brain works. And I think that gave me a sort of place in the field.”
He first came to my awareness through the Zone as well.
ReplyDeleteIf I hadn't been such a nerd and immersed in all things Sci-Fi, however, I still may never have known who he was.
He always seem to me possessed of an invaluable perfectionist streak, aiming for the highest possible quality in everything he did.
This could sometimes be a burden, as it lead to his comments in an intro to a Twilight Zone anthology, where he writes:
"I...feel it's a mistake to revive shows from the Golden Age of Television...they were superlative for that Age. Today, the seams show."
He later, in an interview for the special edition of Duel, calimed that short story and script were just about the only work of his that he was proud of, as everything had finally worked out right.
Artistic perfection is a noble, if hard to realize goal. It's testament to both Matheson's drive, and his genuine talent, that he never gave up in the face of what was to him, if no one else, failure.
In the same Duel interview, he said that after he wrote the short story, he realized all his work was about "Normal people trying to overcome unconquerable odds", an apt metaphor for his life and purpose if there ever was one.
His "Place" in modern fiction is simply that of reminding readers that it's often are everyday surroundings contain the most mystery, if you happen to catch it out of the corner of the eye.
And in creating his own "place" he was able to loan it to a thousand talents that would follow after, including such as King and Straub.
He will be missed.
ChrisC
What a tremendous loss. He was a brilliant novelist. He was a brilliant screenwriter. and he may be the greatest writer in the history of television.
ReplyDeleteThere won't be another Matheson. But he, Bradbury, Serling, and Charles Beaumont are together now and I'm sure fans of the bizarre are enjoying new Twilight Zone episodes in Heaven.
Very sad news. I loved his books. 'Somewhere In Time' and 'What Dreams May Come' had magical qualities, but he was versatile and could scare your socks off when he so chose. You can easily see his influence on Stephen King's work. To pick up a Richard Matheson was to be assured of a gripping, compulsive read. We'll miss him.
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