Final Project

(For some reason the image is sideways...)

Over the course of the semester the novel that stood out by far was the Robert Matheson novel, I am Legend. This novel not only stood out for its adaptation to a full length motion picture, but also for the concept of survival of the fittest mentality and the ability for the reader to buy into the character of Robert Neville. Survival of the fittest has been a concept that only the strongest survive in the order of creatures. Vampire-Zombies are played out to be the fittest creatures in Robert Neville’s world as so they think.

            The reader is lead along a path in which these Vampire-Zombie creatures are stalking Robert Neville and are out for his demise. The creatures are storming Neville’s house to the point that his days have almost become ritualized. He spends most of every day rubbing garlic on his house and growing more garlic, he also spends time repairing the damage the Vampire-Zombie creatures do to his home during the night time hours, when the creatures are in full swing since they are nocturnal beings.

            Secondly, the character of Robert Neville is an easy buy in for the reader. He is a character the reader can relate to and feel a level of comfort with in regards to surviving something others cannot. Robert Neville feels like the last man on earth and he very well could be for all he knows at the start of the novel. He befriends a dog, ie man’s best friend. Many find comfort in animals and Robert Neville was no different. He found comfort in something as simple as a dog.

            With these two concepts in mind the construction of a piece of artwork was in order. I constructed a piece based on these two concepts. As shown in the graphic image above, I constructed by version of what a Vampire-Zombie like creature in Robert Neville’s world would look like. The black background depicts the darkness of the world these creatures survive in, the nocturnal haven that they are able to strive in. The black background fades in around the Vampire-Zombie creature I envisioned while reading the text.

            The Vampire-Zombie creature I envisioned was of a bony structure. The creature also had a bald head and protruding cheek bones. I envisioned the protruding cheek bones that were set high on the facial structure to make more room in the jaw region for sucking the blood of the victims turned Vampire-Zombies. The high set cheek bones also allows for the powerfulness of the jaw when biting into its prey.  Also, appearing the Vampire-Zombie like creature is the main characteristic of a Vampire, the fangs. Visible to the viewer of this piece is just the fang on one side. This was done intentionally because the whole the creature is not meant to be seen.

            Only half the face of the Vampire-Zombie creature is to be seen because it is meant to look like the vampire is peering through at Robert Neville. Peering in through a crack or a hole in Robert Neville’s house, this is showing a fault in Neville, a down fall that could lead to his own demise. Which is also symbolized in the piece by the Vampire-Zombie creature melting into the candle below the creature, the creature’s demise is light due to the nocturnal being his has become. Light is a source of power for Robert Neville. Light is one natural aspect that Robert Neville uses to his advantage, during daylight Neville can still be a human. Whereas at night he is confided to the confines of his home, and he is stuck boarded up as a prisoner in his own home. Light is a source of power and prowlness for Robert Neville and the demise of the Vampire-Zombie like creatures.

            Over all the ability to relate to Robert Neville is what made the novel easy to read and buy into the thoughts and ideas of Robert Neville. This is what also made it adaptable to a major motion picture. A character that people can relate to and feel like one with is important to the human aspect of not only a novel, but a movie as well. A person needs to be able to put themselves in the character’s shoes. People in Neville’s shoes would have the same mentality; only the strongest survive and persevere.

            These concepts can easily be seen in my piece of fan art dedicated to Robert Neville’s I am Legend,  in which the novel, movie, and now this piece of artwork are easily put together in one overall context to pay tribute to the novel that has sparked creative juices among the masses in relation to the Matheson novel. The Vampire-Zombies may very well eventually take over the world, but not without a fight and not without hunger and drive. That is what Robert Neville brought hunger and drive to survive, to protect what was his, what he worked his life for and he was not willing to give that up for some Vampire-Zombie, like the one depicted in my piece.

Let the Right One In

First, I would like to start this post by saying that this novel was very difficult to follow at first, but looking back it was very well written. I had a very hard time following the novel and all the different stories going on when I had first started reading the novel; however, after about the first quarter of the novel I found the way it was written to be the only way the story could be written. The story became easy to follow and I found myself looking forward to what was going to happen next. I was disappointed in myself because I read a couple of reviews online which ended up ruining the novel because I knew what was going to happen along the way. I did learn my lesson and will never do that again because it ruined a lot of twists in the road. I did find the characters of Eli and Hakan to be very disturbing. Hakan in the beginning of the novel was very decieving and freightning. When he killed the young man on the path and left him hanging from the tree I think that was the point when I said to myself, "what in the heck is going on in this novel". When I was done reading the book I did say to myself, "what did I just read?"

Literary

Let The Right One In, written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, is a very intriguing vampire novel. However, while being an intriguing novel it also has its moments of confusion. While reading the novel the reader may become confused as the novel progresses by days much like that of a journal, yet during each day it jumps around between characters of the novel. This was hard to understand when starting the novel and it did take time to become accustom. One topic in general that was very intriguing in, Let The Right One In, was the topic of homoeroticism. This topic can be found in many vampire novels, however, was so present in, Let The Right One In, that it could be determined that is was an underlying theme of the novel itself.

                In the article titled, “Warm-Blooded: True Blood and Let The Right One, by J.M. Tyree, Tyree explores the sexual aspects on the vampire culture. One quote from the article that rang true in regards to Let The Right One In would be, “Classically, being under the spell of a vampire involves effacement by seduction into an exploitative relationship between an omnisexual seducer and a parade of slave lovers—male and female—who are viewed as both interchangeable parts and as natural resources or blood banks. The homoeroticism of vampires, on the other hand, is as longstanding as it is problematic” (Tyree, 1). Tyree goes on then to also discuss the concept of “waiting for the right moment” (Tyree, 2). Both of these statement from Tyree’s article relate to that of the novel. In the novel Hakan is a vampire who is full of homoeroticism. In the beginning of the novel when the reader first learns of Hakan’s nature as not only a murder, but the way in which he kills his prey, leaving no blood (because he is a vampire). The reader gets let into one of Hakan’s murders. He approaches the young boy to ask him the time, but Hakan knows the timing must be right for his plan to work. “Hakan was going to have to hurry. Every second that went by reduced the chance of success… soon it would be too late” (Lindqvist, 22).  This shows Hakan’s desire to wait for the right moment to make his attack on his victims. The right moment is crucial if Hakan does not want to be caught for his crimes, not only his crime for killing for blood, but also his crime of pedophilia.

                Hakan is a very disturbing character and the character that a reader perhaps focuses the most on while reading the novel. Oskar may be the main character overall, but Hakan is the character that adds the wow factor. Oskar’s obsession with murders proves to be ironic, but Hakan’s life is flat out flabbergasting. The reader is often left with this wow factor in regards to Hakan. In many instances in shock and awe because what the reader is reading is so shocking and disgusting, yet Hakan is what makes the novel what it is. Without Hakan the novel would lack irony and surprise. The ironic part is that one obsessed with murder would cross paths with one who commits murders.

                This first scene that was mentioned earlier of Hakan’s fist killing the reader encounters is significant because it is the first glimpse into the twisted mind of Hakan. It shows the reader Hakan before Eli. It also shows the reader this dark side of vampire humanity. One that not only preys on the blood of others, but also the young souls, in the first couple of chapters Lindqvist really paints a pretty clear overall picture of Hakan. The reader also is able to see in detail the homoeroticism and pedophilia that Hakan is taking part in. This is where the reader becomes disgusted with Hakan. In those first few chapters the reader takes on Hakan as a vampire and then takes him on as a pedophile. He begins to look at young boys for sexual acts. This is where the line was drawn in the sand as reader. The concept of killing for blood was one thing in the novel, but when it came down to young boys being his sexual desire, it caused me to lose any intrigue I had for Hakan and transitioned me intrigue over to Oskar. This made me wonder if others lost intrigue in Hakan at this point or before?

                The issue of Eli also comes in to play here as well because Eli is a 200 year old vampire who was a man and was castrated. At this point in the novel I lost all interest in the novel what so ever that I had. It lost any sort of humanity. From here on out I had no desire to finish the book because it was way too obscure for my liking what so ever. Then it went into the relationship of Hakan and Eli and I just became disgusted. This is where I would like to know if others had the same feelings in regards to Hakan and Eli?

                Lastly, I just would like to know others overall opinion of the novel as a whole? I felt this whole novel was a waste of my time and so farfetched that there was no reliability to the novel. I always find myself looking for something to relate to when I am reading a novel of any kind, and I found nothing in this novel which made it very hard for me to relate to and enjoy reading.

A Cold War

I definitely saw themes of war and violence in the novel, Let the Right One in. I the novel Oskar keeps a scrap book of newspaper clippings about murders, much like people do in relation to keeping newspaper clippings about war. Many say that war is never the answer, well neither is murder so the two topics in many ways fo hand in hand. Oskar finds a friend in Eli, much like how during wars countries team together and become partners. Hakan and Eli are good friends and agents of one another. Eli's paying Hakan for getting the blood Eli needs to survive makes Hakan a necessary evil of Eli's survival. Without Hakan, Eli would not be able to survive because Hakan is capable of getting the blood that Eli needs to survive. This relates to war because in war the one who stands alone never wins. Hakan and Eli are like the Soviet Union and Cuba during the cold war, they need each other. The question I would like to pose in relation to this novel...How did most react to the character of Hakan? I found Hakan to be a love and hate realtionship. With strong ties to Eli, there was a faithfulness, but only for the self fulfillment which is where the hate came in to play. Hakan was selfish and that irritated me while reading the novel.

Final Project

For my final project I plan on doing a series of paintings/pastel (do not know which one for sure) based on Robert Neville's secluded life in I am Legend. I want to play with his life. I want to picture the way in which he protected what was his and how he was determined by will to protect himself. I also want to show the zombie vampire characters. I want them to be pictured as dark and threatening. I want these to relate for the survivial of humanity and the triumph of the human spirit.

Black Hole Sun...

This week I would like to explore the aspect of the sun and the role it plays in vampire novels. This was the first time the sun had killed characters in the novels we have read. In I am Lengend the vampire zombie like creatures did not some out in the sun light, but it never killed on of the main characters. In Interview with the Vampire the sun light killed not only one character, but two. In the previous novels we had explored the use of garlic as an anti-vampire technique, but I believe that the most powerful tool one can use if that of the sun. I believe this because the sun gives a person half the day, like in I am Leged Neville used to the sun to his advantage. In Interview with the Vampire it was the demise of two vampire characters. The death of Claudia is a pivotial point in the novel, because it draws Louis inward. He begins to step back to live life crouching. Claudia was irreplaceable. Eventhough she thought that she was replaceable, Louis is not the same after her demise.

I am so far very much enjoying this novel I must admit. I really have enjoyed the way in which it is easy to relate to Louis as a character. He has the human characteristic like Robert Neville did in I am Legend.  At first Louis cannot even fend on humans for blood, he goes after animals on the plantation. He then breaks under the pressure of Lestat  and begins to feast on human blood. His instincts then  begin to grab hold on him and he needs the human blood, the animal blood is no longer good enough for him to consume. He then feast on a little girl’s blood something I did not expect from him because of his feelings towards human blood in the first place. I never would have thought that he would drink the blood of such a young girl. Just like many people think they would never do something until they are actually put in the situation themselves. Many people ask the question if you and five friends were stuck on a desert island who would you eat your friend? Most would answer no way, but put in the actual situation where it is eat or die the outcome may be a little different.

I also think the ensuing relationship between the girl and Louis resembles the relationship between Neville and the dog he found. It gives them each a reason to stay. It gives them a feeling of companionship that they were missing before.