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I'm No Legend

PBS recently reaired (if such a term can still be used) a special on science fiction television. This was in the aftermath of Leonard Nimoy’s death.  On the show Twilight Zone was lauded as being one of the most literate television series ever.

They don’t write them like that anymore.  I was a kid in the sixties when the reruns of Twilight Zone were still being shown.  At the time I had no idea who the writers were.  One of them, I learned as an adult, was Richard Matheson.

Matheson is best known for his short novel, I Am Legend.  From today’s perspective, the writing isn’t exactly stellar, but the ideas are rich and profound.  "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” for example, has stayed with me since I saw it on the Twilight Zone.

I’ve been reading some of Matheson’s short stories.  I have no idea how many he wrote during his long life, but as I compare them to some of my own fare, it is clear that we think/thought pretty much alike.



I have to wonder if Matheson would have succeeded in getting noticed if he’d started writing in the internet era.  Before I’d read anything of his I’d written a story that, just recently I discovered was on a theme he had already addressed.  The difference being his was published.

Other Matheson stories leave me scratching my metaphorical head.  What did that story have to say?  What did it mean?  Did it mean anything?  It was, however, clearly published.

Much has changed from what PBS suggests was the golden age of science fiction.  I’ve written science fiction, but I can’t keep up with the tech.  I tend more toward the macabre, as Matheson also did.  Some of his stories are funny.


Some can get away with it.  Others can’t.  It all depends on whether you’re born in a golden age or one of lead. 

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