Richard Matheson is the author of dozens of fantasy and science fiction novels, many of which have been adapted for film and television. His son, Bill and Ted co-creator Chris Matheson, explores his complicated relationship with his father in new book Chatting with Father.
“If you care about my dad, if Richard Matheson is a figure of interest to you, if his stories are important to you in any way, I think I have a very specific vantage point. maybe about this guy,” Chris said in Episode 520 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy audio file. “I’m his child, and I’ve been very, very close to him for a long time.”
In novels such as I’m a legend, The man is shrinkingand Stir up the echo, Richard Matheson combined wild sci-fi concepts with easy-to-understand everyday characters. It was an approach that would have a profound influence on later authors, such as Stephen King. “[Matheson] Chris said: “I’m a legend really stood out for the sense of realism he had, the feeling of ‘What would it really be like to be the last person alive in a world full of vampires?’
Richard Matheson’s big theme is loneliness. He writes over and over about isolated men struggling to survive in the face of insurmountable difficulties. In Chatting with FatherChris recounted how his father had trouble connecting with others. “He and my mom have a lot of friends, they communicate a lot, but I don’t know if he has a close friend,” Chris said. “I’m not sure there’s anyone he can really open up to. I’m not sure he’s ever had another man with whom he could truly express himself and talk openly about his feelings. “
Chris believes his father used two strategies to deal with his feelings of loneliness. A person who wants to feel comfortable around animals — his love of dogs is shown strongly in novels like I’m a legend and Dreams can come—And the other is to rush into his work. “Here’s a guy who came down to his little office – it’s a basically converted warehouse – and he’s going to be in his office for eight hours,” says Chris. “And he loves it — or he needs it. He thrived on it.”
Listen to the full interview with Chris Matheson in Episode 520 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.
Chris Matheson on the adaptation:
[My dad] is a very economical and effective storyteller. He once described what he thought was a good article as “it’s as clean as a hound’s tooth”. That’s how he usually puts it. And that’s how his stuff is just bang-bang-bang-bang sometimes. And that can make for a pretty good movie because with a movie you just don’t have that long. You have a few hours. I’m a legend Not a really long book. It has 160 pages. … And so, his already neat and frugal stories are really good to film. It’s amazing how many movies have been made of his stories.
Chris Matheson on Thoughts and Destiny by Harold Percival:
[My dad] loved it and embraced it, and in fact it became his bible, that he ended up writing a book called Road, which was his popularity of Harold Percival’s book. To the extent that if you google “Harold Percival,” if you look at his Wikipedia entry, it basically says that his world’s greatest pursuer is Richard Matheson, which I think is true. . And the book is ridiculous. The book is laughable. The book seems flashy and pompous, both deceptive and stupid as hell. I couldn’t believe it when I read it. It was like, “Dad, how can you believe this? How could this be possible?” My father was a smart man, I think, fear overwhelms them all.
Chris Matheson on Dreams can come:
I know where he wrote this book [our family] all will become characters… I remember saying to him, “Dad, I don’t understand. You die and go to heaven, and then mom kills herself and goes to hell. It’s a strange story to tell. ” And he was like, “Well, what else could it be?” And I said, “Well, I don’t know. You can go to hell, right?” And he said, “Oh, that thing. That doesn’t make any sense.” But I thought it was weird, and it pissed my mom off. She doesn’t really like it. It’s strange for her to have this long love letter to her at the end. But she committed suicide because she couldn’t live without him and had to go to hell, and he came from heaven and saved her. It’s a bit strange.
Chris Matheson on Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure:
I believe we did [the police station scene] pretty much on set or the day before. This was written in the moment. I guess what we wrote didn’t work, and so I miss Ed Solomonmy partner, throw this out [time travel] idea. And my first reaction was, “Wow, that’s really complicated. Is that effective? “It only took me a minute to get around it. Then it’s like, “Oh yeah. Well, that’s funny.” And then we write it really, really fast, and the jokes seem so refreshing. new earth, you can get some funny jokes.
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