Genetics and Ethics in the ‘I am Legend’ Corpus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21790309 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zachary Feldman, Zachary B Feldman (Vanderbilt University), Jay Clayton (0000-0002-3569-4853, Vanderbilt University) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 94-107 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Literature and Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1754-646X • E-ISSN: 1754-646X |
| Publisher | Journal of Literature and Science (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.12929/jls.14.1-2.07 |
| PMID | 36545402 |
| OpenAlex | W4312211857 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
I. Introduction: One Story over Fifty YearsSkin bakes under the harsh blue light of an ultraviolet lamp.A subject lays limp on a medical gurney, restrained at the wrists and ankles in an underground laboratory.Her chest is heaving with exertion and the heart rate monitor is racing.A man in a white lab coat speaks into his audio recorder: "Extreme reaction to UV exposure.Symptoms and tissue samples confirm subject is infected with KV.Vaccine test: GA series serum 391 compound 6.Commencing human trials."With that news he plunges a syringe into the subject's IV line.Almost immediately respiration, heart rate, and core temperature drop to stable levels."We may have something here."The subject abruptly bolts upwards screaming in the hackneyed style of a Hollywood jump scare.The camera zooms in on her wide-open mouth, shrieking in agony, before she falls backwards and flatlines.The scientist throws down his gear and retires for the day -another subject, another failure.Such is daily life for US Army virologist, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville, as played by Will Smith in the horror-thriller, I am Legend (2007, Francis Lawrence).Few viewers would think to ask where research protections for human subjects have gone in this movie's post-apocalyptic landscape.The desperation of a solitary survivor of a global pandemic can justify many atrocities, as can the complete absence of any of the infrastructures and institutions of society.But viewers who have read the science fiction/horror novel on which this film is based would not be so quick to give Colonel Neville an ethical free pass, for the plot twist that discomfited many of the first readers of Richard Matheson's novel, I Am Legend (1954), was the startling revelation on the last pages that Neville, the hero (or perhaps "antihero" is the better term), had been the perpetrator of the real atrocities all along -not the vampires that stalked him.The film's horrific scene of research on a human subject (Col.Neville labels it as a "human trial") does not even hint that there might be an ethical problem with the experiment.But the scene raises questions of research ethics, which loom large in the latest film version's treatment of genetic engineering.This article explores the four main versions of the "I am Legend" stories, comprised of one novel and three cinematic adaptations, all of which deal with existential threats to humanity caused by various (pseudo-)scientific mechanisms behind a vampiric infection that devastates the world's population. 1 There have been three cinematic adaptations of Matheson's science fiction novel: The Last Man on Earth (1964, Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow) starring Vincent Price; The Omega Man (1971, Boris Sagal) with Charlton Heston; and I am Legend (2007, Francis Lawrence) featuring Will Smith. 2 While each version deviates somewhat from the others, the premise remains steadfast: One lone survivor of a pandemic, usually denominated "Robert Neville," finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where seemingly all of humanity has been wiped out.Neville, who is immune to the disease, must fend off the vampiric corpses reanimated by the disease.Fighting to preserve the human species, Neville struggles to preserve his identity as the last man on earth.In this article we argue that the "I am Legend" stories reflect a shift from fears of external threats characteristic of warfare and geopolitics to concerns about dangers internal to twenty-first century science, particularly genetics.The shifting nature of the threats to the bodily integrity of the protagonist in the "I am Legend" stories captures
Art · Biology · Evolutionary biology · Legend · Literature · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Genetics
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |