Woman Book

Whether it's a road-raging trucker, a miniscule everyman, a haunted house, a time-traveling lover or the fate of the last man on earth, Richard Matheson's focus as a writer shifts from one stimulating interest to another.

"Ideas come to me, and I become fascinated by them," the legendary storyteller explains. "I do it, and then I'm done with it."

Matheson's most recent literary fascination -- with the tense and potentially terrifying ramifications of the present-day battle of the sexes -- inspired his provocative novel "Woman," a new thriller published by Gauntlet Press. The book's cover features the single-word title, the image of a battleaxe and the words, "Men and women can no longer co-exist."

"I think, by themselves, the words on the cover really get the wheels turning," the famed writer of the novels "I Am Legend" and "The Shrinking Man," unforgettable episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and a number of classic scripts (Roger Corman's "The Pit and the Pendulum," Steven Spielberg's "Duel," the TV film "The Night Stalker") remarked during an interview at his home in Calabasas, Calif.

"A long time ago, women did control everything -- and they used this battle-axe as a symbol," he continued. "It became a symbol of the female essence. It's not used anymore. People will make of it what they will. Those who are knowledgeable will know what it means."

Matheson's contemporary-suspense novel begins the day of the Emmy Awards, as a popular talk-show psychologist and his wife -- a successful television producer nominated for one of the night's coveted honors -- prepare to host a party before they leave for the awards.

Left alone in the apartment before their guests arrive, the therapist is visited by a strange young woman who insists that she needs his help. In spite of his protests, the woman refuses to leave. As the party begins, her presence leads to a bitter and disturbing discussion of sexual politics before the night takes a grim and deadly turn.

"I think older women are the ones who are going to get it most, because I think they recognize that for all the superficial success of the feminist movement, they still haven't really gone that far," Matheson maintains. "They're still considered lesser beings -- and they're not, of course. I hope it provokes a lot of conversation, and people will look at an idea they've never thought of. That's why I wrote it."

During the course of the interview, Matheson discussed the mysterious origins of "Woman," memorable works from his past and a few upcoming projects. Here are some highlights:

Q: What inspired you to explore this rather controversial theme of the dynamics between men and women?

A: It's very strange. I have pretty clear recollections on how I got ideas for almost every book I wrote. But I have no recollection for this one.

My wife thinks that it was the residue left over from a six-hour adaptation I did once with Peter Strauss of "The Disappearance" by Philip Wylie, in which the world divides into one world that's all men and another world that's all women.

I don't necessarily think that's so, but I honestly don't know. It's very strange, because that's never happened to me before.

Q: How recently was the book-written?

A: I wrote it last year. It's the most recent thing I wrote. Actually, it was a play first, and then I adapted it into a novel.

I did the same thing with a play called "Now You See It," which we're still waiting to get on the stage. I've got a producer. I've got a director and a set designer. It's about a professional magician, and I've got the magic consultant in the country. But we can't find the right actor.

Q: Did you decide that "Woman" would work better as a reading experience than as a stage play?

A: No. Again, I just get tired of waiting. Nothing happens over a period of time, so I decide, "I'll make a novel and get it published, because I'm well enough known in that area for that to happen."

Q: You mentioned the research you did before writing "Woman." What did that process involve?

A: I read a number of books about feminism and the psychology of women.

Q: Is that a subject that interested you in the past?

A: No, not particularly. It's just an idea that came along and fascinated me at the time. That's just the way I work.

I went through a phase a few years ago where I wrote Westerns because I became fascinated by Westerns. So I wrote this first one, "Journal of the Gun Years." I got a medal from the Western Writers of America for best novel of the year, so then I decided to do a few more. Now I have no interest in doing Westerns. None.

Q: What are some other cases?

A: I was interested in doing a love story, so I did "Bid Time Return," which became "Somewhere in Time." I wanted to do a war novel, so I did "The Beardless Warriors."

I would be much better known if I stuck to one thing, like terror or horror or suspense. I'm best known for "I Am Legend," "The Shrinking Man" -- that sort of thing.

I don't know if it means I have a short attention span or what, but I always write what interests me at the time.

Q: Do you think that you write in cycles?

A: No, because I don't expect them to come back. When I read Shirley Jackson's novel ("The Haunting of Hill House"), I thought, "Well, I want to write a haunted-house novel where you know damn well there's ghosts in the house and describe what they look like."

It's a marvelous book that she wrote, but I don't know if she ever really meant anything to be there, or if it was just something that the character of the psychic was picking up. You knew that there was something in the house, but nothing concrete. I wanted to make ghosts that were undoubtedly ghosts. So I wrote "Hell House."

Q: How has the creative process changed over the years?

A: I've been writing more than 70 years now. The actual technique hasn't changed, but the things that I'm interested in writing about keep changing.

In the beginning, when you're young, you write scary stuff. You like to do that. I dislike the word "horror." Whenever anybody refers to me as a "horror writer,"

I bristle. But "terror" is OK. Terror is mental. Horror to me is all visceral stuff, with things popping out of your stomach. I don't like that.

Q: In "Woman," you develop this great sense of suspense and tension throughout the first three-quarters of the book. Then it evolves into full-blown terror in the final act.

A: Well, I knew I couldn't have a lecture. I had to have a story to go along with it. I've questioned people, and I think I came up with the idea that evolution, not revolution, is going to do what it did in the book. If anyone else has, I'm not aware of it. The idea made sense to me, yet it seems like such an obvious idea to me that I couldn't believe that no writer ever thought of it.

Q: Each of the characters seems to serve a vital purpose.

A: Well, that was deliberate. I wanted to have a representative of each of man's lousy attributes. I wanted to have the big guy who didn't care about the environment or killing animals. I wanted to have the ad writer who was just contemptuous of women and thought they were inferior. And then there's the wife's brother, who regarded women as sexual toys to be used. I wanted to do that.

Q: What specific reaction do you anticipate?

A: I think young professional women who have started to make their way in the business world are going to resent it. I indicate in the book that women who have sold out to success at the cost of anything -- at the cost of femininity -- will also be eliminated, so to speak.

Q: When you adapt your own work for the screen, is everything you need there on the page, or do you have to open up another avenue of imagination?

A: The main thing that I have to do is edit. I can't put everything in there that I have in the book. I was reading part of "Bid Time Return" the other day, which I never do, and I realized that I had to cut a lot of the book out. The same thing happened with "The Shrinking Man." I try to keep as much of the valuable stuff as I can -- you hang on to the major sequences, the action or suspense or emotional sequences.

Q: In the early '60s, you adapted some Poe stories into a series of films starring Vincent Price. That led to a couple of macabre spoofs, "The Raven," with Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff, and "The Comedy of Terrors," which featured that same trio, plus Basil Rathbone. One of Gauntlet's next Matheson titles is "Unrealized Dreams," a trio of unproduced screenplays that includes a- followup to "Comedy of Terrors."

A: That was called "Sweethearts and Horrors." It's a very funny script that I wrote for those four, and then I added a nice part for Tallulah Bankhead. It was never made because Peter Lorre died, and then Rathbone, Karloff and Bankhead died soon after he did.

The second one is "Appointment in Zahrain," a script I did for Clark Gable. Eddie Dmytryk was going to direct it, but there were problems with the studio. The third one was "The Fantastic Little Girl," a sequel to "The Shrinking-Man."

Q: What can you tell us about that one?

A: The same thing happens to the wife, but her retrogression is a lot faster. She ends up in the microscopic world, and they go off and have all sorts of weird adventures. At the end, it reverses itself and they go home again. They wanted a sequel because the movie version of "The Shrinking Man" made so much money. Plus they still had those monstrous sets. But like so many things, that didn't go.

— Copyright 2005 Times Daily, Terry Pace

SFCrowsnest.com - GF Willmetts

"...'Woman' concerns a disturbed Ganine Woodbury as she gate-crashes a TV talk show psychologist David Harper's pre-Emmy Awards celebration party and odd things happen. Migraines vanish. Sprained ankles restored to normal. Heart attacks happen later. The usual kind of things. At least, I suppose these things are normal. Who goes to dinner parties anyway? Not me. Doesn't matter. Matheson brings this story to life and that's all that matters."