FORMULA: The Last Man / The Omega Man / I Am Legend

last man

• the protagonist as the final representative of “normal” humanity

• isolation turns survival into a moral and psychological problem

• asks what human identity means when society disappears
  

formula vs. mutation

• catastrophe explained through science (plague, virus, cure)

• reason and medicine attempt to restore order

• failure of the cure exposes limits of rational mastery
  
  

monster reversal

• the “infected” are framed as monsters

• gradually revealed as a new social order

• the last man becomes the true outsider
  
  

normality under threat

• the conflict is not good vs evil

• it is old humanity vs emerging humanity

• survival of the species does not guarantee survival of meaning
  
  

violence as preservation

• the last man kills to defend “humanity”

• violence justified as protection of civilization

• later revealed as persecution of the future
  
  

GENRE VARIATIONS (KEY DIFFERENCES THAT MATTER)

The Last Man / I Am Legend (novel – Richard Matheson)

legend

• the protagonist becomes a mythic monster to the new society

• title refers to him, not the infected

• shifts sympathy away from the last man
  
  

ethical inversion

• killing becomes routine and unquestioned

• reader realizes morality has flipped

• civilization continues, but without him
  
  

The Omega Man (1971 film)

counterculture conflict

• infected form a cult-like collective

• film reflects Cold War and 1970s fears of conformity

• individuality vs mass ideology
  
  

martyrdom

• protagonist dies as a symbol of the old world

• violence framed as tragic but necessary

• transition between eras emphasized
  
  

I Am Legend (2007 film – Will Smith)

sentimentality

• stronger focus on loneliness, memory, and redemption

• humanity preserved through sacrifice

• ending softens the novel’s moral reversal
  
  

restored innocence

• cure re-centers human exceptionalism

• audience encouraged to identify with the last man

• less radical ethical challenge than the novel

Fantasy: The City & the City (China Miéville)

seeing vs. unseeing

• the core social practice that sustains the cities

• citizens actively train themselves to perceive one city while denying the other

• fantasy element literalizes how social boundaries are maintained psychologically
  
  

habit as law

• the cities are enforced less by police than by routine

• Breach exists, but it functions as a last resort

• most control happens through self-regulation and fear of noticing
  
  

coexistence without contact

• Besźel and Ul Qoma occupy the same physical space

• separation is not geographic but cognitive

• fantasy exposes how segregation can persist without walls
  
  

crime as perception failure

• the murder investigation is secondary

• the real violation is improper seeing

• the detective plot trains the reader to notice what the characters cannot
  
  

innocence vs. responsibility

• citizens are legally innocent if they unsee correctly

• moral responsibility is displaced onto the act of perception

• the novel asks whether not-seeing absolves guilt
  
  

no rescue

• no revolution, no reunification

• the cities persist because people consent to them

• fantasy rejects romance-style solutions in favor of ethical discomfort
  
  

Mapping: The Infinite City (conceptual frame, not a single text)

overlapping spaces

• multiple social realities exist in the same physical location

• different groups move through the city according to different rules
  
  

maps as power

• what counts as “the city” depends on who is mapping it

• official maps erase lived experience

• informal maps reveal social inequality
  
  

movement and access

• who can move freely vs. who must navigate constraints

• access becomes a marker of belonging

visibility and erasure

• some populations are hyper-visible

• others are structurally unseen

• mapping reveals whose lives count as part of the city
  
  

FORMULA CONNECTION (how this fits your professor’s logic)

• Formula (Last Man / Omega Man) → breakdown of social order
  
  

• Fantasy (The City & the City) → social order maintained through perception
  
  

• Mapping (Infinite City) → social order revealed through spatial overlap and erasure

FORMULA — Interpretive Riffs

(The Last Man / Omega Man / I Am Legend)

1. Survival exposes morality

• When society collapses, morality stops being shared and becomes personal

• The “right thing” is no longer socially confirmed

• Survival turns ethical certainty into habit and routine
  
  

2. The monster is produced by perspective

• The infected are monsters only from the last man’s point of view

• As numbers shift, so does normality

• The last man becomes the legend because he refuses to adapt
  
  

3. Science as failed restoration

• Scientific rationality promises to fix catastrophe

• The cure attempts to restore a vanished social order

• Failure reveals that science cannot recover meaning, only bodies
  
  

4. Violence justified as memory

• Killing is framed as defending the past

• Violence becomes a way of preserving what no longer exists

• The last man kills not for the future, but for remembrance
  
  

5. Humanity as a temporary category

• The novels and films suggest humanity is not permanent

• It changes with social organization

• The future may survive without the last man’s values
  
  

FANTASY — Interpretive Riffs

(The City & the City)

1. Seeing is an ethical act

• Perception is trained, not neutral

• To see incorrectly is a moral violation

• Ethics operates at the level of attention
  
  

2. Control without force

• Power works through habit, not violence

• Breach exists mainly to enforce fear

• Most obedience is voluntary and unconscious

3. Injustice as normality

• Harm persists because it is normalized

• Citizens are innocent legally but complicit morally

• The novel indicts everyday compliance

4. No rescue because no villain

• Systems survive without antagonists

• Change would require unlearning perception

• Fantasy refuses catharsis to preserve discomfort

MAPPING — Interpretive Riffs

(Infinite City framework)

1. Space reveals inequality

• Who occupies space determines power

• Cities contain multiple realities at once

• Mapping exposes hidden social hierarchies
  
  

2. Visibility equals belonging

• To be seen is to count

• Erased populations still inhabit the city

• Mapping makes absence legible
  
  

3. Movement as freedom

• Who can move freely defines inclusion

• Restricted movement marks exclusion

• The city disciplines bodies through space