I’m sad about this. I know he was old, but I loved his work. Rosemary’s Baby and the Stepford Wives were two of my favorite horror novels (and general novels) of all time.
The only thing odd about him in the article was this:
I thought this was a strange thing to say. I’m sure fundamentalists would be around even if the world were deprived of the wonderfulness that is Rosemary’s Baby.
I definitely enjoyed the exposure to Satan and the devil as a youngster, though. Rosemary’s Baby was one of the more hip and cool incarnations of the devil. (Yes, I still harbor fantasies of having Satan’s love-child…yes, I was a twisted child.) If I were him, I’d be really proud of having such a cool influence. But that’s just me.
Rosemary is one of those books and movies like Citizen Kane- it’s been copied so much that it doesn’t seem original.
My favorites by Levin, though, were Boys from Brazil (I’ve never seen the movie, though) and the play/film Deathtrap. I remember when he sued to have his name removed from the film Sliver a few years back, saying he was terrified somebody might think he came up with the dialogue in it and the hack ending. The novel ended with the couple played by Baldwin and Stone crashing into a volcano.
Perhaps you were bitten by a chocolate mouse, my child…
One of my favorite things about the movie of Rosemary was the casting of Hope Summers, Aunt Bea’s prize-pickle making buddy Clara, as a member of the coven. Hearing her enthusiastically cheer Hail Satan! God is Dead! The Year is One! after watching her on Andy Griffith all those years-- I suddenly knew how Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown must have felt.
Or maybe it’s that charm with the tannis I’ve been carrying around getting to me.
It’s true, Rosemary’s Baby probably does seem less original. I’m glad I read it early on in my novel-reading career. I was only about fourteen or so when I first read it, and I loved it. I was reading an Andrew Neiderman book with a similar spin (only it’s lesbians and an evil sperm donation organization), and reading it was so…well, dull and cheesy, despite the racy subject matter. Rosemary’s Baby always seemed so simple in its style, and yet it was so awesomely suspenseful. The language doesn’t overpower it–it all just flows.
Oh, and let’s not forget This Perfect Day. That was a good one, too.
