deborahjross | Anti-Zombie Rant

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Anti-Zombie Rant

Does anyone else find zombies utterly uninteresting, tedious and faintly nauseating? I don't want to read about them and I certainly don't want to watch them. I can hardly wait until they are completely passé.

One writer who did something interesting with the shambling-rotting-flesh routine was Andre Norton (I think in Perilous Dreams) where the virus itself had a sort of intelligence that drove the decomposing victim to see out a new host. She did not, of course, use the word zombie, and she described the disease more from the psychological horror of a half-dead person wanting to infect you with what was killing it than with any description of gore or gunfire. It seriously creeped me out, whereas modern zombies leave me thinking that filling out my tax returns might be an interesting and pleasant way to pass the time.

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Absolutely. I have enough rotten people in my life w/o encountering literally rotten ones in fiction.

Of all these recent classics-with-new-features, the only one I've even wanted to read more than two pages into is _Android Karenina_ (Anna Karenina with robots) which is fun and at least so far not creepy.

I suspect I am more likely to perceive zombie-ness while reading US political news.

I hadn't heard of ANDROID KARENINA. Let me know what you think once you've finished. So many of these mash-up have a cute idea, but turn into a one-trick pony and don't follow the ramifications of that one idea.

I'm a fan of the genre, but primarily when Romero directs. He's made some pretty incisive observations of human nature using the zombie scenario (which, in its modern form, he's responsible for creating). Of particular note are the original Night of the Living Dead (a classic masterpiece, it's not often a film that old features a black protagonist) and Land of the Dead, wherein the zombies begin to develop rudimentary consciousness - bringing about the question, how do we define what is human? I Am Legend was a nice take as well, hinting that zombies were the next phase of human evolution. (Apparently this is clearer in the director's cut than the theatrical release.)

There have been many mindless takes on the genre, where it is just an excuse for latex and red corn syrup, but when done right it can be a wonderful vehicle for exploring the definition of humanity and human behavior in the face of crisis. However, you must at least be able to tolerate the level of gore, and I certainly don't blame anyone who can't.

Yes, the--excuse, please--dawning of zombie consciousness raises some interesting ethical and humanitarian questions. How do you treat something as a human being when it's trying to eat you?

And is it really trying to eat you, or did you shoot first because you expected it to try and eat you, and now it's just defending itself?

For example in the same movie, the zombie protagonist comes across a shooting range where all the targets are live zombies strung up by their ankles and he becomes enraged. He understands the injustice and cruelty and it sickens him. He finds particle board put up as fencing, and indicates for the butcher zombie to cut it down with his meat cleaver; the butcher acts surprised but he genuinely understands the gesture. It's really pretty amazing watching it dawn on them (we can make this joke aaaaaaaall night) and seeing them adapting to the surroundings, and reacting to this world all over again.

Ultimately, the movie is gore porn and there's a huge fight, though interestingly it's the rich, white, upperclass folk that sequestered themselves in a high security apartment building and left everyone else to fend for themselves on the street that get massacred. Then, the zombies pack up and move on. There's a moment of connection between the human and zombie protagonists over a distance, they make eye contact and agree to let one another live and let live, and the zombies move on to find themselves a home.

It's definitely still a gory movie with the typical zombie violence, but I really find the story and questions behind it incredibly fascinating.

The shooting range scene sounds like it could pack quite an emotional punch. Alas, I don't do large amounts gore well. Buffy and Babylon 5 are about my speed.

I'm very much the same. I love the movie, but I have to cover my eyes a lot!

I absolutely feel this way. And the book about a sentient virus-like thing that I remember liking (but being frightened by) as a kid was called The Power of Stars--it didn't make you a zombie-like thing, though.

Sentience that doesn't come packaged in a brain presents so many interesting possibilities. Certainly, sf writers have had a lot of fun with it. Not so much fantasy writers--maybe that's a challenge we should take up.

It's funny what images stay with us as kids. I had nightmares about THEY CAME FROM OUTER SPACE for years (not to mention a whole slew of Disney films.)

I loathe zombies and find them both repellent and frightening. So I am all in favour of them falling out of fashion as soon as possible.

"Falling out of fashion" when applied to zombies opens up all sorts of bizarre possibilities.

"Her eyes roved over his muscled physique" could be literally true.

I find them fascinating when someone does something new with them, like you said. Something that isn't just shambling rotting corpses moaning for brains.

Like Mana said, Land of the Dead is fascinating from a moral perspective. When the undead form enough self awareness to use tools and plan around things, at what point can we justify "killing" them? Could they be considered people in their own right?

Moral and ethical questions always make a subject more interesting, if only because there are no easy answers.

IIRC, Tanya Huff did interesting things with zombies in one of the "Blood Price" books, but then she always does interesting things, no matter what the subject.

Exactly. Even something I'm not normally interested in could grasp my attention if it was done in a new way and brought in interesting moral and ethical debate. I have immense amount of respect for a writer who can take an old subject and put a new, interesting spin on it to hook a whole new range of reader.

This is as true for zombie tales as for any other. Beginning writers often agonize over whether "it's been done before." I don't think that matters, or matters nearly so much as the "new, interesting spin" you described. Good story lines are amazingly complex, with infinite possibilities. Case in point: TAM LIN by Pamela Dean, set it a small liberal arts college.

Totally with you.

Shall we start a new fad to hurry along the extinction process?

I don't like zombies, but will make an exception for the Brit movie 'Shaun of the Dead'.

That's a spoof, right? (Asks she who has never seen a "Dead" of any sort... well, no that's not true. A friend inflicted "Zombieland" on me. I figure that's enough zombies for at least a decade.)

Yes, it's a spoof. :) A good description of it from the IMDB is:

Shaun is your stereotypical sit-com loser: An ineffectual slob in a dead-end job, he is terminally afraid of commitment and spends all his time with his flat-mate Ed who is an even bigger loser. After his girlfriend dumps him, Shaun and Ed seek solace in their local pub. They stagger home in a state of advanced refreshment, unaware that the dead are now walking the earth. Indeed, it takes Shaun a little while to work it out the following morning despite interacting with a few of them (one of the recurring themes is that most of us go through the drudgery of our daily routines in a trance close to inertia).

When the penny drops, Shaun resolves to rescue his mother and his (ex) girlfriend and generally stand up for himself for the first time in his life.

I'll come right out and say it. I hate zombies. Everyone talks about zombies this and zombies that. There are books and movies and, probably, songs. Bleah. I find them soooo boring. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Yes, you're in very good company!

Zombie Haters of the Word, Unite! You gave nothing to lose but your... um...

Braaaaaaaainz!

Not much into zombies myself, but have been having fun watching the ongoing unicorns vs zombies debate in the YA community, which has even led to an anthology ...

Wow, I haven't been following that? Is it a popularity contest or an actual contest? (Image of unicorn spearing zombie.)

I like Daniel Waters' Generation Dead series. Of course the zombie in this series aren't rotting or gross. They are just slightly disabled, though the more they are loved, the more bodily functions they recover (some can actually consume food and drink and digest it).

Oh, I like that idea about how much one is loved (which is in turn a reflection of how much one has loved others) preserving life.

Filling out your tax forms consumes brain power, so it's pretty much the same thing: you're still feeding a zombie.

I'm convinced that the present fascination with zombies and vampires has much to do with a growing suspicion about the true nature of government and corporations and how they feed on us.

Zombies, maybe. Vampires, gotta disagree. They are much more about sexual power than governmental conspiracies.

Well, the American people are getting screwed by the government and by corporations. But I agree, the real dynamics of vampire stories are power and sex.

Still, the metaphor of undying creatures that fear the light has interesting resonances for corporate and governmental power. Anybody want to cast Julian Assange as Dr. Van Helsing?

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Anti-Zombie Rant

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Zombies, tax forms, and brains

Re: Zombies, tax forms, and brains

Re: Zombies, tax forms, and brains