They say that when a shark doesn’t keep swimming forward, it
dies. That’s one of those business maxims, and I’m not sure how I feel about
it, but I’m guessing it has some basis in nature. (Is it because water has to
go in his nose for him to breathe? Look at me, too LAZY to look that one up!)
But, it connects in my head to zombies. Zombies have stopped
moving forward in a lot of ways. They’re senseless hunger without a bit of
reason or morality, without a lot of the things that make us human. But then, that said, I’m thinking about
the classic movie stereotype. They’re not always like that.
I have always loved Mark Henry’s Amanda Feral series, which
is just such a fun take on zombies, and I find Amanda Feral achingly
human. She’s emotional, she wants
things. She has a sense of morality. Problems with her mother.
My fellow word whores have pointed out interesting ways in
which the myth of zombies resonates with Things Deep In The Psyche. I think any
trope that has that quality can never die, because there are always new things
to be mined if you really look at it.
Zombies aren’t sexy – I do think they’re a hard sell for
romance. But I feel they have as much going for them as vampires and
werewolves, who also embody human states that resonate with Things Deep In The
Psyche.
