Saturday, November 3, 2012

about Zombies...


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.

They are scary though. I watched Dawn of the Dead as an adult, well after it came out, and I was frightened out of my mind! Just those clawing masses!! OMG, if you haven’t seen that, get the popcorn. Fabulous! 

2 comments:

  1. Sharks need to have a constant stream of water over their gills or they don't get enough oxygen and they die. (But I did watch a show once about some sharks - nurse sharks, I think - that stop and sleep in underwater caves.)

    I tried Mark's 'Happy Hour of the Damned'. I just couldn't stretch my disbelief enough to get more than a chapter in. :shrug: Although, the zombie sidekick in Nancy Holzner's Deadtown series works for me - even if Tina is irritating.

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  2. The YA novel DUST was a depressing look at zombie life from the POV of a teenage girl who got turned. The zombies weren't mindless, very good book from that aspect. The zombies were scared about what happened to them when they decomposed to far.

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