I like zombies
Okay for this piece there is no diatribe against ‘The Man’,
no philosophical discussion, no talk about space stuff, even I get tired of
always talking about high minded stuff. For this talk I want to talk about my
favorite topic at least right now, and that is my favorite of all monsters the
zombie. Why do I like anything to do with zombies, well its not some
necrophiliac love of undeadness sexually
I can tell you that. Its because it achieves that perfect blend of
apocalyptic (something I was rather into when I
was younger), political, and also distills that special blend of
humanity that I think really makes us all special. You see the zombie genre is so all inclusive,
you can look at the types in any given movie or comic, and there are all types
from all across the spectrum of Western civilization. This applies to those who
love zombies, and also the stories of zombies themselves. Now I love B movies,
and in all B movies there are specific rules, and a zombie movie or story is no
different. But there are some differences,
in the standard zombie scenario the heros or heroines are not
stereotypical, they do not discriminate based on race, political persuasion,
or redneckness. A scenario can include
as the primary protagonist, a asshole redneck as the primary hero and he even survives
to the end, it can also include a black hero who also survives right to the
end, and as any B movie aficionado will tell you the black dudes and redneck
assholes typically get it first, not so in a zombie movie or story. Everybody
and nobody has a chance in a zombie scenario, it is dependent on what happens. That’s
another thing I like, the realism, ignoring the impossible animated flesh concept,
who gets it is typically based on real world rules, who survives survives not
because of any ‘specialness’ but because
they survived, no more no less. In any other scenario they survive because they
are good, or they did the right thing, or something in the world allowed them
to survive.
What else? When you get to talk to zombie lovers in the real
world, you see they represent a diversity that you don’t see typically anywhere
else. You get all kinds, you get the gun
nuts, you get the liberals, the environmentalists, the conservatives, and the
moderates; and it’s a warm feeling when zombie lovers come together, because on
this one thing we agree on. People might think that we are weird because of our
love of the zombie apocalypse, but we as a group understand, and it is nice being
a part of that weird click. If you look at the actual stories you see the same
thing, maybe one reason why I like the zombie scenario, is that in that world,
a horrible world no doubt, we have to band together no matter who we are, or we
die and its that simple. It’s a nostalgia
that perhaps dates back to our hunter gatherer days, when the price of
divisiveness was just that, death. When cooperation was backed by the ultimate
guarantor of all, and all of us had to work together, to accept our
differences, and use them to live and survive or we died. So anyway perhaps I did delve into the
philosophical a wee bit, in closing I love anything zombie.
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