So, why do we love zombies anyway?
harrisonpink
Telltale Alumni
I've been thinking a lot lately about the public and our love affair with the notion of the zombie. Why do we love them (or love to hate them) so much? I remember reading a study once that correlated the rising popularity of zombies and the rising distrust the public currently had in its government, as well as Big Business(TM).
I don't know if it's true, but I know it's an interesting thing to discuss!
So, why do you think we love zombies?
I don't know if it's true, but I know it's an interesting thing to discuss!
So, why do you think we love zombies?
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Anyway, in your typical zombie apocalypse scenario you're free to kill anyone you see (with no judgment since...well, they're zombies), take whatever you want from stores, and any other survivors (some of who may...be female) would pretty much have no choice but to be around you.
As you might guess, I'm not a big fan of most zombie stuff, since there's a heavy "WOO ZOMBIES ARE AWESOME" air to it. The Walking Dead is one of the few exceptions, since it shows a zombie outbreak as legitimately bad. And the zombies are the least of the reasons why, of course.
Basically you can kill people without guilt and can use your video game skillz for once in real life. Plus it goes with the whole 'end of civilization' fantasy where you can take and do whatever you want.
One is that these monsters are real people and not and external supernatural being. Your neighbors and fellow citizens that you see around you everyday.
Another one is the inevitable destruction of social structures that comes along with the zombies. You can have other kind of monsters confined to one little place, or situation and outside that everything is normal. With zombies you know shit hit the fan. It's rock bottom for everybody at the same time, and the story stays there, moving around in rock bottom without any kind of safe net.
Into a more deep thought zombies also show something that most of us don't want to face, that is death. I mean natural death, not the threat of being killed. We all know we re going to die someday but we don't like to think about that, and that after dead we are all gonna be rotten and ugly. The zombie concept puts that idea right in the street and shakes it right in front of you. Because zombies are dead people in wich you can reflect your own mortal destiny. And that's scary!
Yeah, I've seen that article, but I think it's more humerous than totally accurate. There's something about being surrounded by a grey swarm of danger that gets stronger as it weakens your forces that is incredibly compelling. If the zombification of the dead was a one-time event, and people wouldn't turn when bitten / killed, I don't know if zombies would have so much appeal.
Maybe it's an allegory to how we've become mindless consumerist robots doing what we're told to do in a 9-5 world? /FirstYearPsychology
Cracked has an article on that interpretation too:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19402_6-mind-blowing-ways-zombies-vampires-explain-america_p2.html
Well shoot. I guess original thought isn't my strong suit today.
I think the interpretation that zombie fans all secretly want to be roving murderers and rapists(the first time I've seen this assertion was in this thread but sure) is a terrible, outside looking-in sort of assertion. We're fascinated by death, we're fascinated by gore and blood. It makes us face mortality, it gives us really cool gore effects, it allows us to look in the face of mortal danger without having to actually endanger ourselves personally. The way society crumbles in an apocolyptic story, especially with an everpresent danger, what it does to people...zombies create a world in which we can push people to their limits. I saw a short film this weekend called "Spoiled Rotten", in which a mother grows too attached to her zombified child to the point of insanity. That's the sort of character study we're talking about here, characters in extreme environments given dramatic, powerful choices and either rising above or falling behind. It's a world in which it's EASY to be terrible, but that's not an excuse, it's an interesting and dramatic position to put characters in. The idea that fascination with zombie media implies a deep and secret desire to KILL and RAPE and LOOT and BE BETTER implies a complete inability to relate to things in anything but the most narcissistic of ways, which just doesn't seem realistic to me.
Pretty much. They can be applied to any and all demographics, calling to our hubristic nature. Most people believe they're one of the few intelligent lifeforms on the planet, and everyone else is a mindless sheep
Baaaa.
Those are another thing. Mostly any other zombie movie that is made on a low budget are really bad. Those are just the kind of movies that ruin the actual zombie genre: Quarantine series, anyone?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set
Simon Pegg talks about why zombies are important.
Old thread from almost a year ago (someone really had to dig for this one), but an interesting one. Certainly better than some lately.
Or maybe I'm hungry.
I liked Shaun of the Dead! Definitely low budget.
Next, we're not at the top of the food chain anymore. You're just white meat or dark meat now. Nothing works on zombies. Technology - nope, medicine - nope, diplomacy- nope. Safe during the daylight - nope.
Lastly, all the usual threats are still with us too. Bad people but no police or prisons. Sickness but no hospitals. Cavities but no dentists. It's medieval.
Let's see a vampire or a ghost top that.
Oh, shit. I’m loading my shotgun.
Essentially it boils down to a dissatisfaction with the qualities that our society values in individuals. The most arrogant and charismatic will be given power and people who'se entire purpose is to game existing systems or play psychological games with consumers (Social Games/Operant Conditioning, anyone?) are the ones that earn the most money.
Zombies solve that problem. You can't charm your way out of them, and economics and psych are are kind of the useless skills in those situations. It evens out the playing field and lets people fail or succeed on their own merits.
Then Kirkman goes and f**** it all up by giving us a story arc where someone like the Governor gets put in charge. I'd rather just see the zombies win.
Who's preventing all the nuclear power stations from going Chernobyl? After a while wouldn't the radiation just kill us all anyway?
In any story set in this genre, there's usually that one guy who's the biggest jerk in the whole group. And as soon as you see him, you know that guy's going to die. Most likely in a horribly gruesome way. Like Larry. Of course, depending on the tone, all of the characters may die. But if any of them manage to survive, it's usually going to be the person who at least tries to do the right thing.
The other thing is that, with zombies in particular, it's symbolic of our constant struggle with the idea of our own mortality. Like zombies, death may shamble towards us slowly, but in the end, you can't really escape it. I think these kinds of allegorical tales, where the hero can literally shooting death in the head with a shotgun, help us come to terms with our own fear of death.
That was some deep shit ='(
If you're going to shoot me, I want jaybreezy to take the shot, because he'll put me down clean.
interesting...at point blank range only duck would miss...
Sorry. Too much?