The Social Significance of Zombies

Paul · Oct 29, 2010

You think this is a game? In 2007, Matt Mogk founded the Zombie Research Association with world-renowned neuroscientists and academics from Harvard. These brainiacs are "dedicated to raising the level of zombie scholarship in the Arts and Sciences." The group's mission statement starts with affirming zombies as real. It continues with: "The zombie pandemic is coming. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Enthusiastic debate about zombies is essential to the survival of the human race."

But even if you aren't a believer, the modern zombie is a metaphor for so many fears that it's just easier to call them real. Forget the fashionable critical disdain reserved for genre movies and literature—zombies represent the atrocities played out on our front pages. The wars, the deaths, the destruction, the secrets tragedies people take to their grave.

And some of you thought Zombies were just zombies. tut tut.

from
http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/pop-vox/2010/10/27/when-the-zombies-come-i-ll-be-ready.html?from=rss

Bmwhtly · Oct 29, 2010

Paul said:
And some of you thought Zombies were just zombies. tut tut.

No we didn't.

In the words of Simon Pegg:

As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster. Where their pointy-toothed cousins are all about sex and bestial savagery, the zombie trumps all by personifying our deepest fear: death. Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable.
However (and herein lies the sublime artfulness of the slow zombie), their ineptitude actually makes them avoidable, at least for a while. If you're careful, if you keep your wits about you, you can stave them off, even outstrip them - much as we strive to outstrip death. Drink less, cut out red meat, exercise, practice safe sex; these are our shotguns, our cricket bats, our farmhouses, our shopping malls. However, none of these things fully insulates us from the creeping dread that something so witless, so elemental may yet catch us unawares - the drunk driver, the cancer sleeping in the double helix, the legless ghoul dragging itself through the darkness towards our ankles.

Mind you, he also said:

I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist

Which should be written in ten-foot high letters across that chap's building on a daily basis. The fool.

Button · Oct 29, 2010

There are zombies. You see them in nature.

Look up zombie ants.

Bmwhtly · Oct 29, 2010

Probably easier to look down at them, rather than up. Unless... are they giant?

elindsen · Oct 29, 2010

i have been a zombie. school and work...definetly zomed out a couple times.

Jess Haines · Oct 29, 2010

ButtonTheCat said:
There are zombies. You see them in nature.

Look up zombie ants.

That is AMAZING.

Also, your avatar wins the day.

jennontheisland · Oct 29, 2010

Mindless drones in need of brains... I thought the social implications were obvious. Stop killing your head with useless downloads, pop culture and consumerism or you'll get a shovel in the face.

The strange thing to me is that they have lately become heroes and heroines of romance novels.

Who the hell wants to fall in love with a brainless creature who will suck the ability of rational thought right out of you. (and not in a good way).

Button · Oct 29, 2010

Bmwhtly said:
Probably easier to look down at them, rather than up. Unless... are they giant?

Button · Oct 29, 2010

Jess Haines said:
That is AMAZING.

Also, your avatar wins the day.

Hugh Laurie approves this message.

Button · Oct 29, 2010

jennontheisland said:
The strange thing to me is that they have lately become heroes and heroines of romance novels.

Who the hell wants to fall in love with a brainless creature who will suck the ability of rational thought right out of you. (and not in a good way).

Rule number 34.

You can look that up... on Google.

*has answers for everything today!*

jennontheisland · Oct 29, 2010

ButtonTheCat said:
Rule number 34.

You can look that up... on Google. *has answers for everything today!*

Oh, I know the rule. And I've seen it. Does not mean I understand it.

But I was talking about romance novels not internet porn.

Another thing I don't understand: people who thing Hugh Laurie has sex appeal. Your av is about as sexy as he gets.

Button · Oct 29, 2010

Hahah!

I think his Prince George character on Black Adder was one of his best works.

Bmwhtly · Oct 29, 2010

ButtonTheCat said:

Yes, I was being facetious. I realise Zombie ants are remarkably interesting.

But, until that fungus makes ants hunt for the flesh of the living, I shall stay relaxed.
Well, not relaxed, but... y'know, normal

Button · Oct 29, 2010

Thank goodness the fungus doesn't infect humans... yet. >.>

benbradley · Oct 29, 2010

But even if you aren't a believer, the modern zombie is a metaphor for so many fears that it's just easier to call them real.

It's true - they're even running for office (warning - contains bad language, like so many other political ads thesedays):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLCBplaE_GM&feature=youtu.be

The Social Significance of Zombies

Paul

Bmwhtly

Yes, I'm back.

Button

Resident in Question

Bmwhtly

Yes, I'm back.

elindsen

Zombie lovin'

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

Button

Resident in Question

Button

Resident in Question

Button

Resident in Question

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

Button

Resident in Question

Bmwhtly

Yes, I'm back.

Button

Resident in Question

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world