Zombie Apocalypse
Jennifer Palmer
Mmmmm. Smell that smell. So much death – so little closure! Post-9/11 popular culture is teeming with zombies. A veritable epidemic – it seems the kids can’t get enough of the partially albino skin and the hollow, soulless, CGI eyes.
Examples abound, starting with three Resident Evil movie blockbusters based on the thirteen (!) video games that make up the series with the same name. There was also a remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (2004), and one of I Am Legend (2007). The British film 28 Days Later (2002) was a commercial and critical hit. It inspired a graphic novel, 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, and a film sequel, 28 Weeks Later (2007). The sub-genre is such that it garnered its own zombie parody: Shaun of the Dead (2004). Otto, or Up with Dead People (2008) by Canadian director Bruce La Bruce is calling itself the first gay zombie movie. And there’s already been a queer zombie musical – Z-Spot: A Zombie Musical (specifically, lesbian catholic schoolgirl zombies) was featured at Burning Man in 2006. There have been zombie protests, zombie walks/crawls in San Francisco, Toronto and New York at which people are encouraged to meet at a certain time and place to hit the streets made up as zombies, looking for victims who show that they are participating by wearing a predetermined sign like a piece of duct tape placed visibly on them, so that the undead know to pounce on them, usually several at a time, and tear at their clothes, put makeup on them and turn them into one of them. In some cases a substance described as “purple goo” is used. Apparently Apple stores are a favorite target as the Genius Bar is said to be full of tasty brains.
While interest in the undead predates our cultural moment, I think that the reason for the current trend is twofold; as a metaphor, a zombie apocalypse resonates strongly with many of our repressed fears and notions in the wake of September 11th. As an experience, acting out a zombie apocalypse is a way of participating in the kind of viral “outbreak” that mirrors the proliferation of the internets through which many of us live our lives. The post-9-11 generation, by which I mean anyone who identifies as “young” and spends a meaningful portion of their lives online, uses zombies as a rallying point from which to stage blog and text-messaged communicated events, public “theater of cruelty”-type explorations (we fake it so real we are beyond fake, to paraphrase Courtney Love) of our oscillations between the mindless group think of the mob and the terrifying isolation of the individual.
The zombie trend is a celebration of fear – a way to paradoxically act out the suffocating effect that the blanket of information noise has in our Westernized, late capitalist existence. When you’re dead there aren’t any more expectations – there aren’t any more goals, just endless in-between time spent hanging out and eating. While online one just “sits there,” doing nothing. There’s definitely a punk rock aspect to zombies—an anarchistic refusal to work or follow rules. As a look it goes well with Converse sneakers and skinny jeans. It’s liberating to be the deceased version of yourself – the you that you’ll never know. There’s an action shot on Flickr of an office type wearing a jacket and tie and preppy, wire rimmed glasses with excellently applied fake blood smeared across his face and a vacant look in his eye… I could see myself having fun doing something like that.
Zombies represent the fear of being devoured by the Other--of being consumed or subsumed by an enemy who secretly lives among us and shares aspects of our appearance but is drastically and grotesquely inhuman in a way that curtails any possible communication. The Other among us could be homegrown cells of Islamic terrorists, or The Other could mean the other side of the red state/blue state division. For some, the Other is a woman, for someone else, the Other is black… or white.
The other could be those of the customer service class created in order to maintain the many comforts of the middle class; the fact that nearly all contemporary zombies are depicted as bloodthirsty cannibals attests to the late capitalist fear of being devoured by our own appetites.
The zombies also represent the fear of being turned into mindless slaves by our own technology à la The Matrix, as we move into an age of linked-together knowledge systems that makes us nodes on our own network. I Am Legend, 28 Days Later and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later are about global epidemics that are the result of a scientific cure or experiment gone wrong. The rising up of the dead, as promised in the Bible, happens as both signal and cause of the end of days. Perhaps our need to depict massive numbers of living dead people is a way of speaking to ourselves, humankind to humankind, so that we can tell ourselves things we otherwise couldn’t put into words. The desire for a greater sense of oneness and more meaningful connections with others goes hand in hand with the fear of losing one’s individuality. In each of these movies, there is a constant, sliding scale between the terror of “last man on earth”-level isolation and the insane babbling of becoming a rabid, soulless monster. We see what is at the core of all human communities – the need for protection and for executing plans by working as a team.
As beings which have come back from the dead, from being hidden, zombies are the return of what Freud refers to in his essay, “The Uncanny” as “long surmounted thoughts.” These are thoughts about death and dying that we’re taught to regard as “primitive” or “religious.” The modern world keeps death practical and solemn. Yet, as Freud mentions, it’s rare to find someone who isn’t susceptible to some form of superstition, especially when actual events seem to support the theory. For example, in conversations with others one occasionally admits to a belief that America as a country is haunted and/or cursed, and that the failed war and failed economy are payback from all the evil we’ve inflicted upon the world. An overwhelming sense of guilt is transmitting gusts of guilt like Van Gogh swirls across the sky. The zombies are the thousands of 9/11 victims, slain soldiers, Iraqi civilians and expired rescue workers over whose deaths we feel a guilt that we’ve worked to expunge from our daily consciousnesses. The fact that very few bodies have been recovered from the WTC site or that we are not allowed to see pictures of flag-draped coffins means that death is something hidden, which means we don’t have to deal with it. The zombies are the grisly reality of that death.
The strange sensation that comes over us when actual events seem to confirm old, discarded beliefs is that of the uncanny. It’s usually something that happens in fiction, but 9/11 was an example of the uncanny occurring in real life. On 9/11, the attack on the Twin Towers was at once incomprehensible and very familiar. We’ve all seen New York City destroyed, time and time again, in one disaster movie after another. On 9/11 the most familiar city skyline in the world was rendered forever unrecognizable in a single hour. On 9/11 the supposedly impenetrable fortress of the world’s mightiest war machine was itself attacked and partially destroyed. In his essay, Freud examines just what it is that creates this sensation and focuses in on the actual word – uncanny – in German, unheimlichkeit. “Heimlich” means “home” and “familiar” and so the “unheimlich” is that which is “unfamiliar”—but still of the home…it is not the opposite, as such, but a transformation, as though the home has become haunted.
Freud writes:
"Thus heimlich is a word the meaning of which develops in the direction of ambivalence, until it finally coincides with its opposite, unheimlich. Unheimlich is in some way or other a sub-species of heimlich."
Ambivalence goes hand in hand with the uncanny; Freud says elsewhere that the uncanny is where we don’t know where we’re going. There is an uncanniness to a moving, walking corpse that seems, in the very act of becoming reanimated, to lose all notions of humanity. As “night seekers,” the zombies leave their daytime cities at an eerie, abandoned standstill. Perhaps some of strongest sensations of uncanniness come from the scenes of deserted London or New York. Borrowing from Last Man on Earth, the Post 9-11 have moments of harrowing isolation, in which Cillian Murphy’s character Jim, in 28 Days Later screams “Hello” at a blankly silent London until he is nearly hoarse. The London Eye Millennium Wheel rising up on the horizon is at once absurd and tragic in the absence of a citizenry. The familiar sights taken in the foreign context of being without people creates an undeniably uncanny effect. In I Am Legend, Will Smith’s character, Robert Neville, is unraveling from the mental strain of being ostensibly the last man on earth. In a fit of paranoid panic we watch as he shoots out the top windows of darkened skyscrapers, as if someone was up there, watching him.
Freud explains that another cause of the uncanny is the confusion or inability to tell whether something is human or not. For instance, a young girl who turns out to be a doll creates an uncanny effect in the E.T.A. Hoffmann story, “The Sandman.” This effect is especially uncanny when it comes about over confusion whether someone is alive or dead. In each of these movies it is necessary for the human survivors to think of the zombies as inhuman in order to kill them with impunity. The undead are referred to as “those things” and “the infected.” In contrast to this, all that is human about the last survivors is brought to light, including the torment of their isolation. In cases where there are more than one survivor, the mini-community they form represents a kind of utopia, as the audience is able to relax for a few moments in the oasis of familiar domestic warmth that the survivors create. Class and racial distinctions are seemingly done away with, as the survivors form the basis for a new society. That which is Heimlich, or homely, becomes more pronounced against a back drop of inhumanity.
In each movie, nearly human things take on human qualities. Robert Neville keeps up a fake banter with the mannequins in a deserted video store that he comes to every day to return the night’s previous DVD as he slowly works his way alphabetically through the titles. He’s named the various mannequins in the store and carries on a friendly banter with them. Their silence, which is part of the overall silence that clings to every part of the once noise New York City, adds to the uncanniness, In 28 Days Later the rage virus makes its initial jump from chimpanzee to human when a group of animal activists risk their own lives to free the animals. We see one chimp bolted down to a table and forced to stare up at several monitors playing different footage of violent mob scenes, riots and armies of police beating crowds. It is some kind of bizarre experiment, the structure and goal of which is unclear. The soon-to-be-human carrier gazes upon this poor creature as though she is gazing upon a fellow human. As the activists open the cages to set free the monkeys, a laboratory scientist pleads that they stop, or else they’ll release the experimental rage virus. The activists ignore him – the inhumanity of his endeavors has rendered him untrustworthy.
Not surprisingly, zombies rate at the bottom of the curve, deep in the heart of the uncanny valley. The Uncanny Valley is a theory proposed by computer scientist Masahiro Mori which attempts to describe the effect whereby a robot that looks nearly human is more likely to elicit a negative reaction in an observer than one that is obviously not trying to look too lifelike. From Wikipedia:
"Mori's hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels."
This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "barely-human" and "fully human" entity is called the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that a robot which is "almost human" will seem overly "strange" to a human being and thus will fail to evoke the empathetic response required for productive human-robot interaction.
A zombie elicits the strongest negative response precisely because it is almost human in appearance – more lifelike than a stuffed animal – which is what makes its radical inhumanity so alarming. Stilted speech, a lumbering gait… a lack of “being there” in the eyes that was disturbing… a complaint made by movie patrons about CGI creations in the movie The Polar Express (2004) and the Lord of the Rings trilogy – although in the case of the latter, the soullessness of Gollum was intentional. Some of the most frightening moments in horror movie history have been caused by the mistaken belief that a corpse is a living human, and vice-versa. Perhaps our current identification with zombies is a way of re-navigating the steep dip of the valley as we prepare for a near future of androids. It is hypothesized that the repulsion we feel is a survival instinct kicking in to keep a distance from those individuals who were sick or mentally disturbed. As a new age brings with it persons with new ways of thinking, being and acting, it can be considered important evolutionary work to continue to push the bounds of our humanity zone and embrace our differences rather than exclude them.
- Jennifer Palmer's blog
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Yes and...
Thanks for writing this article. I have also been noticing this trend, for the last couple of years. On the one hand Zombies are good scary fun. They also are symbolically connected to our collective fear of death as represented by other un-dead monsters like werewolves and vampires. The symbol of the Zombie in magical terms is also about controlling the will of another as well having the power to bring back the dead or even creating life from the dead. Via Frankenstein and it's earlier incarnation from Jewish folklore a Dybbuk. How does one face ones deepest fear? By becoming the object of the fear and eating it! So playing with the dead could be a great way of affirming life in that you realize" hey it is no big deal..we will all soon be one of the dead, let's party!"
On the other hand I wonder why all of these films are being funded now? What does watching these movies filled with such violence and blood do to the individual and collective consciousness of the viewers? What messages big business media is wanting to implant into the zeitgeist of these times? I will leave that question open ended to draw your own intelligent conclusions.
Oh, the term "Theatre of Cruelty" comes from the director Antonin Artaud. He wanted theatre to move beyond purely spectacle and invoke the primal Gods and Goddess of Nature and the Universe. I believe the more all art comes from that place the better our world will be.
Peace....
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power,the world will know peace." Jimi Hendrix
Artaud
pushed the envelope, he wanted the theater to reach beyond the stage, reach out into the world,and make change on the primal level, like the masks in a noh play,or shadow puppets, Artaud wanted to take that cruel mask and transform the way we see ourselves as mere observers of the play, and make that audiance become part of the experience.He understood on the most profound ground of being how society is the cockold of the powers that be, the lovers of power, how our lives are being screwed by the church and the state, the most strange bed fellows.And now the psychiatric threesome.
So a Artaud play might begin with zombie like actors walking around and trying to screw various body parts into a machine that looks like a mask, he might have people planted in the audience that begin laughing hystericaly or make monkey noises or fall down, or just stand there without any expression, when the audience laugh.I donno i'm just giving an example, but i read Artaud a lot, he was put in different asylums, and given electroshock treatment because he believed in magic.Artaud was a virgo.
zombies = scurry
... being eaten by one or just being one ... unlike say being a vampire, which i dunno .. might be kinda cool and sexy to be.
two sides to the fear as you say - the "Zombie Apocalypse" which gives into the post nuke-proliferated/post-9-11 world fear of us fucking it up so bad that it's ALL over ...
and the fear that it won't end .. the "mindless group think of the mob" - the consumerism, the malls, the lives without meaning, the going thru the paces, etc ..
there's a reason that Romero filmed most of Dawn of the Dead in a mall.
Cool post!!
Resonation
Great article, thanks!
Thanks so much… So well written!
Before I read it again, (because there are so many thought-provoking possibilities explaining the zombie phenomenon) so I may absorb it more fully, I wanted to make a few comments.
First, regarding the uncanny valley explanation of the reaction of our deep psyche to kindred-looking robots: I remember my shock in several scenes in the movie A.I. by Steven Spielberg when human seeming robots were captured by a disturbed aggregation of people and forced into an arena to be publicly “humiliated”, and finally “killed”. I think the uncanny valley hypothesis helps explain their revulsion to the robots in psychological terms.
Second, as regards the uncanny valley hypothesis and humans: I have had to struggle lately with two possible realites of what I consider “man’s inhumanity to man”. Up until recently, I have been able to excuse the egregious behavior of historical personages because I considered their consciousness to be un-evolved. In other words, in my mind, they were sufficiently non-humanlike for their faults to stand out and be noticed easily, and I created justifications for their behavior. According to the explanation on Wiki: “The phenomenon can be explained by the notion that, if an entity is sufficiently non-humanlike, then the humanlike characteristics will tend to stand out and be noticed easily, generating empathy.”
Yet, after watching Zeitgiist the Movie, and considering the strong possibilities that the attacks of 9/11 were permitted to occur for the same reason that the attack on Pearl Harbor might have been permitted, I find myself falling into uncanny valley.
The possibility of a new reality has now been opened up to me, and a cascade of experiences are flooding in leading to a feeling of living among aliens who are only pretending to be human, and doing it rather poorly.
As the Wiki explanation continues: “On the other hand, if the entity is "almost human", then the non-human characteristics will be the ones that stand out, leading to a feeling of "strangeness" in the human viewer.
I hope my words didn't get in the way of my thoughts.
Ah, now, to go back to the top and enjoy reading your blog for a second time!
"If only I could remember the future"
Revealing
This trend just reveals what anglo-american culture really is: zombie culture. The accumulated karma of hundrends of years of murder, torture and ruthless exploitation of the planet and other races has always come back to haunt the west.
Most people living in our "societies" are quite literally the living dead, having no life, and shunning death . Death is felt as the ultimate punishment awaiting at the end of a sinful life, and the zombies will do ANYTHING for a little more "life" and escape from death , and hell.
Traditionally, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our civilisation is based on power and "might is right" , and those at the top of the feeding chain have always been zombie-like: ghastly pale skin , deathly , lifeless faces, lack of empathy or any basic humanity, and an insatiable greed for more flesh and blood.
We might as well be eating african , afghani, iraqi and other ethnic babies in our fast food joints - indeed some conspiracy theorists suggest that baby eating is part of the religious rituals of the people on top. David Icke's description of the queen of Angelland slaughtering and devouring an infant at a babylonian ceremony is surely going up in the anals of hisstory and literature, an image that will change our lives for ever.
When these zombie symptoms become so obvious and exaggerated, the end is nigh! There was actually an incident in the States last year where a zombie party was attacked by a gunman who was a bit of a zombie himself.
There is a very high price to pay for what has been done to the planet and indigenous populations and cultures, and people in the west have only began to realise what they've signed up for - selling their souls may have seemed like a good deal at the time, but it's increasingly becoming apparent that you don't bargain with satan (or god and his representatives).
Many are grateful to American culture for such wonderful cultural trends and look forward to be like them. Zombie, emo, internet suicide, they'll swallow it all and take it a step further. And why not, preventive suicide is a decent, humane solution to the population problem.
See you in the graveyard, har har.
zombificaton
X-President
"As a new age brings with it persons with new ways of thinking, being and acting, it can be considered important evolutionary work to continue to push the bounds of our humanity zone and embrace our differences rather than exclude them."
I dare say Professor Charles Xavier considered his School for the Gifted to be very important evolutionary work.
And Obama, too.
Sweet Comments!
Hey Guys,
Thanks for reading and dropping such insightful comments. I think that zombies mix the familiar and foreign in such a way that has the potential to make us question what we mean by both of these notions. It's awesome to hear from Julesb about what it's like to be in a zombie walk. I think it's interesting but not entirely surprising that the event was met with such incomprehension by people on the street--most of society has such narrowed expectations for human behavior that the slightest variation from the norm creates intense discomfort.
The zombie walks remind me of the masquerades that take place during Carnival in Caribbean countries and at Mardi Gras in the States. They're a form of social critique and party that is very powerful. There is something of Artaud in here, as well as punk rock.
The reference to Spielberg's A.I. is apt as an example of an attempt to contend with the pitfalls of the uncanny valley. I think these examples from the entertainment industry represent a new human need to readjust and expand our expectations for human behavior, as Puk commented upon. Androids, genetically enhanced, emotionally evolved pets, and a younger population with an increased tendency towards autism are all to be a part of the futurscape.
Peace.
post zombie movie
don't forget...
depictions of a zombie world isn't just in film, but also in books, especially Max Brooks' popular WORLD WAR Z (now one of my favorite books, and I'm not into zombies) and the ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE.
Accoutrement is also expanding their toy line to include all things zombie (http://www.mcphee.com/categories/zombies.html). As a devil duck collector, I had no choice but to purchase the Zombie Devil Duck, but that's besides the point.
Genres and fads
Do you think that if the internet and Reality Sandwich were around in the 70's and 80's we'd be having this conversation about space movies. Star Wars and Star Trek and other Sci-Fi Movies are just as big as zombies. It's just a fad. I guess you can put a Freudian spin on it if you want to, but everything comes and goes in cycles.
And as far as bashing Western Civilization goes I'm all for it, but unless you are prepared to right the wrong our ancestors did and some really big corporations and governments are still doing today, it sounds kind of hypocritical to be talking about it and not revolting against it.
No one has to take part in the destructive western culture. Just stop right now. Take your computer, your car, your job and throw it all away.
Become a zombie for peace, equality and ecology.
Or just get off your soap boxes and stop pretending you aren't a part of the problem just like everyone else(including me).
This comment isn't directed at any one particular person, sometimes I just get tired of reading about how everyone on here has the solution or answer to everything and they are still contributing to the destructive western civilization.
It's like the reverse of the doomsday prophesies, instead of the world is going to end, it's I have the answer to save the world. Well save it then.
Sorry for the crappy post. All you zombies out there feel free to tear me limb from limb.
Huh?
It gets boring... people always asking for ready-made answers and solutions. It's a formulaic response to any negative criticism: "so what are you doing about it other than talk?"
Actually , it isn't the big bad corporations and elites that keep us enslaved , it's the slave mentality that seeks to censor voices of dissent. There is not really a need for high-tech mind control, most people are happy to be sheep and reject anyone who dares suggest that the sheep pen may actually not be such a great place to be because this generates discomfort and may actually lead to -oh no- action!
Somehow negative criticism is not valid for many people who cannot think for themselves, or cannot bear to behold the true magnitude of the situation?
As for me , i shall continue to bash western civilisation to kingdom come, and the internet is a great place to do this. That's how i'm going to revolt against it. What other people have to say about me doing this is unimportant , and often boring. We're all doing what we can, are we?
?
"Somehow negative criticism is not valid for many people who cannot think for themselves, or cannot bear to behold the true magnitude of the situation?"
Is your above sentence a question or a statement.
If it's a question, I think it is one we should all ask ourselves everytime we are making a stand for whatever we believe in, if it's a statement then it should be directed at the people who are constantly bringing down the energy level of this message board by putting a negative spin on every topic.
Actually what's boring is reading the same comments on different topics that always gets twisted into something negative.
No one on here is trying to censor anyone else's voice. This is a place to voice opinion. The only negativism seems to be coming from the same people over and over again.
Words are power, but they are useless without action. I know I'm in the sheep pen and so is everyone else. Do you think the sheep herder is going to let us out just because we are mewing?
My god some people can turn the most innocent topic into a horrific nightmare.
All I'm saying is that it's a less powerful statement to always come back to the same negative point of view. And that is truly sad.
Negative light
" bringing down the energy level of this message board by putting a negative spin on every topic".
It HURTS to be a source of "negativity" in such a scene , full of "positivity", and spin, but really both poles are needed to generate energy .
It's a play, and it takes all sorts to fill out all the roles.
I like having a laptop.
Hi Adam,
Thanks for reading my post and for commenting. While I see what you're saying about the dangers of oversignification--about which Freud himself pointed out that even in dream analysis, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar--I DO think that we can learn interesting things about a society according to the ways in which they express their fears.
Trends do come and go--but not entirely without reason. For instance, in the 80s and 90s there was a trend towards vampire movies, television shows, books, etc...I don't think this is without coincidence to the AIDS crisis that peaked in public awareness during the same time period. I'll let you fill in the blanks regarding the way an infectious blood-based disease epidemic such as HIV resonates with various vampire myths.
After WWII, Japan produced the Godzilla and Monster Island movies which depicted, over and over, fiery death from above from a brightly colored monster towering on the horizon in an awe inspiring spectacle. Obviously, this was a way in which for the country to play out its fears and traumas over the nuclear bombs that killed and maimed so many.
So, assuming there is an interesting link between trends in horror movies as expressions of mostly repressed societal fears and desires, I think it is even more interesting that in this case, you have large groups of people acting out the current trend in a grassroots fashion that itself mirrors its subject matter (the viral nature of a zombie apocalypse) as well as the transmission of information over the internets. I find the celebratory aspects of these gatherings to be heartening examples that this is a generation attempting to CHANGE by mastering their fears. As far as I know (and i could be wrong) Star Wars was never acted out on public streets...
I don't really waste my time "bashing" western civilization, since you're correct in saying that i reap too many benefits of it to wish it's destruction. I can tell you right now that I like being comfortable, and safe, and as a single woman I love being able to live my own life and write and love who I want and all of that good stuff.
I don't want abundance or affluence but I don't want to give up my laptop either.
If my writing can be about an opening of possibilities rather than a clamping down of ideologies than this is ONE way to make a change.
Revolutions don't take place only in the streets.
Peace.
jp
On horror and reality...
Regarding the idea that popular trends in (horror) cinema reflect the milieu of their era, I have another observation to toss out there. I've become very enamored recently with the film projects of Guillermo del Toro – Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone, and most recently, The Orphanage (which he produced). These films are achingly beautiful, romantic works, grappling with themes of loss, self-reliance, and fear of the unknown. The "scares" are often visceral experiences of supernatural forces, entities peeking from behind the veil into our reality – mythic beasts and tormented human spirits.
Ghost stories and fairy-tales have always been depicted on the big screen, but there's something meaningful and moving about the way this genre is being reimagined in these recent films. My first piece for Reality Sandwich from May of last year discusses this in more detail, drawing eerie comparisons between Pan's Labyrinth and Terry Gilliam's sleeper, Tideland (a must see!).
So now I find myself drawn to horror (or horror-fantasy, perhaps more accurately) after a long hiatus, as I find some deep connection to my own life in the challenging content and terrifying circumstances. Facing fear, connecting with the unknown, and believing in that which is generally hidden (or as The Orphange teaches, "Seeing is not believing; believing is seeing") – these themes resonate with me as some of the most important lessons of our time.
If anyone knows of any other movies that speak on this level, please post them here! I'll have to brush up on my zombie-flicks next...
;)
st
Not a Zombie flick, but...
While anyone who watched The Children of Men could have come away with their own intrepretation, the special features clips on the DVD left no doubt as to the producers design and intent. Powerful stuff!
"If only I could remember the future"
And regarding Star Wars...
I have to say this is one film phenomenon that has indeed been acted out on public streets: See the hilarious Triumph the Insult Comic Dog take on the line outside a premiere of "Attack of the Clones"...
Part One
Part Two
About bashing the west and movie trends
Like I said in my post, I wasn't criticizing you or anyone else on here, I am criticizing all of us.
Even just sitting in your (not you specifically) house or apt. not driving or taking the subway anywhere, using minimal amounts of electricity to stay comfortable and safe, buying and turning on your laptop, logging onto the internet, buying your groceries or going out to eat. It's all contributing to the destruction of the world. We can talk about change all we want.
I know everything has to start as an idea, but it has to be manifested in the physical. I don't like it when people (again not you or anyone particular) get on their soapbox and talk about how the west has destroyed the world, and then just go on down the street and block it out of their minds while they are enjoying their latte.
Nothing is necessary if we don't want it to be. It's not necessary to fly, to work, to go to school, to read, to have babies, convenience isn't necessary if saving the world means that much to a person.
Walk the talk. Lead by example. I mean if it really means that much. Or not. My opinion is just what it is, an opinion.
As far as movie trends go. One writer, or director has an inspired insight into a social or media phenomenon and makes a movie about it and it resonates with alot of people. Therefore it makes alot of money. Then you have copycat movie producers trying to get their hands on some of that loot. Some of the movies are good and some are bad. Then another social phenomenon happens and the media and hollywood milk it for all it's worth and then another trend.
It's all about money. It always has been. And it always will be, in one form or another.
Now I shall step down off of my soapbox and walk down the street and enjoy a latte.
28 Days Later...
Rage=Rabid
Hey Solar and Lunar,
You're right, in both 28 Days Later and the 2007 version of I Am Legend, it is disease epidemics that turn the populace into "the infected." What makes the infected into zombies and not just sick is that they've lost all traces of humanity. I disagree with you that the rage virus makes its victims "incredibly angry" because in order to be angry, even incredibly so, you must be human. Those infected with the rage virus can't be reasoned with. They have lost language and the ability to treat other humans as anything but targets for their rabid violence.
Zombies are definitely a way to explore the limits of humanity. In the sequel to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, there are scenes of incredible ultra violence in which hundreds of infected are slaughtered by the military en masse....the characters in the film are able to justify their violence by ceasing to think of the infected as human. This is the same attitude taken by the SWAT team members charged with taking out the undead in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead zombie classic.
thx for reading and writing. I'm psyched, encouraged and inspired by people speaking their mind about what I wrote.
peace
jp
HIV
The Angelic Marionette
Interesting stuff - I love monsters. One way I've thought of zombies is that they are symbols of the autonomous functions of the body (auto-immune system, organ function etc), independent of the will, and therefore unsettling. Ultimately, these autonomous processes will kill us when they stop, or so we intuit, and we will be reduced to their level as we decay in the cold earth. We are all becoming Zombie in that respect. It's a perspective that comes from our culturally conditioned scientism I suppose.
Another way of looking at this is to suggest that the return of the zombie horde to pop culture represents a proleptic intuition of an emergent consciousness that from our current perspective seems zombie-like. Something like the spontaneous emergence of groups of "mindless" activists, doing crazily selfless things. From the zombie perspective however it may simply feel like inspiration and action in accordance with divine will - the foolish rebellious act of public compassion that creates a ripple effect, and suddenly a revolution is underway.
Indeed, the automaton often represents the transcendent; in dreams, literature etc. I think Hoffman was influenced by Kleists great essay, "On the Marionette Theatre" http://southerncrossreview.org/9/kleist.htm This essay was also a big influence on Rilke, who wrote,
Angel and puppet. Now we will have a play.
Now will there come together what we always
Divide because of our presence...
Now will the angel perform over us.
Lets hope those zombie punks are the flickering temporal images of approaching angels...
The original "Day of the Dead"
on giving up electricity and zombies
I'm not really sure what Adam is getting at but we can certainly embrace a life that is different and leaves less of a mark without giving up lattes and laptops. That kind of black and white mentality leaves people thinking that there is so alternative and its hopeless unless they move into a cave.
*and* that has absolutely nothing to do with zombies...
I have vowed to be a zombie every Halloween from now forward regardless of the 'trend' factor. The opportunities are endless and it does serve as a commentary about how easy it is to fall into what Siouxsie Sioux refers to as the "Drone Zone" ( http://tinyurl.com/3brlo5 ) I was a zombie ballerina this year and let me tell you, that disturbed a lot of people even in the safe haven of a Halloween party.
!Viva zombies¡
What I'm getting at.
I didn't start the topic of zombies and civilization bashing, I was just commenting on a couple of other people's posts.
What I'm getting at Landry is that alot of people on here seem to always come back to how evil Western Civilization is. Not that I disagree with that notion. Someone posted a comment on this topic about how the troops are figuratively eating Iraqi babies like zombies and how destructive western society is. I was just calling out these people who constantly bombard this message board with over the top Western Civ=destruction mentality. Sometimes a zombie movie or a fad is just a zombie movie or a fad. I totally agree with you the two topics have nothing to do with each other.
I just put it in black and white to make the point that you shouldn't bash western society with one hand and enjoy it with the other.
It is possible to enjoy the benefits of civilization, but then don't go around and criticize the civilization that you are enjoying. (I mean 'you' as in everyone).
Nothing wrong with zombies, lattes, laptops, or anything else just don't bitch about where they come from.
I wish people would just lighten up and focus on the positive aspects of society instead of blaming it for everything.
I was being sarcastic to make the point that some of the bloggers on here don't seem to even think about what they are writing about, they just fall in line and start up with the negative comments about how evil western society is.
If anyone really cared they would think about how much toxic waste is created to make a computer. Oh nevermind if my point hasn't been made by now then I guess it never will be.
WAKE UP...
oh, i forgot!
Zombie stuff I would die for
A friend of mine has been doing this online comic for awhile now, check it:
www.zombiegrotto.com
Also for any of you in the Minneapolis area, we do this Zombie Pub Crawl thing annually over Northeast:
www.zombiepubcrawl.com
Brainy blog! Thanks Jennifer!
"The only thing constant in life is change" -François de la Rochefoucauld
Awesome links!
Thanks, Bridget, and others, for the great zombie links!
Here's another--an NY Times piece posted shortly after I published this in which George Romero is interviewed about his latest zombie flick, "Diary of the Dead," which opened last Friday.
"Diary of the Dead" is filmed in a way similar to Cloverfield, in which the shots are taken by soon to be victims on their cell-phones and digital cameras. Romero explains that for him, zombies represent revolution: one generation literally eating another.
He also refers to his childhood in the Bronx, and how he used to be obsessed with a musical called "The Tales of Hoffman," which was based on the short stories of the same author that I mention in my piece as having been the "master of the uncanny" in 19th century literature.
Romero used to compulsively rent the reels of this movie as a child. Sometimes when he'd ask for it he'd be told it wasn't available, as someone else was renting it. That someone else turned out to be another child who would be a director: Martin Scorcese!
Needless to say I was pretty psyched about the Romero/ETA Hoffman connection...here's the link to the movie and a wikipedia link in case you want to learn more about the author's work. It's great stuff!
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/73712/The-Tales-of-Hoffmann/overview
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T.A_Hoffman
Here's the NYT link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/movies/10onst.html?_r=1&ref=movies&ore...
Thanks again for the comments...if anyone's seen "Diary of the Dead" please let me know what you thought of it! After doing the research for this article i've had to put myself back on a steady diet of rom/coms. :)
Peace!
jp
zombie karma
I feel like the "karma" linked to the zombie fetish has more to do with people eating meat than anything else. The gross act of eating dead flesh for "survival" and *ugh* "pleasure" is acceptable when it's any other kind of animal, but when it's a person you suddenly have a horror film. I personally believe most of the disease and violence people inflict on themselves and each other is a direct result of eating meat. just another "zombie for peace, equality and ecology."
p.s. want an enlightened zombie film? watch "fido"!
Meat is Murder
Hey,
Thx for the comment. When I lift my moratorium (ha!) on horror movies I will definitely watch Fido. I saw it in the DVD shop the other day and resisted the urge to rent it.
As for your point about eating meat, I think most Buddhists would agree that to eat meat is to participate in the violence against animals. And to participate in that is to be a part of the violence in the world at large--humans included. Interestingly enough, most of the Post 9-11 zombie movies that were the focus of this piece included very little footage (to my knowledge--I haven't seen ALL of the Resident Evil Movies, I must admit)of zombies EATING humans. There's lots of attacking and biting, but not hardcore consumption. You get that in earlier Pre 9-11 zombie movies, like George Romero's Night of the Living Dead when the undead are out there feasting on human BBQ right out on the front lawn.
Ahhhh...the 60s, when the kids really believed a street revolution could succeed.
Eat the Rich! Eat the Rich! Ha!
(JK)
thx again for reading and commenting--
jp
gee i just thought it was hippie revenge
Big Business Pushing Death