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This week: Zombies Edited by: Waltz Invictus  
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Zombies can't believe the energy we waste on nonfood pursuits.
-Patton Oswalt, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland
Often, a school is your best bet-perhaps not for education but certainly for protection from an undead attack.
-Max Brooks, The Zombie Survival Guide
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.
-Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies |
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Zombies.
Of all the monsters in the classic undead bestiary, few things are as outright scary as zombies. And I know this isn't the Horror newsletter, but since zombies have become a staple of present-day fantasy and science fiction, I thought I'd say a few words about our favorite brain-eaters.
I'm not sure exactly when our current fascination with zombies began, but it makes a lot more sense to me than the current fascination with vampires. Vampires used to be scary. Now they're erotic. What's up with that, anyway?
Zombies, though... well, here's the thing. In an increasingly multicultural society, we can no longer get away with dehumanizing the Other, because the Other are our next-door neighbors and classmates and co-workers. There's a basic human fear of the Other, a fear that may be understandable through evolutionary biology, but has no place in modern society - that fear becomes prejudice and bigotry.
And yet, we need an enemy. Aliens can work for that, but aliens are just another Other - sometimes out to enslave us, sometimes to take our resources, but sometimes to help us along like in Star Trek.
Sentient beings can usually be reasoned with; if they can't, we're doomed anyway because any aliens that can make it to earth aren't going to be stopped by silly things like viruses or nukes.
Zombies, on the other hand, are the perfect Other.
They can't be reasoned with. They can be killed (again), but no one feels sorry for a dead zombie, not even other zombies.
In stories, they can be metaphors for all the things that we're afraid of: death, what we fear might come after death, people who are not like us, and bad hair days.
And because they're mindless, shambling creatures, they mirror how we see the vast majority of people in the world.
They really are the perfect monsters. |
A few tales from beyond the grave:
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Last time, in "Monsters" , I talked about the metaphorical purpose of monsters in fantasy.
Quick-Quill  : What is it about dying that puts fear in people? Is it that one moment in their minds they think there might be a real eternity? I think its the dying part that people are afraid of. Will it hurt? How long will it take? How will I handle the pain if there is any? It could be the monsters in your soul or mind that affect your perception of the struggle and the final breath.
I think of Monsters Inc. there are monsters in the closet. Have you asked them to come and play?
Speaking for myself, I don't fear death; I have some apprehension about the process of dying. Death is no monster, but our fear of it certainly can be.
Joto-Kai  : Not only monsters, but all characters, are metaphors. Perhaps for a person you know, or a personality drive. In "The People of Glass", the pig-faced barbarians, called Urgans, represent the same rampant drives that bedevil my police officer and her husband (in "I'll do better" and "Drive it home"): namely, rampant emotionalism, versus equally rampant machismo. Monstrous qualities don't change a character's role, it only serves to direct attention, either cluing in or distracting the reader. [Submitted Item: "The People of Glass " [18+]]
A good point.
Elfin Dragon-finally published  : On monsters: It's all well and good to say monsters are all those things we find non-pleasant which are physical entities. But sometimes, as Stephen King has written, they are the non-physical things which plague our minds. That horror within us which can cause us to see things non-existent. Or the gift which someone has and we don't understand, because we, as humans, always fear what we don't understand. That black cat which crosses our path summons up dark and dreadful fears. Yet it's only a cat, isn't it? It cannot steal our soul, can it? It cannot take secrets to a witch, can it? We are all victims of our own unrealistic fears.
Perhaps as we come to a greater understanding of things, through science, the monsters will lose much of their power over us. I think black cats are great. I want one. Or several.
And that's it for me for August. See you next month! Until then,
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: August 27, 2014 Issue [#6517]
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