Zombies The continuing fascination with the zombie motif in popular culture, including literature, film, television, and video games, points to the fact that zombies are of greater significance in our cultural psyche than simple vehicles for inducing easy fear. At the same time that the zombies themselves hold this weight, the fear of zombification - the threat of losing one’s selfhood and becoming one of the undead - holds an equal, if not greater, fascination for individuals as well. Terrifying animals, such as giant sharks or vindictive spiders, and even humans who have gone insane and prey psychotically on other people fail to have the staying power in our imaginations and in our nightmares that zombies do. In part, there is the recognition that zombies used to be people, while giant sharks never were; even psychopaths are rarely found in society and the journey from “normal” person to psychopath is not as clear and as simple as that from “normal” person to zombie – no one is just bitten by a psychopath and becomes one. While becoming the afternoon snack of a gigantic shark is not a pleasant thought, and neither is being murdered by a psychopath in horrific fashion, the key to understanding the hold that zombies have on our collective imagination is that not only is it easy to see ourselves in them, it is frightening to see how easy it was for another person to become a zombie – to lose herself or himself and everything that made them unique – and succumb to and fade into the zombie horde. At the same time, the way in which people react, the ways in which they become less human themselves when they come into contact with zombies and the zombie apocalypse is another horrifying way of losing oneself that zombies force us to c... ... middle of paper ... ...ing, or if we too have simply given up and shuffle about, having forgotten our reason for living. Ultimately, zombies carry the weight they do in popular culture because they scare us but also cause us to question ourselves. They force us to look at ourselves and in doing so bring forth our greatest fears about who we are and what our lives mean. Works Cited Boluk, Stephanie, and Wylie Lenz. "Infection, Media, and Capitalism: from Early Modern Plagues to Postmodern Zombies." Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. 10.2 (2010): 126-147. Print. Christie, Deborah, and Sarah J. Lauro.Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie As Post-Human. New York: Fordham University Press, 2011. Internet resource. Moreman, Christopher M, and Cory Rushton.Zombies Are Us: Essays on the Humanity of the Walking Dead. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2011. Internet resource.
: From Suggestion to Contagion in the book Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture (2011) writes “What is important is that, for now “zombie” effectively operates as an “empty signifier,”
Zombies are real, but not like those in stories on the big screen. Real zombies and vampires are regular people who suffer from a mental condition called, Cotard Syndrome. Cotard's syndrome, is a rare mental disorder, those with cotard syndrome have delusional belief that they are already dead. This syndrome is also known as the Walking Corpse Syndrome. These delusions can range from believing one is dead, are putrefying, do not exist, or have lost their blood and organs. This mental disorder was brought to the attention in the 1880‘s, by Jules Cotard, who described a delusion he called “delusion of negations”. Cotard Syndrome is mostly a certain type of depression.
Kirkman describes zombies as an infectious horror in order to establish a close relationship between zombies and contagions. One of the The Walking Dead’s most brilliant successes has been the characterization of the zombies , and it may be the secret of their popularity. In his book, The Walking Dead, Kirkman
Zombies’ most obvious function is to the social taboo of cannibalism. Zombies violate the basic rule of what it means to be human: not eating people. This taboo is depicted best in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968). The scene, an hour and 15 minutes into the movie, shows several quick cuts and close ups of zombies ripping apart and eating “human” organs and limbs. The scene, a...
Zombie literature in its current form has been around since the early 1920’s, the concept of the “Zombie” itself originated in the nation of Haiti around the same time. Since it’s inception, the purpose of the zombie genre is to commentate on social issues during many periods of human history. These periods include World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. The zombie has represented several things from the nuclear bomb, to the collective fears of humanity in general, such as the fear of death and of dying. Zombies have also been represented as a physical manifestation of the flaws of humanity, such as mindless, joyless consumerism. (McGregor)
In Night of the Living Dead, the zombies were eventually eliminated. Or were they? Theorists argue that the monster’s elusiveness is due to its physical, psychological and social characteristics that cross the lines of classification. Human’s innate fear of the unknown is due to their inability to make a distinction or draw a clear conclusion. This is explained further in Jeffrey Cohen’s second thesis in “Monster Theory” that claims that; “the monster never escapes” (Cohen, 14). The zombie as a monster can never be destroyed completely and if it is, it leaves a remnant the make people feel uncertain of its destruction. Base on Cohen’s theory, the zombie’s different interpretation allows it to emerge in other forms (a faster, smarter zombie?)
Today in America, people can’t get enough of zombies, zombies are everywhere ranging from movies, books and tv shows. The entertainment business uses the zombie apocalypse theme in order to present a post apocalyptic situation that no other form of genre can really create. In American zombie apocalyptic entertainment, humans must face the horrors of survival and change, while fighting off the zombies, thus also challenging their morals. Pessimistic viewers may see the situation as depressing, prejudice and an means of expressing xenophobia. However optimistic viewers see the situation as an opportunity for better change, individually and as a collective community. A controversial example of this topic would be Robert Kirkman’s popular graphic novel, called The Walking Dead, filled with violence, betrayal and challenges. The Walking Dead can be read as a pessimistic text but the most appropriate way to read is
Torie Boschs “First eat all the lawyers” appeared in Slate october 2011. Her piece was to reach out to horror fans and to explain to them why zombies are a great monsters in current media. Zombie fanatics who read this short essay will love her vast knowledge of zombies while others who still do not understand why zombies are horribly terrifying can get behind her argument. Bosch explains that the current zombie craze has to do with our current society and how white-collar workers would be left defenceless in a world over run with a rampant horde of zombies. While blue-collar workers can flourish in this current state as they have more skills suited for survival. Boschs essay uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, foil and satire to make her
ur identity is built upon our own memories and with those memories we can construct ourselves. Throughout the Walking Dead, we see that zombies are portrayed as nothing more than hollowed and grotesque version of people that had existed from a different time. They may retain some familiar human appearance such as having hair and clothing, but the part that made them mentally human died when the virus inserted the body. Their memories are gone, their sense of self has faded, and all that remains is the everlasting need to feast on anything that moves.
As said in the previous discussion regarding the second chapter of Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human, zombies and their culture are examined and broke down in order to understand their motives for the progression of zombies globally. Through different perspectives from individuals based around the world, the discussion of the zombie culture debates over the idea that zombies have not just evolved within the narratives that have brought them to life, but they have evolved in such a way that ultimately transforms the narrative itself. However, in this specific chapter, “They are not men…they are dead bodies!”: From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again, Chera Kee breaks down the introduction of zombies into mainstream consciousness,
...r can not be satisfied. The zombie is a consumer. Zombies are most often used as a metaphor these days for uncontrollable consumerism that plagues our generation. We blindly buy without thinking, either because of a low price, lust, or simply we just want more. We are guilty of “Zombie Consumerism”. Zombie consumerism is evident in George Romeros' film, Dawn of the Dead. In this movie, a shopping mall is where the characters take refuge and becomes the setting in which the humans stay in the battle of the zombies. They gorge themselves in free food and are delighted about having almost everything at their fingertips all to themselves. It sound's perfect. They can consume anything they want and they will be okay, forever. It is ironic then when there is nothing left and they must find new sources of shelter and food and resources, or become the resources themselves.
George Romero's reinvention of the zombie in night of the Living Dead (1968) is clearly a critique of elements of the American society, and the film as a whole is easily twisted into a warped view on the 'American Dream'. Themes throughout Romero’s film, dealing with controversial topics during the time that the film was made, are still, to this day debated by critics and film historians. Themes of racism and war are defined within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, cannibalistic zombies and over the top heroes who, eventually, succumb to the reanimated; despite their every effort. These themes are colored over and painted to hide beneath subtle references to the typical American Dream during this time, and Romero does quite the good job at it too. This dream, whilst continuously changing in the everyday lives of modern Americans, can be loosely defined as a national ethos of the United States, or a set of ideals dealing with freedom and the opportunity for success - an upward social status that can be achieved through hard work and effort.
The idea of a zombie is made up and it comes from nzambi, the Kongo word for the spirit of a dead person. In states such as Louisiana, or the Creole culture they believe zombies represent a person who has dies and brought back to life with no speech. Kings psychological argument on how we have an urge to watch horror movies because it helps to re-establish our feelings and feel natural again. Klusterman’s sociological essay helped us see the comparison of zombies and humans in real life. In conclusion zombies are not real, they are make believe but help bring a sense of normality to
In the article, “A Zombie Manifesto: The Nonhuman Condition in the Era of Advanced Capitalism” by Sarah Juliet Lauro and Karen Embry, the authors’ evaluate the idea of the zombie and its connection to capitalism and post-humanism. According to the authors, the zombie represents much more than just a fear, it represents a loss of oneself to many different things, primarily to a capitalist society. The authors have come to the conclusion that humans have a fear of what they cannot control, and that is why the zombie is so big in entertainment. We see zombies everywhere, in movies, books, tv shows, fundraisers, marathons, and so much more. They have been around for decades, but recently they have become very popular. The authors believe this is
George A. Romero, the director of Night of the Living Dead accidently created the zombie genre that we are familiar with today. Night of the Living Dead reshaped the entire genre with its bitter realism. Romero established verisimilitude unintentionally by focusing on how people react to crisis. The first zombie movies relied on semi-terrifying dress codes (of their time) and the conventional diegetic scream of a female. Whereas Romero’s film is an interpretation of humankind’s collapse. Romero drew inspiration from the infamous Vietnam War spiralling at the time and the American civil war. The verisimilitude lies within the human condition in dire times, like war. Therefore, in the Night of the Living Dead the zombie/ghoul stands as a symbol for the enemy contriving those dire times. This consequently makes the genre actually terrifying because representations have altered. Zombies are no longer an otherworldly or scientific monster e.g. White Zombie but a