Zombies need love too
Kris Baranovic and Michale D. Johnson
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Opinion
On Oct. 20, a panel lecture, "Zombies and Your Brains: Use 'em or Lose 'em," was held in Kent Library.
In a very forward-thinking move, the lecture finally addressed the unfair treatment of a population segment that gets no love: Zombies.
Every day these people are shunned, abused and discriminated against as the rest of us revel in any type of violence perpetrated against them.
In an attempt to open a dialogue about this prejudice, Dr. Carol Morrow, Dr. Susan Swartwout, and Dr. Allen Gathman of the anthropology, English and biology departments respectively presented a controversial notion: we should learn to embrace the zombie culture.
And if you weren't one of the about 40 people in attendance, you totally missed it.
The points were perfectly clear. Zombies are deeper creatures than the graves from which they rose. They have feelings. They think. They write haiku. They're even in Jane Austen books with the recent release of Seth Grahame-Smith's book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Zombies represent our fears and our desires, and bring out the best of us in fight-for-life battles.
America's rising interest in the zombie phenomena is a hard one to figure out. Morrow's fascination with flesh eaters began after reading Max Brook's "World War Z," a creative account of the world's battle against the living dead.
"[Zombie culture] is compelling because it's controllable. It has rules," Morrow said. "There's lots of stuff in this world that doesn't have rules, like global warming. With zombies, they're scary as hell, but if you have common sense, you can survive."
But it's more than just the recent success of Grahame-Smith and Brooks. Across the globe zombie literature is cranked out and celebrated, and much of the gruesome literature was discussed and displayed at the lecture.
Since it's Haitian inception in Western culture, the plight of the zombie has struggled for expression. It's taken 80 years for tattered, battered zombies to finally find a voice, and will probably take another 80 years for them to shed their misunderstood nature. It's not their fault. They are the victims of viruses or nanomachines or mutant prions or weird cosmic space dust. They're the way they are because they were either unprepared or just slow runners.
It should be noted that zombies are just like us, minus some skin, life and motor skills.
In a very forward-thinking move, the lecture finally addressed the unfair treatment of a population segment that gets no love: Zombies.
Every day these people are shunned, abused and discriminated against as the rest of us revel in any type of violence perpetrated against them.
In an attempt to open a dialogue about this prejudice, Dr. Carol Morrow, Dr. Susan Swartwout, and Dr. Allen Gathman of the anthropology, English and biology departments respectively presented a controversial notion: we should learn to embrace the zombie culture.
And if you weren't one of the about 40 people in attendance, you totally missed it.
The points were perfectly clear. Zombies are deeper creatures than the graves from which they rose. They have feelings. They think. They write haiku. They're even in Jane Austen books with the recent release of Seth Grahame-Smith's book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Zombies represent our fears and our desires, and bring out the best of us in fight-for-life battles.
America's rising interest in the zombie phenomena is a hard one to figure out. Morrow's fascination with flesh eaters began after reading Max Brook's "World War Z," a creative account of the world's battle against the living dead.
"[Zombie culture] is compelling because it's controllable. It has rules," Morrow said. "There's lots of stuff in this world that doesn't have rules, like global warming. With zombies, they're scary as hell, but if you have common sense, you can survive."
But it's more than just the recent success of Grahame-Smith and Brooks. Across the globe zombie literature is cranked out and celebrated, and much of the gruesome literature was discussed and displayed at the lecture.
Since it's Haitian inception in Western culture, the plight of the zombie has struggled for expression. It's taken 80 years for tattered, battered zombies to finally find a voice, and will probably take another 80 years for them to shed their misunderstood nature. It's not their fault. They are the victims of viruses or nanomachines or mutant prions or weird cosmic space dust. They're the way they are because they were either unprepared or just slow runners.
It should be noted that zombies are just like us, minus some skin, life and motor skills.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Mike Licht
posted 10/30/09 @ 2:12 PM CST
It's not a fad, it's a syndrome -- Zombie Behavior Spectrum Disorder, ZBSD
See:
notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/seasonal-health-threat
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