Live and Let Undead...

I was going to title this post "Live and Let Undie" for better continuity with the song in reference. But I was afraid no one would get the main reference I was making towards Zombies, and would instead believe this post to have something to do with underwear.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So. I have a variety of diverse interests. One of them, is zombies.

Seriously. Stories in film and literature relating to zombies are highly underated by the majority of the populace. Despite being its own unique genre that lends itself to a varitety of engaging and interesting possibilities for a story, most people associate films and other media relating to the undead with gore loving adolescent males and hokey, campy films from yesteryear.

But this is simply not fair. The idea of an uprising of a living dead horde, intent on the consumption of human flesh and the spread of their own kind, especialy with apocalyptic ramifications, opens a realm of possibilities. What I'm saying is that in a good Zombie story, the focus is rarely about the Zombies. The focus is on the specific characters or point-of-view a given narrative chooses to follow, and how they react to an unbelievable and outright horrifying situation.

Apocalytic genre stories insert normal people into extraordinary circumstances, and observe what plays out.

So in my defense of the Living Dead Narrative, I will cite a few examples of some excellent Zombie entertainment:

#1 World War Z

Max Brooks expanded the undead genre and gave it literary credibility with this 2006 work of brilliance. The novel is written as an anthology interviews of various survivors of zombie war taking place early in this century. Brooks explores how humanity would react to the spread of a global undead virus and how individuals would fight, adapt, and survive. Brooks novel is a shrewd commentary on the nature of human prejudice and uncertainty, as well as the dangers of government bureaucracy and incompetence. Written Post-Hurricane Katrina, notable parrallels can be seen in peoples reactions in the novel, and to their events surrounding that real world tragedy. The disbelieving government and populace fails to take the threat seriously enough until it is too late. Profiteering, looting, and crime run rampant. Heroes emerge from the ashes, as well as villians, but in the fog of the tragedy, it is difficult at times to tell who is who.

The book is an excellent read, and goes well with Max Brooks' previous work, The Zombie Survival Guide, which is somewhat more light hearted, though completely consistent with World War Z, and even referenced in the latter work. I reommend both. A film version of World War Z is in the works, but I will refrain from endorsing it until I have seen it. As well as the book succeeded in moving the Zombie genre from film to paperback, the story may be lost in the transition back.