Food For Thought (That Even Zombies Can Eat)
*Warning* The following is a random ramble from a random-er rambler.
Those who know me know that I love zombies in all their rotting, disgusting g(l)ory. ^^ Recently, I checked out the first few volumes of the zombie/action manga, Highschool of the Dead, by Daisuke Sato & Shouji Sato. Not yet sure if the series will scale the top of my favorites list. (For a story that’s about a horrific zombie apocalypse, there’s an awful lot [too much] of emphasis on schoolgirls’ panties and their over-inflated racks. Not quite sure if it really works with the whole tragic, downward spiral of humanity thing, but that’s just my two-cents). Trust me, The Walking Dead is still your best bet when it comes to zombie epics.
Anyhoo…an interesting thing I noted was how zombies aren’t actually called “zombies” in the HOTD story, but rather called “they.” Survivors aren’t comfortable calling zombies as “zombies,” so zombies are referred to as “they.”
But looking back on some of the other zombie series I’ve seen, it appears that several series are also uncomfortable with the word “zombie.” The Walking Dead calls zombies “walkers.” Even the Resident Evil movies don’t say “zombie,” they say “undead.” The original RE video games used to say “zombies,” but have since evolved and coin entirely different names for their new zombie generations: “Ganados” and “Majini.” Various other zombie tales have referred to zombies as just “things,” “monsters,” and so forth.
My question is this: Why? Is it taboo to say “zombie”? Why can’t we just call zombies what they are, instead of giving them a bunch of nicknames? Vampires, werewolves, etc. don’t seem to be renamed in every other story (though I know the Underworld series calls werewolves by their more archaic title, “lycanthropes”). It’s odd to me how people seem so reluctant to say “zombie.” Does the word just not sound scary enough?
Me? I know I had no qualms about “zombies” when I wrote my Pokemon/Resident Evil zombie fanfic, Carnage Necropolis. I suppose I could’ve made-up names like “pokezombies” or “zombpokies” something, but that’s just dumb.
*Shrugs* Whatever. It’s just a random observation I made. I like zombies. I like calling them zombies. Why’s everybody else beating around the bush?