Zombies: Shambling Perspectives
This post has been in the works for quite awhile. I decided it was high time to put it out there. I started watching the zombie-themed web series Universal Dead and within two episodes touches on a theme I had in mind.
I heard on NPR the other day about some interesting market indicators. Market indicators are interesting or unique things that financial planners, investors, analysts, etc. watch as an indication of how the financial market (and sometimes a specific part of the financial market) is doing. What they talked about on the NPR piece was large construction equipment - in years where sales are up, it indicates a growing housing or development market. As you can imagine, this year it's down - WAY down. And I think I may have found an indicator regarding our culture - zombies.
I've recently been taken with the fascination our culture has with zombies. It seems like the enjoyment of zombie-based entertainment has been around for years going back probably further than the Evil Dead movies, but I seem to recall that being the first movie I heard about with that kind of stuff in it. Yeah, yeah, I've been sheltered. Whatever. Over the last few years it seems like zombies have gained an increased cult following (pardon the pun). Movies like Sean of the Dead and games like the Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead series have become massively popular and it has begun to reach into "normal" culture instead of just being on the fringe.
I will personally admit to loving Left 4 Dead. There is nothing finer and truly stress-relieving than hopping into a game with my buddies and mowing down the undead with a shotgun. Last year I read a book called Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry which I enjoyed even if it wasn't the best piece of writing ever. Sometimes writing doesn't have to be revolutionary - just enjoyable to read. In the book, terrorists stumble upon an infection/virus that causes people to deteriorate rapidly, die, then continue living as a zombie (more or less).
Once I finished the book, I started thinking about zombies and traditionally how they are presented. Being a fan of the fantasy genre, I started mentally comparing notes between games like D&D and fantasy stories like Lord of the Rings and their treatment of the undead and the more recent fad of zombies. I stumbled upon a rather interesting fact that I think provides some commentary on our society and some of our opinions. It may not be a perfect indicator, but I still find it interesting.
In fantasy stories and in most horror involving zombies and other undead, they are brought about by some dark force or evil spiritual event: violating an Indian burial ground, a voodoo curse, a dark necromancer summoning the corpses to do his bidding, etc. And in many fantasy stories, there is a spiritual component to their eradication - a prayer, a reconciling, a blessing, holy water, etc. Sure, this isn't always true - I have been on many a dungeon crawl where we just hacked away at the problem until they went away.
But as I evaluated the current trend I found a difference - the popular notion now is that there is an infection or virus contracted which starts the plague and some fearless (or stupid) heroes step up to try to fix the problem. Whether that is by a counter-virus, a cure, or some other kind of remedy, the cause and the solution are both scientific. Shotguns, axes, even swords still work in this case, but a scientific cure is being sought for a scientifically induced disease/infection. In Episode 1 of Universal Dead, a character even gets on the military for referring to the infected as "undead" rather than "infected". I won't spoil it for you, but Episode 2 starts to go into a little bit about why there's even a debate about it.
And, as a believer, I find the contrast really interesting. Could this be an indicator of our society's inclination to give more credence to scientific fact and downplay spiritual reality/truth? Would games like Left 4 Dead or books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies do as well if the causes of "undead-ness" were spiritual with a spiritual solution be as popular?
I do feel like we are experiencing a decline in spirituality. I certainly recognize a lot of stuff labeled as "spiritual" in our society, but I don't notice it as much a part of peoples' lives as much as just a convenient system of beliefs so they have something to hang their hats on. I believe that true spiritual belief should impact how you live and help to make you a better person. Finding a belief system that just lets you do whatever you want is way too convenient. But back to my point - I don't think this is a coincidence and I'm going to keep an eye out for other things to see if they take this same tack. I was pleasantly surprised that LOST didn't turn into hardcore science fiction but left its end open to debate and all about the faith vs. science theme. But we'll have to see how the rest of this unfolds.
I heard on NPR the other day about some interesting market indicators. Market indicators are interesting or unique things that financial planners, investors, analysts, etc. watch as an indication of how the financial market (and sometimes a specific part of the financial market) is doing. What they talked about on the NPR piece was large construction equipment - in years where sales are up, it indicates a growing housing or development market. As you can imagine, this year it's down - WAY down. And I think I may have found an indicator regarding our culture - zombies.
I've recently been taken with the fascination our culture has with zombies. It seems like the enjoyment of zombie-based entertainment has been around for years going back probably further than the Evil Dead movies, but I seem to recall that being the first movie I heard about with that kind of stuff in it. Yeah, yeah, I've been sheltered. Whatever. Over the last few years it seems like zombies have gained an increased cult following (pardon the pun). Movies like Sean of the Dead and games like the Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead series have become massively popular and it has begun to reach into "normal" culture instead of just being on the fringe.
I will personally admit to loving Left 4 Dead. There is nothing finer and truly stress-relieving than hopping into a game with my buddies and mowing down the undead with a shotgun. Last year I read a book called Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry which I enjoyed even if it wasn't the best piece of writing ever. Sometimes writing doesn't have to be revolutionary - just enjoyable to read. In the book, terrorists stumble upon an infection/virus that causes people to deteriorate rapidly, die, then continue living as a zombie (more or less).
Once I finished the book, I started thinking about zombies and traditionally how they are presented. Being a fan of the fantasy genre, I started mentally comparing notes between games like D&D and fantasy stories like Lord of the Rings and their treatment of the undead and the more recent fad of zombies. I stumbled upon a rather interesting fact that I think provides some commentary on our society and some of our opinions. It may not be a perfect indicator, but I still find it interesting.
In fantasy stories and in most horror involving zombies and other undead, they are brought about by some dark force or evil spiritual event: violating an Indian burial ground, a voodoo curse, a dark necromancer summoning the corpses to do his bidding, etc. And in many fantasy stories, there is a spiritual component to their eradication - a prayer, a reconciling, a blessing, holy water, etc. Sure, this isn't always true - I have been on many a dungeon crawl where we just hacked away at the problem until they went away.
But as I evaluated the current trend I found a difference - the popular notion now is that there is an infection or virus contracted which starts the plague and some fearless (or stupid) heroes step up to try to fix the problem. Whether that is by a counter-virus, a cure, or some other kind of remedy, the cause and the solution are both scientific. Shotguns, axes, even swords still work in this case, but a scientific cure is being sought for a scientifically induced disease/infection. In Episode 1 of Universal Dead, a character even gets on the military for referring to the infected as "undead" rather than "infected". I won't spoil it for you, but Episode 2 starts to go into a little bit about why there's even a debate about it.
And, as a believer, I find the contrast really interesting. Could this be an indicator of our society's inclination to give more credence to scientific fact and downplay spiritual reality/truth? Would games like Left 4 Dead or books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies do as well if the causes of "undead-ness" were spiritual with a spiritual solution be as popular?
I do feel like we are experiencing a decline in spirituality. I certainly recognize a lot of stuff labeled as "spiritual" in our society, but I don't notice it as much a part of peoples' lives as much as just a convenient system of beliefs so they have something to hang their hats on. I believe that true spiritual belief should impact how you live and help to make you a better person. Finding a belief system that just lets you do whatever you want is way too convenient. But back to my point - I don't think this is a coincidence and I'm going to keep an eye out for other things to see if they take this same tack. I was pleasantly surprised that LOST didn't turn into hardcore science fiction but left its end open to debate and all about the faith vs. science theme. But we'll have to see how the rest of this unfolds.