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We Have Met the Zombies, and They Are Us.
Mar. 7th, 2012 08:26 pmHypothesis: The current popularity of zombie fiction, and the increase in zombie studies, are society's way of dealing with the other. As vampires and werewolves before them were an expression of societies fear of the other (specifically foreigners). Vampires wanted our women. Werewolf's capacity for violence mirrored the violence we imagined in "uncivilized" cultures. Now zombies are here to address our fears of masses of foreigners that we can't reason with.
There's been a lot of talk recently about how we're heading towards a pretty hard Malthusian collapse. Everyone knows it deep down, even if we can't exactly point to when it's going to happen, even if we won't let ourselves admit consciously that it is going to happen. But still that stress needs to be dealt with. We do it by consuming zombie fiction, which depicts people surviving a collapse of civilization against masses of unfamiliar humans who's defining characteristic is their hunger. It's grim stuff, but we can at least imagine ourselves coping because we wouldn't do the stupid things that the redshirts do.
Why do we crave zombies now? They're a lot easier to deal with than hordes of hungry people in a food riot. For one thing, you're allowed tokill destroy them. For another, the solutions to dealing with zombies are much easier. Imagining building your well armed zombie-proof fortress is a much easier and less stressful mental exercise than building your well armed human-proof fortress. You can wait the zombies out - you can't wait out the humans.
The solutions to our upcoming economic collapse and food riots are going to be much harder than simply hunkering down for a year then going back to business as usual with a smaller population. It will require a lot of sacrifice from everyone and government-level organization. Zombies on the other hand, can be dealt with via guns and strong manly individualism (at least in the stories).
The rich know it's coming - they've been isolating themselves for years now behind bigger and higher barricades and hiring private security forces. If you're on the outside of the fence, it's because they think you're one of the zombies.
There's been a lot of talk recently about how we're heading towards a pretty hard Malthusian collapse. Everyone knows it deep down, even if we can't exactly point to when it's going to happen, even if we won't let ourselves admit consciously that it is going to happen. But still that stress needs to be dealt with. We do it by consuming zombie fiction, which depicts people surviving a collapse of civilization against masses of unfamiliar humans who's defining characteristic is their hunger. It's grim stuff, but we can at least imagine ourselves coping because we wouldn't do the stupid things that the redshirts do.
Why do we crave zombies now? They're a lot easier to deal with than hordes of hungry people in a food riot. For one thing, you're allowed to
The solutions to our upcoming economic collapse and food riots are going to be much harder than simply hunkering down for a year then going back to business as usual with a smaller population. It will require a lot of sacrifice from everyone and government-level organization. Zombies on the other hand, can be dealt with via guns and strong manly individualism (at least in the stories).
The rich know it's coming - they've been isolating themselves for years now behind bigger and higher barricades and hiring private security forces. If you're on the outside of the fence, it's because they think you're one of the zombies.
