Posted on 04/12/2016 3:13:48 AM PDT by raybbr
One of the things about writing a book about zombies is that it becomes kind of necessary to keep up on the genre. In the five years since “Theories of International Politics and Zombies” came out, this wasn’t too much of a burden: Read the occasional prestige zombie novel, watch the occasional bastardized film version of a zombie novel and watch “The Walking Dead” on AMC.
As that show’s ratings have exploded, however, there has been the inevitable proliferation of spin-offs and homages, including AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” and the CW’s “iZombie.” And, well, it’s getting a little more taxing to keep up on it all.
Fortunately, I think I’ve discovered a significant zombie life hack to cope with these rising demands: Stop watching the “Walking Dead” franchise.
The problem is not that either “The Walking Dead” (TWD) or “Fear the Walking Dead” (FtWD) is entirely without merit. The former has produced some interesting characters, particularly Melissa McBride’s Carol. The latter also has some talented actors, particularly Kim Dickens, Ruben Blades and Colman Domingo.
The problem with these shows is that they seem unable to escape a single, unrelenting theme: The post-apocalyptic world is a Hobbesian nightmare that forces surviving humans to evolve into nihilistic killing machines.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well personally I think we live among real zombies now with all the psycho criminals and brain-dead millennial twits. Gads I try not to even talk to young people now days due to their inability to socialize, empathize and strategize. Talk about zombies. The soulless walking dead are among us. Just look around.
Say when does Game of Thrones start again? Such a good show.
Negan is definitely a piece of work! I sort of see the increasing “human” violence as meaningful. That is to say, although the initial seasons were all about fearing “the dead”... we have evolved to the point of fearing “the living”. Thus, the question arises.. “Can “humanistic” humans survive in this type of end of the world scenario OR do humans have to evolve to “animalistic, violent” beings in order to survive? Thus becoming a “new species” of humans. (I know... deep stuff for so early in the morning!)
That, or your annoying neighbor might turn out to be a stalwart soldier, a talented field medic or a gifted brewer. You’ll never know until after “the balloon goes up” to use the Air Force parlance.
You could always talk to your neighbor first, of course, but I have an annoying neighbor of my own so I know how you feel. Just be like Carol on TWD — wear a trench knife and a .38 snub and you’re ready for anything.
Funny you should mention vampires.
This Washington Post piece (which I didn’t read - lol) is probably propaganda along the lines of the trend noticed a few years ago that the public tends to swing between the vampire and zombie themes.
Here’s the rub:
When a Democrat is in the White House, it’s zombies. During Republican administrations, it’s vampires.
Supposedly, the psychology boils down to how the voters view their political opponents.
Zombies are unthinking consumer masses, swarming over everyone else and attacking them until they conform. In other words, the cartoon version of Republicans.
Vampires turn others evil with their deceptive, clandestine attacks usually centering on sexuality, cultural sophistication, and sometimes supernatural persuasion. In other words, the cartoon version of Democrats.
” All the good ones, except for Glenn, are gone. “
I have some bad news for you . . .
No evolution necessary, just getting back to our roots. Our deep, Neolithic roots.
It’s all been done before, in much the same way. We just have a tough time recognizing it because of how far we’ve removed ourselves from it.
The business of survival is food, water, and shelter. There’s the hard way of getting it, which is building it up yourself (as an individual or a collective), then there’s the easy way - stealing it from somebody else who’s already done the hard part.
The easy way is the way to extinction. The hard way is the way to civilization.
The secret is for the hard way people to make the easy way not so easy. In other words, defense.
All the evolution has been done. It would just need a nice refresher course.
Never got into GoT, I was vaguely interested in TWD, watching the last two episodes with my wife and kids. They're addicted to it. I'm just not into zombie movies, reminds me too much of the last two years of Dubya's administration.
I save my viewing for the last few episodes of series such as Mad Men and Breaking Bad. The only series I watched from start to finish was Sons of Anarchy, though I'm hooked on Billions.
I'm anxiously awaiting the miniseries on Atlas Shrugged, though it's likely to be only 8 hours, according to the producer, Albert Ruddy (of Godfather fame).
Agreed. The crew is pretty slow in thinking. They learn very little. Emotions get you killed. They foolishly drop into one bad situation after another. Are they so shallow to not be happy to be alive at all? And having a crisis of conscience? I am to the point of rooting for the bad guys in some cases just to thin out the stupidity.
But how many man-vs-zombie battles can you have? How many man-vs-man battles can you have? Why don't they just find a safe spot, build up their defenses, and start rebuilding the world?
Simple. Because that would get boring and people would stop watching.
So every week it's the same thing: someone goes out on a "supply run," they run into an ambush, get trapped or captured, and then a group has to run out to rescue them. Sometimes the rescuers get captured too and then some miracle has to occur to free them all. Or sometimes the capture becomes extended and becomes the basis for a whole season's worth of drivel.
And one of these upcoming episodes, by some bizarre deus ex machina, Negan's captives will be freed, he will be killed (in a most satisfying way), and the show will plod on.
Yep......and yep. lol
If someone was trying to kill you, would you kill them first? Even pre-emptively? If not, you would not survive. And you would not deserve to.
There have been several people I’ve run across over the years that I would like to have “Pre-emptively” killed. But something told me it would probably not be a good idea.
The last few episodes have kinda focused on that particular moral question haven’t they?
Your encounters in the past have been questions of morality. The question before Rick and Co. is survival. There is no time or place for finely tuned moral conundra. That comes when the basics are covered and you have the luxury of reflection.
The answer to the question "What have we become?" is "Whatever we needed to become to survive." When we no longer need to be that, we can revert to a more civilized state.
It's not complicated.
What’s complicated is that once you revert to that state can you ever again become civilized?
Different situations don’t, or shouldn’t, change your morality. Why is your or my life worth more than anyone else’s? If for instance, someone has food and I’m starving. Does that mean I’m right for killing them and taking their food?
One thing that’s going to come with an Apocalyptic situation is deciding if life is worth living. And a whole lot of people are going to choose no. And not just because of pain and suffering, but for the loss of morality. Which again, is kind of what the show is about.
It’s always funny, sad really, that I have to point out to a lot of people, not you, but a lot. That this series is not about Zombies.
Yeah, I got mildly hooked on the series there for awhile myself.
The show’s got a lot of appeal for those like me who chafe at suffocating government overregulation of pretty much everything.
But then it dawned on me that I was watching a soap opera with zombies. Marty out!
Of course you can. If you're shipwrecked on a desert island and your only chance to survive is to eat your shipmates, that doesn't mean that you'd be a cannibal at home on the weekends.
Different situations don’t, or shouldn’t, change your morality.
Survival IS my morality. Not necessarily at any price, but if it's some aggressor or me, there is no hesitation on my part.
Why is your or my life worth more than anyone else’s?
Because to me, my life is absolute. Absent my life, none of this morality discussion even has any meaning. Dead people don't have any morality.
If for instance, someone has food and I’m starving. Does that mean I’m right for killing them and taking their food?
That depends. If they only have enough food for them, and taking their food won't really help you survive for much longer, then no, it doesn't make any sense. But if they have plenty and aren't willing to share, and you are on the verge of starvation with no other options, then to hell with them. Kill them and take it.
One thing that’s going to come with an Apocalyptic situation is deciding if life is worth living. And a whole lot of people are going to choose no. And not just because of pain and suffering, but for the loss of morality. Which again, is kind of what the show is about.
Then those people should just off themselves early on. They're not fit to live in the world as it has become anyway.
this series is not about Zombies.
It was. It's not any more. And that's part of the problem.
They aren’t useless. Eventually you have to rebuild a society, and to make a society at some point you have to stop killing everybody. That’s always been the long game concept of TWD, it’s the story of going all the way THROUGH zompoc to having dealt with it and having a functioning society again.
My take is that the writers have been too nice when it comes to living to living interactions.
I would suspect, if it ever really happened, travelers would be victimized by snipers who would pick them off from a distance and then steal their stuff. Lots of ambushes. No one would be traveling from place to place. Much more “this is our turf, get the hell off.”
Nope, nope, nope...
SORT OF SPOILERS
Your criticism could be directed at just about any genre. In cop shows it is one crime after another. In hospital shows it is another medical emergency. Ho-hum.
Rick’s group has tried to settle down twice now. Once at the prison and now at Alexandria. The story has come from the forces that want to keep them from settling down. First the Governor, now Negan.
IF the comics are to be believed (and they aren’t always reflected in the show) Alexandria combines forces with Hilltop and the just introduced Kingdom to fight and eventually defeat Negan. In the comics this leads to a restoration of “normal” with the three (or two, since Alexandria goes boom) communities cooperating in matters of trade and defense.
I understand that the fight has become man-vs-man instead of man-vs-zombie. That's about all that's left for the franchise to do. It's the endless agonizing over it that bores me. Rick and Co. are trying to settle down. Outside forces won't let them. So rather than just going to war with those forces and obliterating them, the Rickites have to blather endlessly about the morality of doing so, and boo-hoo about the horrors they've been forced to endure. And then wonder if they can let that feral nature go once order is restored.
Shut up already! If you've made the decision to survive, then just do it! Quit wondering what you will become or what will happen when the lights come back on. For all you know, they never will. Today is all you have; quit borrowing tomorrow's problems.
And get rid of people like Morgan and -- if she can't make up her mind -- Carol. If they're not willing to fight for you, they're of no use to you. Feed them to the zombies.
I don't read the comics, but I knew that the Negan affair would end with the Rickites allying with someone -- Hilltop, space aliens, Democrats ... somebody who would magically appear and defeat Negan.
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