Posted on 03/29/2014 12:00:33 PM PDT by lee martell
I don't have a tv of my own, but I see enough and hear enough to know that for some reason, Zombies are a hot sell on American tv right now. See the popularity of shows such as The Walking Dead. In fact, I heard there is even a new perfume for women coming to the market this spring, based on this show. The Walking Dead Perfume. Really? I'm not necessarily bothered by it, to each his own, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what has brought us to this level of fascination. I have read many, many of Dean Koontz books over the last ten years. I kept reading them, until he spent too much time trying to humanize the Antagonist by giving him/her a 'cool' sense of humor. I like my monsters scary and predominately unappealing, but there are always exceptions.
I tried off and on for years to appreciate Steven King, especially back in the 90's when he was cranking the books out like Wheat Linguine, but a rarely stayed with any of his work till completion. Most of Steven King's books read to me, like a never ending monologue, or as my junior high english teacher; Sister Richardene would say, a run-on sentence; something I still fall into today if not careful. I sampled some Anne Rice books. I never completed any of her stories because I was lost into the minutiae of character analysis, and I have never made the link between love and blood, at least not in the ritualistic manner of Rice. I see cable once in a while, I see the commercials about upcoming programs featuring Cannibalism, The Apocalypse, Tomorrow's Dystopia, Body Parts being ripped off and used as clubs. Is it that the Zombies has become today's most acceptable villian because most people share an energetic fear of the unknown? Is that it? To me, if you;ve seen one Hollywood Zombie with the strawberry jelly for blood and all the neat, symetrically placed spots of gangrene, you've seen them all. Am I wrong?
Darned right
The way I look at it, is that it’s “what would I do if I were in that situation,” what would it be like? How would you survive with such overwhelming odds. Sadly, most of the time, the characters make really dumb decisions; however, that doesn’t put the characters in peril, for interesting, exciting, nail biting episodes.
I also see it as an allegory for today’s political clime. (This can be applied to both sides of the political aisle): We see the zombies as the overwhelming mass of political ideaology, and how does one fight something that seems to be taking over the country. In our case, we see the zombies as liberals. They’re destroying America, they’re taking over, they destroy anything decent and normal in our lives. They try to make us into them. Of course, it takes guns to bring down the zombies.
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