Z is for Zombies (of course)

Though I don't want to hop on the Zombie trend train, I must admit. I love a zombie. There's something so wonderfully irredeemable about them. While Vampires and Werewolves could be your boyfriend dating a zombie is just not romantic. I mean, there's undead then there's undead-and- bits-falling-off-you. And zombies can be funny and scary at the same time:



I remember reading in World War Z by Max Brooks that the thing about zombies is that you can't negotiate with them. There is nothing they want more than to eat your brains. So any militaristic strategies go out the window. For a zombie, there is no threat of collateral damage that could keep them at bay. And every force you send against them could potentially turn into more zombies. Zombies are relentless.

And zombies are handy for representing a whole host of evils -the relentless march of time, the approach of death, the environmental destruction of the earth, the evils of capitalism, the evils of socialism, the evils of isms. Or, like Anna Kendrick awesomely improvised in New Moon, a metaphor for consumerism, "Some girls like to shop, okay?"

Zombie King, I'd say is Jonathan Maberry. His Rot & Ruin and Dust & Decay books are wonderfully rich. They don't display an 'us or them' mentality to zombies, more like 'they were us' There's pathos and humanity and even dignity in zombies. They don't just represent the other. In fact, the zombies aren't even really the bad guys in these books. Definitely pick up the series if you haven't already.

On my zombie horizon to check out is Sophie Littlefield's Aftertime. There are zombies then there are cured zombies. Can't wait to find out what that means.


Bringing the Zombie into your life:
Get healthy by running away from zombies. Once I'm back to running (I hope soon!) I'm getting this app.
Zombies! Run



Zombie information from the government
and a zombie graphic novella from the CDC

Finally, if you are in Asbury Park this October, why not join in the annual New Jersey Zombie Walk? It's lovely by the seaside, even when it's covered in gore. And it makes a great antidote to the Jersey Shore. (Snookie as a zombie, now that I'd watch.)