Zombie Genre Fans

[gardy]

It can suck when you are caught reading Max Brooke's The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead in University when called upon by the Professor, or your own friends stare at you cut eye when you fire out that burning question: What is your choice of weapon against a zombie. Or when you are begging someone to proof read your short story and the first thing they say is,"Is it *another* zombie story?"

Yes, I do like zombies and that was what had certainly drawn me towards UrbanDead. But I am curious what you other fine people are like in relation to this genre? How would you describe yourselves and your interest in the genre?

For me, I am very bored for the repetitive survivor vs. zombie story, and am constantly on the hunt for an alternative or original take of the genre. I have a strong interest in narratives from the zombie perspective, or a different take of the zombie/survivor conflict. And as you image, there are very few of these that I have found. And if any of you fine people know of any I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks for listening,

Gardy.

[alivenwell]

Very interesting Gardy...

In a word, I would consider myself : "Obsessed"

IMO theres just something about Zombies, a certain mystique hovering around them that causes inevitable intrigue. Perhaps its because out of all the mainstream movie and T.V. monsters...Zombies are the most believable!

Think about it for a second....in essence, they are the most basic form of us. We kill and eat and are vicious and mean and what separates us from them...one thing. A mind and the will to use it, as opposed to just giving into our most carnal instincts within our nature. It is believable , in a way to think that they COULD possibly exist or be created... am I right...as opposed to lets say Vampires or Werewolves; which are cool in there own right.

Over all good question Gardy and in a nutshell I own just about every Zombie movie made (even the bad ones) I'm hardcore what can I say. Yes, I strive for Hollywood to develop a new take on the issue. And lastly, I firmly believe that there are some causes of zombie outbreaks which have yet to be explored and I hope to change that one day if I'm lucky enough! ;D

[Grim Rictus]

I don't usually dive into the off-topic stuff around here... More interested in the cause; go in, check the hot spots, report what I find. Guess I'm just a regular workin' stiff.

But I thought I'd mention here that zombies were the one movie monster that ever really scared me as a child. And I never saw many horror movies at all. Just something about the concept of it scared me deeply. I think it's the hopelessness of a zombie outbreak. As your numbers go down, their numbers go up. Oh sure, there's a lot of other deep philosophical concepts at work, but nothing beats the fear of death at the hands of overwhelming, inexorable, slowly advancing numbers.

Of course, my love for the zombie genre is easily evident by my avatar. That's an actual photo of myself.

One thing I'd like to say, is I'd like to see zombie fiction move away from the awful "one bite and you die" plot device. No, it's not present in all of zombie fiction, but it's pretty prevalent. I guess that it originally served to increase the fear by inflating the danger, but now all it ever does is destroy dramatic tension. Someone got bit? Well, we know they're going to do one of three things: Kill themself (or have someone else off them), die and reanimate at the worst possible moment, or bravely step into the horde of zombies and sacrifice themselves by giving the survivors time to escape. The UD model works great: You get bit by a shambling corpse, so of course you're going to get a pretty nasty infection. It's no different than any other festering wound, and if you can fix it up you'll be fine. If not, you succumb to blood poisoning.

[gardy]

Thanks for your responses, Alivenwell and Grim Rictus.

Yes, joining the shambling ranks in actual Zombie walks is something that I have yet to do. Mostly because I have no one to do it with, and I am a little shy. :: blushes ::

I watched 28 Weeks later the other day and I was really interested in the whole immunity/carrier issue. Its realistic for any disease. And I actually think the whole "rage" concept of zombies is much more realistic than the animated dead. Perhaps the disease tears and destroys the dendrites within our brain, ridding our learned capabilities, and memory concepts. I personally find it a little more realistic than the concept of the animated dead.

Also, have you read the new graphic novels The Walking Dead? Fantastic. And there they do NOT have a one bite= infection. Infact where I am at it is hinting that everyone is already infected, and the change only takes place once you die. I am sorry for the spoiler, but I thought it was note worthy on this topic.

I am currently working on a zombie short story, so perhaps I will post it here when I am done.

[kemal]

I, too, have bitten by the zombie bug.

I was inflicted with a series of nightmares when I was young, all of them zombie oriented. For a while, I simply avoided the genre in general, which only caused more anxiety and dreams. Finally, much like the quislings in World War Z, I sought to embrace what I had feared.

My MySpace name for a while was "ZombieChic." I have countless books, movies, and video games on the zombie genre. A good night for me is knocking back a few beers and watching Night of the Living Dead for the umpteenth time. I, too, have written a short story about zombies, one which I will gladly post here once I get my computer up and running. (I'm at t work now, hence the length of this, because my Nintendo Wii is my only normal Internet access and typing on it is a pregnant dog.)

I am constantly on the look out for new ways to get my zombie fix. I have the Zombie Application on FaceBook. My village in Tribal Wars is called RealMaltonFC. I suppose if you could mix zombies and soccer into one cohesive thing I'd probably be doubly obsessed with that. Throw in a couple pints and a broad and I call that a good day!

I am currently toying around with the idea of making my domicile more zombie-proof. Any ideas, folks?

[Grim Rictus]

I've been reading Walking Dead too. I'm about five issues in. So far, it looks like they're keeping the bite=death ambiguous. Even though they've realized that all dead reanimate, everyone that's suffered a bite has died before long. There is a point where the survivors make an attempt to "cure" someone of their bitten ankle. However, the attempt is rather sloppy, and, sorry for more spoilage, it seems to finish the survivor off faster than the bite would have. I at least appreciate that they deliberately keep the characters in the dark about the "rules" of these zombies. They figure it out by trial and error.