(no subject)

[rocknload]

[Poll #1379750]

Comments

[ex-monarchy375.livejournal.com]

YOU KNOW, I WAS ACTUALLY THINKING ABOUT SOMETHING SIMILAR EARLIER TODAY. I realized that some of the most successful movies/genres/etc involve the extermination of the human race, or the near extermination of the human race resting on either one hero, or a small group of people. I'm genuinely curious to know if people want to be exterminated, or want to save the world. OR MAYBE THEY JUST HATE EVERYONE AND WANT TO BE THE LAST PERSON LEFT. I don't know, but now that I've thought about it, it is kind of odd.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was listening to this song, which is about zombies but I'm pretty sure is a metaphor for American greed and stuff, so I was like HUH. And wanted to talk about something ridiculous.

Most of those epic end of the world stuff just have the action appeal, yeah, because being the last people alive leaves a lot of room for violent happenings but there is usually SOMETHING MORE to things that resonate, otherwise we wouldn't end up with 2854302 different movies about artificial intelligence turning on us, or vampires, or et cetera.

[ex-monarchy375.livejournal.com]

The action appeal definitely, but considering the amount of ways people have come up to obliterate the human race and the amount of people that are interested in it, there has to be something up. I mean, I have to hand one thing to us, we can get pretty creative about how we'd get wiped out.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

When it really happens it'll probably be something lame. Like bird flu.

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

BINARY DISTINCTIONS.

ITCHY.

I really think it's a combination of different things. The soulless automatons is a good point, but I think there's additionally the "undead" thing has a lot to do with it. There's a combination of a fear of things which are gone coming back combined with a tragedy of people who we love coming back as mindless, flesheating monsters. Not to mention it's crossing a "line" -- we put so much effort into remembering the people as they were, that seeing them decomposing like that would be horrifying.

Plus there's the whole predation aspect. We humans aren't used to being below another thing on the food chain.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

SORRY I DIDN'T REALLY THINK THAT MUCH ABOUT IT.

Zombies aren't always undead, though. The traditionally zombie is undead but sometimes they're like, irrevocably diseased, so maybe it doesn't exactly count... The fact that people you know coming back is usually an important part of it is something I forgot! I also forgot that them being contagious is usually pretty important, too.

And yeah, the predation thing. That's almost the entire horror genre, I think. Jaws! Aliens! Dracula!

[unicorn]

I think it's the fear of a worldview change.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

The zombies do seem to put DESTRUCTION OF ALL GOVERNMENT AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AND EVERYTHING YOU EVER KNEW at the top of their to-do list.

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

I think more than that, though, it's the fear of being part of a collective than being an individual. That's what used to scare me the most.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

People feel that in real life, though. How often do you hear people talk about "sheeple," or if not the word then the general idea?

[pretzelcoatl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know, that's why I think people fear zombies. They don't want to be part of that -- mindless shambling as a collective.

[unicorn]

I was unspecific about what worldview was changing, but that's one interpretation, yeah!

[sunsetsred.livejournal.com]

Does this mean zombie stuff isnt as popular in Japan?

[theeternalmind.livejournal.com]

Not everyone fears zombies. Some people think they're sexy.

I don't fucking know why.

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

... Dude.

[theeternalmind.livejournal.com]

I wish I were fucking kidding, but I've had the misfortune of seeing Resident Evil porn involving one of the female characters getting gang-raped by zombies. I guess necrophiliacs really dig that kind of thing.

[idgiebay]

I don't know. I've never really put much thought into it because I'm not a huge fan of zombies one way or the other.

Shaun of the Dead was awesome, though. 8D;

[rocknload.livejournal.com]

I love Shaun of the Dead, it's probably on my top ten list.

[surelyyoujest.livejournal.com]

Probably the fact that it violates so many taboos, and disrupts the natural order of things. (For most cultures) life has rules: people die and are gone for good. People don't eat other people (unless you're living in a few of those groups in South America where prions run rampant). Nature tends towards relative balance (no one species completely dominates the world; for all our technological achievement and ingenuity, if a bear wanders into town, all hell will still break loose).


AND THEN SUDDENLY ZOMBIES. It's like a buffet of primal fears! There's a little something for everyone!

[paella]

Well, what you have in the poll has something to do with it, probably. That and people probably just like seeing gross shit.

[x0hellohello0x.livejournal.com]

I think it's a combination of things. What you mentioned above factors in a lot, as well as the "sheeple" thing. However, I think it's also a "what has science wrought" fear, too.

If you look at it, most of the great archetypical fears of Western culture play upon science gone amok or science more advanced than we can comprehend - AI, genetic engineering, aliens, dystopias, etc. Many types of zombies play into that same theme - they are created from science gone wrong. A lot of it strikes me as a fear that humans are meddling in things we should not, and that one day we will step over the line and cause out own demise. I'm not saying this fear is logical, but it certainly is out there - look at all the fear stemming from the large hadron collider earlier this year.

[ignipotent.livejournal.com]

...

This is exactly what we covered in our zombie section of Supernatural Fiction Class.

There's even a scholarly article in our course packet.