There is a sticker on the back of my MacBook that says, My zombie ate your honors student. Most people who know me, know my interest in zombies and know that I take the matter very seriously. They also know that I don't appreciate being condescended or challenged on the subject. However, this happened yesterday at church (of all places). Someone dared to ask me, "What are you going to do when zombies aren't cool anymore?" My response to this was simply, "When they're not cool anymore, they'll still be dangerous."
You see, those who like zombies for the sake of popularity fill our culture with crap like Marvel Zombies and the Dawn Of The Dead remake. Speaking of Marvel Zombies, guess where the "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" quasi-author, Grahame-Smith, got his start!
Then there's the guys that got/get it. Lovecraft and H.G. Wells mastered the art of bringing the dead to life, moaning and reaching out to bite us from the pages as we read. The terror to which they introduced readers leaves us sober-minded at the end of the day, and better appreciating life. Their contemporaries, Georgia A. Romero and Max Brooks especially, understand the potential this subject has for social enlightenment, and have taken those earlier concepts a step further in depth. They have given us a healthy stream of film and literature that, using the apocalyptic scenario of undead, present us with a survey of humanity more revealing than any government census or Spike Lee movie. They show us our own true human nature against the odds of death and the stress of being prey to a mindless hunter. Some of us step up to the challenge, some crack under pressure, some turn to God, others become cynics. It's the extreme circumstances that leave us with the bare truth about ourselves.
With that said, I believe we must take these things with a grain of salt and a touch of humor. Yes, the idea of a zombie outbreak is terrifying, but for the sake of our own sanity we must keep our proverbial chins up. G.K. Chesterton once said, "Always be comic in a tragedy." Not to mention, this is one avenue of violence/gore that we can morally afford to chuckle at to a degree - after all, they're already dead! And so we find ourselves with movies like Shaun Of The Dead and stickers like My zombie ate your honors student. And these things act as a sort of satire, making the point and keeping us aware, while doing so on a somewhat lighter note than presumed in order to soften the blow (or the bite, if you will).
And by the way, don't be so ignorant as to assume zombies are fictional. I made that mistake once... that's how I lost my legs...
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