Zombies by Zachary Graves

Author:Zachary Graves
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
Publisher: Omnipress
Published: 2011-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Mortality and Decay

In the figure of the zombie the fear of and fascination with the supernatural reaches its height. To believe in the horror zombie we are required to imagine that there is life after death and that, through our own guilt – whether through ‘playing God’ and meddling in the natural order, or merely through living on when others have died – the dead that we have buried can come back to life to haunt us. Not only this, but we must believe that these walking corpses have lost their souls and have therefore become violent, angry and vengeful. In addition, we must fear that they will eat us alive, reducing us all to the same condition that they have sunk to: half-eaten corpses, rotting and decaying. There is a significant parallel here between eating (consumption) and decay, and an overall revulsion at the physical nature of the human body. Moreover, the image of the horror zombie expresses a disgust at the physicality of the human body, vulnerable to death and the process of decomposition, but also to attack. Most disturbingly, there is a deep anxiety expressed that when we die we will not actually die but be condemned to a dreadful half-life, in which we will be permanently maimed.

Taking its cue from the zombie of Haitian myth, the depiction of the horror zombie of today’s popular culture, especially in zombie films and games, plays with these ideas, alternately amusing and disgusting us with its ever more outlandish fantasies of how the human body can be eaten, either by the natural forces of decay, or by avenging hordes of undead monsters from the grave. There is, of course, a humorous element in all this, but it can also be a deadly serious reflection on mortality.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.