I was at the library today when the following announcement came over the public address system:
"May I have your attention, please. The zombie make-up workshop will be starting in the adult meeting room in five minutes."
I am beginning to suspect this mania for all things undead (which I share, by the way, being a huge fan of The Walking Dead and anything by George Romero) might be our society's way of coping psychologically with both the 9/11 trauma and the ensuing decade plus of war. Zombies are a way to both recognize and deny the permanence of death which will, eventually, take us as well. (I understand Romero's zombies were a statement against Cold War paranoia, or racism, or the banal conformism of a consumerist society but we always adjust our allegories to fit our current needs.)
Or maybe that's too heavy an interpretation and this is just American culture at its best. You're welcome.
I have to say I was tempted, but it turned out the workshop was for teens. Either way, they need to be prepared.
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I don't think your interpretation is "too heavy" or is that far off. KUER recent did an interview with historian and author W. Scott Poole. He wrote _Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting_.
ReplyDeleteYou should check out the interview, was one of those driveway stoppers for me! http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/vampires-america