H'okay. As some as you may know, I have Kinemortophobia aka fear of zombies. It's literally something I think about every day and it effects almost everything I do. Since The age of 11 when I used to watch my sister's boyfriend at the time play Resident Evil, I've been fearing, learning and preparing for a zombie outbreak. For 11 years I've been wrapped up in the modern day, pop-culture icon of the Zombie. I've played as many zombie games that I have been able to get my hands on and I've seen almost every zombie movie in existance (yes even those garbage low-budget zombie flicks in the video store bargain bins. In my first year of university, I was required to right a paper for an anthropology class that was to be about any urban legend or myth.
Predictably, I chose zombies.
What started as a 6 paper essay quickly became a 75 page, single spaced, font 12, amalgamation of research and conjecture that I handed into my professor, causing him to give me 100% on the project. Since then, I've been expanding my knowledge of the Zombie, both in pop-culture and in real life beliefs. I'm now considering doing my graduate thesis on the Voodoo concept of zombies and the modern day conception of the zombie, a huge undertaking to bring more scope and detail to this creature of lore, in hopes of getting my writing some educational merit.
Here's where you come in. I'm going to be writing a multi-section segment on my research about zombies. I will be including as much information as I can, which as much data as i can muster, in hopes that this community can review it and add your own conceptions on this piece of North American culture as well as maybe even help me work out a few points I may not have thought of. I figure that my views on zombies in pop-culture would be best reviewed by like-minded individuals who salivate at the idea of gunning down zombies in pixellated form.
Areas of research will include:
-The Haitian religion of Voodoo and the understanding of the original zombie concept
-A look into the biochemical properties of the "zombie powder" used in voodoo
-A in depth look at the (possible) physical capabilities of zombies and their characteristics
-Pop-culture and the invention of the modern day zombie
-Zombie portrayal in film
-Zombie portrayal in video games
-Zombie Theory
-Hypothesis of zombie creation
-Combat and protection
-Societal consequences of a zombie outbreak
-A detailed example of a zombie outbreak escape plan
As a warning, I will not be regurgitating passages from every "zombie survival" webpage on the interwebs. Although many points covered by these works will be explained and expanded upon, I will be providing a fresh look into the zombie canon. I will be posting parts every couple days and will be continuing my research while I undertake this. I hope you enjoy what I'm about to unleash on your mind!
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I have a friend from Haiti who has met "zombies". According to him, they are basically just brain damaged slaves.
It's sort of fitting that most zombie movies have the theme of "we're the walking dead", given that it takes a real dead-on-the-inside, son-of-a-bitch to give someone brain damage then make them his slave.
Wow!
I'd like to read that...
You are a bonafide zombie guru, son!
OMG You have the best blogs on this site!
Yowza. I must read this.
Remember to get this published so it can get into the Library of Congress so everyone can read it. Also, you may need to narrow down your field of research, it would be a shame if your zombie thesis got rejected for being too broad. If all else fails, become a physics major and do this: "Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array"
That's Gordon Freeman's thesis. I have no life.
Book recommendation for you: World War Z, I believe it was called.
Ah. Here's the wiki for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z
read it, reviewed it, analysed it, learned from it, came up with my own conclusions. read the zombie survival guide as well.
I told you. I'm shit scared of zombies, of course i'd read the motherfucker.
However, thank you for suggesting it nonetheless.
I fear zombies as well, but would never want to research or ever get so knowledgeable about them. Damn man, that's some hardcore work you've done already man.
Fap.
I am nowhere as near afraid of zombies than rotting corpses with supernatural powers.
See: physical form of Alma (F.E.A.R. 2)
Looking forward to see your blogs on this subject, and helping out. :)
I'm looking forward to reading this. I don't have an intense fear of zombies, but I'm really interested in their fictional canon versus "real" zombies. And, of course, gunning the pixelated ones down.
If you need a human spell-checker, spartacusmorbidia (at) gmail.com. Seriously, I counted around 10 minor grammatical mistakes in this blog ;)
You should read the "Walking Dead" it's an ongoing comic. The most recent issue was #58. Not only is it about a zombie apocalypse, it is one of if not the best comics I have ever read. Once I started I simply went straight through the whole series in one sitting, I couldn't stop. You shouldn't read it just because of the Zombie thing, you should read it because it is awesome.
Also, you might want to take a look at the facebook group "The Hardest Part of a Zombie Apocalypse Will be Pretending I'm Not Excited" which is far as I can tell is one of the largest zombie-devoted facebook groups, and might have an interesting cross section of user created content to examine or people to interview or something.
If you need any research help academically I'm pretty sure my university has one of the largest library systems on the planet, and the online resources are phenomenal. I do a lot of research for my major, so I've used it pretty extensively. If there's a specific resource you need or you want more reputable journal articles let me know. My job involves sitting in a computer lab for three hour chunks with normally nothing to do, so I would be glad to get you anything you need along those lines.
Oh, almost forgot about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!
I too would love to read this when you're done. I've had more nightmares about zombies than anything else, and I actually have my own survival plan in mind, that I actually do think woud work. I'll probably be the first to die though.
Quantum Zombie said:
"Also, you may need to narrow down your field of research, it would be a shame if your zombie thesis got rejected for being too broad."
This is very good advice. Since zombies are so mainstream right now, if you keep going with the generalized "one-stop-shop" zombie thesis, it's going to get buried rather quickly. I have a friend who's doing his thesis on zombies... he tells me monthly what he's writting about and I forget every time. It's THAT specific.
General rule of thumb for thesis: If you're not putting anything new into the world, it's going to be ignored.
Good luck in your work! I look forward to reading your take on our upcoming zombie apolcalypse.
Don't worry, I got this covered :)
I'm a zombie. Now give me your wallet.
I really want to read your 75pgs on zombies.