Last post, I wrote on why I was on a zombie kick again, how it might have started with running, and a lot about my Zombies, Run! app. This post is for non-app related zombie things. What other things have encouraged me toward a zombie obsession?
Books -
I still had the Max Brooks Zombie Survival Guide sitting on my desk. I wanted to add it to Goodreads as "read," so I kept reading it. Which made me interested in more books. I have "Patient Zero" sitting on my desk. I want to read "The Last Bastion of the Living," if I could get my hands on a copy. (Update. Don't read Last Bastion of the Living. It's poorly written, she "tells and doesn't show," and has profanity and sexual content. And that's all in like the first two chapters.)
Also, Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. I had heard of it before, and I really enjoyed Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer as being equal parts accurate and absurd. In hindsight, I probably should have read the actual Pride and Prejudice first, but I think zombies rather improve on the book. It's pretty funny, although Lizzy isn't half as good humored in the zombie book. Lydia is still a pain.
Movies -
I watched Zombieland with David, since one of my brothers gave it to me for Christmas a while back. If there's any place I'll take a comedy, it's Zombieland. It was pretty funny, and rather gory. Then we watched World War Z. For those of you who know it's based off a book, know this: It's nothing like the book. I'd say the only things that remained similar are that it's got a global perspective (how the world is dealing with the zombies by different countries) and Israel shut itself off from the world. Oh, and I guess zombies, but those aren't even like the book. In the book, the zombies don't walk faster than a shamble, and turning comes by bite and the person bitten starts to get sick, lapses into a coma, dies, and a few hours later is reborn, the whole thing taking from 12 to 24 hours. In the movie, the zombies actually run, and it takes them only 10 seconds to change. Now, in the movie it's scary because things are changing into zombies right around you, in the book it's much more creepy because people wouldn't know they were going to change, or hide their bites, or whatever, and you'd think you were all safe and then there's a zombie. Maybe doesn't work as well on the screen. Also, there is no central character, no Brad Pitt of the book. The book is a bunch of different accounts of the zombie war from all over the world, many different people. You're lucky if any two actually refer to each other.
On a side note, World War Z is very statist, as in capitalism made it worse and only the government coming in and laying down the law gets the world back together again.
Dreams -
Most things I read about don't invade my dreams. I've had no Mr. Darcy dreams, no werewolf dreams, no wizard dreams, etc. But I've had zombie dreams. The most recent involved being in a building, surrounded, zombies on the ground floor, trying to get higher and higher, but out of the roof it's snowing and freezing outside and I'll die if I stay out there but there's zombies... I woke up panting, my heart pounding, and promptly wake David up and make him tell me there's no such thing as zombies.
Preppers -
Also known as homesteaders, survivalists, whatever, preppers are those who assume something bad is going to happen someday and they plan on being ready. That would include zombie apocalypse, nuclear war, collapse of the economy, and Hillary Clinton being elected president. In case of emergency... They make me slightly uncomfortable because I have no skills, and in the event of any of those things, nobody is going to let me into their bunker. But I had a conversation with a prepper recently (in progress, he's in the theory part of it), and apparently he was inspired by being prepared for zombies. I guess there are websites online about being prepared and using zombies as a theme. Even the CDC jumped on the bandwagon and making a comic and posters encouraging people to be prepared, assuming anything that's good for zombie prep is good for overall disaster prep. I'm guessing they're not thinking about the wide variety of firearms generally advised to deal with the horde. But they are encourage bug-out bags.
And that's all I can think of. I still have a thing for post-apocalyptic fiction and zombies is a good medium for it. Is the world too full of zombie books? How 'bout a zombie book that included vampires who are zombie hunters because they can't be turned in exchange for blood from the dwindling population of humans? Hey, blame the dreams for that one.
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