Why I’m Moderating a Zombie Panel
I like being on panels, so when I got an e-mail from the SF convention Polaris looking for volunteer panelists, I took a look through the line up to see if anything fit my areas of expertise. Unfortunately my obvious choice, the vampire panel, was full. With New York Times bestselling author Charlene Harris on the panel, I’ll certainly be happy to attend as a member of the audience.
Then I noticed a fascinating panel, the Nature of the Modern Zombie, and put my name up for it. I liked Night of the Living Dead, and I was a big fan of Resident Evil Apocalypse, partly because they shot it in my home town and they blew up city hall–well, CGI blew it up anyway.
But I’m also interested to hear what some of the other panelists have to say about how our world has changed since Ramero’s classic debuted back in 68. Back then the army and toxic chemicals were the underlying villains. Certainly the mad cap 1984 sequel, Return of the Living Dead, pinned the blame squarely on the army.
But now the preferred underlying cause of zombification seems to be disease, just like the rippers in Vampire Road. This infectious source of evil has become so prevalent in fiction that I have to wonder just how deeply AIDS, SARS, Bird Flu and other fears of global pandemic have seeped into all aspects of our society.
Perhaps its because people can brush aside the predictions of asteroids, the end of the Mayan calendar and other apocalyptic forecasts as just too unreal to worry about, but disease is truly real, close and plausible. We know we can sick. We know we can die of cancer. We see it happening to people all around us.
Maybe that’s why zombies and vampires have made a big comeback, mostly as depictions of our neighbors run amok with a debilitating disease. See Zombieland for the mad cow, bad meat version.
I also wonder if all the prognostications of doom that come from pastors, scientists, politicians and activists might have people feeling like just getting on with the apocalypse so that we can all stop worrying.
Of course in all these zombie/vampire/massive population die-off stories, we’re the survivors. At least, that’s my preference.