Zombieology 102
Posted on October 26th, 2010 –
…continued from previous part.
I’ve been trying to understand the appeal of zombieism — it does, after all, seem to be gaining in popularity. Is it simply a fad? Once the flakes start to fall will they just slow down and freeze, or will they have enough brains to wear parkas?
That just-feasted-on-your-hippocampus look doesn’t do much to protect you from the ravages of a Toronto winter.
Not that I’m against skimpily-clad zombies, per se, but it just seems like a very limited-time sort of deal.
Then I came to the realization that the whole march is an early Halloween for big kids. You know, being cool and undead and all, they do it a couple of weeks before the tykes, but the concept is basically the same.
I don’t see a need to dig into any deep sociological theory. Seems pretty self-evident.
Having said that, I don’t want to be taken in the wrong way here. If this is what yanks your chain then, hey, by all means indulge in a little brain. To me, the appeal of autumn is a much more holistic experience; zombies are simply a part of the larger picture inhabited by unshaven werewolves, toilet paper mummies, ghostly sheets, teenagers dressed as … teenagers, shabby plastic Scooby Doos, and so on.
But you have to give some of them points for effort. It’s one thing to smear a little blood on your face but a genuine zombie really needs to up their game to be taken seriously. Being dead has the advantage of being able to do all sorts of fucked up shit to your face, so that’s where originality comes in.
Then, at the end it’s a big old party in the park where everyone gets a t-shirt and does a spooky boogie. This is not unlike getting a grab bag at a Halloween party and then doing a nervous jerky jig when the party music starts.
At the end of the day, zombies put their pants on one leg at a time like you or me. Well, I sometimes do both at the same time, but that’s probably not relevant. Someone who willingly engages in zombieism simply has a nostalgia for when they were younger, when Halloween was about real spooky stuff, when they were alive. I myself maintain my tenuous sanity through a web of partial memories and nostalgic fragments, so who am I to judge?
I say live and let stay dead.
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What's on your mind?