It's a guilty pleasure thing. Take all the troubles of the world, wrap them up into a ball and forget about them -- then lose yourself in a good old-fashioned zombie story. It's about having fun.
I've thought about it some, and I think it has to do with political climate--stay with me a minute. In the 1950s, the scare was aliens from outer space, a threat defined by difference, a lack of understanding, and a fear of annihilation. What was going on in the world? McCarthyism. The Cold War.
In the sixties, what scared us? Change, and so we got movies about mutants and creatures that caused changed inside us, like zombies and "Psycho" with its identity-morphing villain. When did "Night of the Living Dead" come out? 1968: Vietnam, Summer of Love, the Civil Rights Movement.
In the '70s and '80s, it was all about the horror from within: Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, even Alien, where you had the creature erupting from your own chest. And there was the rise of the serial killer series (Halloween), explicit horror (The Fly), etc. What was going on in the world? Reagan was fanning the flames of nuclear nightmares.
And now it's the '90s and 00's. With Republicanism becoming a king of take-no-prisoners fundamentalism, we have zombies again: unthinking creatures that devour and assimilate--but now they're figures of fun and the terror has been leached out of them. If you're part of the reality-based community, it's fun to dress up as the unreal, the undead.
All this, of course, is just one woman's view, but that's how I see it.
Whatever the awesome socio-political underpinnings (and scarlettina does have a nice analysis there), I don't really get zombies either. Just not my cuppa, in any respect.
Same goes for steampunk, although there I can appreciate why someone would be attracted to the aesthetic.
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winterfish
It's a guilty pleasure thing
Date: 2009-10-10 03:07 pm (UTC)Ditto steampunk.
John D.
SF Signal
Re: It's a guilty pleasure thing
Date: 2009-10-10 11:34 pm (UTC)But except for Reg Shoe, no zombies for me.
It's about politics and culture
Date: 2009-10-10 03:22 pm (UTC)In the sixties, what scared us? Change, and so we got movies about mutants and creatures that caused changed inside us, like zombies and "Psycho" with its identity-morphing villain. When did "Night of the Living Dead" come out? 1968: Vietnam, Summer of Love, the Civil Rights Movement.
In the '70s and '80s, it was all about the horror from within: Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, even Alien, where you had the creature erupting from your own chest. And there was the rise of the serial killer series (Halloween), explicit horror (The Fly), etc. What was going on in the world? Reagan was fanning the flames of nuclear nightmares.
And now it's the '90s and 00's. With Republicanism becoming a king of take-no-prisoners fundamentalism, we have zombies again: unthinking creatures that devour and assimilate--but now they're figures of fun and the terror has been leached out of them. If you're part of the reality-based community, it's fun to dress up as the unreal, the undead.
All this, of course, is just one woman's view, but that's how I see it.
Re: It's about politics and culture
Date: 2009-10-10 07:18 pm (UTC)Plus, they're a lot of fun to shoot in arcade games. *g*
no subject
Date: 2009-10-10 04:34 pm (UTC)Same goes for steampunk, although there I can appreciate why someone would be attracted to the aesthetic.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-10 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-10 06:27 pm (UTC)But the teenage sons love'em. To the extent I have had to ban 'how to deal with the zombie apocalypse' dicussions from the breakfast table. Weird.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-10 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-10 11:38 pm (UTC)I like vamps. Shapechangers and were don't do much for me.The fae are kinda cool when they're not being sociopathic...or maybe when they are.