Friday, December 10, 2010

Zombie Symbology

George Romero famously used his zombie motifs in film to explore societal critiques of racism and over-materialistic, consumer driven, capitalist culture. You see, Americans are mindless voracious buyers of things. Like zombies are voracious eaters of brains. And that's bad. Or something.

Well TWO can play at that game.

Look at Walking Dead, the "Hit new drama on AMC". Yes, the survivors aren't angels. They are people, with all their flaws, but with redeeming virtues too. The zombies are an unstoppable force that want to take away everything from the survivors. They are mindless, yes. But evil in their own way, as they adhere to no moral code other than feeding their own desires.

The survivors want to just live their lives as best they can, and they want the hungry and powerful majority to leave them alone to do so.

So the living are Burkean libertarian conservatives... heck right of center Americans, that want to be left alone, but are now forced to live off the gains made at a more enlightened previous time where progress and growth and free exchange of value for value without interference was the norm. And the Zombies are the unstoppable government, a hungry Leviathan, and parasitic dependent class that bespoils and destroys all it touches because it has grown out of control. It's such a huge problem that they'd do harm even if benign by nature just from their great numbers. But they aren't benign. They are always malevolent. They feel entitled to feast upon the productive, or those that would be productive if they weren't constantly fleeing to hide from those eaters. And sometimes, they convert the survivors. Make them one of them. Turn them INTO this corruption against their will.

That's sorta how I always saw it.

Heh.

Who is John Galt? WHO is Zed Shamblor?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this why they just fired the writing staff and producer of the show two days ago?

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Well, my comparison applies to many zombie shows. I have no idea if the writer shake up on WD is a good thing or a bad thing. But the guy that fired them all was essentially the head writer anyway, AND he was going off the outline comic book. I don't know if the groaner lines or situation came from him or the comic or the staff.

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed that this show has a theme surrounding women.

They represent, dare I say... Ruin.

JB Miller said...

Hmmm... Women and Ruin. Yes!