spoofmaster

"Incorporating appropriate responses for Zombie emergences (a Zombie Emergence precedes the actual emergency status) and biblio-attractions has been on my mind since Zombies began to manifest themselves in Earnest several years ago (that's Earnest, TN, by the way). Their self-insertion into many formats has increased and become very troubling.

For years we had been able to restrict Zombies to moving image formats, and especially to black-and-white and early color film. Now, with surprising finesse, we begin to see them in what is commonly called 'classic literature,' for instance, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I can only suppose that some doctoral student was studying both the classics and popular culture or cinema, and his/her brain served as the bridge, as well as the meal.

Needless to say, this leap has been troubling. Not simply because of the leap to so-called classic literature, but because the ingest of a doctoral student's brain can open gateways to a variety of formats and approaches. I know you share my horror at the thought of Zombies ingesting Marxist or postmodernist approaches: how does one deconstruct the notion of "Undead?" Given comebacks by so many people we believed departed--Richard Nixon springs immediately to mind, but there are others--and the continuing release of music by the Beatles, Grateful Dead, and Jimi Hendrix, what does undead actually mean in today's culture? While this gives life and hope to those working in intellectual property, it remains a concern for those of us laboring with authorial intent."