The ZRC is Disappointed with Jonathan Maberry
The ZRC had a brief but productive dialogue with author Jonathan Maberry back in October of 2009 on the topic of Zombie portrayals and the Zombie Apocalypse… or so we thought. His latest book about Zombies, Rot and Ruin, is out now and on the ZRC’s review pile, but I’m not here to talk about it; I’m here to discuss a rather unfortunate interview he gave recently with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
“Hey, who says the holidays aren’t scary?” says Bucks County author Jonathan Maberry, whose latest book is Wanted Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil (Citadel Press), with coauthor Janice Gable Bashman.
“Let’s face it, A Christmas Carol is a pretty scary ghost story. The Grinch is a monster story. A lot of holiday stories are frightening.
“A lot of holiday stories build on fears of all kinds to make the characters [and the readers and viewers] feel weak, lost, vulnerable, helpless . . . and yet hopeful. So, instead of a gun-toting hero rushing in to save the day, we have Santa, or a reformed Grinch, or a collection of well-intentioned ghosts. . . .
“Some of the best horror stories aren’t about monsters, and zombie stories are definitely not about zombies. Not the good ones, anyway. They’re about people who . . . escape and/or overcome a great and terrible event. They’re survivor stories. Some even have happy endings. Of a sort.”
Maberry’s first zombie novel, Patient Zero, was all about preventing a zombie apocalypse.
“My most recent, Rot & Ruin, deals with teenagers growing up in a post-zombie apocalyptic world and discovering that they may have a real future. One worth living.
“So . . . hope? Yeah, good holiday gift.”
(emphasis mine)
This is one of the unfortunate notions that we have to confront most often here at the ZRC and so it truly saddens us to see yet another author apparently subscribe to the idea that Zombies can’t be characters, that they’re only fit to be plot devices.
Zombies are, as we often say, People Too, but even if you didn’t believe that, you could believe they were *characters*. Zombies are always getting the short end of the stick even compared with other ‘monsters’. Dracula is definitely a character, for example, whose dubious humanity is key to his allure and menace. Werewolves are usually seen as not only characters but people suffering from an unfortunate malady, suitable for compassion. Even your rubber-suit monster types often get a poignant moment here and there, a backstory about radioactive waste disturbing their slumber at the bottom of the Pacific. But Zombies?
Well, the story’s not ABOUT them, is it? Not if it’s a ‘good’ one, anyway. Supposedly.
We beg to differ, as you no doubt imagine. The ZRC has seen many stories that are, in fact, about the Differently Animated. George’s Intervention was a fine independent film where the titular protagonist is a Zombie; the excellent and ZRC recommended ‘Dead Eyes Open‘ has a largely Differently Animated cast. Even Victorian Undead had a Zombie Moriarty who was… well, basically Moriarty as a Zombie, but that certainly qualifies him as a character, and the story was about his efforts at world domination, not shambling and brain eating. I, Zombie is an ongoing comic featuring a Zombie who does the Scoobie routine, solving mysteries; Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name features a stalwart Zombie narrator.
I could go on, but you get the drift; there are many well-crafted stories, Zombie Friendly or otherwise, where Zombies are pivotal characters.
So shame on Mr. Maberry for furthering this harmful meme, and here’s hoping that his latest book has a better attitude toward the Differently Animated than the man himself seems to, at least when talking to the Media.
About The Author
If you’re keeping with the Romero zombies they can’t think (so they wouldn’t be solving crimes) and they certainly can’t talk. I’m surprised you feel this way about the book…have you read it? Rot and Ruin, does indeed use zombies as a plot device but it goes much further. Though zombies don’t occur as main characters, Maberry explores the zombie issue from an angle of morality and delves into the issue of lost humanity, both from a zombie and human perspective. Either way, if you still don’t see how Maberry accomplishes this keep an eye out for Dead of Night in which I hear he WILL be writing in first person as a one-time serial killer turned zombie.
Hi there Orion. First, as I mentioned in the post itself, Rot and Ruin is on our review pile, but I haven’t read it yet, I was just responding to the comments themselves taken at face value. Right now I’m working on two Zombie short fiction anthologies, then it might be Rot and Ruin next. As one might imagine, it’s not hard these days to find things to review, it’s hard to find the time to do it.
We here at the ZRC do strongly believe in reviewing each work on its own merits, so we’ll keep an open mind about Rot and Ruin, certainly. After all, George Romero did Creepshow, which has positive Zombie depictions in the EC comics mode, avenging murder and what not. If even George Romero can do positive Zombies, then anything’s possible.