I don’t have a huge amount to add to this review Locus posted of ‘Feed’, the first in a planned trilogy of pseudo-political dramas set in a Zombie post-Apocalypse, but there are a couple points that seem striking:

1) The Political/Media Culture in 2039 is Basically the Same as Today

I mean, seriously? The ‘traditional’ media scorns bloggers? What traditional media? In the last decade newspapers have crumbled, and most of the big national news mags are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The Washington Post is only profitable as a company because of its Kaplan test-prep/degree mill subsidiary, for crying out loud. Other than TV news, what ‘traditional’ media will there be in 2039? Is radio news supposed to make a big comeback?

2) The Zombie Virus is a Manmade Accident

In the Feed-o-verse, the Zombie, err, condition, is apparently the result of two manmade viruses merging and mutating together to form a single superstrain.

Which isn’t likely, to say the least:

Different forms, or strains, of the same virus can swap pieces of genetic code through processes called reassortment or recombination, said Elankumaran Subbiah, a virologist at Virginia Tech who was not involved in the documentary.

But unrelated viruses simply do not hybridize in nature, Subbiah told National Geographic News.

Likewise, it’s scientifically unheard of for two radically different viruses such as rabies and influenza to borrow traits, he said.

“They’re too different. They cannot share genetic information. Viruses assemble only parts that belong to them, and they don’t mix and match from different families.”

Of course, these are ‘manmade’ viruses, so that might be a big enough loophole. And hey, at least it isn’t stem cells.

From a Zombie Rights perspective, it looks like the books use the Differently Animated as a device to threaten the important, aka, Living characters and provide suspense. I don’t suppose the issue of Zombie Suffrage even comes up, like in Bailey’s ‘Death and Suffrage’ or the wonderful ‘Dead Eyes Open’.

Probably not. I mean, just look at how the DA in these books are described by Locus:

Victims lose their personhood and become mindless disease vectors, existing only to spread the virus, which is best done via bodily fluids – so these zombies enjoy biting, spitting, and spewing infected blood. The resulting pandemic leads to the expected zombie apocalypse… but it’s not like everyone dies. Even when the world ends, life goes on for the survivors.

See, Zombies aren’t ‘survivors’. Life goes on, but not for them. The presence of ‘disease vectors’ like the Differently Animated means the end of the world, not a chance to expand the voting franchise.

What a sadly typical and myopic view of the Undead in politics, and what a lost opportunity to give the world a newer and fresher take on the politics of the Zombie Community.

Tags: Social Justice, Zombie Fiction

This entry was posted by John Sears on Sunday, December 26th, 2010 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.