There was a fascinating column up the other day on The Zombie Feed from their resident Zombie Advice columnist, Putrescence. The advice-seeker wanted some counsel on what to do about a friend that seems to be a closeted Zombie:

How do you ask someone something like that? Hey, man, are you dead? Maggots got you down? If he is undead, then he’s clearly trying really hard to hide it. Is it my place to “out” him, even just to me? We’ve been pals for a long time, so I feel kind of bad that he won’t open up about it. He has to know I suspect something, but he won’t talk about it, acts like nothing’s changed.

What should I do?

–Best Formaldehyde Friends

This is one of the trickiest subjects about Living-Zombie relations because of the way in which the tragic and unfortunate persecution of the Differently Animated forces many Zombies to unlive a lie, posing as a fully conventional Living human being, denying their current identity. There’s nothing *wrong* with being alive, of course, just as there’s nothing wrong with being a Zombie, but our society places enormous pressure on Zombies; not so much to conform as to cease existing.

It’s therefore natural that a Zombie might wish to ‘pass’ for a Living person.

Thankfully the Dear Putrescence column handles the question most adroitly, bringing up these concerns in a compassionate manner and advising the friend to be supportive first and foremost, as a friend should be:

My advice is this: don’t rush him. Don’t push him. Let him come to this realization on his own, and be open with him when he does confess his status. At that point, you can tell him what you suspected, but not until then. This is something he will have to come to terms with himself, and it will be important for you to be supportive of him whatever his status, whether he chooses to be open or to hide. Silent support is all you can offer.

The ZRC doesn’t always agree with the various opinion pieces on The Zombie Feed but I think we can all get behind this column and its message of Living-Undead solidarity and friendship, even in difficult and uncertain times. Good show.

Tags: Social Justice

This entry was posted by John Sears on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 at 9:30 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.