It is often said that Zombies, in fiction, are a metaphor for social unrest or collapse. Conversely, Zombie fiction is sometimes said to be tied to *good* times. It’s complicated.

But whether Zombies are themselves a metaphor, Zombie fiction still has to deal with the world its readers/watchers/players are from. In 1985, for example, ‘Return of the Living Dead’ had the Cold War leading to a, ahem, Zombie Apocalypse. In the original ‘Night of the Living Dead’, made a generation earlier, it might have been a contaminated space probe.

Today, novels like ‘GNASH’, by Brian Parker, posit a different origin for the End of the World:

An ancient fundamentalist organization chooses to lash out against its enemies by conducting several attacks simultaneously across the globe. One of these assaults unleashes a deadly virus within the Pentagon, which sets off a chain reaction of events that the United States may not overcome.

The virus mutates beyond anything the terrorists had expected and the nation’s capital is plunged into a violent zombie outbreak that threatens to infect everyone in the region.

The ZRC as an organization would never endorse the use of a Zombification organism as a bioterror weapon, of course; we feel that Zombiism should, whenever and wherever possible, be a personal choice. And ancient fundamentalist organizations certainly do like to lash out.

But ultimately, The Zombie Rights Campaign is certain the United States will overcome both the threat of terrorism and fears of a Zombie Apocalypse. We’re patriotic, bleeding (and sometimes only oozing) heart sorts that way.

In the meantime, let’s hope the terrorism, and the Apocalypse, stays confined to easily purchased fiction available on Amazon.com, like ‘GNASH’

Tags: Books, Social Justice

This entry was posted by John Sears on Friday, September 6th, 2013 at 1:21 am 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.