Ever heard of sleep paralysis? It’s a phenomenon where a person becomes unable to move, but still largely conscious, while falling asleep or waking up. They are trapped inside their own body, helpless, often terrified and sometimes plagued with hallucinations.

It’s actually not that uncommon. A lot of people have it happen at least once in their lifetimes, and it’s lead to a lot of colorful folklore about, well, nightmares, demon possession, being trapped in your body unable to control it, and what have you.

I couldn’t help but think of that when I read about a new self-published indie Zombie novel, ‘My Zombie Body’, which attempts to characterize Zombiism in a very similar way:

Standing outside of the Wendy’s restaurant at the intersection of Conestoga Street and Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder last week, Lurig, 32, propped his sign up against his red backpack full of about 50 copies of his self-published book, “My Zombie Body.”

“It’s the story of you, fully aware and sentient, inside of your zombie body but unable to control anything,” Lurig explained as curious drivers crept by into the drive-through line.

“Everybody thinks zombies are mindless and they’re killers, they don’t know what they’re doing. But they never imagine that maybe the person is still inside there.”

Lurig’s twist on the classic genre is told through Jared, an unfortunate soul who is transformed into a flesh-eating zombie.

I have to say, this is a new one on us. Typically Zombies are unfairly maligned as being mindless; more rarely, they’re defamed as being intelligent but malevolent. Here, though? Sort of sleepwalking through life, watching helplessly as their bodies eat other people? That’s a novel way to push fear of the Undead.

Naturally we’re offended by the proposition. At the ZRC we’ve participated in many public Zombie events, including protest marches and rallies, so the idea that Zombies are automatons dedicated to eating brains and unable to really interact with the world doesn’t carry much weight with us. The ancient fear and cultural tropes it taps into though? That could catch on.

And we resent it.

For shame, ‘My Zombie Body’. For shame, Mario Lurig.

For shame.

Tags: Anti-Zombie Products, Books

This entry was posted by John Sears on Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 10:16 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.