Must say, the trend towards zombie-themed entertainment is a welcome shift away from the world of sultry, sullen and miserable vampires. Vampires are self-involved, overdramatic, oppressed, campy, and they don't even have the grace to be gory in a fun way. Zombie stories, with their focus on survival and interpersonal dynamics, just win for me. The cliches of the zombie genre ("Shoot 'em in the head!" "Run!" "We gotta stick together!") own, own, own the cliches of vampire stories ("It is hard to be immortal and pretty." "I ache to drink blood and hate myself for it.")
It helps that zombie stories also feature unabashedly over the top violence that can be both grisly and hilarious.
And you, dear readers? Zombies or Vampires? It's Monday, and this is about all the discussion I care to handle today.
About Me
- Freeman
- Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.
2 comments:
Zombies for me please. Zombie stories satisfy, and I don't think I'm alone in feeling this, a deep hole of anger and disappointment--and perhaps a little frustration. I watch a zombie movie--I fill that hole with bodies. Amen.
Furthermore, I argue that our culture latches onto vampires when we are feeling sorry for our larger political actions, and zombies when our political decisions seem complicated. If we're thinking, "Sorry we invaded your country," we're going to love Vampire stuff. If we're thinking, "How the hell do we fix this mess," we're going to want to relax with much simpler problems. A zombie problem is a problem with an easy solution. Trying to work within a corrupt foreign government to somehow keep that government's country from going off a cliff socially, educationally, financially (and therein protect us and the larger world from violent religious extremists)--not so easy. "Who's head do I smash in with my golf club?" is not a productive question in this situation.
So, to sum up:
As a culture: vampires for when we're feeling guilty, zombies for when we're feeling frustrated.
Discuss.
Please excuse the numerous typos in my previous post. I'm too busy imagining the carnage I'm going to unleash in my weekly evening of Left for Dead 2 on Valve's Steam network to catch those little things like proper capitalization and "who's" when I meant "whose." Blam, blam, goes the shotgun! Clang, clang goes the frying pan!
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