| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
After reading the Walking Dead thread it sounds like the zombie genre needs a kick up the butt (at least from what it seems Zed is saying), but how? A little side doodle, a little table-top project; How to mend the zombie? My first idea; have a drama that feels like the middle of a long-running soap. Then gradually, inch by inch, let the zombies creep in. Second; go magic realist. A real fever dream, like the hero is having a bad dream and has got stuck there. Think I Walked with a Zombie. Maybe even add sex, a la True Blood. Three; give the zombies speech and brains, a la Clive Barker. Make them intellectually aware of their situation to the end. Maybe the eating of brains is explained; they take on characteristics of those they eat, it stops their dementia. Four, etc; This is up to you, the sheet of paper spread out and the pens in a little pot at the corner. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
some of those happen (sort of) in Handling the Undead by Lindqvist. I never thought a zombie novel would make me cry at the end but that one did. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Yeah, I've heard of this one and thought this might be the case. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Handling the Undead is brilliant. The (un)living end of the zombie genre. | ||
| John Forth (John) Username: John Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 82.24.1.217 |
Or we could, you know, just move on.  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Um, that is an option - just not the entertaining one I'd hoped for.  How about this - and God, dear God (or rather Ramsey), I hope it's not copyright stuff or I'll be out of here for good - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d-tNXxTRBA&feature=channel But yes, maybe it's time to leave them. I was just thinking of this as a kind of Edward de Bono brainstorming thing, a fun thing, is all. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
There's plenty more mileage in zombies yet...just not in the mainstream (who never understand these concepts anyway). Unless they do sparkly zombies. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
The living dead are a staple of folklore and weird fiction. There's no need to consider that theme played out. What's been overplayed is the Romero concept of the 'zombie apocalypse' – it's surprising how many horror fans believe, or pretend to believe, that it's somehow a realistic prospect that they need to be 'prepared' for. In addition, there's a strong tendency in fandom to insist that the living dead are only 'zombies' if they conform to the Romero scenario. As with 'Lovecraftian' fiction, the way forward is to be open-minded and ready to offer a fresh individual perspective, not just a minor tweak of the perceived 'rules'. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
P.S. My next story is about zombie superchefs who sprinkle chives on the living. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
is it called Kitchen Knife of the living dead? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
People keeps saying the zombies in 28 Days Later aren't zombies but they are in the traditional sense, which is that of a person 'frozen at the point of death'. That doesn't mean dead. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Interestingly, Romero didn't christen his creatures zombies: he called them ghouls. No theme is ever played out...the possibilites are limited only by the skill and imagination of a writer and the desire of readers to get onboard with what he or she is trying to do. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Tony - they aren't even that. They're not frozen at the point of death, or dead either. They're simply suffering from a disease. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
I was thinking of the trance-like state it resembles, really. But point taken. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Erm in 28 days/weeks later, the infected aren't in a trance like state, they're possessed by the Rage - like a thousand internet trolls let out of granny's basement... | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Oh, I don't mean a happy trance - just out of their heads. Dang this categorization of zombies!!!! | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
I was actually thinking of the definition of trance... But they're not zombies in 28 days later anyway. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.120.83 |
Maybe Romero's 60s zombies can wander onto the Millbrook estate where Tim Leary is currently starting to take LSD. "The colours, man. Look at all those colours. Well, mostly red, but still." | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.171.129.70 |
Zombies are real. They're just watching telly. I noticed the Prime Minister got in a Wallace and Grommit joke during Prime Minister's Questions today. Alas, Ed Miliband does resemble Wallace...with a bit more hair. I'm actually disappointed in Cameron. I thought, despite his background, he might be a little bit different for a Tory PM. But he really did say he thought reducing the 50p tax rate for top earners was an achievable aim, whereas the regressive 20% VAT rate should probably stay. Oh hum. Zombies. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
28 DAYS LATER is a zombie movie, please, they may not be technically zombies, but they're zombies, and it's a zombie movie. And dammit, when are we gonna have a movie about ghasts?! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
What if zombies have always been around? Zombiness as a thing like I said, dementia, and it's always been there? People just moulder before they die, are active after their hearts have stopped and have to be put in special hospitals. What if it was a new, aids-like thing, or mad cow disease. We wouldn't be walled up in malls but rather having this weird medical threat. I suppose that's the plot of Handling the Undead, isn't it... But if the dead did come back would we be digging up graves to release them, especially if - more horrible than otherwise - they weren't malicious or aggessive. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Ghasts? You mean ghosts? | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.177.92 |
Is Clunt Eastwood's new movie a ghost movie? Geting bad reviews, mind. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
But if the dead did come back would we be digging up graves to release them? Tony, that's the central question asked by Handling the Undead. Such a great book. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
No, Tony... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghasts ...it was my lame attempt at humor, evidently swan-diving into cement. |