In class, we started to discuss how the “Zombie” was a metaphor.
We talked about how they become more popular during times of hardship in our
real world. I find this topic fascinating and believe that this semester is
going to be interesting to say the least. I have so many thoughts running
through my mind about the topic. So I don’t confuse everyone, I want to start
with one idea. The article “What’s with all the zombies?” by David Sirota got
me thinking even more about the things that we were talking about in class. The
article talks about how our government and Wall Street are like zombies. It’s
even, according to the article, a good word to incorporate into the economic
vocabulary. The term is completely different from its original idea of being a
horror movie monster. While yes the movies do still exist, we, as a society,
have given this fictional character a “life”, a bigger meaning than just to
scare. It gives us the ability to relate to one another to describe how we feel
or what we see. Many people even use the phrase, “I feel like a zombie.” Their
intention is to allow you to understand how they are feeling. You visualize the
zombie and know they mean they are tired or just going about things without
thought. They aren’t moving and doing because they want to necessarily, but because
they have to out of habit. Zombies don’t interact because they want to, they do
it because they have to in order to survive. And survival is key. This idea of the habit allows relation to the government and the economy
in that Zombie-ism has a start, but never a cure. There are people who survive,
but they must start over and fight the bad. They can slowly fix the problem,
but things will never be the same and will be hard to adjust to just like the
series, “The Walking Dead.”
(Sorry about the randomness of this post. I've never blogged or even really looked at a blog before, so this is going to take some time for me to adjust to. I'm not really sure how to start, or how to speak within the blog. Is it formal or informal? Or both? I know once we have been doing this for a while, I will do better.)
I'm going to cry. I just wrote SUCH a long, comment and it didn't send through.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry! That is the worst!
DeleteAlright, let me try this again. I'm so mad I just wrote the most fabulous comment and it just completely disappeared. That's what I get for using my phone to type I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI for one do not enjoy zombies. I do believe that I will enjoy the course because it's something different and interesting, but I'm a bit apprehensive as to where it will go due to something you mentioned in your blog post.
Zombies, much like other types of made up creatures can be made into almost any metaphor that you desire. I suppose that's possible for practically anything, but particularly for these types of characters.
Much like a werewolf, one could say that this particular creature represents a type of person that hides beneath every single one of us. There is a type of exterior that masks the evil beast that is our true, passionate, uncontrolled nature.
See how easy that is? I'll probably do a research paper as one of my pick two essays because I'm interested to see how the whole zombie thing started. It seems as if characters such as these have developed from people fearing they could actually happen. People fear all sorts of things with legitimate reason. Hell if you're a bad person, zombie apocalypse if a plague breaks out, were-wolfs representing perhaps the fear of an animal attack. All of these are valid fears, but I think the further we toy with the concept of some story line like zombies, the more meaning we push onto it.
As for your first blog post, I think it was done wonderfully!
Dr. Hanrahan will check these for our grades, so I highly doubt that she wants to read a bunch of stuffy essays each week. A little bit of personal flair would do each blog quite justice. Well done!
- Laura
Thank you, Laura. I think that your point about making pretty much anything into a metaphor is a really good point. I agree with it, but I just think that it's interesting that it is such a big part of our society right now. When I think about it, before zombies as of recently, vampires and werewolves were the big characters out there; however, there popularity didn't last as long as the zombies have. We had the "Twilight" saga and "Teenwolf", but zombie's just seem to stick.The other stuff is still around, but the zombies dominate right now. I think your point is completely valid. I'm not entirely into zombies either, but I do enjoy some zombie related movies and shows, like "Zombieland" and "The Walking Dead". I think the class is going to be very interesting not necessarily because of the theme, but more because of the content that could and most likely will come out of our class discussions and our blog. I like the idea that the class isn't like any other class that I'm taking this semester, and I feel that, while yes it will still be a lot of work, the work will be more fun and interesting to do then just your average English class.
Delete-Crystal
I think that we are allowed to be informal, as long as we keep it respectful. I too was nervous about writing a blog post as I haven't dabbled in blogging since my middle school days and Xanga, which is a really old blogging website that was cool before the days of Myspace. But I cringe when I think about what stuff I might have written as a middle school-er.
ReplyDeleteIn comment to your post, I think that a huge reason as to why zombies are such a good analogy for mankind is that it is human nature to follow patterns. Granted the patterns we follow today of business meetings and paperwork are just distant parallels to hunting and gathering that was zombie like for our nomadic ancestors. Its easy for us to fall into routine and not challenge social norms, its one of the reasons we have survived as a species. The reckless ones who don't tend to make the Darwin awards.
I believe that the zombie metaphor is, like Meghan said, very connected to how humans are in reality. Some could say that we are ALL zombies, and the reason the thought of that kind of monster scares people is because people are terrified to admit that they themselves are victims to pattern and survival, along with long states of mindlessness...
ReplyDeleteHey everyone! A bit of informality is fine. I'd still like the posts to be thoughtful, edited, correctly written, etc., but blogging does allow for a less "stuffy" voice and style. Have fun with it--in an academic way.
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