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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Books / Nerd What Zombies Mean

Posted by Paul Constant on Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 11:18 AM

Colson Whitehead reads at Verse Chapter Verse, The Stranger's music-and-book reading series, tomorrow night. You can buy tickets here.

Your stoner friend pointed this out years ago, and it probably blew your mind: Zombies are symbols for Western culture's blind adherence to the consumer economy. [Inhale, pass.] It's true, man! Think about it: They stagger around mindlessly, consuming everything they come across, as if the world is totally normal even though it's collapsing all around them. [Exhale, cough.] George Romero made this rich metaphor totally overt with Dawn of the Dead, which was set in a frickin' shopping mall, for Christ's sake! Anyway, that's why zombies became so popular over the last decade—consumer culture is out of control, and the zombies are, like, our twisted reflection.

All due respect to your friend—I took a film appreciation class once and it totally changed my life, too—but the stoned commentary about zombies being a commentary on our culture is more of a commentary on the shallowness of cultural commentary itself.

You know what the zombies in Colson Whitehead's new novel, Zone One, symbolize?

Dead people.

(Keep reading.)