About the Project

     This is a project for school in which we had to discuss an apocalyptic event, fact or fiction. I chose to write about the possible zombie apocalypse and what evidence and research there is to support it. I chose this topic because I am highly interested in the zombie sub culture and the the horror genre as a whole. Zombies are the odd monster where their only defense and survival is based on their numbers. One zombie is easy to take care of, however, a horde possesses a great threat. The zombie apocalypse is based off a viral infection that kills the host and then reanimates its body for the the soul purpose of eating human flesh. Through this blog I will display evidence and research supporting my theory on the possible zombie apocalypse. 

Intro to Zombies and Night of the Living Dead

     When looking at the zombie sub genre there seems to be quiet a few variances between all the films, books, and video games which flood our entertainment market. However going back to the beginning will help understand what the zombies meant and how they worked through the fear of the older generations. When going into zombie history and trying to figure out when the genre started it can be tricky to pin point, however looking at the classical zombie films, George Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead is the perfect place to start. This film is widely known as the first real zombie film, it wrote the rules for the sub genre and gave the world a starting place for zombie horror. The zombie sub genre is full of apocalyptic thinking and fears of the culture at the time are brought forward and shoved in the viewers face. Unlike what most people think the zombie sub genre portrays more fears than just the simple fear of infection or death. The success of the film had to due with the audience and their need for “unrestrained violence” this shows what state the country was in and why the zombie sub genre flourished. (Dillard). Further more through this film it is apparent the social contexts that grabbed the nation and pulled them into the zombie sub genre full force.

     Several things where happening in 1968 and most of them were not good for the general population. As stated by the author of Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture Kendall R. Phillips “A mere list of the horrible events that occurred in 1968 is enough to recommend it as one of the darkest years in U.S. History.” These events ranged from dramatic changes in the Vietnam war, the end of the counter culture, the cold war, Robert Kennedy's assassination, and several other events. So now that we can understand the era of the first zombie film, we can understand it's underlying themes and fears. “Whatever Romero's objections that he did not intend Night of the Living Dead as a cultural critique, it is clear that the film rakes up many contemporary cultural issues and anxieties.” (Phillips).

     The effect of apocalyptic thinking is at the heart of the zombie film and came to light back in 1968, zombies are the common enemy and everyone can get behind killing a zombie to save a life. The zombies represented the fear of communism and the overwhelming fear that came with them, the first zombie film was made during the middle of the cold war. The mass amounts of zombies roaming the street looking for people to devour are a symbol of what people fear would happen (not literally eating) if the communists won the war and overtook our country. The other great fear that is represented in an apocalyptic manner is the fear of the break down of society. This is a huge fear and it gets passed around horror and other genres as a real threat. In the film there are seven people holding out in an old farm house while the masses of zombies block all their exits. As the film continues we start to notice the characters acting unjustly or inhumane to the others. This continues throughout the film until the end where zombies start to break into the house and the characters subsequently break down themselves. They start to fight and hit each other trying to stay alive and one of the characters even kills another out of anger, no one is willing to help another person out, it simply just turns into last man for himself and they don't care how the others die or even attempt to live. This is a great fer for society, that if the culture breaks down then who is looking after you? Who can you trust? And to what limit are you willing to stay alive?

     So this introduction to the zombie sub genre shows how the idea of a zombie attack is a full blown apocalypse. Now we can see how this zombie attack is a possibility in modern culture,through statements released by the CDC, books written on how to survive the zombie apocalypse, and even research that shows how ants are dealing with a zombie infestation right now. “It's not just a wind that's passing through; it is the ordinary world revealed for what is dangerously is. And the real horror of Night of the Living Dead is that there is nothing we can do that will make any difference at all.”(Dillard).

"Zombie" Ants

   While researching the possible zombie threat I came across some very interesting and slightly terrifying data involving carpenter ants in the rainforests of Thailand and a strange fungus Ophiocordyceps (Science Cast). Research by David Hughes, from Pennsylvania State University, brings to light this fungus and how it works to make the carpenter ants into this living death state (Than). This fungus attacks the ant's nervous system causing causing them to stray from the colony, their muscles to break down, and even causes the infected ants to convulse violently mainly causing them to fall from the canopy to the ground cover below. If discovered by a worker ant from the colony and realizes that the ant is infected it will pick the infected ant up and literally throw it away from the colony so the rest do not suffer the same fate (Planet Earth). The main reason this falling occurs, besides the convulsions, is due to the fungus' main and only goal, to reproduce. The ground cover in the rain forests of Thailand is the perfect environment for the fungus to reproduce and spread to other ants.

     When the fungus realizes that it is in an ecosystem where it can successfully reproduce it starts the next process (Science Cast). On a side note the fungus can wait up to weeks for the ecosystem to become perfect, and further data shows that the fungus will wait for solar noon (or high noon) to begin it's process of reproduction (Than). The next process begins with the fungus forcing the ant host to latch onto a leaf stem and finally causing it go into lock jaw (even after death the ant will be unable to move). This is the last thing the ant does before the fungus gives it's final blow. The fungus then secretes a poison to the ant's brian and finally kills it's host. From there the fungus uses it's host's body and slowly grows out of it's brian, it can grow over weeks and eventually when it has spread enough the spores travel and infect another ant (Planet Earth). Form what is known today there are four different species of this fungus and research shows that each fungi is dedicated to only one specific species of ant.

     In modern culture we can see how this is related to zombies in many ways, with the main similarity being the technique of reproduction. From what we have learned form most zombie film and literature we know that the “zombie virus” spreads mainly through bites and mixing of blood. The zombie's only goal is to eat however not to reproduce, but when thinking about it the zombie will always reproduces when it eats due to the bites it is “programmed” to take. There fore the zombie is always producing just like the fungus. Another similarity is that even though the ant is not dead while the fungus rules it and a zombie is, the fungus still waits until it kills the ant to start reproduction and growth. This is similar to the zombie because it also has to be dead and in full control of the virus to spread and grow in numbers. After watching videos and reading articles I found something interesting. It was only mentioned and not in detail, however, some of the researches are trying to figure out a way to make this fungus into a household pesticide. Doesn't that seem to bring this strange and deathly “zombie” fungus too close to home, and what would be the consequences, if any?  

Max Brooks and the CDC

     In 2003 Max Brooks published his famous book The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, it sold over one million in print, became a New York Times Best Seller, and quickly became the most popular zombie book on the market. After reading through a few interviews it becomes apparent that Max Brooks (even though the son of Mel Brooks) wrote the book in all seriousness and though it was interesting that it was placed in the humor isle and got “great” reviews in The Onion. The book is filled with ways to stay alive, detailed information on guns and other weapons, strategies on where to run or hide out, undead myths and realities, and even recorded attacks through history (Brooks).

     Though his plans and preparation for the future zombie attack is logical and real, the virus described in the book is not. Solanum is the name he gives the zombie virus and even goes into detail of how it takes over the human mind and body to create the living dead, however, this virus does not exist it is an insight to how a similar virus would work and at the very least a detailed way to defend against it. Though the recorded attacks in the book can not be taken completely seriously, due to the fact that solanum is stated to be evidence and it doesn't yet exist, he does come up with several interesting ideas about history and how the human race prepared for zombies in the ancient days. For example, he states that in 3000 BCE in Hieraconpolis, Egypt there was a recorded attack. In 1982 when the tomb was found it showed signs of scratch marks all along the walls proving the person was still alive when buried. He claims that there were signs of the “virus” in the brain and further claims that the zombie virus was the leading reason for the Egyptians to take the brains out of the dead's skull (Brooks). Even though fictional it does seem rather fitting and is an interesting idea to think about, that the ancients were even defending against the zombie outbreak.

     Another way that we can see the effects of the possible zombie apocalypse is through our government. That's right our government is even trying to warn us of the possible threat. The CDC released an article in 2011 called Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse stating the possible threat and ways to defend yourself and your family. “The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen.” (Khan). The article gives a list of supplies and gives details on what the CDC will do toy protect the people and try to stop the outbreak. There are several reasons why this article was written with some of them not being related to zombies. The CDC main point of this article was to warn the public of the zombie threat, but they also made the article to draw in the crowds of young people so they can learn what the CDC does, they also state many things that you can do during natural distastes to survive as well as a zombie outbreak. So the CDC wrote the article for publicity and for the fact that they can not state that a zombie apocalypse is not a threat. The article basically sums up Max Brooks' book (with out the use of weapons) and gives the public more information on what the CDC does and how they will protect you during any disaster including zombies.

     Just for future reference Max Brooks' “top ten lessons for surviving a zombie attack.”

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use you head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don't need reloading.
5. Ideal protection= tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the stair case, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get on a bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.
    

    
    

Interview with Max Brooks

AT: A lot of people have said that book is really funny. Intentional?

MB: If there’s a joke, it’s on me. I was not intending to be funny. The joke is that I had the free time to write it. That’s the only thing I find funny.

I remember when the book came out they put in the humor section. The Onion loved it. Publisher’s Weekly loved it. They called it an outrageous parody, but I kept telling them, “Guys, I’m not as cool as you think I am. I’m really not.” I’m not that hip. I’m not that witty. I’m just a zombie nerd.

AT: So where does the fascination with zombies come from?

MB: I think the fascination with zombies is that they don’t obey the rules of monsters. The first rule of monsters is that you have to go find them. You have to make a conscious choice to go to the swamp or the desert or the abandoned summer camp.

AT: Transylvania.

MB: Yeah, and if you go to Transylvania, I have to sympathy for you. As a kid watching horror films, that was my ego defense mechanism. Well, there’s a giant shark in the water? I wouldn’t go in the water. It’s that simple. But zombies come to you.

AT: Growing up, where you a Romero fan?

MB: The first zombie film I saw was not a Romero film. It was an Italian zombie film. I can’t remember the title – they kept changing it every time they released it – but it was mixed with actual cannibal footage from Guinea. And as a 12-year-old who snuck into his parents’ bedroom to watch HBO just to see a shot of breasts, that came as quite a shock. Then I saw Night Of The Living Dead and thought, “Oh, there’s hope.” Then I started thinking, well, what would I do? Because in Night Of The Living Dead, they’re arguing. Do we go in the basement or stay up here?

AT: I feel like that’s all of his films. They’re not really zombie movies.

MB: They’re about us.

AT: And their plans never work.

MB: The irony is, in Night Of The Living Dead, they’re both wrong. Go up the friggin’ stairs. Come on, people.

AT: Do you find yourself critiquing zombie movies more so now?

MB: You know when you go to the movies and there’s always some nerd bag in the group who won’t let you enjoy the movie because he’s trying to deconstruct the reality of it? Well, that’s me. I’m the movie ruiner for my group of friends.

AT: I feel like I haven’t done that as much with any other movie, but Scream. I’m always shouting, “Don’t go outside.” And they’re shooting another, so I’m sure it’ll happen again.

MB: Right. Does it really need to be remade? Where there that many unanswered questions in the first one?

AT: Maybe it’s … actually, I have no idea who the killer could be now.

MB: How many times does Drew Barrymore have to get her throat cut? I think we’re done with that.

AT: But will we ever be finished with zombies?

MB: Zombies are apocalyptic. I think that’s why people love them because we’re living in, not apocalyptic times, but I think we’re living in fear of the apocalyptic times.

AT: It’s like the other year with the Large Hadron Collider. There was a small chance the universe would implode if they turned it on.

MB: And it was the same for the first atom bomb. They wondered if the atmosphere would catch on fire. Literally, they thought, “Will the chain reaction just not end?”

I think that’s why people are scared of zombies. Other monsters, you’ve got to go out and find. We’re living in times where there are these really big problems. We’ve got terrorism, economic problems, unpopular wars, social meltdowns. The last time we dealt with this stuff was in the 70s, and that was the last time zombies were really popular.

AT: People are proclaiming this a mini zombie renaissance, but were zombies ever really out of the cultural landscape?

MB: That’s the thing. When I started writing, there was nothing about zombies. It was all teen movies, which to me are scarier than zombies, but that’s another story. I think now, people need a sort of safe vessel for the end of the world. You can read The Zombie Survival Guide or watch Dawn of the Dead and then go to bed saying, “Oh, it’s just zombies.”

Try doing that with The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Nuclear war can really happen. I think zombies are safe. Zombies are manageable. You can’t shoot the Gulf oil spill in the head. I think some of these problems are too big and too tough to understand. What does the global financial meltdown of 2008 mean? I can’t explain it, and I sure know you can’t shoot it in the head.

AT: There are so many metaphors you can get into with zombies because they have no overarching characteristics.

MB: I think that’s what’s so scary about them is their lack of a middle ground. You can’t negotiate with them. They’re like a disease.

AT: Even the whole idea that zombies are like a virus. Take away the living dead and focus on the idea that there could be a virus as deadly as a zombie apocalypse.

MB: It’s terrifying that’s there’s a life form out there that you can’t negotiate with.

AT: So will we get our sequel to Survival Guide?

MB: You know, maybe. People seem to keep wanting more. I remember when the first printing of came out of The Zombie Survival Guide, it was only 17,000 copies and I thought, there’s no way. You can’t sell that many of something about how to fight something that isn’t real. That’s why I started doing my self-defense lectures. Out of sheer panic. I was going to sell as many books as I could. I said I’d go door to door if I had to.

AT: So, I interviewed George Romero before his last movie came out and I asked him how to survive a zombie attack, you know, because his characters never seem to make it out. He told me that was a question only for you.

MB: George thinks I take this way too seriously.

AT: That’s exactly what he said.

MB: (Laughs) And what does that say? That would be like George Lucas thinking you take space movies way too seriously. Well, George is all about telling the social metaphors and I think that’s what zombie movies that have come out after him have totally forgotten. Those are more about just heads being blown off. George is old school. He’s from the era where you have to use science fiction as a metaphor because they wouldn’t let you tell the real story. It’s like Star Trek or Twilight Zone. There had to be something underlying it. Like with George and the original Dawn of the Dead. It was all about the end of the baby boomers dream and surrendering to materialism. I think the old Dawn of the Dead should be put next to Easy Rider and sold as a box set. It should be called The Baby Boomers: Beginning & End.

AT: But I never got my answer! How do I survive a zombie attack? What if one came into this room. (Conference room on the 22^nd floor of an office building.)

MB: Is there one zombie?

AT: Yes, just one.

MB: If there’s one zombie, that’s easy. There are three of us. One person becomes the bait. Then, the other two circle around, grab the zombie by the back and throw it out the window.

That’s the thing about zombies. They don’t adapt and they don’t think. Literally, you could have a zombie on one side of a chain link fence and you could be on the other side and they could be trying to get to you and six feet down could be an open door and they will not go through that door in the fence. That’s why they’re so scary. They’re like a flesh-guarded weapon.

AT: So, can I get you to clear something up for me? Sometimes I’ll find clips or comics where zombies are running. Zombies can’t run, right?

MB: We all know that.

AT: I needed official word. I’m not an authority. No one will listen to me.

MB: Zombies don’t run. They don’t dance. They don’t say, “More brains.” There is no Thriller Night. Those are stereotypes that are perpetrated by Hollywood, which I think is very irresponsible because it can get you killed.

AT: Speaking of, there is a lot of weaponry in the book, but not everyone is going to have a shotgun at home.

MB: As they shouldn’t. “Blades don’t need reloading.” It’s right there on the back of the book. We’re going for something you don’t need to reload. Plus, you’re going need a weapon that you can train with, something that looks remotely legal.

AT: Can I kill a zombie with a baseball bat?

MB: It would take a lot. A human skull is really hard. You’ve got to destroy the brain. You’ve got to hit and hit and hit. If you’ve got a bladed weapon, just chop the head off. Just don’t step on head because it’s still biting. So Birkenstocks are a no-no.

AT: Attire is also extremely important in the book.

MB: Tight clothes and short hair. You don’t want to get grabbed. Dreads are not a good idea. Footwear, no matter what, it’s got to be broken in. You don’t want to go out and get a new pair of combat boots the day before a zombie outbreak because the blisters you’re going to get are just going to slow you down and hurt your feet and then they’re going to get you.

AT: So my shoes probably aren’t the best, huh? (I’m wearing heels, seriously missing my Oxfords.)

MB: No, those probably aren’t the best runners. I don’t care what they showed you in Single White Female, you can’t kill someone with a stiletto.

Works Cited

Than, Ker. ""Zombie" Ants Bite at High Noon, Then Die." National Geographic: Daily News. National Geographic, 11/05/2011. Web. 1 May 2012. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110511-zombies-ants- fungus-infection-spores-bite-noon-animals-science/>.

Cordyceps: attack of the killer fungi - Planet Earth Attenborough BBC wildlife. Perf. David Attenborough. BBC, 2008. Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8>.

Science Cast: Zombie Ants. Pennsylvania State University, 2011. Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2irXpAMBHkE>.

Phillips, Kendall R. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture. Westport: Greenwood Publishing group, 2005. 88-93. Print.

Dillard, R. H. W.. "Night of the Living Dead: It's Not Like Just a Wind That's Passing Through."American Horrors:Essays on the Modern American Horror Film. Ed. Gregory A. Waller. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. 86-93. Print.

Brooks, Max. “I’m Just A Zombie Nerd” The Max Brooks Interview, Part One Interview by Allie Townsend. 15 07 2010. TIME. Web. <http://techland.time.com/2010/07/15/im-just-a-zombie- nerd-the-max-brooks-interview-part-one/3/>.

Brooks, Max. The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003. Print.

Khan, Ali S. "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse."Public Heath Matter. CDC, 16 05 2011. Web. 1 May. 2012.

Max Brooks Discusses George A. Romero's Zombie | Comic Con 2011. Dir. Zurvived. YouTube, 2011. Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc4CK9uYZ1M>.

David Hughes. Photos: "Zombie" Ants Found With New Mind-Control Fungi. 2011. Photograph. National Geographic

SinanDC, , dir. Night Of The Living Dead 1968 Trailer. Dir. George Romero. YouTube, 1968. Film. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pElSu_ECJGM>.