Zombies! The Many Meanings of the Zombie in Fiction
Social Science Fiction
English - October 13, 2020 23:08 - 33 minutes - 34.6 MBScience Fiction Fiction Science Social Sciences nerd sci-fi politics fantasy video games Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
A brief history of the zombie in folklore and popular culture. Followed by a discussion of World War Z (the book, not the mediocre movie). Ending with plan for the zombie apocalypse.
Notes:
0:53 - Discussing the roots of the zombie in Haitian folklore.
2:13 - Amy Wilentz has written about this topic. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/opinion/a-zombie-is-a-slave-forever.html
4:00 - Early portrayals of the zombie in Western media.
6:17 - I Am Legend is a novel by Richard Matheson, published in 1954 about a man who survives what could be called a zombie apocalypse but with vampires instead of zombies. It has been adapted into multiple movies including The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston and I Am Legend, starring Will Smith.
10:25 - Zombies and Thomas Hobbes
15:38 - Discussing World War Z, my favorite zombie book.
21:16 - Issue framing is a concept often studied by scholars interested in the role of the media in politics as well as scholars of social movements.
22:12 - Also known as the October War, the Ramadan War, and 1973 Arab-Israeli War. This war saw Egypt and Syria (with the support of several other states) attacking Israel during Yom Kippur. While Israel ultimately repelled the attack (and even gained some territory), the Arab states performed far better than during the Six-Day War of 1967 and shook Israeli confidence in its military superiority.
26:40 - Multiple characters make reference to the United States fighting "brushfire wars" in the 2000s. No one explicitly says it but it seems fairly clear that this is meant as a reference to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
28:42 - Side Rant! Surviving the zombie apocalypse.
31:18 - Massachusetts is starting point so Florida seems like the best destination. Insert Florida-man joke here about how Florida won't look any different after the apocalypse.
Intro and outro music: "Swim below as Leviathans" by Fireproof_Babies (featuring Ben Shewmaker) is licensed under CC BY.