Zombies!!!! (World War Z: An Oral History…)

Most everyone I know is quick to jump on the “Let’s make fun of Ben because he likes zombies” bandwagon. Perhaps this is because they see the zombie genre as an excessively campy sub-genre of horror flicks. Well, personally, I hate campy horror movies but I have been powerfully drawn to the wave of zombie revivalism found in 28 Days Later, the new Dawn of the Dead and George Romero’s latest Land of the Dead.

Of the world-ending scenarios, the zombie-apocalypse is one that is terrifying, plausible but also somewhat survivable. The message of most of these tales is that if you’ve got your head on right, through ingenuity and pluck you may be able to stave off the zombies (albeit temporarily). This message does not usually apply to normal horror movies which are fairly arbitrary. Moreover, it seems to me that zombies – unlike Freddie Krueger, vampires, and that girl from the Ring – are not that far-fetched in a science-gone-amok sense.

So, I actually think zombie stories teach us great lessons on how to survive if presented with this plausible… nay! PROBABLE situation. (Much more probable than robot-apocalypse, in my opinion) Clearly, the author of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks, would agree, as his previous book was a basically a zombie HOWTO, The Zombie Survival Guide. World War Z, however, is a completely different beast.

Most zombie works occur over a relatively narrow window of time. World War Z stands out, due its vast scale. The story spans the entire globe and stretches for at least a decade. It is a meticulously researched, relentlessly anal work that is conveyed one vignette at a time slowly revealing how the story of how humanity screwed up, panicked, got pwned, and then finally got its shit together in the face of the undead menace. It’s clearly not a spoiler to say that humanity “wins”, since it is an “oral history” — and history is written by the victors… and zombies are illiterate anyways.

Still, I won’t reveal much as — there’s simply too much stuff in the book anyways. In any case, I’ll ramble about some of my favorite parts and call it a night.

As an industrialized, first-world nation, America had a lot of problems dealing with the undead. The defeat of the technologically sophisticated military at Yonkers is a great story. Adjusting to the post-apocalypse economy was also difficult. White-collar workers suddenly become horribly unskilled. This hits particularly close to home, as I spend a lot of time lamenting my utter lack of post-apocalypse skills. Perhaps, my heightened interest in zombie works is to compensate— at least I’ll know what to do, if not how to do it.

Some of the most fascinating stuff is how different countries reacted to the zombie threat. China, predictably, hid the menace under a layer of denial (much like their initial reaction to actual pandemics). Israel reacted quite decisively and admirably. England made use of its castles again. Additionally, there are some great “cameos” by real figures. It seems a thinly veiled version of Bill Maher and Anne Coulter get intimate. Most tantalizing, of course, there’s the implied President and the Vice-President of the United States (I won’t spoil it).

Ultimately, the book is rather optimistic about how humanity eventually triumphs. I wonder if Brooks isn’t overly idealistic about our capability to band together against a global, mutual threat especially after the de facto collapse of western civilization.

I’m kinda frightened by the news that the story has already been optioned for a movie by Brad Pitt’s production company. It seems like the story is just too large to be confined to a movie. I’d rather see this get made into a massively multiplayer online game.

In conclusion, EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT THE ZOMBIE MENACE.

Random fun facts:
The American military refers to the zombie menace casually as “Zack” (kinda like “Charlie” in Vietnam). The English call them “Zed Heads” — silly Brits!