Run like hell

[clevermanka]

Tonight is the Lawrence Zombie Walk.

Pardon my lack of education about zombies. I don't know much about rules/lore when it comes to zombies like I do vampires, fairies, or some other mythological creatures. This might be something that's commonly addressed in zombie movies, but I don't watch a lot of zombie movies. Mea culpa.

But, okay.

Zombies are supposed to eat brains or otherwise feed on humans, right? But if they eat someone, then obviously that person can't turn into a zombie. So the only people that turn into zombies after an encounter-gone-poorly with them are the ones that manage to get away after being bitten but before being eaten. Which means the people who turn into zombies are stronger and faster than average.

Not so great for the humans fighting them.

Comments

[ms-danson.livejournal.com]

Bingo

[apocalypticbob.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. Or people who have someone fight the zombie off of them before they get eaten but after they get bitten. Of course, that depends on your zombie lore. The first wave is usually living or recently dead reanimated by radiation ( in the original Night of the Living Dead) or disease or cures for diseases (most of the recent zombie movies) or occasionally space aliens (Slither).

And, yes, I'll be at the Lawrence Zombie Walk tonight.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Have a great time!

BRAAAAAIIIINNNS!!!!

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Just as long as no one takes them seriously and brings their scattergun to the fight!

No, I know (God-please don't let this happen!) it wouldn't, but as many people as are into the meme....

I'm still such a neophyte to fandoms of all sorts that I can't get into some of them in any way shape or form....

Re: BRAAAAAIIIINNNS!!!!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Just as long as no one takes them seriously and brings their scattergun to the fight!

There's no fight. It's a walk. Like a march, usually with some sort of benefit cause.

Re: BRAAAAAIIIINNNS!!!!

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know; just extending the metaphor, y'know. ;)

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

I'm rather baffled by it as well, since most of the folks I see "doing zombie" shuffle/hobble along.

If I could get enough of my act together, and knew there was interest, I'd love to get a sponsorship and hand out the CDC leaflets (http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm) ahead of the walk. (Of course, I'd donate to the cause as well)

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

The rules are to shuffle. Nobody is supposed to move fast.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks! I didn't know that they had rules, other than "quit leaving bloody messes all over downtown."

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

What a FANTASTIC idea! Hm, I'm thinking of a costume idea....

Seems like a CDC-ish flyer with CSSF information is an appropriate use for the departmental photocopier ;-)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

According to more-recent zombie lore, "fresh" zombies can run as fast as anyone... and don't get fatigued. Of course, they wear out over time and get hobbled.

But a legless zombie can be even more dangerous, what with becoming an ankle-biting beast hidden in the weeds.

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

Zombie evolution!

[ms-danson.livejournal.com]

Off topic... It looks like Draco may be doing a Lady Gaga-esque / poke fun at high fashion photo shoot in the future and I've been drafted into prop/accessory creation. Since you are amazing at finding this stuff I was wondering if you had any ideas or photos that might help me with artistic creation.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'd love to help, but I'm not sure what to suggest. Couture photo shoots kind of make their own parodies, you know?

[ms-danson.livejournal.com]

Are there any good Couture tumblrs I could look at for inspiration?

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I'll do some digging and will email you with my finds!

[ms-danson.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll show you the photos of whatever we come up with.

[orrin.livejournal.com]

Personally, I still wish more movies would move away from the virus explanation and go with some kind of magical (or effectively magical) force that animates literally everyone who dies, even if there's not really enough of them left to usefully animate. (Also animals and things that used to be animals. We need more zombified butcher shops like the one in Dead Heat.)

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

DITTO.

Bring back the evil wizards with their undead armies! RAH RAH!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love those, too, but those are not "zombies" but "undead armies." Different genre! What I love about zombie stories is the willing suspension of disbelief. Yes, I put many zombie stories into the SF category ;-)

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm, I'm pretty sure the word "zombie" itself is African/Haitian origin, and in that mythology it's always a sorcerer or witch or priest of some kind raising the dead. So MAYBE it's more accurate to say that zombies are the ones raised by magic, and the SF ones need a different name!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

[redheadfae.livejournal.com]

Seconded!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! Okay, true, but don't they use pharmaceuticals to raise the dead or create death-like trances?

*returns the volley*

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

Oh yes is this turning into an argument about the line between magic and science?! YAY.

I believe it was drugs AND praying. The presence of a deity/demon gave power to the sorcerer.

I also think it matters if we're talking about "actual" cases of zombies created by Voudon practitioners (so we know how they "did" it - with pharmaceuticals) or the stories about sorcerers raising the dead that date back hundreds of years where the methods were more varied and more overtly magical.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

See, this is why we cannot reproduce this dark art here in our sterile laboratories. Only those who have faith in the gods and know in their hearts that particular roots and berries will create zombies can produce such decrepit, servile beasts.

On the other hand, our meddling in biotech - particularly virus-injected DNA treatments for disease - is leading us along a parallel path to annihiliation.

Even the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm) is now issuing preparedness plans for such an outcome.

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

OH CDC OH.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

<3

[orrin.livejournal.com]

One of my more unintentionally entertaining reading experiences was checking out a book on zombie films that was published in 1976 called Zombie: The Living Dead (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6514042-zombie). Being as how it was published in '76, almost all of the films contained in it were films that featured the old-school voodoo zombie, and it dismissed George Romero's Night of the Living Dead in just a couple of brief paragraphs. I saved part of one, for posterity: Why this last film has become something of an underground cult remains as much of a mystery as the actual alien influence controlling the Living Dead. Ghoulish and grisly the film may be, but its wooden-looking undead made Lugosi at his most somnolent look like Nijinsky.

Looking back from the perspective of the here and now, it's funny how the tables have turned and now all the pre-Romero zombie cinema is largely forgotten, and Romero-style zombies are all anyone thinks of when they hear the word.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

He's considered a hero in the Grant Feed world !

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I love reading old history books. For that very reason.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I think that's called "The Rapture" ;-)

[djangodurango.livejournal.com]

Ye olde zombies were typically made to be lumbering and slow, which gave the humans some advantage over their vast numbers. I want to say it was George Romero who made zombies faster and a little harder to kill, but zombies are still not very bright and can be easily defeated with traps and strategy. Usually if someone gets caught, it's because they did something stupid or because they got themselves in an impossible situation that left them unable to fight off the zombies.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

zombies are still not very bright and can be easily defeated with traps and strategy

So, like a lot of the human population, then.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Ba-da-boom, tsch!

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

All my zombie knowledge comes from the pre-film age. Which pretty much makes me unhelpful with this logic, bc brain-eating is a New Thing.

Actually, when I'm thinking back to movies/TV that I've seen... there isn't brain eating. They eat EVERYTHING. Huh. What zombies are there that DO just eat brains?!?!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I have no idea! I've just heard all the jokes about "braaaaaiiinnns."

Seems like brains would be kind of hard to get at if you're too stupid to use tools.

[tessagratton.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's more of a metaphor for the gradual loss of personality as one gives in to the infection. If this is infection-type zombies.

[orrin.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge, the "braaaaiiins" thing comes from the great Return of the Living Dead, which is the only movie (well, besides its sequels) to use it, but it got popularized, probably because it's fun to say (and showed up in The Simpsons).

Return of the Living Dead was also first to market with fast zombies who used tools, as far as I'm aware.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ahhh! Another educated voice! Thank you for chiming in.

[orrin.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen Return of the Living Dead I think it would be an experience, anyway. (I was going to say that I thought you'd really like it, but I don't know that I want to be responsible for that claim.) We should do a movie night/afternoon again sometime!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

YES!

Maybe December?

[orrin.livejournal.com]

It's a Return of the Living Dead Christmas!