Zombies on the Brain

Readings in the Genre – Week 7 – World War Z

I am a reanimated corpse dependent on NyQuill, Zinc Lozenges, and Kleenex for my survival.  A rather fittingly foggy state of mind for a post on Zombies… since I am one.

It does not matter how they come to exist, not really… the Zombie story is about the apocalypse… as that really is the only defining element when Zombies are your monster.  The dead are rising and we’re all doomed.

World War Z takes that premise and blows it up to a global scale catastrophe.  Yes the dead are rising again, yes they want to kill the living, but no, it’s not restricted to a small town in northwest Ohio.  It’s everywhere and governments, soldiers, disaster workers, and common citizens tell the tale of a global apocalypse of epic proportions.  Let the remorseless slander of national stereotypes, government incompetence, and disaster planning begin!

Stylistically World War Z is far from the norm for a horror novel, reading it reminded me more of a documentary piece filled with veteran recollections.  Like a fictional version of Stephen Ambrose’s Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, or D-Day about a global zombie pandemic.  Global zombie pandemic… that sounds shockingly bureaucratic doesn’t it?

At the same time the book relentlessly utilizes geo-politics and public perceptions in how it portrays the response of each nation to the disaster.  China doesn’t care about casualties, the US responds slowly… and so forth.  These geo-political elements are more a hallmark of thrillers then horror novels, and perhaps give a reason for World War Z’s mainstream appeal.  It’s a cross genre book with elements of such stories as Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders, Michael Creighton’s Outbreak, Night of the Living Dead, and documentaries like Citizen Soldiers.  It is a disaster novel, but one that uses a disaster exclusive to the horror genre.

We aren't ready, are we?  Where's my shotgun?