I’m supposed to panel on the impending zombie apocalypse tonight at Philcon.
I was helping a friend find science speakers when they asked me to sign up. I new next to nothing about any of the science topics (wormholes and whatnots) so I put my name on the zombie panel hoping they wouldn’t pick me. Damn them.
I have two lines of thought in my back pocket:
1) Zombie films as metaphor: While most folks have analyzed zombie flicks from the mass consumerist/sheeple angle, I’m going to be focused more on the living. Zombies are easy to kill and rather harmless one on one (as exemplified in the Tom Savini-directed Night of the Living Dead re-make where the heroine realized that she could just walk out of the house and slip through the growing horde), They represent life’s troubles: individually, they are easily handled; en
masse, people shut down and get overwhelmed.
Why are zombies frightening? Not because they represent a society deadened by excess. Excess doesn’t scare me. I’m a practical man, bringing me to…
2) Proactive zombie destruction. Why hole up inside a house when you have all the tools of modern construction at your disposal? Cranes, bulldozers and industrial shredders can be put to very good use against large hordes of urban zombies.
It depends on which direction the panel is heading, I suppose. Still, it is a bit odd that I have yet to hear anything from the moderator.
Oh well, I journey into Fandom tonight.
when the zombies come, you’re on my team! it’ll be fun.