Chantal Boudreau's Blog - Posts Tagged "guide"
Chantelly’s field guide to zombies
Taking my blog on a little detour for Halloween and to put me in the right mindset for starting my zombie novel, Sleep Escapes Us, for NaNoWriMo, I’ve decided to post my own personal field guide to zombies. I intend to cover a full range of shamblers and runners, from your basic magical Voodoo zombie to the more popular viral infection zombie. At the moment I have them classified into four groups: biological, environmental, magical, and technological, with sub-groups for each category. If you think I’m missing any, and should add a separate type, leave a comment with feedback regarding any others you think should be covered.
I’m going to start by discussing one of the more current and obscure types, the technological zombies, and go from there.
Zombies come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are not always necessarily of human origin. I just saw Black Sheep this week and the zombies in my novelette, Shear Terror, are of the ovine kind as well. Zombie dogs are not that uncommon in films and stories either.
Some zombies are the result of a worldwide zombie apocalypse, a la Dawn of the Dead, or sometimes the zombification is a more isolated incidence, contained to an island, a prison or even an office building. While they are usually categorized as undead, certain zombies have never actually died but are merely victims of mind control from one of varying sources, mindless thralls who no longer behave in any way that we would define as human. As long as they travel in mobs, show no emotion, demonstrate basal responses such as aggression and hunger and ignore damage that would floor a normal human, we can usually qualify them as zombies.
The Oxford dictionary definition of zombie: A soulless body. In the Voodoo cult of Haiti, a zombi is the slave of a magician. The soul may have been removed by magic from a living person, or the body of someone recently deceased may have been brought up out of the grave after the soul had been separated from it by regular rites of death. As the lord of the dead, Ghede has the power to animate corpses as zombis.
Note that it says a soulless body, but not necessarily dead/undead.
From what popular culture has done with the entire concept of zombie, that definition has been expanded upon in a variety of directions, thanks to the creative genius of Romero and his peers. We now have a wide range of these particular creatures of horror. In truth, the fearsome aspect of zombies is not so much where they come from, but how they behave and the likelihood that we might become one too. The monsters are generally associated with fears of things that could impact our lives in a significant way. It’s a combination loss of control, loss of humanity.
Techno-zombies
Computer-based zombies:
Look up “technology” and “zombies” and you’ll find a slew of sites talking about how technology is turning our youths into zombies through use of computers and associated tech devices. But what if it really did? One of the most recent developments in the zombie genre are computer-based zombies. The source of zombie-ism, the root cause of whatever incident or apocalypse, is technology.
One example of this type of zombie can be found in my recent digital short story release from Trestle Press, Technopathy. The techno-zombies, in this case, are the results of malfunctioning nanobots that are tied to a particular form of technology that people are voluntarily having installed directly into their head. There’ s an element of irony in that the victims are mostly those who blindly follow trends, so they didn’t have much of a mind of their own to begin with. Those who escape the effects of Technopathy are the very poor, such as vagrants, social outcasts and technophobes.
This is a recent form of zombie, and I predict it will become more common. The zombie genre tends to reflect popular fears.
Space zombies:
Zombies in space not a new concept. The idea was being contemplated as far back as 1968, when the space race was a big new idea, with The Astro-Zombies starring John Carradine. They were proposing a zombie-based space program, and if that’s not weird enough, the zombies were fuelled by solar panels installed in their heads (???!)
Atomic zombies:
Another tech-zombie concept that arose from a paranoia surrounding nuclear plants and weapons, I consider radiation-spawned zombies a hybrid of environment and technology, so I’ll be covering them in more detail in my environmental section next week.
If you’d like a closer look at techno-zombie fiction, you can find my digital short from Trestle Press, Technopathy, on Amazon at:
my link text
I’m going to start by discussing one of the more current and obscure types, the technological zombies, and go from there.
Zombies come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are not always necessarily of human origin. I just saw Black Sheep this week and the zombies in my novelette, Shear Terror, are of the ovine kind as well. Zombie dogs are not that uncommon in films and stories either.
Some zombies are the result of a worldwide zombie apocalypse, a la Dawn of the Dead, or sometimes the zombification is a more isolated incidence, contained to an island, a prison or even an office building. While they are usually categorized as undead, certain zombies have never actually died but are merely victims of mind control from one of varying sources, mindless thralls who no longer behave in any way that we would define as human. As long as they travel in mobs, show no emotion, demonstrate basal responses such as aggression and hunger and ignore damage that would floor a normal human, we can usually qualify them as zombies.
The Oxford dictionary definition of zombie: A soulless body. In the Voodoo cult of Haiti, a zombi is the slave of a magician. The soul may have been removed by magic from a living person, or the body of someone recently deceased may have been brought up out of the grave after the soul had been separated from it by regular rites of death. As the lord of the dead, Ghede has the power to animate corpses as zombis.
Note that it says a soulless body, but not necessarily dead/undead.
From what popular culture has done with the entire concept of zombie, that definition has been expanded upon in a variety of directions, thanks to the creative genius of Romero and his peers. We now have a wide range of these particular creatures of horror. In truth, the fearsome aspect of zombies is not so much where they come from, but how they behave and the likelihood that we might become one too. The monsters are generally associated with fears of things that could impact our lives in a significant way. It’s a combination loss of control, loss of humanity.
Techno-zombies
Computer-based zombies:
Look up “technology” and “zombies” and you’ll find a slew of sites talking about how technology is turning our youths into zombies through use of computers and associated tech devices. But what if it really did? One of the most recent developments in the zombie genre are computer-based zombies. The source of zombie-ism, the root cause of whatever incident or apocalypse, is technology.
One example of this type of zombie can be found in my recent digital short story release from Trestle Press, Technopathy. The techno-zombies, in this case, are the results of malfunctioning nanobots that are tied to a particular form of technology that people are voluntarily having installed directly into their head. There’ s an element of irony in that the victims are mostly those who blindly follow trends, so they didn’t have much of a mind of their own to begin with. Those who escape the effects of Technopathy are the very poor, such as vagrants, social outcasts and technophobes.
This is a recent form of zombie, and I predict it will become more common. The zombie genre tends to reflect popular fears.
Space zombies:
Zombies in space not a new concept. The idea was being contemplated as far back as 1968, when the space race was a big new idea, with The Astro-Zombies starring John Carradine. They were proposing a zombie-based space program, and if that’s not weird enough, the zombies were fuelled by solar panels installed in their heads (???!)
Atomic zombies:
Another tech-zombie concept that arose from a paranoia surrounding nuclear plants and weapons, I consider radiation-spawned zombies a hybrid of environment and technology, so I’ll be covering them in more detail in my environmental section next week.
If you’d like a closer look at techno-zombie fiction, you can find my digital short from Trestle Press, Technopathy, on Amazon at:
my link text
Chantelly's Zombie Field Guide - Environmentals
I decided to cover these “species” of zombie next because they fall somewhere between tech zombies and biologicals, and in some cases are a little of both. I count these as any type of zombie that originates from an environmental source, one that would not be directly attributed to another biological organism like a virus or parasite. Some lean towards tech, like radiation-spawned atomic zombies, chemical-toxin generated zombies, or the victims of “space dust”. Others are more closely tied to natural causes, like those that can be blamed on natural toxins or some type of genetic mutations triggered by some outside effect – I’m going to reserve my discussion of mutations, however, to biological, because this is often associated with a viral-based apocalypse. One of the interesting traits these zombies possess is they typically don’t tend to spread other than by the source spawning new zombies – not zombie to human effects creating a new zombie (although those slain by zombies in the radiation/dust/toxin-stricken area do rise and join their undead brethren. )
Atomic Zombies:
These radioactive shamblers can be found as early as the 1950s and in 1968, they can be found in the George Romero classic, Night of the Living Dead. It is radiation from some source that causes the undead to rise in those instances. As I mentioned in the last post, zombie origins are often associated with existing societal fears, which is why these zombies were popular in the day where fear of the atomic bomb ran rampant. As tensions regarding nuclear warfare and mishaps eased, this type of zombie became less popular. With the recent occurrences in Japan, however, these zombies are threatening to resurface.
Cosmic Dust Zombies:
The earth passes through a cloud of space dust, and suddenly the dead begin rising. A thinning ozone layer, comet tails, solar flares and other extra-terrestrial phenomena are both alien and fear inducing – hence they exist as a source of zombies. Examples of this type of zombie can be found in “Fido” a delightful dark comedy where the undead are harnessed as a means of slave labour and where people pay outrageous amounts of money for a “proper” burial to ensure they are not enslaved after they die (a Canadian gem.) This is commonly found in stories where the focus is less on where the zombies came from and more on the social impact of those zombies, in part because the apocalypse comes without any attempt at a technical explanation.
Toxic Zombies:
This type of zombie usually originates from a manmade chemical toxin, as in many B grade zombie movies in the 80’s and 90’s, such as the 1980 flick Bloodeaters, where the zombies are caused by crop-dusting chemicals. Green was an “in” thing in those times, and environmental poisons, a result of human carelessness, a real threat. The fears of industrial poisons are still there, but they’ve extended to natural poisons and the potential dangers of genetically modified food. You’ll find this kind of zombie in my coffee-house zombie tale, “Waking the Dead” appearing in the May December Publications anthology “Hell Hath no Fury”, where the problem is imbibed. It touches on the idea of biologicals as well, which I’ll be addressing in my next post.
You can find the above mentioned anthology at:
http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Hath-Fury-...
Atomic Zombies:
These radioactive shamblers can be found as early as the 1950s and in 1968, they can be found in the George Romero classic, Night of the Living Dead. It is radiation from some source that causes the undead to rise in those instances. As I mentioned in the last post, zombie origins are often associated with existing societal fears, which is why these zombies were popular in the day where fear of the atomic bomb ran rampant. As tensions regarding nuclear warfare and mishaps eased, this type of zombie became less popular. With the recent occurrences in Japan, however, these zombies are threatening to resurface.
Cosmic Dust Zombies:
The earth passes through a cloud of space dust, and suddenly the dead begin rising. A thinning ozone layer, comet tails, solar flares and other extra-terrestrial phenomena are both alien and fear inducing – hence they exist as a source of zombies. Examples of this type of zombie can be found in “Fido” a delightful dark comedy where the undead are harnessed as a means of slave labour and where people pay outrageous amounts of money for a “proper” burial to ensure they are not enslaved after they die (a Canadian gem.) This is commonly found in stories where the focus is less on where the zombies came from and more on the social impact of those zombies, in part because the apocalypse comes without any attempt at a technical explanation.
Toxic Zombies:
This type of zombie usually originates from a manmade chemical toxin, as in many B grade zombie movies in the 80’s and 90’s, such as the 1980 flick Bloodeaters, where the zombies are caused by crop-dusting chemicals. Green was an “in” thing in those times, and environmental poisons, a result of human carelessness, a real threat. The fears of industrial poisons are still there, but they’ve extended to natural poisons and the potential dangers of genetically modified food. You’ll find this kind of zombie in my coffee-house zombie tale, “Waking the Dead” appearing in the May December Publications anthology “Hell Hath no Fury”, where the problem is imbibed. It touches on the idea of biologicals as well, which I’ll be addressing in my next post.
You can find the above mentioned anthology at:
http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Hath-Fury-...
Chantelly’s Field Guide to Zombies - Biologicals
I’m going to turn to what is currently the most predominant zombie – the one of biological origins. Be it viral or some form of parasite, the “infected” zombies come in varying types. Some have perished and risen from their graves and others have never actually died, but are merely diseased, mindlessly driven to feed on human flesh. Some are fast and raged filled, like the zombies of 28 Days Later, others are slow shamblers, moving in contagious mobs, like in Dawn of the Dead.
Most zombies now days have assumed this form, the result of prevalent fears caused by outbreaks of illnesses like SARS, avian flu, H1N1, AIDs and the less common but more deadly diseases like ebola. It is a very widespread human fear, one than expands as our populations grow and urban centres become more congested. Add in anxiety over genetic manipulation of viruses in an attempt to create cures to things like cancer, at the root of one of my favourites, I Am Legend, and it is no surprise that biological are the most popular source of the undead in current media.
Parasitic Zombies:
Although less common than their viral counterparts, some zombies are spawned and spread by parasites. Perhaps their gruesome factor is a little too much for the average zombie story, so they don’t have as much in the way of mass appeal. There are examples of alien parasites, like the tongue-like creatures in Slither, but not all are extra-terrestrial. Some such parasites actually exist in nature, infesting and controlling ants, grasshoppers, cockroaches, spiders, wasps, worms and snails. Toxoplasmosa gondii, Hymenoepimecis Argyraphaga, Glyptapanteles, and more are real and present in our world. I even referenced one of these parasites, the Leucochloridium variae or brown-banded broodsac, in my zombie novelette, Escarg-0, that appears in the anthology, Zero from May December publications. You can find it at: http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Chantal-Bo...
Viral Zombies:
Viruses are something even our scientists don’t entirely understand, and it is well known that we fear what we do not understand. Not quite meeting the definition of what is alive, viruses need other life-forms to replicate. Viruses can be airborne, transmitted by touch or by bodily fluids. With a viral outbreak as a source, zombiism can spread rapidly with the only means of prevention being avoidance unless some form of vaccination can be developed. In my opinion, it is the simplest and most obvious means of transference, and with the way viruses are known to mutate without warning, there is no need to go into great detail as to how such a thing could happen. It seems to be the preferred origin of most modern zombie literature, evident in works from World War Z to the book I’m currently reading, The First Days, by Rhiannon Frater. I used this source in several of my own stories including my cowboy zombie tale, What A Man’s Gotta Do, appearing in Rymfire ebooks anthology, Undead Tales. You can find it at: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Tales-Ar...
Next week, I cover the mother of all zombies, magic, the last in this blog series.
Most zombies now days have assumed this form, the result of prevalent fears caused by outbreaks of illnesses like SARS, avian flu, H1N1, AIDs and the less common but more deadly diseases like ebola. It is a very widespread human fear, one than expands as our populations grow and urban centres become more congested. Add in anxiety over genetic manipulation of viruses in an attempt to create cures to things like cancer, at the root of one of my favourites, I Am Legend, and it is no surprise that biological are the most popular source of the undead in current media.
Parasitic Zombies:
Although less common than their viral counterparts, some zombies are spawned and spread by parasites. Perhaps their gruesome factor is a little too much for the average zombie story, so they don’t have as much in the way of mass appeal. There are examples of alien parasites, like the tongue-like creatures in Slither, but not all are extra-terrestrial. Some such parasites actually exist in nature, infesting and controlling ants, grasshoppers, cockroaches, spiders, wasps, worms and snails. Toxoplasmosa gondii, Hymenoepimecis Argyraphaga, Glyptapanteles, and more are real and present in our world. I even referenced one of these parasites, the Leucochloridium variae or brown-banded broodsac, in my zombie novelette, Escarg-0, that appears in the anthology, Zero from May December publications. You can find it at: http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Chantal-Bo...
Viral Zombies:
Viruses are something even our scientists don’t entirely understand, and it is well known that we fear what we do not understand. Not quite meeting the definition of what is alive, viruses need other life-forms to replicate. Viruses can be airborne, transmitted by touch or by bodily fluids. With a viral outbreak as a source, zombiism can spread rapidly with the only means of prevention being avoidance unless some form of vaccination can be developed. In my opinion, it is the simplest and most obvious means of transference, and with the way viruses are known to mutate without warning, there is no need to go into great detail as to how such a thing could happen. It seems to be the preferred origin of most modern zombie literature, evident in works from World War Z to the book I’m currently reading, The First Days, by Rhiannon Frater. I used this source in several of my own stories including my cowboy zombie tale, What A Man’s Gotta Do, appearing in Rymfire ebooks anthology, Undead Tales. You can find it at: http://www.amazon.com/Undead-Tales-Ar...
Next week, I cover the mother of all zombies, magic, the last in this blog series.
