The Year's Work at the Zombie Research Center

by Edward P. Comentale (Editor), Aaron Jaffe

They have stalked the horizons of our culture, wreaked havoc on moribund concepts of dead and not dead, threatened our sense of identity, and endangered our personal safety. Now zombies have emerged from the lurking shadows of society's fringes to wander the sacred halls of the academy, feasting on tender minds and hurling rot across our intellectual landscape. It is time to unite in common cause, to shore up defenses, firm up critical and analytical resources, and fortify crumbling lines of inquiry. Responding to this call, Brain Workers from the Zombie Research Center poke and prod the rotting corpus of zombie culture trying to make sense of cult classics and the unstoppable growth of new and even more disturbing work. They exhume "zombie theory" and decaying historical documents from America, Europe, and the Caribbean in order to unearth the zombie world and arm readers with the brain tools necessary for everyday survival. Readers will see that zombie culture today "lives" in shapes as mutable as a zombie horde―and is often just as violent.

544 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2014

Reviews

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for my zombie film course at UCI and I can honestly say it was incredibly interesting. I loved seeing all these ideas about how deep the zombie narrative is because it made me think in ways I would not have otherwise.

There are essays on race, post feminism, the health care system, and so many more.

I loved how it related to both zombie films from the 1930s as well as the more prevalent films known about today. These essays took into consideration the history of zombies and the actual cultural significance of these monsters instead of ignoring it. Many of these essays made references to the Haitian culture surrounding zombies which was awesome.

I enjoyed seeing the different cultural and gender perspectives on all of these issues. Instead of only seeing the viewpoint of some middle aged white male, we get to see women and men of color all engaging in this scholarship and being able to keep it entertaining enough to keep the readers engaged.

If you like reading essays on popular culture connecting to both social and political issues of the time period, then definitely pick this book up, it is worth the read. Honestly, even if you don't like reading those types of books, pick it up because it could give you a different perspective on something you feel like you already know.

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from Bookriot in exchange for a honest review.

My favorite thing about this book is how varied it is. At the same time that is also what I dislike about the book, but for the most part, it works as an advantage. For starters, because it's so varied I can almost guarantee that everyone who reads it will find at least one thing they liked (as long as that reader has at least a remote interest in zombies). Whether it's feeling personally connected to Erik Bohman for a shared dislike of Diary of the Dead in "Zombie Media" or something much deeper, there is a lot going on in this archive and a lot to enjoy.

One thing I did not like that many of the writers did was overload their pieces with too many sources regarding zombies or making their topics too broad for my taste. It just felt like there was touch ground to cover in the pages allotted to them. So in "Zombie Psychology" I felt completely overwelmed, despite my degree in psychology, and only took away that Freud would have gone crazy psychoanalyzing zombie films. It left me wondering what the point of the piece really was.

On the flip side, some contributors did very well against this issue. In "Zombie Physiology", Jack Raglin analyzed a very long list a films, but condenses the topic to focus on whether or not it is sufficient to just outrun zombies. Whereas, Andre Ruthven takes a different approach and focuses her analysis on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which makes her piece more easily digested.

Another difficulty with this book was the definition of the concept of 'zombie', which is discussed in the introduction. Each essay takes its own lead in focusing on 'actual' zombies, Haitian zombies, or zombies as media phenomenon. This adds a nice variety, but may be uninteresting to someone with a more specific focus. Zombies as cocktails came up as well, which is an excellent example of how the broad concept of 'zombie' worked in favor of this book (and was a very well-done piece).

Background knowledge was another barrier in this book. Because the pieces range over multiple disciplines and topics (health care, race, politics, demographics, and linguistics, to give a random sample), it's somewhat difficult for a layperson in the specified field to follow along. It's a double edged sword considering if not enough information was given on the subject, I felt lost, but if too much was given I started to get bored and wondered when the zombies would come back in.

So as I said, the variations in terms of topic, style, concept, and outlook all made this book fascinating as well as somewhat confusing. I think this is a remarkable piece and while most of the information went completely over my head, this is a must-read for any and all zombie fanatics. It is an important pioneer in its right, filling a hole that most certainly needed filling in today's literary collection.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tremendous book that probes the interdisciplinarity of zombie studies. There is attention to geography, history, philosophy and psychology.

This book balances humour with rigour, clarity and brilliance.

As a foundational text, this is a great example of zombie studies. Excellent.

[Mills College Library]

398.21 Y399 2014