Post-Apocalypse Now

• Academics prove that a zombie outbreak would mean the end of the world http://tinyurl.com/lvx3mo #

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• Guardian article: March of the zombie http://tinyurl.com/mwlmjx #

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• Huffington Post article: Journalism versus the zombies http://tinyurl.com/ctr7r5 #

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• British Airways cabin crew member from Mexico City to London taken ill with ‘flu-like’ symptoms. http://tinyurl.com/cq2wjg #swineflu #
• RT: @pandemicwatch WHO Warns Swine Flu Outbreak Could become Worldwide #Pandemic #swineflu http://tinyurl.com/dnfhhm #
• Wired article: American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse http://tinyurl.com/d8uevt #
• Wired article: The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It http://tinyurl.com/cwfnfz #
• RT @jedwhite Get in now with your hi-tech startup before hi-tech gets wiped out or get in early, plan your post apocalypse startup now #
• One in Three Children Fear Earth Apocalypse http://tinyurl.com/czzc9o #

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• Post-Apocalypse Now: http://www.postapocalypse.co.uk #
• Why are zombies everywhere at the moment? (http://tinyurl.com/dmx567 #
• When Economy Ebbs Zombies Emerge: http://tinyurl.com/cfnxqy #

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Lazy Zombie will eat your brains

Yet another article has been published about the prominance of zombies in popular culture: ‘Zombies emerge when the economy ebbs‘. I was pretty excited when I saw this as I thought it would have something new to say about zombies and linking the undead to the economy.

It refers to a so-called ‘Zombie Index’, stating “when the going gets tough, analysts say, the tough turn to entertainment in which reanimated corpses embody our collective anxiety.” It backs this up with a reference to White Zombie’s release in 1932 during the Great Depression and 1968 (when Night of the Living Dead was released) as an year of economic downturn. Sounds impressive. Unfortunately, this argument is rubbish.

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Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

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“Other monsters may threaten individual humans, but the living dead threaten the entire human race. Zombies are slate wipers.” Max Brooks (author of ‘World War Z’)

“Zombies connect because they’re lovable menaces, funny, and easy metaphors.” Seth Grahame-Smith (author of ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’)

“In the world of traditional horror, nothing is more popular right now than zombies. The living dead are here to stay.” Katy Hershberger of St. Martin’s Press.

All quotes from the Arizona Republic’s article, Zombies are a Rising Trend.

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Zombie Apocalypse by Konami

Normally the words ‘zombie’, ‘apocalypse’ and ‘Xbox 360′ make me weak at the knees but somehow Konami’s forthcoming ‘Zombie Apocalypse‘ for Xbox 360 and PS3 doesn’t excite me much. Not only does it have a crap and unoriginal name but the gameplay is a pretty unashamedly blatent rip-off of Left 4 Dead. ZA is a co-operative game where up to four survivors battle against a ton of zombies. It’s third-person instead of L4D’s first-person but the premise sounds pretty much the same. Zombie Apocalypse will be available on Xbox Live and Playstation Network sometime in the Summer, so at least it should be cheap.

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A Texas road sign displays warnings about zombies in January 2009

Zombies are everywhere at the moment: a book mashing up the living dead with Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) is a best-seller, numerous zombie films and games have been recently released or will come out later this year and even Woody Harrelson justified hitting a photographer recently because he thought they were a member of the living dead: “I was startled by a paparazzo,” Harrelson said, “who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie.” So why is there a cultural zombie invasion at the moment? What is it about the living dead that means they are popping up at on every corner?

Contemporary Anxieties

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