Writer's Block: The Undead

[pyat]

[Error: unknown template qotd]

I'm bloody sick of bloody zombies. Zombies, zombies, zombies! Zombie walks, zombie musicals, zombie board games, zombie this, zombie that!

Can we please have some Frankensteins or Draculas, or something?

Comments

blah!

[confessorlady.livejournal.com]

Do vampires suffer?

Re: blah!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Yes, but only in the existential sense.

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

But I LIKE zombies... *sniff*

[pyat.livejournal.com]

You can have my share.

[thebitterguy]

Are the punk zombie kids on your lawn again?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Listening to their lousy "zombie rap" music! You know what Rap is, right? It's "crap" without a "c!"

[thebitterguy]

Well, today is ghosts, Mr Grumpy, so I guess you'll get your vampires and Frankensteins after all.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Werewolves were coming back in fashion for a while, but they seem to be dying off again before reaching a cultural headpoint.

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

I'm good with werewolves. Werewolves are cool. I only wish there was more decent werewolf action going on. Anyone see Ginger Snaps? BEST WEREWOLF MOVIE EVER!

[pwned-kisa.livejournal.com]

You've got to be kidding. Please tell me that you're kidding.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I've never seen it, so I'm not sure!

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

I have not actually watched Ginger Snaps, but I did make the Smithee Awards (http://www.smitheeawards.com/) crew aware of it back in 2003. They're finally speaking to me again. Apparently it was so bad they have not yet subjected an actual audience to it. Seems the med school cadavers they use for trial runs strangled themselves rather than watch it. Then they remembered they were already dead and went on a rampage. Since this happened during the Michigan/OSU game, no one noticed.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I always heard it was pretty good. It has an 89% freshness rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

[dagoski.livejournal.com]

Some films seem to arouse passions on either side the divide between master piece and and piece of... Well, you never mind of what. I wonder if the Smithee crew just took it too seriously. Either that or they're trigger happy after El Topo.

[relee.livejournal.com]

That third sequel to Ginger Snaps where it's the 1600s and they're lost in the Hudson's Bay area is pretty good.

[lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm sick to death of vampires, too. Frankly, what I'd like to see more of are creatures from the black lagoon. It's like people have forgotten how dangerous water can be or something.

Lee.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Just when you thought it was safe to go swimming in the Black Lagoon of Death!

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

Zombies are boring. Except Fido.

I like Fido.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Who is Fido?

[thebitterguy]

Your CanCon credentials are slipping.

It's a cute film, that's for sure.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

It's a Canadian zombie movie with Billy Connolly. I highly recommend it.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Ooh, okay! I think I've seen screen caps.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Zombies represent the legions of Canadians lumbering along under the repressive socialist domination of your government. In America, the are no zombies. We're zombie hunters.

[brunovonboots.livejournal.com]

Sir!

I agree with your assessment of Ka-na-da-folk as bleating, mindless zombie sheep, marching blindly downhill to a Marxist charnel yard.

However! I take issue with your description of the placid grain-fed Amerikaner as zombie hunters. If this past century has proven one thing, it is that Johann Cheese is fit only for fighting Spaniards and shop-keepers, and that poorly!

Oh, I do not deny that your Edison was a clever fellow, though a thief and a patent-swindler and baby-seller of the first water. The rest of your countrymen gad about in their electric pants, discharging fowling pieces blindly, and dining (I am told...) on "French" po-tay-toes. A decadent people, rotten to the bone!

No, there has been only one TRUE Hunter of Socialist Zombies, sir, and I fear we shall never see his like again. Please follow this "link" to an audio-visual representation of his exploits, in the musical style of my good friend, Luigi Russolo, he of "Musica Futurista".

http://www.vimeo.com/1223566?pg=embed&sec=1223566

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Um...

[undeadmuse.livejournal.com]

Y'know, your icon "American as Apple Pie" always strikes me as funny, considering apple pie was not originally "American."

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you ever watched Gilmore Girls, but it's basically Rory spoofing the June Cleaver lifestyle. My only *real* American icon is the CanAm one, and being as it's a hybrid, guess I don't have one.

My contribution

[pwned-kisa.livejournal.com]

Re: My contribution

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Hee. :)

ramble

[summerfields.livejournal.com]

But what about the super fast running crazed rage zombies from the 28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later movies?
Those are my favourite...'cause they are actually scary and would cause me to say many cusses if I came across one.
Actually, the first movie ones aren't too bad, that movie was just stressful waiting for something to happen...and it never happened...all the scary stuff happened in the 2nd one (ooh, and it has Hamish MacBeth!).

Oh, but yeah, there's a lot of zombie stuff...but not as much as pirate stuff. Also, I prefer zombies over High School Musical.

Re: ramble

[undeadmuse.livejournal.com]

The 28 Days Later zombies aren't technically zombies. They're not undead, just diseased.

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

::sighs:: I'm tired of zombies. I think they're so popular because they're easy to portray and play.

Case in point - Upcoming Warcraft plot is slated to include some nasty Frankenstein monsters, werewolves, mad scientists, evil cults, zombies, ghosts, ghouls and on top of that, they added freaking VAMPIRES. So, the little event they're running is all ZOMBIES.

I like mad scientists myself. :\

[thebitterguy]

Mad Scientists are all done after Dr. Horrible.

[undeadmuse.livejournal.com]

Remember, 20 years ago it was all about the vampires. These things come in cycles.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've seen plenty of Draculas, at every single Necronomicon (convention in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida), and occasionally hanging outside the Oviedo Marketplace in cloaks, looking bored, as if they're anxious for their victim to show up on time.

There were a few passable Dr. Frankensteins at this year's Necronomicon, since the theme was "steampunk," so mad scientists were in vogue.

But Frankenstein's monster - that's rare. I had someone playing Frankenstein's monster in one of my over-the-top Victorian-steampunk-mish-mash games I ran, but that's only because that's one of the pre-gen characters I provided. I don't recall seeing anyone dress up as one. Golems aren't as fashionable, I guess.

Or, rather, I guess it takes a bit more work to be a golem, costume-wise. Dress up in black, put on a cloak, tolerate some fangs - boom: vampire. Or, put a few tears in some old clothes, put some purplish-grey makeup under your eyes and a few marks on your face and maybe a splash of red, and boom: zombie. To be a proper Frankenstein's monster, well, movie-style, you need a prosthetic flat-top wig/forehead, some bolts to adhere to your neck, some greenish-grey makeup all over your face, some elevator boots, and lots of stitchery. Too much work, I figure, for the casual LARPer.

...

Er - but this phenomenon isn't just LARP and costumes, of course. It's also stories, movies. All that. I think the reason for all the zombies is that the idea of a "zombie apocalypse" presents a certain narrative that's part of the package: 1) There are lots of zombies. 2) Anyone fighting them gets an excuse to use shotguns and chainsaws, and drive offensively with big trucks. 3) There's that whole post-apocalyptic vibe, too. (Ransacking the mall while avoiding mutants/zombies.) 4) It needn't be magical, and no religion need enter the mix: fantasy or sci-fi, zombies fit either way. Some sort of bioengineered super-virus created by idiotic super-secret government agencies can take the place of magic.

Frankenstein, by comparison, is a one-man show. One mad scientist, one monster, a mob of angry villagers with pitchforks and torches, and - tada - show's over. (Dracula is usually a one-man show, too, more or less, but the fact that Dracula can make more vampires lends itself to narratives that involve entire societies of vampires behind the scenes, manipulating events and preying upon mortals.)