Writer's Block: The Undead

[pyat]

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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

[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.)