the Zombie Apocalypse: what is it we're so scared of?

Zombies are really big in sci-fi right now. So are post-apocalyptic novels. So are post-apocalyptic zombie novels.

The Story Behind the Story
I had a professor who pointed out that the thing about the gospel is that there's no story behind that story: God becoming incarnate to save fallen humanity? That's the story. That's the real story, and it's not symbolizing something else or foreshadowing anything. It is The Story. It means exactly what it says. It means itself.

But sci-fi isn't like that. Oh, there's a place for a good tale well-told that earns its hearing just because it's a good tale, well-told. Your humorous romp through the galaxy. Your gorgeous space opera adventure that's just plain fun.

But lots of sci-fi is about the story behind the story. You get a big change in society - like the prevalence of television as entertainment - and you get Fahrenheit 451. You have a new common enemy - like communism - and you get 1984.

Speculative fiction's always done this. Sometimes it's a warning (you can't ignore the "repent or you will likewise perish" implicit in The Hunger Games' premise). Sometimes it's just a way to figure out the implications of a new piece of technology. Sometimes it's both (see M.T. Anderson's Feed).

So, What's with the Zombies?
What is with the zombies? Why are they the current enemy of choice? What are we so scared of?


I have some ideas:

1) Death. This is the most obvious - I mean, zombies are death itself - living death - chasing you. Our society ignores death as much as it can, hides it away in hospitals and funeral homes. Maybe death has become so unknown that it's become a terror, and zombies are a way to make it visceral again, with the idea that if you can stare your fear - in all it's gory horror - in its decomposing face, and come away unscathed, then your fear isn't so fearful anymore.

2) An enemy that isn't any of us. It's not PC to have enemies. Throughout human history, the enemy has been the one who lives somewhere else and might come invade us. The one we don't know, who we don't understand. One of the good things about technology is that it's made it easier to learn about other cultures - video even lets us feel like we've traveled the globe! But that means we can't dehumanize other humans easily. This is good, but we still want stories about real enemies, so we can have real victories we feel good about. Zombies? Not human. You can hate them as much as you want.

3) Which leads us to . . . unhuman enemies. We've hidden death, and learned to disbelieve in the supernatural. But much like death, the supernatural is still there. Zombies are easily a substitute both for the demonic and for infernal passions. What lies underneath, what we don't want to look at . . . well, we're still scared of it, and we still want stories that offer us hope.

4) Comfort. Zombie stories and post-apocalyptic novels are all about worse-case scenarios. And why are those so fascinating? Well, because we want hope. We need hope. And it's backwards, it's completely backwards, but it's so human to gloomily try to think of the worst possible thing that could ever happen . . . and ask, "then what?" We ask, "what would I do? What could we do? There is something we could do, right?"
        And zombie apocalypse novels say, "right," and then construct their survival scenarios. That's comforting.

And End to Fear
So . . . I think those might be the stories behind these stories. But they're not entirely satisfying narratives, are they? No one ever beats death in these stories, though sometimes the implication is that there's a racial victory, humanity triumphant. You're going to die, but your people will live on.


That's the best they offer though. It's hope, of a sort. But you're still left with death, in the end.

Could there be a Christian take on the zombie story? I don't know. Maybe. I'd certainly be interested in reading a good  effort at it. But eventually, really, I think in the end you need to go back to The Story, to the gospel. Because that one is about how a Man actually beat Death - really. Truly. No zombies included.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


p.s. There's something else going on in the straight-forward post-apocalyptic novels. They're very much like the "the government is going to kill us" old-school science  fiction. They just put a world apocalypse as the catalyzing event, and then get on with the Evil Government story. Maybe I should write a blog about those next!