Origins Of The Walking Dead

The article “Dead man still walking: Explaining the zombie renaissance” by Kyle Bishop is about the revitalization of the zombie genre. The article talks about the inception in the late 1960’s, the category of zombie films has had its roller coaster ride of ups and downs, starting with its decline in the early 1980’s with the release of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. Furthermore, during 1990’s, due to the shift in the cultural consciousness that came with the Clinton Administration and the countries isolation from global tragedies, the popularity of these films continued to decline. Cultural consciousness refers to the understanding and awareness a shift in feelings, sensations, thoughts, of not only our own culture, but adjoining cultures.

She allows the reader to truly imagine themselves in a zombie apocalypse by using description and comparison. “If you work in the many white-collar fields that have suffered in this recession, zombies are the perfect representation of the fiscal horror show” (Bosch, 651). Any reader that works in the white-collar fields, or knows anyone that does, can relate to what Bosch is saying because she used a vivid description and a comparison in one sentence. Readers will read this line and imagine their work chaos during the recession and immediately visualize zombies taking over the world and the madness that goes along with that. “There was a recession. It was a time of unemployment – of white-collar employment…” (Warner, 197). She also uses another type of figurative language: a metaphor. When she talks about the reality of zombie television shows and movies, she used a metaphor to compare modern day zombies to unicorns. “[n]o longer are zombies the beloved genre of the lonely, virgin teenage male, the macabre flipside of the girls’ obsession with unicorns” (Bosch, 651). She uses this metaphor to enhance the reader’s reading experience with humor but also by allowing the reader to understand how modern day zombie television shows and movies are looked upon. It is no longer for guts and gore but for fondness of shows and

In the modern movie genre, horror movies accounts for very great proportion of the number of followers. Relevantly, the zombie film genre has been developed into a dominant part of mainstream horror, replacing the previous monster such as vampires and werewolves. In Max Brooks’s essay “The Movies That Rose From the Grave”, he offers his opinion that throughout the process of zombie film transformation, it increasingly captivates viewers while gradually generates the modern horror. Brooks’s essay should be an appropriate inclusion of a college textbook which explains the phenomenon of the “undead explosion” in various kinds of media, proving to the audiences with enthusiasm, interest, credibility and specific examples that zombie culture is resurrecting a formerly obsolete genre.

Klosterman uses elaborate metaphors and similes to seamlessly compare modern-day life to the prevalence of zombies in society’s media and entertainment, as well as using words with a negative connotation to influence his readers’ view of modern-day life. Through the comparison of the daily

Lisa Nakamura argues in her article, “Words with Friends”: Socially Networked Reading on Goodreads, that Goodreads is a successful Web 2.0 business, worth studying by literary scholars. By applying the argument Carolyn Miller makes for a successful genre, in her text, Genre as Social Action (1984), Revisited 30 Years Later (2014), one can examine why Goodreads is successful in terms of fulfilling its requirements to its public. Miller defines genre as being “a multidimensional construct”, that is a “typified rhetorical response to” an uptake of a situation, “a ‘macro’ speech act”, “a mediation between private intentions (purpose) and socially objectified needs (exigence)”, and above all she emphasizes that genre must create social action,

Vampires and Zombies are common in today’s modern world through the use of the media. In this essay, I will be talking about how each of these beings say something about society, how vampires have been portrayed across time and how zombies have been portrayed. By doing this, I will use two references from TV shows.

Do you enjoy watching murder, the paranormal, and any other morbid scene which makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, your palms sweat, and your adrenaline surge? Why people enjoy watching murder, tragedy, and carnage in their spare time has been a mysterious phenomenon. If these gruesomely horrific scenes would not be enjoyable in real life, why is watching a recreation of it so riveting? Stephen King, a world-renowned horror novelist, wrote “Why We Crave Horror Movies” to give insight as to why horror movies, although gruesome and morbid, captivate audiences. King also aims to persuade readers to continue to watch horror movies, arguing that they are a crucial part of keeping sanity. King delves into this psychological aspect of humans and believes that the desire to watch horror films is a normal tendency of humankind. “Why We Crave Horror Movies” includes appeals to emotion, logic, and author credibility in order to convince readers of the positive, normal desire to watch horror films, why it is important to watch them, and why the reader should believe what the author is saying. King utilizes the rhetorical devices—pathos, logos, and ethos—in an effective way through the use of metaphor, logic, humor, and emotion to persuade readers that watching horror films is normal.

In the essay “Humankind’s Ouroboros”, J. Reagan Tankersley discusses about zombies in the horror genre and how over time they have evolved with society’s fears through evidence from big name zombie films of the time. The original publication of this essay was in a college classroom, though the audience was directed towards someone that understood or had basic knowledge of the zombie films Tankersley chose to use as evidence. So, if someone that picked up his work and had no knowledge of these films, they would already become lost. That is what makes this essay great. Instead of using the space he had to explain every little detail, he pulls towards an advanced audience; that would mean he would only have to slightly touch on the subject and

In Stephen King's "Why we Crave Horror", the famous novelist argues for a rather depressing explanation of society's fixation with horror movies. He insinuates today's generation's obsession over gory and demonic storylines is a result of our internal need for violence that must be satisfied. Such claims may shock readers at first, however, King's use of diction, imagery and tone leave us no choice but to agree with his analysis of human behaviour. He uses these rhetorical tools to prove to the naive reader that we truly are "mentally ill".

The Walking Dead is a televised American drama series about a group of people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse developed by Frank Darabont. The series stars Andrew Lincoln as sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma after the world yields to a zombie plague (Griffiths, 2011). Dazed and confused from months in the hospital he wanders out to figure out why he cannot find anyone alive. He makes his way home only to find his wife and son missing. He sets out to locate his family and finds many other survivors on his journey (Tucker, 2010). The Walking Dead coordinates with many social themes such as

The author showcased through his writing that survival is critical in the world and also pointed out that Americans like the zombie genre because they believe they can survive anything with the right tools and

Is it possible to kill an idea when it is undead? Classic movie monsters tend to fade in and out of popularity as audiences grow bored and move on to fresher concepts. But there is one that has risen up and does not seem to slow down: zombies. Zombies have gone from being a small subgenre of horror film to a staple of popular culture across various media. This paper will explore the rise of zombies in popular culture and why it continues to remain relevant.

The popularity and appeal of the undead has greatly increased in the past few years with the rise of the popular television show, The Walking Dead. The show began in October 2010, and is still on the air today. Before the show was created, there were The Walking Dead comic books that were first published in 2003, and continue to be published today with over 148 issues. The fascination did not begin with The Walking Dead, though. Many movies were produced, and many books published before The Walking Dead was even thought of. An extremely influential individual to note is George Romero. Romero is an American-Canadian screenwriter, film producer, film director, and editor. He is best known for his series of apocalyptic films, beginning with Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Romero has been nicknamed the “Godfather of the Undead.” Some other works of fiction and film to note include 28 Days Later, I am Legend, Pride and Prejudice Zombies and The Zombie Survival Guide, also by Max Brooks. Our cultural fascination with “the return of the dead” can be traced back to the events and the general morale leading up to World War Two, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

For this Media Product Analysis paper, I will be reviewing “The Walking Dead: The Game” from Telltale Games. “The Walking Dead: Season One” has a total of five episodes which were released digitally one episode at a time every two months from April 2012 to November 2012. Each game takes approximately two hours of gameplay.

I would like to address the culture of consumerism, our desire for violence, and the change in gender roles from Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, to Boyle’s 28 Days Later.