Response Paper for “Zombies of Toronto" The journal article "The Zombies of Toronto" was published in 2010 and deals with the famous Toronto zombie walk. According to Dr. Bryce Peake, the zombie walk is a modern trend in which thousands of people gather together to flood the streets, clothed and painted as zombies. The first impression one might gain, seems a little ridiculous, but behind thus masquerade is a serious background hidden. Ontario becomes once a year the setting of the notorious zombie walk. Thousand of actors flood the streets to "perform their vision of the impending apocalypse, foreshadowed by the signs of increased global violence" (65). The first recorded zombie walk took place in 2001, but since 2003 Toronto is the capital of the zombie walk cities. Evolving over the years, it has become a global phenomenon and resembles for most participants "[...] an implicit and explicit critique of war and violence," taking …show more content…
During the atomic age, the zombie was born, as a new monster that resembled Cold War anxieties. One of the most known fears was the fear of the spread of communism in the United States that would "[turn] citizens into mindless hordes." Nowadays, zombies have developed and are not stupid and slow as shown in the first zombie movies, but they are smart and fast today. The perfect killing machines. Zombies can be compared to "terrorist sects and sleeper cells [...]" (66). The zombie walked represents insecurity in a culture, about "who we are, who the enemy is, and whether s/he is us." The zombie walk helps participants to express their feelings about cultural anxieties related to death and warfare. The destructive force of zombies is detectible in modern anxieties over terrorism and worldwide war. Here, zombies walks have a deep meaning. They "act as a means for working through [...] the structural conditions of a new and violence that so
Although the zombies are not as complex of monsters, they are still representative of fears in the
The article “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” written by Chuck Klosterman, discusses the reasons behind zombies becoming so popular. Klosterman writes that rise of popularity of zombies is different than that of vampires. He states that most monsters are initially created as representations of fear. Similar to that of Frankenstein or vampires, Klosterman explains that zombies could be viewed in the same light; however, zombies are better explained as an allegory for our day to day existence. Rather than some innate fear, Klosterman highlights this fact to be why zombies have risen to such high popularity.
“Zombies are like the Internet and the media and every conversation we don’t want to have. All of it comes at us endlessly (and thoughtlessly), and – if we surrender – we will be overtaken
In the story Max Brooks tells the reader about the different things that the zombies have been involved in such as movies, video games, and books. This shows that the author was really fascinated by the zombies
Rodney Clapp, writer, editor for Wipf and Stock Publishers and expert in topics such as theology and culture, in the article, “Attack of the Zombies”, argues that many things in life are beginning to resemble zombies. Clapp assumes that the audience also views zombies as lifeless creatures that go around spreading their disease. The author’s purpose is to persuade the audience to believe that many things they see today are starting to resemble zombies. The author writes in a challenging tone for people who question the similarity of zombies to every day life. Clapp supports his argument by comparing and contrasting, and exemplification.
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.
Zombies aren’t supposed to exist. But what if they do, and we interact with them every day? Chuck Klosterman’s essay, “My Zombie, Myself”, compares everyday life to the task of killing zombies. Through elaborate metaphors, quotes from zombie experts, and a strong call to action, he successfully appeals to pathos, ethos and logos to convince his readers. Klosterman argues that even though modern life is monotonous, it is possible to escape the monotony.
There are many movies and TV shows about zombies that make people want to fear them. This has been an occurrence and they now have a web page full of examples of the time zombies ever came. To support my example, "Noneless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a "Zombie Preparedness Web Page. " This shows how if there is an apocalypse you can be prepared.
No book has captivated the zombie apocalypse better than World War Z. Max Brooks creatively presents “a worldwide zombie pandemic from outbreak to aftermath” (Boyd, Tristan). His book encompasses many social and political themes in the world today. The book
From video games like Fortnite, to social media apps like Instagram, to search engines like Google, modern day technology has become readily accessible to people of all ages. By relying on technology every day for the smallest of reasons, people have become brain dead and unable to think for themselves. In response to this growth of technology, Chuck Klosterman in My Zombie, Myself attempts to convince his audience that to fight against the wave of technology, just how one would fight against a wave of zombies. Klosterman claims that the reason why zombies are attracting so much attention is because of how relatable they are to modern day lives, where killing hordes of zombies is similar to deleting hundreds of emails or following social media
“Looks like you need some motivation privates!” This one line could strike fear into me and my fellow enlistees in the army. It was a favorite line for our drill sergeants, and for good reason. Fear is a strong motivator. It can be used, and to an extent used positively, for anything from keeping a bunch of 18 year old, wannabe soldiers in line to scaring someone into accepting one’s argument. This is the case in Doug Mann’s Pop Matters article “Our insatiable Techno Zombie Love”; in this article Mann tries to manifest fear in the reader in order to make them believe that America’s recent obsession with the monsters known as zombies is rooted in modern society forfeiting its freedom. Through the use of language that feeds into what terrifies today’s youth culture, Mann is able to make a compelling argument for his idea. By using the powerful political, economic, and social fears adopted by current young adults, Mann works to convince his audience that they are becoming mindless zombies.
On the day of September 11, 2001, many people saw for the first time in their lives an attack on the United States brought about by terrorists who sought to destroy the American way of life. This terror attack brought about fear in many people – no longer was the United States safe from foreign attacks, but rather now it seemed to be the target. These terror attacks fundamentally changed the portrayal of zombies in movies. Now, zombies were launched back into popular culture, this time running towards their targets and emulating people’s fears of being attacked (Blumberg). It was after 9/11 that zombies were made relevant again, and now they were more popular than ever.
The name of the article is Our Zombies, Ourselves written by James Parker. In this article Parker discusses the historical backdrop of zombies and talks about where it is that they started from. Parker additionally raises exceptionally fascinating point on the notoriety of zombies and a short timeline on zombies. He also talks of different sorts of popular cultures which incorporate zombies and are utilized, for example, the movies Night of the Living Dead, White Zombie, the books The Zen of Zombies, Zombie Haiku, and the television series The Walking Dead.. By utilizing these references Parker helps demonstrate to us how zombies appear to ceaselessly draw our interest. The article additionally educates the reader about how zombies came
As humans, it is in our nature to feel fear. Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that something or someone is dangerous, or a threat. We feel fear to protect ourselves from possible dangers, so if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves. Different time periods have different kind of fears, based on the culture and what is going on during the time period. The fears of the 2000s would be different than from the fears of the 1930s, because they knew and experienced different things. In the 1930s, humans feared the death of the economy. The Great Depression was a defining factor of the ’30s. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929 was the worst stock market crash the world had ever faced. The movie White Zombie was produced in 1932, the year when the Depression hit the hardest. This movie represents the fears America felt at that time period, because this movie came directly from the time period. White Zombie is used to reflect the cultural fears of the 1930s through metaphor by comparing cultural fears to zombies. Most of the main characters can be considered a monster in this movie. The director of White Zombie, Victor Halperin, uses metaphor to compare how his characters are representative of fears in the 1930s. Now we can go into depth on how this is true.
The topic of the undead coming back to life to feast on the living has been around since the first zombie movie White Zombies in 1932; however, just in the past few decades has the threat of a zombie apocalypse enter the realm of international politics. The threat of a zombie apocalypse is a very serious concern of the international communities. Many political scientists are not sure how the world leaders would be able to work together if this issue were ever to arise in the world today. In the book “Theories of International Politics and Zombies”, Drezner uses the threat of a zombie apocalypse to show how the different theories of international politics would eliminate the threat; however, are the living dead a real international concern or are they just a brilliant metaphor for something much greater that could happen to the world.