Discussion Eighteen: Zombies

Zombies are the walking undead. They are bodies that are re-animated, but have no will of their own. Lots of people believe zombies are controlled by a master (whoever created the zombie), and used to do their bidding. This idea comes from voodoo beliefs. In Medieval times, zombies were believed to be vengeful spirits walking the earth, trying to right some sort of wrong done to them in life.

Since the 1968 movie, Night of the Living Dead, zombies have been seen in popular culture quite often, most often in the "zombie apocalypse" scenario, where zombies outnumber the general population and take over the world, leading to catastrophe and mayhem. Some sort of quick spreading virus or plague is usually the cause of the zombies in this scenario, and the illness is usually passed by a zombie bite (scroll down to see my book review on Never Slow Dance With a Zombie).

Zombies are almost always portrayed as rotting corpses with green-ish skin, who eat human flesh (or just brains in some cases). They shuffle along with stiff movement and cannot talk, but make grunting sounds. They are usually not very smart, and are generally pretty easy to escape in the event of a zombie attack because of their slow movement.

Questions:
-Do you believe in zombies?
-Have you ever seen one?
-Why do you think zombies are so popular in pop culture?
-Any tips on how to survive a zombie uprising?

For more on Zombies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie
http://www.monstropedia.org/monster/Zombie