Matt Darst's Blog - Posts Tagged "living-dead"
"Dead Things" and Themes
Faith or Science? Although debated for hundreds of years, the partisan roar has grown deafening during this election cycle. Some days, scientists can be heard above the din. Other days, worshippers shout the loudest. The pendulum swings back and forth as, I think, it is probably meant to do.
What would happen, though, if a pendulum swing was halted at its peak by some freak event? What if there was no equilibrium? That premise fascinates me, and it drives the themes of “Dead Things.” I call them the 3 S', or Sociology, Science, and Source.
SOCIOLOGY
Nearly twenty years after a zombie plague, the balance has permanently tipped. Government has ceased to be and the church has filled the vacuum. In this new world the church-state has absolute power...and we all know the corruptive value of absolutes.
SCIENCE
I can think of no better backdrop for a journey of discovery than a land where medicine, astronomy, and technology have been subverted. It is this world that led me to the coin a new term for the zombie condition--“necroanthrophagism” or, literally, the dead eating their own--and attempt to answer some basic zombie questions. For example:
• If death is a process, at what point is that process hijacked by zombification?
• How would a pathogen escape our immune system, thwart the blood-brain barrier, and take over the brain?
• Why don’t zombies decompose? And how is it that they can groan without working lungs?
• Is “zombification” new, or does it have historical antecedents?
• Does zombification, in some form, exist in the natural world? (Short answer: yes!)
SOURCE
"Dead Things" stays true to George Romero’s original vision of transmission. In his “Night of the Living Dead,” there are two paths to becoming a zombie: natural death or fluid transfer through a bite. Most modern films (save for "The Walking Dead") skip over the former route of transmission, focusing almost exclusively on transmission through infection.
I think science may hold the magical secret to these seemingly incongruous methods of transmission. My hope--fingers crossed--is that “Dead Things” pulls the rabbit out of the hat.
What would happen, though, if a pendulum swing was halted at its peak by some freak event? What if there was no equilibrium? That premise fascinates me, and it drives the themes of “Dead Things.” I call them the 3 S', or Sociology, Science, and Source.
SOCIOLOGY
Nearly twenty years after a zombie plague, the balance has permanently tipped. Government has ceased to be and the church has filled the vacuum. In this new world the church-state has absolute power...and we all know the corruptive value of absolutes.
SCIENCE
I can think of no better backdrop for a journey of discovery than a land where medicine, astronomy, and technology have been subverted. It is this world that led me to the coin a new term for the zombie condition--“necroanthrophagism” or, literally, the dead eating their own--and attempt to answer some basic zombie questions. For example:
• If death is a process, at what point is that process hijacked by zombification?
• How would a pathogen escape our immune system, thwart the blood-brain barrier, and take over the brain?
• Why don’t zombies decompose? And how is it that they can groan without working lungs?
• Is “zombification” new, or does it have historical antecedents?
• Does zombification, in some form, exist in the natural world? (Short answer: yes!)
SOURCE
"Dead Things" stays true to George Romero’s original vision of transmission. In his “Night of the Living Dead,” there are two paths to becoming a zombie: natural death or fluid transfer through a bite. Most modern films (save for "The Walking Dead") skip over the former route of transmission, focusing almost exclusively on transmission through infection.
I think science may hold the magical secret to these seemingly incongruous methods of transmission. My hope--fingers crossed--is that “Dead Things” pulls the rabbit out of the hat.
A Digression: New Order Find Joy Through Division
Here's a recent blog post that tries to be all things:
http://www.mattdarst.com/a-digression...
Stop by to read my thoughts on the band New Order, their album Lost Sirens, their influence on my novel Dead Things, my hopes for their next album, and a hint at what's to come in my next book, Freaks Anon.
Did I miss anything?
http://www.mattdarst.com/a-digression...
Stop by to read my thoughts on the band New Order, their album Lost Sirens, their influence on my novel Dead Things, my hopes for their next album, and a hint at what's to come in my next book, Freaks Anon.
Did I miss anything?
