Wow, there’s so much to unpack here. First let me say that this was the most interesting reading assignment we have done so far. I never really spent much time or energy thinking about the differences between vampires and zombies in common culture and how they are currently being portrayed in; cinema, film and [comic]books. There is apparently an interesting sociological understanding between the two genres that Angelia and Elizabeth lays out here, quite vividly. The idea that vampires are no longer the vicious nightmaric devils that they once were viewed as is something that had not occurred to me. As Angelia and Elizabeth point out, interestingly is that vampires have been recast or locked into a stereotype of almost a metrosexual, intelligent, style of clean dressed, slick haired, high society types.
Angelia and Elizabeth rather astudiously point to Twilight to make their next point. That vampires, as portrayed here, are charismatic and that their characteristics are amplified, when compared to other humans, to an almost to a godly level. Where zombies on the other hand, have moved from a dumb slave being resurrected by a godly figure or master to one of almost a hoard mentality.
The notion that zombies, in the Walking Dead, are currently a representation of current societal trends or norms especially here in the states is an idea of great intrigue. Having watched the walking dead pilot episode last night hearing the author describes the ending scene of almost ants attacking Ray was something I noticed and was almost disgusted by. The fear within us created by zombies and vampires is so incredibly different that had one not spent time dissecting the subject matter it may never have occurred to. Vampires intelligence conning swift movements are all the things that terrify us about what we feel the devil Lord would be like. Zombies use absolute grotesque imagery along with overwhelming numbers to incite sheer terror of the walls closing in. As I mentioned earlier this idea of how zombies seem to portray a societal trend of consumerism in the west is also quite interesting. This notion that Americans are basically on dead things moving from place to place work to home in such a mechanical fashion that little intelligence is imagined could be responsible for it. Standing in line for the iPhone, guilty, also rings true to this societal norm. On all I felt that this was a very interesting read and one I hope we speak on in class a bit more.
1. Does the nature of the vampire narrative allow it to more easily move between friend and foe.
2. Does the grotesque imagery of zombies lead to enough fear and of themselves or is our psychological understanding of them as possible future versions of ourself creat the real fear in us?
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