Friday, 04 April 2008

• Currently Watching Battlestar Galactica - Season Three By Battlestar Galactica see related

  Texas = Zombie Enthusiasts?

  Texas has always produced some horrific people and events in its colored history. There are several examples of this phenomenon in textbooks and newspapers.  Add this to the fact that most Texans have fired a weapon, witnessed, or experienced, some form of violence and racism, and have eaten twice their body weight in red meat by the age of 15; it is not surprising that the Lonestar state has produced some of the most intriguing and disturbing writers of the modern age. 

  I am speaking specifically of Bowie Ibarra and Z. A. Recht, two Texas born authors of fantastic zombie literature. These authors are the George Romero's of the literary world, among many others.  Before these writers, and their peers, the zombie genre had the same basic concept of average good guy rises from his misery and apathy to save the last remnants of humanity.  Along the way he would undoubtedly lose a few friends and comrades, face the undead masses and possibly find a new love along the way.  The stories mainly dealt with how this unprepared hero would face the daunting task of literally taking on the world.  All in all, the zombie genre was basically a straightforward tale of hero against monster.

  Then authors like Ibarra, Recht, Max Brooks, and others came along and turned the genre on its axis.  These authors concetrated on the human factor of their stories and not just the struggle against the walking dead.  They showed how corrupt governments could becom when facing the threat of anarchy by imposing martial law, retracting rights and privileges from their citizens, spying on individuals, giving soldiers full ability and power over cities, enacting shoot to kill orders, and basically imprisoning the country.  Ideas which earlier in history were slightly unbelievable and laughable, but now show just how ahead of their time these authors were.  Ibarra chose to write about the decay and destruction in FEMA camps and how even in the face of extinction humanity still seperates into racial, social, and class groups.  To further illustrate how horrific a zombie apocalypse would be, each one of these writers would spend chapter after chapter getting the reader to relate and care about certain character only to have them be devoured by a mob of undead in explicit detail. 

  In conclusion, these authors are not for the faint of heart, but if you are interested or are a fan of the macabre or zombie genre I highly recommend "Down the Road" by Bowie Ibarra, "Plague of the Dead" by Z. A. Recht, and "World War Z" by Max Brooks.

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