Zombies are feasting on our fears
Zombies are a perfect metaphor for the nation’s economic “horror show,” capturing white-collar workers’ worst fears, said Torie Bosch at Slate.com.
Torie Bosch
Slate.com
The erudite have a new “favored monster”—the zombie, said Torie Bosch. The latest fad in kitschy entertainment is TV shows, movies, and novels about soulless ghouls who stalk the living, devouring their flesh, intestines, and brains. Zombies are the stars of the TV drama The Walking Dead, which draws 7 million viewers a week, and of a new “literary zombie novel,” Zone One. Even Brad Pitt is filming a zombie movie, titled World War Z.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Why zombies? They’re a perfect metaphor for the nation’s economic “horror show,” capturing white-collar workers’ worst fears. As zombies take control of the Earth, the social order and economy disintegrate; the people who are most likely to survive can handle weapons, hunt, grow food, or repair cars and generators. Urban and suburban sophisticates find that they no longer have any status or value, and are doomed to become prey for heartless, flesh-hungry monsters.
Sound familiar? The zombie scenario takes our deepest economic fears “and explodes them.” But don’t despair: The economy will eventually improve, and we’ll move on to some new way to terrify ourselves.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Ukraine's Olympians: going for gold in the line of fire
Under the Radar Hundreds of the country's athletes have died in battle, while those who remain deal with the psychological toll of war and prospect of Russian competitors
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Democrats now have a chance to present a vigorous, compelling case'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
What has Kamala Harris done as vice president?
In Depth It's not uncommon for the second-in-command to struggle to prove themselves in a role largely defined by behind-the-scenes work
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Viewpoint: Michael S. Teitelbaum and Jay M. Winter
feature From The New York Times: “Nearly half of all people now live in countries where women, on average, give birth to fewer than 2.1 babies...
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Snowden’s silence on Putin
feature If Edward Snowden truly is a moral paragon, then he should announce that he can no longer stomach Vladimir Putin’s oppressive behavior.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The irrelevance of the United Nations
feature Once again, the United Nations has been “rendered impotent by a small group of thugs.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Millions of closeted gay men
feature “What percent of American men are gay?”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
The smug confidence of libertarians
feature Why are most libertarians white dudes?
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Seeing racism for what it is
feature Riley Cooper’s case shows just how poorly he and most other Americans understand “what a racist is.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Searching for a libertarian paradise
feature Not one of the world’s 193 sovereign states—not even a tiny one—has adopted a full-on libertarian system.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Viewpoint: Juliette Kayyem
feature From The Boston Globe: “It is now clear that the Tsarnaev brothers had no strategic plan but to kill in a very public fashion....
By The Week Staff Last updated