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The part about zombie fiction that I find to be so utterly enveloping, is that no one alive has presumably seen a zombie. I know that that is a big step to take, especially for some of the folks who are more entrenched in zombie lore, but I'm willing to be a little edgy here. As zombies are so firmly in the realm of metaphor, the exploration of their existence, and the human response to said existence, is understandable. I would even argue that the aspects of the human condition which we can only find when we face death (zombies), make the textual investigation of them beneficial for society. However, weeks ago I found myself in the gun section of Dick's Sporting Goods (let's not talk about why), and I found these:


I've gathered that these are regular air-soft pellets which have been coated in a special 'serum' which makes them either a cure for the infection, or a weapon against the infected. I think the way this would play out involved a certain number of “zombies” and a certain number of “humans” using the different colored pellets to fire at one another. Presumably, the humans would be more numerous at the start of the game, as once a human has been tagged with the 'zombie-serum', they become infected themselves. Conversely, once a zombie is tagged with the 'cure' they are out of the game. This is equivalent to a Darrel's crossbow bolt to the skull, in our zombified air-soft fictional world.
While this is certainly an interesting twist on the idea of an air-soft match, I'm interested in the blurring of the lines between the fictional aspects of zombie lore, and the internalized preparation that we engage in. You could argue that the creation of these pellets are a gimmick aimed at zombie fans, but I think a certain amount of tactical preparation is occurring. I would argue that the “rules” section of this blog, as well as many of the posts, would fall into this category. Within these bounds, we are no longer discussing the pieces of zombie lore that work to illuminate aspects of our own world. We are instead taking mental notes on what to do if/when the zombie outbreak did occur. Which brings me to the question, when do you think the line was transgressed? At what point does the study of the human condition become the investigation of just which folks we should make sure to have in our group? I do not exclude myself from this: I know I've found myself considering just which section of Bailey Howe I'm claiming when we board up the doors and finally rip out that damn alarm.



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4 Responses so far.

  1. Very interesting post, this seems like an interesting thing to find in the gun section at dicks sporting goods though I guess air-soft guns are too dangerous to have at a Toys-R-Us or something. Personally I think this particular example is a marketing strategy to try and get kids into air-soft guns; however, it does highlight some interesting points about zombie culture in the US. Most importantly it shows just how entrenched zombie lore is in our culture. As this product isn't even tied to a specific film or book but is simply zombie themed, exemplifying the extent of American zombie culture.

  2. Unknown says:

    A zombie with a gun? Now that would be something terrifying. In "Zone One," the zombies retain muscle memory. I wonder if a hunter/soldier would be able to fire a gun in that zombie world.
    Overall, this game seems like an adapted version of cops and robbers or cowboys and indians. What's interesting is how the rules have changed. Cops could never become robbers (at least in the same round). Citizens vs. Zombies normalizes the 'protagonist' of the game. Also, the 'death' of a citizen wouldn't be final. Instead of leaving jail, you'd just be reanimated.

    Next time I visit my cousins, I kinda wanna create this game...

  3. I think this looks very cool, and slightly painful. It is funny because as I saw in a previous blog post about a month ago, the CDC has a link to zombie preparation, claiming it is simple rules to help prepare for any disaster. Also, online in pintrests and many other blogs I have seen DIY Zombie preparation kits, which look like such a cute present! In regards to your question, although zombies have been around for many generations, I feel what really brought zombies to the forefront of mainstream culture was the success of The Walking Dead. It definitely crossed the boundary from people who solely enjoy zombielore, to mainstream media, receiving a lot of attention from the Emmys as well! It is cool to see something like this cross that boundary, as can be seen within our class; There is a definitely a range of students with different backgrounds and likes all come together over zombies!

  4. MShebell says:

    While I think that this air soft gun is supposed to be a joke of sorts and is aimed at getting children more involved in the zombie theme that has swept mainstream culture, it is not entirely out of the question to see how some people can take these survival kits as literal. If anybody has seen the show "Doomsday Preppers", there are people that spend a lot of time and money preparing for an apocalypse of some form or another. As JP states in his comment, there are many of these survival kits that we may see as a "cute present" but there are also quite a few people that invest their lives in preparing for these types of scenarios.

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