Why Zombies? The "Tipping Point" of Our Collective Zombie Obsession

Yesterday I was stressing over what to write for my last blog post. I couldn’t think of anything to say that hadn’t already been said; we’ve covered quite a lot of ground in the last semester, and I didn’t feel like I had anything new to contribute. My brain was fried, or rather, zombified. For a few moments I thought about throwing together something, anything just to get my last post over and done with. Instead I went to sleep. I’m kind of glad I did, even though it means that this post is now, officially, late.

I’m in a book club. Our current read is a book called “The Tipping Point,” by a fellow called Malcom Gladwell. Thursday night, I had been reading the book prior to turning out the lights, and pieces of Gladwell’s ideas were still swimming around in the back of my head as I was drifting off. Somewhere in that mystical state between sleep and awake, I started to make some connections. To give you a brief summary, the premise of “the Tipping Point,” is that change doesn’t happen in a gradual, linear way, but instead eventually reaches a “tipping point,” at which change happens rapidly and drastically, often creating unexpected phenomena and radical transformations. Gladwell describes the Tipping Point as the “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point” (12). It’s also a way of thinking that proposes that “ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do,” (Gladwell, 7) that in fact, many of the changes we witness in our society, are in essence, a kind of epidemic.

Thus, in my sleepy, half-dream state, certain lines from “Plans are Pointless,” started resonating in my head along with the bits from Gladwell’s book, particularly the idea that the Zombie is the “New Vampire,” and further, that the zombie “may be demonstrative of collective cultural anxieties of the day” (Sutlet-Cohen, 191). For whatever reason, it seems that zombies are relevant in today’s world. They have purchase here, in our society, at this particular moment. I began to wonder – if Zombies are the “New Vampire,” when was the “tipping point?” and how did it happen? Why zombies? Why now?

In Kyle Bishop’s article, “Dead Man Still Walking,” he posits that a zombie invasion hits closer to home for most Americans

“Because of the aftereffects of war, terrorism, and natural disasters so closely resemble the scenarios depicted by zombie cinema, such images of death and destruction have all the more power to shock and terrify a population that has become otherwise jaded to more traditional horror films. The most telling barometer of this modern age, therefore is to be found not in the romanticized undead protagonist of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series (2005-2008)…but in the unstoppable hoards of the zombie invasion narrative” (Bishop, 12).

This idea is further supported by the increasing use of zombies as a cultural metaphor to describe and explain ideas as diverse as banks reliant on government funds (zombie banks), to court cases (as described in Sutherland and Swan's "Corporate Zombies" essay) and computers, to, as one of the previous blog posters pointed out, the differences between modern Republicans and Democrats.

But why is the cultural climate now any different than other periods throughout modern history? When did this obsession with zombies all start? The suggestion in Sutler-Cohen’s article seemed to be that the current “Zombie Renaissance” as it were, began post 9/11. After researching a little, it seems that most scholars who study zombies and popular culture agree that 9/11 set off a stream of zombie films and media that has continued throughout the decade. In 2007, Peter Dendle, a zombie scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, published an article entitled “The Zombie as a Barometer of Cultural Anxiety.” In it he posits that zombies generally experience a resurgence during times of economic hardship, war, and other forms of societal stress. For instance, prior to 9/11, the last few times zombies have experienced such marked popularity was in the 1930’s (Great Depression), and in the 1960s (Vietnam War), respectively. Thus it seems that we can get a “read” on the state of the nation by looking at the number of zombie films made in a given year or span of years; zombie films, it appears, are a hallmark of bad times. Unsurprisingly, the reverse also seems to be true: the number of zombie films produced saw a noticeable decline during the halcyon era of the 1990s (Bishop, 12-14).

If we try to apply this information to the idea of the Tipping Point, things quickly become confusing. It’s difficult to say whether zombies are simply a reaction to certain stressors in society or whether zombie films were already becoming more popular, in a gradual way, until some series of events (such as 9/11) “tipped” the zombie film and transformed it into a cultural epidemic once more. Is the popularity and relevance of the zombie shifting to the rhythm of major events, or is there something to be said for the idea that certain small events or changes in cultural consciousness could “tip” the zombie from a B-movie interest to a blockbuster affair. Like I said, it’s hard to be sure.

Ironically, though, if the idea of the Tipping Point can be applied to the renewed interest and obsession with zombie films, literature and television, then the zombie genre has spread throughout our culture in much the same way that zombieism spreads in the context of those novels and films – like a virus. Something to think about.

Bibliography

Bishop, Kyle. American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. 2010. Online.

Bishop, Kyle. "Dead Man Still Walking." Journal of Popular Film and Television. 37.1 (2009): 16-25. Online.

Dendle, Peter. "The Zombie as a Barometer of Cultural Anxiety." Monsters and the Monstruous: Myths and Metaphors of Enduring Evil. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007. 45-57. Online.

Gladwell, Malcom. The Tipping Point. New York, NY: Little, Brown and, 2002. Print.

Sutler-Cohen, Sara. “Plans are Pointless: Staying Alive Is as Good as it Gets.” Zombies Are Us: Essays on the Humanity of the Walking Dead. McFarland & Company, Inc. 183-193. Print.