Since 2019, June has been a bittersweet month for me. June was the month my family would celebrate my dad’s birthday. Two of my close friends share the same birthday in June. However, June is also the month of my grandparents’ passing, and now it is also the month where an entire family I know lost their lives three weeks ago in a tragic accident. Their deaths have left me devastated, but I think my group’s class facilitation on Zombies and Dystopias was particularly timely in that regard because we discussed deaths caused by the pandemic and our experience of it.
Before reading, listening and watching last week’s assigned class material, I had never thought about zombies in pop culture in such an intellectual capacity. Whenever I think of the word "Zombie," my mind immediately goes back to the hit single "Zombie" by The Cranberries. I wasn’t aware that the history of zombies stretched across millennia and was later popularized through Voodo religious beliefs, literature, and the view of zombies resulting in “medicine gone bad” (Nugent et al., 2018). I am curious about the shift in zombie creation and its creation through religious and cultural beliefs and then through science and medicine. Does this evolution resemble our societal changes, from being religiously devout to embracing more of a secular and scientific society (at least North America and Europe)? I think it is a question worth considering.
Since my friend and her parents’ passing, I’ve been doing a lot of research on death. I was specifically looking at death and reflection and death and zombies because two days after my friend’s death, I couldn’t even function properly, to the point where I was zoning out and wasn’t productive. Lauro & Embry (2008) discussed how the fear of the zombie was also related to the “permanent loss of consciousness,” and I spoke to my group members about this; I feared losing everything that would make me human. However, I had no idea that the metaphor of Zombies was also used to describe patients who have Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) (Behuniak, 2011).
Beuniak (2011) writes that using George Romero’s Zombie trope, seven characteristics are associated with zombies. They are exceptional physical characteristics, lack of self-recognition, failure to recognise others, cannibalisation of living human beings, the exponential spreading of this plague, the resulting horror of those still unafflicted, and the zombie’s overwhelming hopelessness that makes death a preferred alternative than continued existence (pg. 77-78). Three of these characteristics describe AD patients: appearance, loss of self and the loss of the ability to recognize others (pg. 78).
Both my grandparents suffered from AD in the latter stages of their lives. I remember being frustrated at how extended family looked at them and how people viewed my mother, their primary caregiver. I would often want to say, “you know they were not always this way. You know they both led extraordinary lives. Where is your compassion for them?” However, I think what frustrated me the most was watching my mother lose a part of herself due to the emotional exhaustion she experienced looking after my grandparents. I also think about Webb & Bryand’s (2008)’s argument about how zombies can be a metaphor for the darker parts of ourselves that we fear. Was it scary for the people who told my mother to bottle up her emotions and explore the feelings she may feel as she watched her parents deteriorate in front of her? I wonder what it would have looked like to explore those emotions of sadness, anger, and despair over watching your parents experience AD.
In describing the fear of dementia, Basting (as cited in Behuniak, 2011) writes, “I don’t pretend that we can eliminate the fear of dementia. We are human, after all. We can, though, learn to feel more than fear. We can learn to feel and act with respect and compassion and to believe in purpose for those with dementia and those who love and care for them” (p.86). While Behuniak (2011) says, “Despite what should be the apparent absurdity of using a fictionalise plague of hoards of the flesh-eating undead as a way to conceptualise a devastating disease, it continues to resonate with scholars, caregivers and even people with AD.” While the article informs the reader of the damaging effects of the zombie trope when used to describe patients with AD, I also think the trope is so long-standing because it offers a sense of familiarity to understand what is happening on some level.
As Max Brooks says (2009), Zombies can be used to explore challenging situations, which would be difficult to explore in real-life scenarios, and perhaps the zombie trope can offer something for people. However, part of being human is about connection and zombies, necessarily don’t have that. So while we may fear dementia (I certainly do, and I never want people to experience that), perhaps we can find it in ourselves to continue being connected beings because, if not for our connections and relationships, what would life be otherwise?
To end this journal on a more positive note, I thought I would share the story of explaining my zombie outfit to my mom. Before our presentation last Wednesday, I had tried out my makeup look three times. I sent a picture to my mom (who lives overseas) with the description saying, "My zombie look." Later that night, when my mom called, she asked what a Zombie was. And I explained that they're the undead, and then I said, "you know, the creatures dancing in Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video." Then she understood. So in some ways, it's interesting how we both identify zombies through different pop culture artefacts.
Before signing off on this journal, I would like to share one last video. I love watching videos where professionals from different job occupations react to Hollywood's portrayals of their jobs. In this video, an Epidemiologist rates zombie viruses in 10 movies and tv shows.
References
Basting, A. D. (2009). Forget memory: Creating better lives for people with dementia. JHU Press.
Behuniak, S. M. (2011). The living dead? The construction of people with Alzheimer’s disease as zombies. Ageing and Society, 31(1), 70–92. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X10000693
Lauro, S. J., & Embry, K. (2008). A zombie manifesto: The nonhuman condition in the era of advanced capitalism. Boundary 2, 35(1), 85-108.
Nugent, C., Berdine, G., & Nugent, K. (2018). The undead in culture and science. Proceedings - Baylor University. Medical Center, 31(2), 244–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/08998280.2018.1441216
U.S. Naval War College. (2012, April 5). 2009 Lecture of Opportunity | Max Brooks: World War Z [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nGG5E04cog
Webb, J., & Byrnand, S. (2008). Some Kind of Virus: The Zombie as Body and as Trope. Body & Society, 14(2), 83–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X08090699
Comments