Zombies Vs. Vampires
Feb. 15th, 2011 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribOne of my panels at Capricon was billed as "What's up with the boom in zombie literature and films? From World War Z to The Walking Dead, zombies are becoming the new hot paranormal creature. (But not sexy hot like vampires and werewolves. That would be gross. Wouldn't it?)"
Well, in the shower the morning of that panel, I had a wonderful idea, which I shared with the panel and now with you. It's about the evolution of vampires and zombies. Prior to 1819, vampires were zombies - they were mindless undead, usually women who'd died in childbirth. These women climbed out of their graves at night and sucked the life out of infants. In fact, that's the original reason to drive a stake through the heart of the vampire - you stake them to the ground so they don't get out of the grave.
Then, in 1819, one John Polidori, Lord Byron's personal physician, wrote a short story called The Vampyre. This was the first story where a vampire could (and did) pass for human. Polidori's vampire was also an English lord. Now, Polidori himself died a few years later and didn't write much else, so it fell to others, including Bram Stoker, to refine the genre.
Prior to 1968, we didn't speak much of zombies. We talked of "zombie" singular. This was because a zombie (or a zombie army) was under the control of somebody. Then George Romero came along, and re-invented zombies as spontaneously-arising undead under nobody's control. Unlike poor Polidori, Romero had a long and productive career, so he's taken both Polidori's and Stoker's roles. And like both men, Romero's work has created a whole new genre of fiction.
Fiction, like anything else, evolves over time.
Well, in the shower the morning of that panel, I had a wonderful idea, which I shared with the panel and now with you. It's about the evolution of vampires and zombies. Prior to 1819, vampires were zombies - they were mindless undead, usually women who'd died in childbirth. These women climbed out of their graves at night and sucked the life out of infants. In fact, that's the original reason to drive a stake through the heart of the vampire - you stake them to the ground so they don't get out of the grave.
Then, in 1819, one John Polidori, Lord Byron's personal physician, wrote a short story called The Vampyre. This was the first story where a vampire could (and did) pass for human. Polidori's vampire was also an English lord. Now, Polidori himself died a few years later and didn't write much else, so it fell to others, including Bram Stoker, to refine the genre.
Prior to 1968, we didn't speak much of zombies. We talked of "zombie" singular. This was because a zombie (or a zombie army) was under the control of somebody. Then George Romero came along, and re-invented zombies as spontaneously-arising undead under nobody's control. Unlike poor Polidori, Romero had a long and productive career, so he's taken both Polidori's and Stoker's roles. And like both men, Romero's work has created a whole new genre of fiction.
Fiction, like anything else, evolves over time.
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You are absolutely right, it would be gross.
Date: 2011-02-16 05:41 pm (UTC)Give it a minute. With the Vampire Diaries, Twilight and Anita Blake novels that all manage to have sexy fanged dead guys in them - all having sex with warm and live bodies, I think the natural progression will likely turn to sexy and intelligent zombies.
Zombies and the way they are made have progressed soo much. We went from ritualistic zombies controlled by hoodoo (The Serpent and the Rainbow) to the self-rising lumbering moaning zombie (Romero's zombies) and then to the chemically created zombie with a hankering for braaaaaaains and if I'm not mistaken - there WAS a sexy zombie in that one - she was a naked redhead(80's..what can I say). Jump forward a few more years and we have zombies created by infection in a matter of 28 days or less that wipe our entire cities - constantly and even mutate into other creatures(28 Days Later and Resident Evil).
So it's only a matter of time before an author or film maker decides to make the living dead more intelligent, sexy and appealing to readers and movie watchers. And you know what - people will buy the books and watch the films. They will LOVE it without giving one single thought or consideration to the underlying and disturbing fetish of necrophilia as they are now with the lusts for Edward Cullen, Damon and Stephen Salvatore and an old french Vampire named Jean-Claude that runs a vampiric strip club in downtown St. Louis, Mo. (gotta love Anita Blake..lol)
Thought I'd share my thoughts. Everytime I see a teenager in a tshirt that says I heart Vampires. I get cold chills.
Your post was very interesting :)