Adding Zombies Improves....

[SilentMute]

I have to say, adding zombies to classic literature--in my opinion--just makes those stories of old so much better. In fact, inspired by other authors who have already done this...I've decided to zombify Anna Karenina.

So, what else would be improved--in your opinion--by adding zombies?

[Pompey Bum]

Hi Silent! Great question. Imagine David Copperfield or Oliver Twist stealing through Dickens' London on the lam from the undead. Bumble would make a good zombie, and Uriah Heep would make a great one. Huckleberry Finn has possibilities, too, with the boys cruising the river to escape the flesh-eating hordes. Good luck!

[Calidore]

Something like The Mysteries of Udolpho, where the heroine is terrorized only by coincidences and Scooby-Doo fakery. Honest-to-goodness zombies acting outside the plot as a general threat/annoyance to everyone would help a lot. Plus, then the writer gets to invoke Chandler's Law (""When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand."): When in doubt, have a zombie shamble through the door with a hand in his teeth.

[Lokasenna]

The great thing about Old Norse sagas is that they already have zombies...

Actually, I love all-things zombie. Particularly movies.

I'm not sure adding zombies to random works of literature is necessarily a good thing... but isn't it nice to dream? Imagine if Shakespeare had written a play about a zombie apocalypse...

[mortalterror]

The great thing about Old Norse sagas is that they already have zombies...

Actually, I love all-things zombie. Particularly movies.

I'm not sure adding zombies to random works of literature is necessarily a good thing... but isn't it nice to dream? Imagine if Shakespeare had written a play about a zombie apocalypse...
He wrote a play about witches and another about fairies, so he seems to have been open to such things.

[Iain Sparrow]

Oh I think Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath would be a perfect story to include zombies...

[Pompey Bum]

Oh I think Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath would be a perfect story to include zombies...

Brilliant!

Edit: The Brains of Wrath, right?

[DieterM]

Hey, why not add some zombies to the whole "Harry Potter"-series? or witches and dragons? Now that would be fun, right? ;-)

[SilentMute]

Well, I'm not talking about just books. Do you think zombies would enhance sporting events, or maybe customer service? Of course, if they were in customer service, they would have to be a zombie from India. Customer service seems to be the one job that is allowed to discriminate and choose only people from a certain nationality. LOL

[Pompey Bum]

I think the undead are too intelligent for most professional sports jobs. They would probably grow bored and seek opportunities elsewhere. Customer service is an intriguing possibility, though, as is human resources, public school administration, local or national news anchoring (they're certainly more honest than Brian Williams), and college recruiting--for which guttural cries of "Brains! Brains!" would be a natural skill set. But put them in sports and sooner or later you're going to have to deal with zombies on steroids. It just wouldn't solve the social issue.

[Iain Sparrow]

Well, I'm not talking about just books. Do you think zombies would enhance sporting events, or maybe customer service? Of course, if they were in customer service, they would have to be a zombie from India. Customer service seems to be the one job that is allowed to discriminate and choose only people from a certain nationality. LOL

I see you live in Florida as I do, and must be getting some of the same unsolicited phone calls of late, mostly from what I imagine are call centers in India! Some offering *free* security systems, or to rid my Windows computer of a virus they've detected... though I have an Apple computer! It doesn't matter how angry I get with them, they always respond so pleasantly... like a zombie.:)

[bounty]

I like the "idea" of it but I just started reading pride and prejudice and zombies, and while it was interesting at first, the novelty wore off really quickly and I am sorry to say I don't like the book much at all.

they have "zombie runs"---organized 5ks where some people get to play zombies and I think if you are "caught" you might get delayed, or have time added---im not entirely sure. in any event, you have to dodge the zombies during the race.

and while im here---a friend and I once hitch-hiked into a drive in movie theater (college years) to watch dawn of the dead.

[Calidore]

I like the "idea" of it but I just started reading pride and prejudice and zombies, and while it was interesting at first, the novelty wore off really quickly and I am sorry to say I don't like the book much at all.

they have "zombie runs"---organized 5ks where some people get to play zombies and I think if you are "caught" you might get delayed, or have time added---im not entirely sure. in any event, you have to dodge the zombies during the race.

That's kind of where I'm at also. I like the idea of zombies as random obstacles, but I think making their zombieness an integral part of the story would be more difficult. However, I do think that adding zombies to a James Bond plot would be very simple and should be done pronto.

That zombie run sounds like a hoot. I wonder what adding zombies to the Chicago Marathon would do for finishing times.


and while im here---a friend and I once hitch-hiked into a drive in movie theater (college years) to watch dawn of the dead.

I'd love to have seen that on a big screen with an appreciative audience, but I was still a few years too young when it was released.

[Pompey Bum]

I'd love to have seen that on a big screen with an appreciative audience, but I was still a few years too young when it was released.

Was it the original or the remake? I remember passing myself off as 18 to get into the original back in the day. Bad fx by today's standards, but at the time it was pretty, um, violent. I still get zombie dreams from it.

[Pike Bishop]

The entire Snopes Trilogy practically already has zombies in the invading Snopeses. They're already predatory and virulent, with no regards for their fellow Yoknapatawpha citizens. So, making them zombies would almost be redundant.

[Calidore]

Was it the original or the remake? I remember passing myself off as 18 to get into the original back in the day. Bad fx by today's standards, but at the time it was pretty, um, violent. I still get zombie dreams from it.

The original. I don't subscribe to the hipster "all remakes suck!" philosophy, but I couldn't get myself interested in seeing that one. I've since heard praise from some quarters, though, so maybe someday.

[bounty]

here are a few:

http://zombiesurvivaldash.com/

http://www.the5kzombierun.com/

http://www.thezombiemudrun.com/

"5k of rugged, muddy terrain that takes you through old, seemingly abandoned trails

"12 challenging obstacles in your path that you must climb, swing, slide, and navigate

"Pursuing zombies in front, behind, and to your sides trying to eat your delicious brains!

"Could you survive? Your 1 and only goal is to somehow make it through the zombies (And the obstacles) and to the finish line with at least 1 health in tact. (We give you 3 health flags at race start – Don’t let the zombies get em!) Think you’re tough? Maybe you think you’re pretty fast? All we know is that if you’ve ever wanted to experience that heart pounding thrill of a zombie apocalypse come to life, then this is your 1 chance to do so now!

"Bring your friends and see who survives, and who gets devoured… If you survive, we have some thrilling zombie training action waiting for you at the after-party! It’s ok – Go a little crazy – It’s the end of the world!"


it was the original dawn of the dead from the late 70s. we had already seen it and were fans and so knew what we were getting into. I had went to visit a friend in Elmira and we hitchhiked to Binghamton for something to do and when the friend we thought we'd visit and spend some time with wasn't there, we were looking for something to do. we saw the movie was playing at drive-in and so we hitched to the drive-in but since we weren't in a car (after being dropped off) they wouldn't let us in. so we had to stand in the drive-in entrance and actually hitch a ride into the drive-in!

[Pike Bishop]

Both Sinclair Lewis' novel Babbitt and Philip Roth's short story "Eli, the Fanatic" describe communities whose ethical and spiritual senses have been deadened by their dominant ideologies. So, adding zombies would just add a yuck-factor to already zombie-like behavior.

[Pike Bishop]

In The Devils, Dostoevsky skewers the spiritually and ideologically slovenly qualities of dilettante revolutionaries, so making them zombies would drive the point home...although it would significantly change the ending.

[SilentMute]

@Iain Sparrow--Hello, fellow Floridian! No, actually...the only calls I get are my mom's creditors. Yeah, like right--how many people return those calls. However, whenever I have a problem with an order or some technical problem with Amazon, I always have an Indian helping me. I'm not complaining--they are good at their job. And though I try never to be rude, I have to admit their calm is never fazed by upset on my part.

I have to admit that the zombie runs sound like fun. I'd like a chance to prove Facebook quizzes wrong in saying I wouldn't last long in a zombie apocalypse. I think I'd do fine personally.

I never watched Dawn of the Dead, but I did see Night of the Living Dead (original--which was on a horror collection of DVDs). That scared and disturbed me, and it wasn't because of the zombies. :p

[Tyrion Cheddar]

I've read all of your suggestions and am once again rather amazed at the wit, intelligence and education of you lot, which is a thing I ain't never not thought ah'd be sayin' about no folk wot ah met awn a web saht.

[Tyrion Cheddar]

While we're on this thread, let me just say that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, was a fantastic book, in my opinion. I loved it both as a novel and as a riveting account of Lincoln's early life, of whose harshness I had no clue. Where I'm going with this is that the movie version was undiluted bovine effluvia and had about as much to do with the book as Shirley Temple singing "On The Good Ship Lollipop." Nothing against Shirley Temple, mind you. I hear she was good at backgammon and gave legendary hand shimmies.