Are Zombies People? — The Morality of Zombies
An unusual question rings its ugly head. Earlier this week, I had a discussion with a guy who believed that morality in a post-zombie-apocalypse world was absolute. That is that the lines are clearly drawn: zombies are bad, humans are good, and “killing” zombies is not a moral issue. There are huge problems with this line of thinking, not least because it ignores the problems with “killing” zombies that arise in many zombie films and stories. It is also disconcerting, since the very rhetoric used to justify this pure moral position is the same rhetoric used to justify slavery and discrimination against minority groups. To start, I think it’s important to note that many zombie films/books do not subscribe to a purist moral model. There are often huge conflicts between the act of “killing” a zombie and the people who perform it, despite the recognition by the characters that zombies have no such compunction. The problem with zombies is their origins: at their worst, they are/were our loved ones (mothers, fathers, children, best friends, wives, husbands, etc.); at their best, they are/were people who might have lived next door or that we didn’t know at all, but former-people nonetheless. Hesitation is usually a narrative conflict in zombie stories, and most recently in The Walking Dead. One of the first characters we meet in The Walking Dead (the TV show) is a man (and his son) who is being followed by his zombie wife. We watch him (and his son) struggle with the prospect of “putting her down,” and there is one particularly gutting scene where the man tries for several minutes to bring himself to shoot his wife in the head from a window. He recognizes that his wife is not “his wife” anymore. She is a zombie. She will eat him and his son without hesitation. But he also cannot let go of the past (i.e., who she used to be, the life they used to have, and so on). These are frequent themes in zombie stories, but ones that I think are relevant to the problem of personhood. Not as good as I would have liked… To suggest that “killing” zombies is not a moral issue–i.e., that doing so poses no more of a problem than shooting a bear that is attacking you–is an attempt to ignore what zombies “used to be”: people. In the discussion I mentioned above, it was frequently said that “zombies are not people,” and do not have the rights afforded to people (defined here as sapient beings). When pressed on this matter, he suggested that mentally handicapped people are considered “people” by definition of being “human,” but that zombies are not, since they are not human. But the problem with zombies (most recent incarnations, at least) is that they are, in fact, still physically and, in part, mentally human. One might suggest that zombie-ism is a kind of mental disability, but one brought on by a virus or other chemical/biological infections (or, in rare cases, the supernatural; some infections in the real world have led to mental disability, of course). From a genetic perspective, zombies are as human as the rest of us. Since human beings are made up of hundreds of species of bacteria, viruses, and so on, only a portion of our bodies are made of “human” material anyway. Zombies are no different. Their minds may be governed by natural impulses, but they remain human underneath. Humans, of course, are also governed by natural impulses; it could be said that zombies have a ramped up metabolism which drives them to one-directional feeding compulsions, which is something humans sometimes do to themselves to burn calories and lose weight (in the form of pills). The line between zombie and human, then, is a fuzzy one, if not impossible to mark. Gross… If we include “human by default, but not sapient” into the category of personhood, then it seems logical that zombies would also be included. They may be dangerous people, but that, too, is no different from members of our “normal” species (i.e., murderers, rapists, etc.). And if zombies are people–even undesirable people–then it poses serious issues for the formation of morality in post-zombie-apocalypse worlds. The uninfected have to learn to be hard, not just in terms of having to sacrifice their old-world luxuries for the new-world of manual labor, but also in terms of learning how to cope with destroying the lingering figures of the past. Some of us may adjust more effectively than others, which says more about human coping mechanisms than it does about one’s prior mental state, but adjustment is unavoidable. The fact that we have to cope, regardless of how we do so, suggests that the destruction of zombies is, in fact, a moral problem. Surviving a zombie world might mean learning how to shut down our internal (memory-based) moral “nerves,” because as much as I am trying to deconstruct the notion of zombies as “non-moral agents, the killing of which is a-OK,” I also recognize that killing zombies is necessary for the survival of the uninfected. It would be akin to killing a murderer who has broken into your house and threatened your family. You must learn to cope with your own act of murder, despite your understanding that doing so was necessary for your own preservation. And if zombies are people, then they are nothing more than beings with “murder” on the mind. They are the ultimate serial killers. Other questions should be asked at this point, but I’ll leave them unanswered at the end of this post for now. Feel free to tackle them in the comments (or what I’ve written above): Is mass “killing” zombies considered genocide? Why or why not? Is it possible to change the framework of human morality (i.e., to permanently cope) so that zombie “killing” is no different than shooting deer for hunters? How would we manage this? Is it desirable, even in a post-zombie-apocalypse world? ————————————————————- Note: You might want
Science Fiction and Reptiles: A Very Strange Email, Updates, and a Question
(There are two sections for this post. The first is about SF and reptiles and the second is on updates about what I’m up to and a question that I’d appreciate answers for.) I. Science Fiction and Reptiles I’m hazarding a guess that the following email is a joke, since the author’s name is Warren Peece (i.e. War and Peace). The content, however, is interesting enough to approach. Here’s the email: Is it my imagination or are there a lot of lizard stories out there? I just read a really creepy and sexy piece, but insightful and funny, where the protagonist goes from starting out as comet and ends up reptilian! Pretty terrific – it’s called “Modern Malice” Just curoius, Warren I’ve never heard of the story referenced in the email, but there have been a few lizard-related stories out there in the last few years (well, some of them were dinosaur stories, but so be it). Plus, one of the top science fiction shows at the present moment is about lizard people invading Earth–V, in case you didn’t know. The thing that gets me about the email is that it isn’t the usual kind of spam that I received in my inbox. This particular email is remarkably cogent, and only seems to be selling me something that is poorly defined (the story mentioned). So, the question I have is this: what stories have you read lately about lizards or other reptilian creatures? Let me know in the comments! Maybe there’s a trend going on that nobody realizes is there. II. Updates and Things I’ve had some issues writing things for this blog (let alone for anything else) lately. There are three reasons for this: School The semester is practically over, but I have a 25-page paper left to write and 30 papers to grade (that’s about 220 pages of stuff to mark). Lack of Inspiration I have some ideas, but I’ll talk about those in #3. My problem has been in finding things that haven’t been talked about elsewhere or that aren’t too simple/boring/old/uninteresting. Hopefully it’s just the winter season at work. Biting More Than I Can Chew At least four things I’m working on right now require more research and thought than I originally hoped. As a result, they’re not ready, and probably won’t be until next week. I don’t know if anyone else has ever felt like this about what they’re doing, but it is sort of frustrating when you start on a project that you think will be done in a few hours, and realize that actually you need to spend another week thinking about it before you can get it in good shape. That said, I do have some things lined up. I’m going to talk about the recently released Japanese live-action adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato (a.k.a. Star Blazers to U.S. audiences), followed by a discussion of live-action anime adaptations and why films like Transformers and upcoming adaptations seem to work so well. I’m also starting to consider submitting some of my articles to places like Strange Horizons and other magazines. Why? Because if I’m going to be a critic and an academic, I might as well start getting myself out there. That doesn’t mean the quality of work posted here will lapse, but it does mean that some things may be sent to magazines first to see if they’ll bite. Either way, content will keep appearing here. That said, I do have a question for anyone willing to answer it: which content do you most enjoy on this blog, and which content do you least enjoy? Honesty is appreciated. Alright, I’m out. See you all tomorrow with something other than random complaining!
Kmart Fail (where I bitch about something unrelated to SF/F to get it off my chest)
(Warning: some explicit language can be found below) I won’t shop at Kmart again. One little mistake doesn’t bother me. Everyone makes mistakes, after all, and I can’t fault a company for the occasional problem. That is unless you do what Kmart just did to me (i.e. fucked me). I had my birthday way back in October and my family decided they’d send me money to Kmart/Sears so I could buy a new TV (which I really needed). I spent four days researching the TVs within my price range on the Kmart/Sears site, picked a TV I thought would be worth the money based on reviews and specs, and then placed my order (I also purchased a Crockpot, but since that’s not part of the problem, we’ll ignore that). (The order was paid by credit and gift card, with the credit card portion meeting the amount mentioned at the bottom of this post.) Initially, I was told my TV would arrive by the 11th of November, which was part of the reason why I ordered it online, since it would appear on my doorstep sooner than I could arrange for a friend to run me to the store to pick it up in person (I don’t own a car, so Fedex sometimes makes things easier). Then Kmart decided to change the delivery date to the 17th. I thought that was lame, but stuff like that happens, so it didn’t bother me too much. Yup. This says it all. But then the 19th rolled around, and I decided to give them a call to figure out what was going on. As it turned out, Kmart had canceled my order and neglected to tell me that they had done so. They also charged me for the TV prior to cancellation, which was only worsened by the reason for cancellation: they didn’t have the TV in stock or in any of their warehouses. That’s right: they didn’t have the bloody TV in stock but still charged me for it. “Alright,” I said to myself. “That sucks, but maybe it was an honest mistake, and shit happens. No biggy. I’ll just get a refund and do more research and find something else.” I was a little upset by it. After all, they didn’t even contact me to tell me that the TV had been canceled, but I could deal with that. Plus, the lady on the phone was nice, so I had a hard time being angry with her when it certainly wasn’t her fault. As such, I asked her what was the next step, and she gave me the option to use the money charged as credit towards the purchase of another TV or product, or I could have it “credited to [my] account” (her words). Since it took me four days to figure out which TV was worth purchasing in the first place, I told her just to credit it to my account, thinking I could get a TV during the Black Friday deals and use the refund to pay my rent on the first. “No problem,” she said. “It’ll be there in 7-10 days.” (Why it takes that long to give me back my money, I have no idea, but, again, I couldn’t get pissed at her, since she was fairly nice to me about the whole thing.) So I waited. And waited. And waited, until yesterday, when I realized that the 7-10 day period had ended and no money had appeared in my account (none of it, not even the cost that went over the gift card amount, which was pretty sizable). During that time, I actually purchased another TV that was a much better deal and, I am happy to say, a better TV than previous one (bigger, more powerful, and sleek); it also actually arrived when the store said it would (in good condition and bright and early in the morning). Realizing my money hadn’t reappeared, putting my ability to pay rent in jeopardy, I decided to contact Kmart this morning to inquire. And this is what I found out: my money had been put onto a new gift card, since the total for the refund was over $20 and a gift card was originally used. Such is Kmart policy. Here’s the fun part. I never received an email telling me that a new gift card was available, nor did I receive the cancellation email they told me I would receive when I first started this process. No, the emails didn’t get lost in my spam box (I checked), and my email hasn’t been blocking them, because I received my confirmation emails for the order they charged me for. (Isn’t it a little odd that I have no problem receiving emails that remind me that they’ve taken my money, but not when they’ve screwed something up or given me the money back?) So I told the customer service person my situation: I purchased a TV under the impression that the money would go back in my account and everything would even out, but that the absence of that money meant I could no longer pay rent. I also pointed out that I was never told that I would receive a new gift card with the full total on it (even the amount that was charged to my credit card), because had I known, I wouldn’t have spent money on the TV I now own. The person responded that he was sorry, but I would just have to use the gift card that was sent to me. When I told him I never received it, he said it was emailed to me. He never said “I will resend it” or “I am sorry to hear that, let me try to resend or get you the information about it.” He just shrugged it off as if somehow their failure to email me what bloody well belongs to me is somehow my fault. That’s the point at which I got a little
Things You Should Learn After 27 Episodes and Free Insult Time
Click the record button… Yeah, that’s right. I’m that guy. The guy who arranged an interview with an awesome author of an awesome book, who participated in an awesome interview with said author, and then said goodnight. The problem? The recorder wasn’t on. Yup. It would be fair to see that I’m feeling like a bloody moron right now, because that’s an awful reason for screwing things up. It’s one thing for software to malfunction, but entirely another when the only malfunctioning thing is the conductor. So, consider this thread an open invitation to insult me as you see fit. Pretty much anything goes. Have at it… P.S.: FML.
The Great Book Shelf Escapade
The great journey began when my floor, the tops of my bookshelves, my bed, and the random nooks and crannies of my apartment became overloaded with books. Something had to be done. Something drastic! Translation: buy a new bookshelf. That’s exactly what I did. I ended up buying a cheap bookshelf from evil-mart, because that’s all I can afford at this point in my life, and because I’ll end up getting rid of most of my furniture at some future date anyway. Of course, when you buy cheap furniture, you get cheap instructions, and I ended up putting one of the panels on backwards, which made removing it to fix the mistake somewhat difficult. Eventually, I got things in place and started loading up the new shelf with books, and re-organizing my huge collection (by type and then alphabetically by author). First, the before images (you can click the images below if you want to see larger versions): It all looks rather hectic and disorganized, doesn’t it? Well, that’s where this beauty comes in: I was actually pretty surprised by the shine of the wood. It looked quite nice, despite the fact that the whole thing is made of (awful) particle board. The result? Basically a pointless endeavor in being organized. See for yourself: So far so good, right? Still good… And still good. The new shelf is awesome! No! A few stray books on top! And then everything falls apart… The problem? I can’t stop buying books. You should see the other parts of my apartment. They’re piling up again. I love the darn things. They smell great, they look great, and I can’t help snatching them up when I’m out and about. It just means that I start living, sleeping, and eating with paper… But there is some good news out of all of this: most of the books on top of the shelves in the last picture are supposed to be there; I am trying to get some stylish bookends so I can have a section of science books and a section of books for my thesis. I’ve also turned other parts of my house into the space for school books, which keeps them off the shelves for a while (most of those books will end up on the new shelf, which you can see still has space). In any case, the whole thing was good while it lasted. Things were in good order for a short while, after all, but my addiction got the best of me. What is a book freak supposed to do?
A Brief Complaint Against Barnes & Noble
Those of you who follow this blog may have noticed that I have been silent for almost two weeks. This isn’t because I don’t like you all, or that I haven’t wanted to post on here. I’ve simply been incredibly busy with graduate school, and studying for exams that I need to pass to graduate, unfortunately, supersedes posting here. That said, I have come out of hiding to lodge a brief complaint against Barnes & Noble, who, as far as I can tell, told me a half truth during my long “should I buy an eReader” escapade. As some of you know, I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook. Many of you may not know that I am quite fond of it. It’s a nice little device, it looks lovely, it reads lovely, and it has been a tremendous help for opening my reading space (with the exception of the last two weeks, in which I’ve been reading nothing by Jacques Derrida and intensive feminist, utopian, and science fiction theory, all of which are wonderful, but also far from simple). So what’s my problem? Well, when I was considering the Nook, it was made very clear to me that the upside of the Nook was its frequent software updates and the fact that one wouldn’t need to buy a new device any time soon. This is a plus for me. I don’t want to buy a device that I’m going to have to replace the following year with a much better one. Since the Nook is a first generation device, I was concerned about whether it would be shoved aside by a newer, significantly better second generation one, as has happened numerous times with Apple’s various products (the iPod, the iPhone, and likely the iPad). This explains why I didn’t buy an mp3 player until a year or so after the iPod had reached its second generation (and I didn’t buy an iPod, by the way; I own a Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB, which is a little old now, but works remarkably well and came at a damn good price). I bought the Nook, then, because I figured that while there would likely be a new device in the future, that wasn’t going to be a future immediate enough to warrant waiting. But then I discovered the following: Look, I’m a big fat half-truth! That’s right, the Barnes & Noble folks have announced the Nook Color. At $249, it’s a little costly, and I’m not terribly pleased with the design, but that’s not really the point. What upsets me is that I was never given the option to consider the upcoming device. Nobody ever asked me “do you want the standard e-ink, or do you want to wait until the newer device comes out in two months?” I don’t know if I would have purchased the Nook Color, but there’s a good chance I might have considered it. So, my complaint is just that: thanks a lot, B&N, for not telling me that a new device was on its way and that I might have had the option to wait a little while before making my final decision. You were going to get your money from me either way, because I am anti-Apple and refuse to purchase the Amazon Kindle because of the company’s history. Now I’m a little miffed. When your Nook sales people tell me that all I have to worry about are software updates, then I take that to be true. It wasn’t. At best, it was a half truth, because you might not have told them either (which I think is stupid). So bleh. That is all…