Zombie’s the new Vampire?
Publisher’s Weekly had an in depth article about a new trend in fiction. Are Zombie’s replacing the Vampire in popular fiction?
“Zombies may have become so popular in the mainstream because they’re so basic they’re almost a blank slate,” says Don D’Auria, executive editor of the Leisure Books horror imprint. “You can read so much into them. They can be a satire on consumerism or a comment on any group-think mentality. Plus, they’re instantly recognizable. Even nonhorror fans know what a zombie is, at least on some level.”
You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.
By: Kay
Oh that’s interesting, I was having this exact discussion yesterday with my man! We were talking about the number of zombie books recently, there are so many and in so many different styles! I’ll go read that article now.
By: Pam
They mention quite a few books in the article. I had heard of most of them but hadn’t realized there is a whole Zombie flux movement going on.
By: heidenkind
Hmmm. How could anyone NOT know what a zombie is? Anyway… I think zombies are gaining in popularity, but I don’t really see them as replacing vampires. I mean, vampires are sexy and dangerous and dark and mysterious; and zombies are mindless eating machines. =/
By: Pam
When vampire books and movies first hit the scene they were mindless eating machines also. i wonder if with the works of fiction if they too can evolve into a sexy sterotype as did the vampire.
By: I Heart Monster
Thanks for that link. I kind of agree… wtf is with all the zombies lately?
By: Catherine
As a writer of vampire fiction (amongst other creatures of the supernatural), I’ve had that thought and discussion before. It’s not really vampires vs werewolves, when it comes to the ebb and flow of supernatural creatures, it’s vampires vs zombies.
And I think it’s interesting that we are seeing, in YA fiction, a subset of zombies that are undergoing the transformation that vampires underwent a long time ago. While there is still a majority made of the traditional, mindless and all-devouring zombies there are others where zombies are taking on roles of love-interests (of course, My Boyfriend’s Back and Zombie Prom are both early 90s, while Boy Eats Girl is more recent). It’s just another branch off of the zom-rom-com concept of human love in amongst a zombie invasion that really begun with Peter Jackson’s Braindead/Dead-Alive in the early 90s, and more recently continued with Shaun of the Dead and Fido.
So yeah. Vampires and zombies tend to ebb and flow, with one having dominance over the other until the balance tips and the other takes over. And since agents etc. have been experiencing a certain… displeasure… for the recent glut of vampire fiction, the zombies have risen and have begun their take-over.
By: Marco
George A. Romero is not gonna like this development…
By: Celia
Interesting discussion, isn’t it? Check out http://septemberzombies.blogspot.com/ for a taste of the explosion of zombies in teen lit – there’s a week-long celebration of the undead monsters coming up!
By: I Heart Monster
I just had a thought about this… Buffy kind of made Vamps hot when she got them to TV (not that they weren’t hot before, but she made them go really hot), so when are we going to get a zombie TV show geared toward teens? When we do, then maybe the Zombie will finally arrive.
By: Pam
I explained to my husband earlier that if you think about it, the vampire in popular culture in the beginning was also a mindless blood drinking monster that evolved with the help of Anne Rice and Buffy for example to a hot supernatural being.
By: Debbie's World of Books
I enjoy both the zombie and vampire thing and to some extent were wolves. The whole sea monster one with Sense and Sensibility is really pushing it for me though. Not sure if I will even give that one a try.