The Shambling Deceased

The key to good post-apocalyptic fiction, I believe, lies not in how it presents the apocalypse but in how it presents society’s or the individual’s response. One of, if not the, finest novel of ‘post-apocalyptic’ fiction is Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Liebowitz, hardly deals with the apocalypse at all. Rather, it uses the post-nuclear setting to present a meditation on cyclical history and the futility of individual action. Another, Robert A. Heinlein’s The Year of the Jackpot, uses the downfall of society and the destruction of the earth as a backdrop for an exploration of human relationships, survivalism, and the rejection of social mores. 

This is where I believe a lot of Zombie fiction fails- The zombies are center stage, and the zombie apocalypse the focus of the plot. Take Danger Word, for example. The story is less about the relationship between Kendrick and his grandfather, and more about how they cope with a Zombie outbreak. The zombies (or Freaks) are the focus throughout. What individual response there exists is merely a reaction to the zombies- be it Kendrick’s trauma, he and his grandfather’s relationship, and the final denouement. The story never escapes the clutches of the walking dead.

I may be unreasonably biased in that I am utterly disinterested in Zombie fiction- be it film, television, literature, or video games. However, I believe it could potentially be interesting if the Zombies merely served as a background and were not the central agency of the plot. Essentially, I believe Zombie fiction as a whole would be infinitely superior if it left the Zombies behind.