Twenty-Three Snapshots of San Francisco

In this short story the narrator had a nostalgic mood and reminisce about the past by looking through his old photos. His nostalgic mood conveys to me that his memories of the past were all he had left in a world revolving around zombies and chaos. With panic around the narrator he was able to reflect back at these photos calmly and show a sense of control and sanity. I concluded that although zombie horrors are not about time travel or futuristic robots, they are still consider as science fiction because zombies are rated as super scary, according to the uncanny valley, and the narrator in Twenty-Three Snapshots of San Francisco repeatedly reflects on his memories, or as he calls it “incomplete memories”, as a sign that he had control over his sanity, which memory and sanity are reoccurring themes in science fiction stories. Connecting the narrator’s sanity and his memories in the short story, I think the author is conveying a cultural message that our memories of the past, good or bad experiences, are the essentials that will help humanity through times of chaos and help keep sanity within humans because our memories can never be taken over as long as we are alive compare to our bodies which can be taken over by turning into a zombie.