Past Present Future Me You Someone Else
August 7, 2008 8:05 AM   Subscribe

 
Glad I'm not the only one to read Fitzpatrick's War. Great book. A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt (also great) covers some of the same territory.
posted by adamdschneider at 8:08 AM on August 7, 2008


Isn't all fiction speculative?
posted by smackfu at 8:15 AM on August 7, 2008


I don't say "my God, what if...", I say, "My God, when ..."

Particularly in regards to the zombie war.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:19 AM on August 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


The Zombie Apocalypse IS coming. (I just read this in advanced review, and it was freaking amazing. So excited to see Zombies becoming the new black!)
posted by headspace at 8:24 AM on August 7, 2008


World War Z is really good. That's all I have to say really.
posted by Brainy at 8:43 AM on August 7, 2008


A Frankenpost: part zombies, part doppelgangers.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:44 AM on August 7, 2008


Zombies are the new vampires. Which is to say, played out beyond belief. Although I don't expect any gothic zombie romance novels anytime soon. (Although THAT WOULD BE AWESOME)
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:45 AM on August 7, 2008




I don't say "my God, what if...", I say, "My God, when ..."

Particularly in regards to the zombie war.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:19 AM on August 7


At that time, I will deeply regret having to shoot you in the head. Terribly sorry in advance.
posted by louche mustachio at 8:56 AM on August 7, 2008


I don't expect any gothic zombie romance novels anytime soon. (Although THAT WOULD BE AWESOME)

...then they kissed, without shame and without any lips, exchanging blood and oozing gore while their slender bodies began to slowly decompose in the hot afternoon sun.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:58 AM on August 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Wow. Richard Matheson dis zombie strippers back in 1954!
posted by Artw at 8:58 AM on August 7, 2008


Wow. Richard Matheson dis zombie strippers back in 1954!

Inspiring, I'm sorry to say, the second godawfulest "Masters of Horror" episode ever (the "champ").
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:17 AM on August 7, 2008


Isn't it interesting that every age gets the monster of their collective nightmares? Industrial Age: Frankenstein. Gilded Age: Vampires. And now... zombies.

Hmmm.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:18 AM on August 7, 2008 [3 favorites]


Well, the zombie we all know and love, i.e. the slow, shuffling flesh-eater, was effectively created by George A. Romero in 1968. Feel free to draw parallels between collective nightmares then to the collective nightmares now.

It's probably better if I don't go off on one about the topic. There's only so many hours in the day...
posted by slimepuppy at 9:39 AM on August 7, 2008


Isn't it interesting that every age gets the monster of their collective nightmares?...And now... zombies.

They are a good monster for the information age - it has become very easy to sit back and be a passive consumer of other people's thoughts, creations, and so forth.
posted by never used baby shoes at 9:39 AM on August 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


No entry on pessimistic speculative fiction is complete without a link to EmptyWorld, I think.
posted by chrominance at 10:13 AM on August 7, 2008


I say, "My God, when ..."

Hence the "inevitable" in the 'inevitable zombie apocalypse'.
posted by quin at 10:29 AM on August 7, 2008


And as long as we are talking about speculation and the IZA, here is a handy guide into why it will could happen.
posted by quin at 10:39 AM on August 7, 2008


Unabashed (yet relevant!) self-promotion: I wrote a really offbeat zombie comic a few years ago that's out in TPB.

The Apocalypse, when it comes, will be more of a cultural one than a scorched-earth one, as the undead realize that lower costs of living result in extraordinary amounts of disposable income.
posted by Shepherd at 10:43 AM on August 7, 2008


There's a love of zombies in popular culture today because of how the way we live is changing.

Sorry, I know what I mean in my head, but it's hard for me to explain it out loud.

See, we're all in this connected disconnect where we would rather talk to someone across the room via IM than turn around and engage in actual conversation. We're shrinking our world to the few feet around our own two feet. So the people outside in our own neighborhoods are nameless, story-less homunculus shuffling around our space. And with the media constantly feeding us scare stories from cancer causing fruit to spontaneous acts of violence on the bus, we assign these others with malicious intent towards us.

We like zombies because we are the zombies.
posted by FunkyHelix at 10:45 AM on August 7, 2008 [3 favorites]


Wow, it's like Joseph Campbell threw up in here.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:07 AM on August 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Isn't all fiction speculative?

"Speculative fiction" is what science fiction fans call scifi when they're feeling hifalutin'.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:13 AM on August 7, 2008


I don't expect any gothic zombie romance novels anytime soon. (Although THAT WOULD BE AWESOME)

You're welcome. (I think.)
posted by DaDaDaDave at 11:13 AM on August 7, 2008


STEAMPUNK ZOMBIES!

NINJA PIRATE MONKEYS!

RICK N ROLL!
posted by blue_beetle at 11:35 AM on August 7, 2008


maybe you wonder what it's like to be someone else...
posted by NotMyselfRightNow


Well?
posted by Herodios at 2:53 PM on August 7, 2008


maybe you wonder what it's like to be someone else...
posted by NotMyselfRightNow

Well?
posted by Herodios


Enjoying it tremendously. :-)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 3:01 PM on August 7, 2008


I'm sure both of you will be very happy together.
posted by Herodios at 3:05 PM on August 7, 2008


I'd say yer Zombie Apocalypse was actually invented by, again, Richard Matheson in 1954 with I Am Legend, even if he used vampires for it.

Rumours that there are any film versions are all incorrect, and if you think you've seen one you're misremembering it and I won't hear otherwise.
posted by Artw at 3:38 PM on August 7, 2008


Inspiring, I'm sorry to say, the second godawfulest "Masters of Horror" episode ever (the "champ").

Wow, well that sounds awful.
posted by Artw at 3:47 PM on August 7, 2008


"Masters of Horror" was mostly quite good, but when it was bad...oh, man.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:30 PM on August 7, 2008


Looks like WIkipedias happy little deletion fairies are hard at work on that set of articles.
posted by Artw at 4:41 PM on August 7, 2008


(and now i'm sucked in to an argument with them. God Wikipedia politics are dull)
posted by Artw at 5:00 PM on August 7, 2008


(Grr. And the proper meaning of git has been deleted. Wikipeida really is a hotbead of overfussy beaurocratic stupidity and yankocentric bias that makes MetaTalk look calm and reasonable)
posted by Artw at 5:21 PM on August 7, 2008


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