Where All Those Zombies Are Coming From

Danse Macabre: German, 15th Century

Here's my latest relaxation tip: The Walking Dead. Cheaper and faster then a vacation, much healthier than drugs. When I really need to get away from it all, I just cue up another episode.Very soothing.

Eh? The Walking Dead is a horror series. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? I've noticed the effect for a while, and I suspect it is behind the whole zombie thing; but I haven't been able to figure it out until recently.

I think it’s a memento mori. This a traditional theme in Medieval art was, broadly, something to remind you that you were inevitably going to die, and it could happen at any time. Skulls on the table, Death with cowl and scythe, that sort of thing. I suppose to some people this is disturbing. I'm not sure why it should be. It helps you rise above all the things that are unimportant: “how much of all this will matter after I’m dead?”

Meme chose, French, 15th century.

So it is with zombies: just a whole lot of dead people rising from their graves to remind you of the fact of death. The zombies of The Walking Dead are the traditional Dance of Death: always moving on, touching one or another person at random, and they too die. The random victim might have been a bishop, a king, or a peasant; it does not matter now. Death comes to all.

For no obvious reason, modern zombies, since Day of the Dead, move quite slowly. There is also no malice in them; they are automatons, animated fungal growths. This is not the way to make them frightening. It is the opposite: a way to make the mask of death seem as normal, natural, and non-threatening as possible.

Death poses for Hans Holbein.

Thinking of death as ever-present keeps life simple. Just as life is simple for those people in the zombie movies: just a matter of avoiding the walkers and scrounging what they need for another day. No more vanities or pretense. Come to think of it, the same dynamic is probably behind the current popularity of Breaking Bad as well. For too long, thoughts of death have been a taboo in our society, and that is very spiritually unhealthy. We may well see much more of this as the demographic bulge of the Baby Boom tips into its twilight years.