zombies!

In keeping with stuff that has post-apocalyptic messages, I was thinking about zombies. The Walking Dead is starting back up soon, so that's going to be interesting. It's a show about zombies, which is based on a comic book series. While I do think the comic book series is far better than the TV show, that would be to dismiss the TV show, which is quite good. It's just that the comic books are SO MUCH better than most other comics, that's why I give it that distinction. Like most zombie stories go, the protagonist Rick wakes up in a hospital after a gunfight with a random dude on the street, and finds that the whole world has gone to hell. People - or what's left of them - are rotting in the sun, there's blood smeared everywhere, army equipment is all over the place, and, of course, the dead are walking the streets. He has no idea where his wife and kid are, and nearly everyone he knows is gone. It's a pretty bleak situation, to be honest. Still, it makes for dramatic television!

Speaking of dramatic, how about them Argos? No, seriously. They won today! Last year they lost in Calgary, to the Stampeders, and with a Canada Day re-match this year, they were out to prove that they're no longer a joke. It was a pretty gritty game, but, with 17 seconds left in the game, kicker Noel Prefontaine nailed a 43-yard field goal to put the Argonauts up 23-21, and Toronto walked out of Calgary with a win. Pretty awesome! It was a nice touch to an otherwise quiet Canada Day....no fireworks, or being hit BY fireworks, but still fun.

But, back to zombies. I really have always enjoyed the post-apocalyptic world when it comes to zombies. I think it's because zombies present the threat of something always coming towards you, never ending, never resting, just always...advancing. Much like aliens have the appeal of the unknown, and conversely, humans/wars have the appeal of the KNOWN, zombies are kind of a mix. They used to be humans...but now they're something else entirely, and now you don't know what's going to happen.

Matteo has an interesting post on his blog concerning zombies, I believe it's the very first post he ever typed up, so...yeah, go over there and find it or something, it's late and I'm too lazy to go find it, hehe. But, zombies are present in a lot of ways in the media, whether it's literature or films, or tv shows. The Walking Dead covers two of these ways, both comic books and tv, but there are plenty others. I Am Legend, the movie with Will Smith, is actually based on a book, and to be fair, the creatures in the movie are hardly zombies. They are kind of like another version of humans, devolved, almost. If you're going to read this book eventually, I suggest you skip ahead to the next paragraph, because I'm going to spoil the ending. Anyway, in the book, Will Smith's literary counterpart actually gets captured by these creatures (in the movie, you see that these things set a trap for him, and while he escapes, it is costly in more ways than one), and he wakes up down in the catacombs of the city (I forget if the book takes place in New York, to be honest). What ends up happening is quite morbid, as he kills himself, unable to take being down there with creatures who seemingly cannot understand him (as he cannot understand THEM), but the reader comes to an interesting revelation. During the book (and the movie), the protagonist had been capturing these creatures, former humans, himself, so that he could study and experiment on them in order to reverse the disease. Often, they would die from these treatments and experiments...which, I would imagine, is upsetting for the surviving creatures. In the book, then, when he is captured, the reader realizes that the creatures think of him as the Bogeyman, i.e. someone who captures people and takes them away to do horrible things to them....which is exactly what he was doing. It was an interesting way for the book to end, and I believe there is an 'alternate' ending, but I forget the rest of that stuff.

An interesting read, nonetheless. Another amazing book about zombies, probably one of my favourite books period, would be 'World War Z' by Max Brooks. It is fantastic, is written well, and is also written with interesting theories. I will not spoil any of the theories for you (as they concern how each country/area of the world deals with the zombie attack, and it's absolutely riveting), but the way it is written I can tell you without spoilers. It's written as if Max Brooks himself went around the world after World War Z was over, and spoke to people from every nation on the planet, gathering their accounts of before the 'war', during, and after. He speaks to every day people and important people, from the Secretary of State (of the USA), to a nuclear submarine captain, to a doctor in China, to a Canadian suburbanite, to a South African scholar...it's awesome. It's told through the style of interviews, so these people are relating their stories directly to Brooks...and, indirectly, to you, the reader. It's so good, and is definitely on the level of 'One Second After' in terms of how real it feels. Of course, it will never come THAT close, if only because zombies PROBABLY aren't that real of a threat...but, yeah, when the day comes that I'm zombified and those of you who are still alive are on the off-chance reading this blog, you'll probably laugh at me. No, scratch that, you'll DEFINITELY laugh =P

I always wonder what would happen if zombies took over, for real. I have dreams about this a lot. In my dreams, I end up traveling downtown to look for my friends. I remember once I had a dream where I was in the Birge-Carnegie building with essentially all of my really good friends, when the zombie outbreak happened. There were zombies all around, but we eventually managed to safeguard the entire building, and it became a base of operations of sorts, since the building is pretty large. It also has a cafe in the basement, and while none of us knew how to use the stuff down there, we figured it out and were able to use it as a place to regroup while we scouted the area for survivors. It was an interesting dream...but, then again, in OTHER such dreams, my friends have been in trouble and I go on the hunt to save them....and then I wake up. So anti-climactic...thanks, brain.

Ah well, though. Like I said earlier, it's super late, and I should really sleep. I'm taking advantage of the late-to-bed-late-to-rise thing of the weekends (especially the long weekend), as now that I work, I have to get up early all the damn time. I definitely will not be getting out of bed before 1pm tomorrow, but ah well. I also just played Madden 10...my god that game is crap. I've devoted so much time to it, and yet I know it's bad....and then I go back and play some more. At least I can say I got my money's worth for THAT game...also, I got it for like 30$, so that makes me feel a LITTLE better. Madden 12 better fix all the glitches, or else I will just cry =P But, time for bed; maybe now I'll have another heroic zombie dream! That, or a dream where Tom Brady throws me the SB winning TD pass...it'll be awesome either way.