Comments on: Interview: Matt Mogk, Author, ‘Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies’

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:44:15 +0000

How does the brain of a zombie reanimate itself after the brain has died as in the case of the zombies on The Walking Dead? Would you say that each author or director has their own style of creating zombies and would you also say that with each new variant of zombie created that it makes it harder for someone to study zombies?

I am writing a research paper about the functions of a realistic zombie and any answers you could give would be most helpful.

Thank You,
Eric

By: The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: January 2, 2011

The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: January 2, 2011 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:05:12 +0000

[...] Matt Mogk, head of the Zombie Research Society, is one of the world’s foremost experts on zombies. The [...]

By: Matt Mogk

Matt Mogk — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:59:27 +0000

Hi Jennifer-

Great questions, and glad you like my book!

First let me say that writers and filmmakers are constantly pushing the definition of the modern zombie to create new an interesting stories. Some of what they do sticks, and what we commonly think of as “zombie” evolves. Some of what they do falls flat and is not used again.

I’ll try to address your questions one-by-one:

1) Generally speaking, a person who dies but remains animated is not a zombie just because they’re still moving around (at least not a modern zombie). The movie Death Becomes Her is an example of this. People who retain their personality an intelligence, but are simply not acting dead when they should be isn’t enough to really capture the spirit of the modern zombie.

2) You can find a ton of examples of compassionate zombies in film and literature. The film Fido is a good example. The title zombie in that movie learns to love and laugh, etc. It’s common for authors and filmmakers to try to paint the zombies as “more human” than the people they are trying to eat. I will say that I have seen many more example of this strategy that don’t work than examples that do. Often it falls flat because the zombies in the story lose what rings true to us about zombies; that they are relentlessly aggressive. If you think of zombies as little more than infectious disease with legs and teeth, then the question really becomes: does it make sense to have a compassionate virus?

3) Zombies under water have been featured in a lot of different films and books – from Max Brooks Zombie Survival Guide to the Italian classic film Zombie (aka Zombi 2) of the late 1970s. But I don’t think I’ve seen zombies living exclusively under water. One problem this presents is that zombies are decaying. They don’t live forever. And water causes the body to decay at a much fast rate. So zombies existing under water might have a very short lifespan (or deathspan).

4) At Zombie Research Society we call the modern zombie an unrealized threat (not a fictional threat). So to answer your question, no I have not come in contact with a zombie yet. The zombie pandemic could strike at any time, but it’s not happening as I write these lines. Note: There are voodoo zombies in Haiti today, but they have no relation to the modern zombie that we see in film, video games and literature of today.

Hope this helps!

Matt Mogk

By: Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

Jennifer Lynn Alvarez — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 07:49:25 +0000

This book is insightful. The modern, biologically infected and relentlessly aggressive zombie seems to be the winning definition of a zombie this year.

This is my question. Is a girl who dies but remains animated due to a genetic condition a zombie? Does an animated corpse fall under the definition of zombie if it can still think and control its needs?

Are there compassionate zombies that you’ve ever heard of? Have you heard of the zombies that live underwater?

Have you ever come into contact with a real zombie?

Curiously yours, Jennifer