Amidst a hand-clapping game and chit chat about friends, much of the teenagers conversation was about a recent Anime (Japanese animation style) show called
High school of the Dead, and an online video game where the player is in control of themselves as a zombie. I myself enjoy watching zombie flicks every now and then, but never really thought about why they were so engaging. Zombies have been a large part of American pop culture since the success of George A. Romero's 1968 film
Night of the Living Dead. Since then it has become its own sub-culture, whether it be a Halloween costume, viewing the video to Michael Jackson's hit
Thriller, or even tattooed on the arms of zombie-lovers nationwide.
I stumbled across a blog that helped in analyzing why Americans as a culture like zombies so much.
http://137design.com/blog/7-why-do-we-like-zombies. Specifically reason number five jumped to my immediate attention."On the train, we listen to our ipods, blocking out external stimuli. When the train stops and we get off, we move with the crowd...like a flock. It's no stretch of imagination to suggest that we spend a good portion of our day relying on routine, rather than our higher levels of cognition to guide us. We see these zombies, partially, as a reflection of ourselves...as something we're slowly, methodically, lurching towards...and we don't want it." Was it just me who was saying that I tune out the world around me on my commute to work?
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