Thinking Dead

Reviews / Votes

This eclectic mix of essays considers how the trope of the zombie apocalypse holds the key to understanding humans' constant struggle to form a stable identity in a changeable universe. The essays analyze media productions as varied as the YA romzomcom Warm Bodies, the video game Resident Evil 5, the Chinese film The Note of Ghoul, and the queer, hardcore zombie pornography of Bruce LaBruce. But the volume's most thought-provoking offerings treat the television series The Walking Dead. For example, Angela Cirucci ('The Social Dead') observes that both the figure of the zombie as popularized in The Walking Dead and figures in old photos posted on social media such as Facebook are disturbing reminders of 'former lives' with the potential to threaten the stability of present identities, and Alicia Kozna ('Leaving It All Behind') considers the trend, in apocalyptic narratives, that calls for renunciation of technology as a precondition of re-creating society in a way that values human connection. Most enlightening is Balaji's essay ('Eating the Dead'), which examines the subordination of Tony Kirkman's graphic novel (on which the television series is based) to the series itself and to show-related merchandise. An important contribution the mushrooming field of zombie studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. * CHOICE * Thinking Dead is about brains, in both the zombie and scholarly sense. YA zombies, Chinese zombies, queer zombies, and porn zombies are effectively critiqued for their cultural meanings as are their more well-known shuffler siblings 28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, and Zombieland. Taking an eclectic media and cultural studies perspective, editor Balaji and his contributors persuasively and engagingly decompose zombies as ideological tales about race, gender, class, colonialism, consumption, social media, teen romance, and neoliberalism. -- Matthew P. McAllister, Pennsylvania State University