Dawn of the Lead

Imagine a world ruled by creatures with limited brainpower, bent on the eradication of the human race via rampant consumption. Now imagine what would happen, if this world faced a zombie catastrophe. This is a scenario presented by Daniel W. Drezner in his book Theories of International Politics and Zombies (referred to as TIPZ from now on).

Zombies are all the rage now, or rather have been for the last ten years or so. The years have seen all sorts of books. Some have been blatant attempts to cash in on the zombie craze, while others have actually offered an interesting take on the subject. It is with true joy that I include TIPZ in the latter category. Why? Well, that’s what this review’s all about, isn’t it?

I love zombie books that deal with the question of zombies with a degree of seriousness. Actually, I’ve even reviewed one or two. While TIPZ has its fair share of humour, it still presents us with the very very interesting question of how international politics would cope with a zombie uprising. Or insurgency, as these things tend to be called nowadays. I don’t think there’s one zombie enthusiast who hasn’t toyed with the idea of how the world would actually react. It’s right up there with “what would you do if it really happened?” I’m glad someone finally grabbed the bull by the horns and put it in writing.

That someone is Daniel W. Drezner. As well as a blogger for the Foreign Policy magazine, he’s a professor of international politics as well as a published author on the subject. As such, he knows where he’s coming from in terms of politics. What about zombies then? To my surprise he nails this part as well. The book references a whole lot of zombie pop culture, including some very current outings such as Left 4 Dead. This most certainly warrants a tip of the hat, as a lot of authors of zombie books basically equate zombies with someone green going “braaaaaaaaainssss” – and don’t get me started on that.

Drezner knows how to write. That’s quite important when publishing a book. His text flows nicely, it’s informative and easy to read even if you know nothing about international politics. A true academic, he provides referenes for pretty much everything he claims, giving the book a lot of credibility. There’s a fair bit of humour and wit, and the part about neo-conservatives had me in stitches. It’s also not too difficult to see from which side of the political field the author hails from.

The book is very much what the title suggests. It examines how different political ideologies and the people who adhere to them would likely deal with a zombie catastrophe. There are no glaring inconsistencies as far as I can tell, although there are a few comedy exaggerations. It presents fairly logical scenarios that are easy to swallow.

No book is perfect, of course. With all its merits, TIPZ has one major thing going against it. The book is a measly 114 small pages, leaving out the notes, references and acknowledgements. The book is an extension of the author’s article Night of the Living Wonks, and if you’ve read that you know a lot of the book’s content as well. This leads to the book feeling a bit rushed. Not rushed in the sense that it’s poorly written, but in the sense that a lot of very interesting points are just briefly touched on. This book could’ve easily been twice as long and it would still have been able to hold the reader’s interest. As it stands, it’s almost like a teaser. Another thing that some might consider a flaw is that Drezner occasionally moves too far into the humour territory, slightly detracting from the informational content of the book in my view. This is a horses for courses thing, however, and I know a lot of people won’t mind that at all.

Overall verdict: If my biggest gripe about a book is that it left me wanting more, I believe you can easily catch my overall feelings about it. This is a very nice book. It provides the always important food for thought, as well as some genuine laughs. It’s a quick read, too. If the subject interests you at all, do get TIPZ. You won’t regret it.

Prices for the book vary a lot. At the time of writing it’s 13 EUR at the Book Depository, but half that price (6,70 EUR) at Amazon.com. 13 EUR is a pretty hefty price for a small, short paperback, so do a bit of comparison before ordering. I got mine as a reviewer’s copy, which is just cool.

The whole title of this book is I am Scrooge – a zombie story for Christmas. The moment you read a title like that, you assume the book will either be great or atrocious. You’re not too far off the mark with this one.

As the title hints at, the book is a very, very loose combination of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In the book, Ebenezer Scrooge lands in all sorts of trouble with the walking dead, as he’s lead through time by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

Before this book, which I got as a Christmas present from a friend of mine, I’d only read one humorous zombie novel. Or rather, tried to read one. The much hyped Pride and Prejudice and zombies was in a word terrible. I made it halfway through it, after which I’d had enough of the miserably poorly written, utterly crap rape of a literary classic. The graphic novel was a bit better, but not by much. With this wonderful blend of humour, zombies and literary classics in mind, I approached I Am Scrooge with more than a bit trepidation.

Humour is such a difficult thing to pull off. At times it’s enough for someone to have a bad bout of flatulence to produce enough laughs for a week, at times you need a bit more. This is especially true with books, and I’m happy to report that I Am Scrooge made me laugh already in the preface, as the writer Adam Roberts sincerely and with a 19th century turn of phrase wishes that his book not be remade as a major motion picture starring Will Smith.

Roberts is a decent writer and comedian, and there a fair few more or less witty puns in the text. He frequently breaks the fourth wall, commenting to the reader and explaining his choice of words. This effect is not used excessively, so it doesn’t turn dreary. Besides, the phrase “Fear stalked the city like a giant, er, stork” became one of my instant favourites as far as book quotes go. Roberts has clearly read his Terry Pratchett, so if you’re into that sort of humour, this should be right up your alley. Roberts has even included a nod in this direction, I believe, by renaming Bob Cratchit as Terence Cratchit. Terry Cratchit, get it? You probably did.

The story itself is a fun blend of the Dickens story, Victorian Science Fiction and zombie pop culture. At 153 pages, it’s a quick read and short enough so as not to get dull or repetitive. My only gripe is that age-old thing which I never get tired of bashing: zombies and brains (or braaaaaaains, as it’s usually spelled). For crying out loud, bloody Return of the Living Dead has forever stapled that thing over the whole genre. Grumble grumble.

Overall verdict: I Am Scrooge is a nice way to spend a few hours, especially if you’re into VSF or steampunk. Some of the jokes are a bit of hit and miss, but as a whole the book does provide a fair few laughs and a definitely original take on a classic story.

As mentioned, I got this as a gift. You can find it for EUR 7.05 (it’s a hardback) at The Book Depository, where it happens to be on sale at the moment.

Anthologies, even themed ones, are usually a mixed bag. This one  created by Stephen Jones is no different.

Zombie Apocalypse! is a definite tip of the hat to H.P. Lovecraft, who is explicitly mentioned in the credits section. The book is basically a continuation of Lovecraft’s – and Bram Stoker in Dracula, for example – fake-documentary, first person style (see The Whisperer in Darkness for a prime Lovecraft example). There are letters, police and doctor reports, Twitter, IM, and SMS logs, blogs and so on. They detail the eponymous zombie apocalypse that starts off in the UK and before long spreads across the world. Sounds great this far, doesn’t it?

I’ll be very blunt with this next comment: a fair few of the 19 authors in this book aren’t very good writers. As always in anthologies, there are some gems in there, a lot of OK stuff, some that are a bit “meh” and then some that are a bit rubbish. Where a lot of these stories fail is subtlety. Whereas Lovecraft and Stoker manage to tell just enough to leave room for the imagination of the reader, many writers in ZA! fail in this respect. I mean that instead of ending, say, a logged phone call with “ummn..are you ok?” they instead end it with “oh my god, you’re really not ok! You’re a zombie! Oh my god, and now you’re taking chunks out of my arm! There’s blood everywhere! Now I understand, this is the way the plague spreads, through bites! Arrrrgh, I’m losing gallons of blood and my intestines are on the floor, and yet I keep on talking on this phone, I don’t even know why! Please, oh god no!” Catch my drift? The same flaw can be seen in another way as well, as the writers often pretty heavy handedly insert plot elements into stories which should be very realistic in style, such as police or medical reports. This greatly detracts from the whole suspension of disbelief thing. Why would a police officer write in his report that a church has a “strange aura” or that it “feels Gothic” or suddenly describe his female police partner as a “glamorous […] tall, striking blonde”? Sorry, but that’s just plain poor writing. Sometimes less is indeed more.

There’s another major problem. Basically, while the book tells a chronologically pretty coherent story, at times it doesn’t know whether it is a bird or a fish. At times its Dawn of the Dead, at times Return of the Living Dead, before becoming 28 Days Later and segueing to Army of Darkness. Sounds like a very wide spread of different styles, and it is. The book also becomes a bit repetitive at times, as it’s basically “now I’m writing, now I’m depressed, now I’ve been bitten/scratched, now I’m turning into a zombie/committing suicide” over and over again, told through various media sources.

Despite those flaws, the book is mostly a very entertaining read, and I found it difficult to put down quite a few times. A lot of the stories are very short (often thankfully so), and some of them are really rather good, so even at over 500 pages it doesn’t grow wearisome. It could just be the zombie enthusiast in me, but I’ll definitely give this another read, although I might skip a few of the B-grade stories. There’s a fair bit of humour in there as well, with some being hit and miss but others downright hilarious.

Overall verdict: Make no mistake, this is no World War Z 2. The stories vary a lot in quality, and at times the book’s styles and themes are all over the place. It’s still a good way to spend a few evenings or quite a few bus rides, if you’re into zombie apocalypse and the fake-documentary style. I just wish they’d all read their Lovecraft.

As usual, I got my copy from the Book Depository, where the book retails for €7.54.

My first reaction to hearing about this book was approximately this. Philosophy of the undead? Yeah, right. While books like this – the philosophy of [enter pop culture icon] – do come up fairly frequently, their quality is often dubious: they’re filled with pseudo-philosophy and illogical leaps and generalizations. Why is this? Probably because they’re written by self-taught kitchen philosophers and the like. Don’t get me wrong, books like that are often very entertaining, but they also tend to lack enough hard substance to make you really want to delve in. I’m happy to say that The Undead and Philosophy – chicken soup for the soulless positively surprised me.

Part of the ongoing series of books called Popular Culture and Philosophy (which I will definitely check out, if the quality equals this book), the Undead and Philosophy consists of 19 articles by various philosophy professionals – professors and associate professors mostly – focusing on the philosophical questions that surround the undead, the term in this book meaning zombies and vampires. While some people might dismiss something like this outright – a few friends of mine did – the questions are actually valid and interesting. Here are some examples of articles in the book:

• The Badness of Undeath by Richard Greene – Is it actually bad being undead? Is undeath bad in itself?
• When They Aren’t Eating Us, They Bring Us Together: Zombies and the American Social Contract by Leah A. Murray – Individualism and communitarianism in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
• Zombies, Blade Runner and the Mind-Body Problem by Larry Hauser – The self awareness of zombies paralleled with the replicants in the movie Blade Runner.

Now if these didn’t sound interesting, this probably isn’t the book for you. If they did, read on!

One thing that strikes me as excellent in this book is that the writers know their undead culture sufficiently. They’ve seen their Romeros, Draculas and Buffys, so they can pose valid questions and observations. For a reader like me, with some knowledge in philosophy and a lot more in undead pop culture, this is of huge importance, as failure in either category immediately knocks the book down a notch.

Simplifying the classic philosophical theories to a comprehensible level is a challenge in itself, and again one which the book clears. Many of the writers are teachers, and it shows. They do a good job of making the book an easy read without dumbing it down too much.

The great thing in this book is that it adds a whole new level to the horror genre that we love so much. The articles in the book sparked a lot of those “hey, that’s true, I never thought about it that way” and whenever a book manages to do this, it gets a solid thumbs up from me. I know that watching the movies dealt with in this book after reading it will make me see them in a new light. Not a bad achievement, since we’re talking about films I’ve seen time and time again.

Overall verdict: You’re apparently already interested in the undead since you’re reading this blog. If you have even a passing interest in philosophy to boot, I strongly suggest you pick up this book. It’s bound to give you a few new points of view.

The Undead and Philosophy is edited by Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad, and you can get it in bookstores around the world. I picked mine up from  The Book Depository for 14 EUR.