The zombie film, as a pop-culture artifact, reveals a great deal about the interior lives of male adolescents. If we look to De Walters’ study of marginalized male adolescents, (“The Lost Boys,” Journal of Pediatrics, Mar. 1971) we find abundant comments relating to sexual confusion and feelings of being unlovable or unloved. Often these comments take a turn towards subjects’ claiming to feel “disgusting” or “gross.” Yet these same adolescents claim an insatiable sexual drive, and therefore their nascent sexuality takes the form of a shambling, blind beast, which must “eat brains” no matter what the cost. The fact that zombies eat brains rather than genitals indicates that what these boys really crave is an emotional connection with a romantic partner, while simultaneously feeling unworthy of such a connection, because of their “gross,” mutating bodies. That these same boys obsessively fear a future in which they become mindless working-class drones highlights their abhorrence of and attraction to the zombie figure.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Zombies and the Adolescent Imagination
I was recently cited in an article in Sociological Review entitled “Zombies and the Adolescent Imagination.” I reprint a portion here for the benefit of some of our readers (you know who you are):
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7 comments:
He forgot to post the reference to himself:
“The zombie film, as a pop-culture artifact, reveals a great deal about the interior lives of male adolescents. If we look to De Walters’ study of marginalized male adolescents, (“The Lost Boys,” Journal of Pediatrics, Mar. 1971) we find abundant comments relating to sexual confusion and feelings of being unlovable or unloved. Often these comments take a turn towards subjects’ claiming to feel “disgusting” or “gross.” Yet these same adolescents claim an insatiable sexual drive, and therefore their nascent sexuality takes the form of a shambling, blind beast, which must “eat brains” no matter what the cost. The fact that zombies eat brains rather than genitals indicates that what these boys really crave is an emotional connection with a romantic partner, while simultaneously feeling unworthy of such a connection, because of their “gross,” mutating bodies. That these same boys obsessively fear a future in which they become mindless working-class drones highlights their abhorrence of and attraction to the zombie figure. As an example, a study of the work of self-styled “zombie scholar” Rodrigo Weiss provides abundant evidence that the infatuation with zombies is the product of arrested emotional development.”
Did you think that reference was an implication that I am stunted emotionally? Clearly she’s referring to the article I published in People’s History Monthly (June 1998) in which I provide historical documentation that Napoleon had a fascination with the Tzombi race.
Everyone knows that Napoleon is a favorite example of “arrested emotional development,” for psychologists.
“I don’t know who I am. This is not me. I’m not irrational like this. I was wrong before—I am not hovering over the precipice in the knowledge that I can fly; I am hovering over the precipice in the knowledge that one day, soon, I am going to fall if I don’t back away. I fear I have already begun to slip. I think it’s best if we don’t see each other for a while.”
Mathilde, I’m begging you to speak with your doctor. You’re only going to cause yourself more pain if you continue.
Who is Mathilde?
Please contact me privately.
As soon as possible.
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