Cloyde Vandenburg

English 101

They are US: We are Them

 

ZOMBIE!!!!! RUN !!!!! like most horror films, monsters are always depicted as something we fear, yet humans connect and understand these so called “monsters”, so what can stories about monsters, show us about ourselves and our culture?

Beginning:

Throughout history there have been countless stories about monsters, some being iconic some not so much. In American youth culture instead of being afraid of these so called “Monsters” they are rather embraced and understood. Why? What makes there’s monsters so relatable? Is there a specific Kind of monster that’s relatable to or is it all of them. In the article “My Zombie Myself”Chuck Klosterman states that “they knew they would be able to relate to it” basically what he is saying is that instead of being afraid of their unconscious fear humans most likely relates to monsters than fear them. This Makes sense even though is only answers only half of the question, is there a specific Kind of monster that’s relatable to or is it all of them?. The general monster (Dracula, Frankenstein,Zombies) etc are understandable and I agree with Klosterman because typically these monsters are created some freak accident and all you can finished sorry for them. The million dollar question now is, what about the “Monsters” that aren’t created through a freak accident. Klosterman statement is blind rattling until you realize he is correct, our everyday life is more like a monster flick than a get away in paradise.

Wake up:

This is a big Wake up call round because what this is telling us is that we don’t just understand these monsters because their just monsters, we understand and relate to them because WE ARE THEM! We are the monsters. How are we the monsters ? Mostly monsters are created though freak accidents, but that’s the best part of the whole phenomena. This kind of monster isn’t created in such a way but through bad relationships, social media, video games, work, all of these things turn us into the things we fear the most, mindless creatures much like Zombies reading and deleting emails, going to work or school, all makes us zombie like creature, how because like a zombie, whose only desire is to consume flesh, out desire lies with these activities. In other words activities that become a habit can be considered a monstrosity. In his article Klosterman mentions another author who states “opening Safari is an actively distractor decision. I am asking that consciousness be taken away from me”. What the author is trying to convey is that when she opens safari she becomes so distracted, it’s almost like a mindless  zombie, which I completely agree with because it relates to social media and our smartphones.

Wow:

Everyday on your daily commute, all you see is people on their phones and it’s not only pre-teens, or teenagers it’s also the adults. Everyone hear are constantly faced downward almost never looking up, to notice the world around them. Speaking of, I’m also guilty of this act most of the time while on my way my school all I do is scroll through social media or listen to music or both. I can remember a few weeks ago I forgot to charge my headphones and couldn’t listen to music on the train which forced me to look up, to notice the building and my surroundings. The thing is that even as we’re looking down sending a text or email, we are still capable of navigating our surrounding while still glued to our phones. We need to look more often. Video games is another example of how technology males is mindless, kids and teenagers play video games so much it becomes a part of their daily conversation but this is not the part that makes them mindless, that part is staying up late playing, always saying “five more minutes” but those five minutes never seem to end end until It is 4 or 5 am in the morning. How do they manage to stay up so late ? Well the answer is simple and also something I used to do, when parents would check on us we would turn off the tv really fast and pretend to be asleep, wait five minutes then back to gaming. This scam had worked countless times in my experience. The point is that videos become so addicting, the person playing it becomes so mindless that they don’t get up for a long time unless except to get something to eat or go to the bathroom. Put the video games down a bit and interact with others, you may not get that change again.

Repetition:

“ Zombie killing is philosophically similar to readings nd deleting 400 work emails or filling out paperwork which only generates more paperwork”. Stated by Klosterman in his article he relates lie everyday life as the zombie apocalypse as the more we get done, more of it comes back, same as the more zombies you kill the more they come back. “As long as we keep deleting whatever’s in front of us, we survive” another quote from Klosterman’s article, relating to the fictional world of zombies and monsters, as long as we keep killing them we may survive, this can also relate to the real world as long as we complete our everyday tasks we can go on living. I agree completely Klosterman on this reason being is that in order for us to survive there are several obstacles that need to be overcome, and there obstacles take the form as our everyday tasks. What can these things tell us about ourselves ? One can almost say we are slaves to our everyday life. Each day we wake up and for the things over and over alamot never changing anything, mind blowing isn’t it.

The End:

The thing about monster stories is that if we don’t pay close attention to them we may fail to see the meaning behind them. Some teach us important life lessons, whole some we relate to. Some monsters aren’t just created but already exist, within is with the real world as our domain only to be a slave to ourselves.