Yeah, About Those Zombies

Y’all know I’m a geek. I’ve been a geek–and also a nerd (it varies)–for a very long time. On the schoolyard playground in the late 60s, when other kids were playing at cops and robbers, I’d be Spock. Yes…the long shadows cast by my inner geek are heavy, black, and pendulous. (And if you get that reference, you’ll fit right in.) But there’s something I just don’t get: zombies.

That’s right, zombies. I don’t get the fascination. Sure, it’s a great word. “Zombies”. It’s horrifically evocative in much the same way that “duck” is funny. But the zen of zombiness simply eludes me: they are one-dimensional brain-eating fiends, or they all sparkly-skinned and angsty (metaphorically speaking, of course), or sometimes somewhere in between. From the various guises of filmic living dead to (sort of) examples from the Austen oeuvre (though I will admit, the book did make me chuckle), the fixation so many have with zombies causes me to make the confused Scooby-Doo sound.

But it’s like that. Most, if not all, geeky/nerdy types have blind spots within our own culture. Considering how much the culture encompasses, it’s pretty amazing we don’t have more of them–then again, we’re a pretty accommodating group with the foundation of IDIC to guide us. Some don’t get aliens, or comics, or RHPS, or why anyone would engage in cosplay. For me, it’s zombies.

What about y’all? Do you have a geekdom blind spot? If you do–or even if you don’t–why don’t you share with the class? (And be nice…don’t yuck on someone else’s yum.)