Super Bowl Sunday is about as American as you can get. As I sit watching the commercials and writing this story (a few weeks before you’ll see it) I am reminded of other pieces of culture that are truly American, Harleys, muscle cars, country music, boy scouts, apple pie, and zombies. That’s right zombies.America has been obsessed with these brain dead, flesh eating, unsexy hobblers for a long time. The fascination began when an American named William Seabrook wrote a wildly popular book in 1929 called The Magic Island. His story talked about Haitian voodoo witch doctors raising the dead to do some back breaking labor, a far cry from today’s popularized flesh eaters. Never-the-less within the U. S. these rotting undead were popular and continue to this day to gain a devoted following.
Zombies are now a part of mainstream. I have seen my friends doing zombie makeup as a hobby outside of the haunted month of October. Zombie crawls, or large flash mobs of costume zombies, have become popular in recent years. The larges zombie crawl on record happened on the thirteenth of October in the Twin Cities. The Guinness Book of World Records has the count at 8,027 people gathering together, but it is believed there were almost 30,000 participants total outside of the official counting area.
A new event based around trying to maintain your humanity is the nationwide 5k Zombie infested obstacle course called Run For Your Lives. It travels from state to state and involves running from zombified actors who are trying to steal your life (which are represented by flags around your waist.) There are survival kits with extra lives hidden throughout the course, though with zombies all around traversing this course is a one of kind experience. Nothing will train you to be better prepared if you’re caught on a camping trip at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse.
However, for those sitting at home the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have some suggestions for survival. The government is taking the zombie threat seriously and it wants you to be ready for the outbreak. The CDC recommends you prepare an emergency kit in your house stocked with food, water, and medical supplies. They even commissioned a short educational comic to show the importance of preparedness for the moaning horde called Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic. It’s a free read and mildly entertaining, as it very much resembles a B-movie.
According to ABC news Home Land Security took it one step further by doing a rather costly scrimmage during last year’s counter terrorism summit. Each ticket was a thousand bucks and was paid by American tax dollars. After all what’s more important than training against terrifying flesh eaters?
Not to worry though, while the scrimmage was part of the thousand dollar summit, it was not the only thing money was spent on. If you want real misappropriation of funds, you should look no further than the subsidies going into the technology industry. Zombies rake in about five billion dollars a year into the American economy according to 24/7 Wall Street. There are books, movies, comics, costumes, art, and some very popular video games that fund the industry. There’s a cult following and an almost guaranteed income to anyone who puts out a product of even mediocre value. Despite that trend, The New York Times reports that video game developers who, “straddle the lines between software development, the entertainment industry, and online retailing,” get some major funding from the U.S. Government. That money goes to more than just zombie video games, but in the end parents weren’t thrilled when they learned their money was going towards the promotion of these violent creatures.
Whatever your disposition towards them, zombies are here to stay in American culture. Horror writers should take note that, should you wish it; there are several immersing experiences out there to inspire you. For now I will go back to watching the half time show. I’ve got plans that involve me, guacamole, bean dip, and a bit mindless entertainment.
Sources: 24/7 Wall Street, ABC, and The New York Times.
Kristen Saunders is an intern Penumbra EMag. She loves to write science fiction in her free time and recently started her blog The Musings of a Growing Writer.
