As fans of this blog might very well know i often , as in always, compare my books to movies or the prospects of them being movies. I think its because I can connect to movies better, they seem to be the combination of all the arts : story telling, sound, and visual elements. So as I am reading another book its about time I did a movie post , because all you die hard fans won't let me rest if I don't.
I must admit that the idea of a zombie movie is not something of a original one. Over the years there have been a variety of movie full of the living dead. Most are very bad but yet a few rise above to be truly excellent. It's really a shame because as i mentioned in the last post , the reanimated corpse plague is something that is extremely interesting and actually very simple in concept. To explain this I will from time to time in this blogpost speak as director X making a zombie movie ( World War Z for example). To make and effect zombie film or novel one must just follow a few chief guidelines to make it in my opinion effective. First and foremost make the characters normal. This is a concept few wannabe zombie directors grasp, though i dont know why.
So Director X is making World War Z the film version and he first has to make the decision on characters. There are so many to choose from in the book , if he went with all of them the film would be to scatter brained. He goes with 3 , a politician , a soldier, and an everyday person. The next problem ensues in that the characters in the book are designed to for short stories not full films. Director X decides wisely to break up the film into roughly 3 sections that follow each of the characters whose paths occasionally cross throughout the war. Now to flesh out the characters. Hollywood has this bad habit of drawing from the same character shells. In horror movie ( since this is one) for example there are always teenagers who make bad decisions then end up being killed. Director X will have none of that, he observes normal people for his characters. He does not have to look beyond his neighbors for an everyday man character, he does not have to look beyond the T.V for the politician, and for the solider he looks at both. Now director X has a cast of characters and he simply must just think , " how would i react to a terrible crisis that threatened all if i was in their situation". This is just the beginning of director X's movie story , but the rest is for another blog.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
There's appeal to an apocalypse ?
Those dear fans on this blogging establishment will all know I am currently reading a novel by the name of World War Z. For those new comers to this blog I will quickly summarize the gist of the novel: the novel takes place in the present and after a terrible global crisis called the zombie war. The war was caused by a virus that reanimated the dead and caused their brains to function separate from their bodies. The virus is spread through body fluids and quickly engulfs the world in hordes of the living dead. So global chaos ensues, a very interesting global chaos I might add. And as those super fans of this blog will know I promised in my previous blog to talk about why the idea of a zombie apocalypse is interesting to me. That is just what i plan to do.
The main appeal is that its rooted in realism. Its not in some far off world its not some magical being , its a disease right outside your door. Its a situation that takes place on your home field that strikes my imagination as morbidly interesting. Because I can imagine and "plan". That realism, as explained in the last post, makes this novel so gripping. These are interviews i could see on the news and that scares me.
The other interesting part about zombie apocalypses is that they present many moral decisions. Best friends and families will be infected and you will have to combat them because they will show no mercy towards you. You have to fight everyday people who through unfortunate circumstances are pitted against you. These situations expose the real person inside all of us. When our darkest our comes and we have to survive people show their colors and thats what's interesting , from a story point of view at least about zombie apocalypse's.
The main appeal is that its rooted in realism. Its not in some far off world its not some magical being , its a disease right outside your door. Its a situation that takes place on your home field that strikes my imagination as morbidly interesting. Because I can imagine and "plan". That realism, as explained in the last post, makes this novel so gripping. These are interviews i could see on the news and that scares me.
The other interesting part about zombie apocalypses is that they present many moral decisions. Best friends and families will be infected and you will have to combat them because they will show no mercy towards you. You have to fight everyday people who through unfortunate circumstances are pitted against you. These situations expose the real person inside all of us. When our darkest our comes and we have to survive people show their colors and thats what's interesting , from a story point of view at least about zombie apocalypse's.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
From Crusaders to Zombies
As far as books go the holiday season has been very kind to me. Under the Xmas shrub this year I found several novels to which I look forward to spending much time on a couch with. I got 2 Cormac McCarthy books and 4 Bond novels and last but not least the book that I should get on to talking about. That book is World War Z, and yes its about zombies.
The book is written as a collection of interviews involving eye witnesses and key figures of the zombie war. The idea of a zombie apocalypse is one that always fascinated me( for full details I may make another post) because the way recent zombies and especially these zombies seem almost realistic to the point where I sometimes find myself "planning" for one. And that is one of the great successes with this books, if this virus did exists this is what may happen. This is because the author has a very good understanding of how the world works. Every reaction of the government, economies and families seems very plausible. For example one important event in the zombie war is called Yonkers. This is a battle in which the US government is supposed to win a great victory and to raise the spirits of the country they invite all the press to watch the battle. Of course the battle turns into a fiasco, but just that fact that they have the media seems very real.
I must especially congratulate the author for the wide variety of characters that he has created . There must be at least 100 characters in the novel , and each stand out or at least you dont repeat. One could say that not all of the characters are fresh. We have certainly seen some of these characters, from the grizzled bounty hunter to the strict military leader to the everyday man. But I would actually argue that this is a asset rather than a gripe. While i do agree i have seen or even met people like these characters before , the familiarity gives the book a sense of realism. These arent some zombie killers who are tough , emotionless and fearless. These are everyday people who are reacting to their darkest hour. They are people who I could meet on the street or see on the news. Its that realism that really makes this book scary. It could happen, and that would be people I know. I believe the fairy tale and and the scare comes on even worse.
The book is written as a collection of interviews involving eye witnesses and key figures of the zombie war. The idea of a zombie apocalypse is one that always fascinated me( for full details I may make another post) because the way recent zombies and especially these zombies seem almost realistic to the point where I sometimes find myself "planning" for one. And that is one of the great successes with this books, if this virus did exists this is what may happen. This is because the author has a very good understanding of how the world works. Every reaction of the government, economies and families seems very plausible. For example one important event in the zombie war is called Yonkers. This is a battle in which the US government is supposed to win a great victory and to raise the spirits of the country they invite all the press to watch the battle. Of course the battle turns into a fiasco, but just that fact that they have the media seems very real.
I must especially congratulate the author for the wide variety of characters that he has created . There must be at least 100 characters in the novel , and each stand out or at least you dont repeat. One could say that not all of the characters are fresh. We have certainly seen some of these characters, from the grizzled bounty hunter to the strict military leader to the everyday man. But I would actually argue that this is a asset rather than a gripe. While i do agree i have seen or even met people like these characters before , the familiarity gives the book a sense of realism. These arent some zombie killers who are tough , emotionless and fearless. These are everyday people who are reacting to their darkest hour. They are people who I could meet on the street or see on the news. Its that realism that really makes this book scary. It could happen, and that would be people I know. I believe the fairy tale and and the scare comes on even worse.
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