I really enjoyed reading this. Actually, I was pretty excited and disappointed when I finished it so quickly and was left with that cliffhanger! Damn. I'll say that I haven't seen the TV show (except for the first episode), though I heard that Shane lives a lot longer in the show than he does in the book, which is interesting. I may have to start watching the show now (it's on Netflix, right?).
Well now that I've thoroughly sidetracked myself with Netflix, I wanted to talk more about zombies this week, in The Walking Dead and The Zombie Survival Guide, this time. We can see how little they've changed from Night of the Living Dead: they like to snack on people; they're slow; they're not particularly intelligent; they tend form big groups; they make moaning sounds; and they like to snack on people. Despite being further described and expanded upon, zombies are pretty much the same as they were in their first movie appearance.
I really liked the point in The Walking Dead where Glenn and Rick go into the city to find guns and rub zombie goo all over themselves to mask their scent. This reveals to us that zombies sense humans by scent rather than sight (makes sense what with their dead-looking eyes and whatnot). That scene where they were walking with a shopping cart through the horde of zombies freaked me out -- I was just waiting for something to happen that made the zombies to realize they were humans and for all hell to break loose, and of course it did. Had me on the edge of my seat. Bed. Whatever. Anyway, I think it's interesting how there are inconsistencies between sources -- The Walking Dead establishes that zombies hunt by scent, while The Zombie Survival Guide says they do it through all of their senses, or they're not really sure. Of course, these differences are because there's no actual official Zombie, just everybody's individual take and spin on the stereotypical zombie.
I can relate to you on the whole edge of the bed thing. I actually read The Walking Dead the morning before class and was glad it was a quick read but I was honestly disappointed by the time I finished. Not because it was a bad book, but because it was over. I think the end was sort of disappointing though because all we know is that Shane is killed but we don't know anything about what happens to the rest of the group or if anyone else dies. Then again, its just the first volume so I might start watching the show also. I think the most important thing to take from this book was the whole tradition versus adaptability thing. While Shane was the one clinging to tradition, Rick was the one who realized things were changing so they had to move away from the government instead of sitting there and hoping they would be saved. Since they ended up going with Shane's idea, Jim ended up dead.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this too. I am usually not a huge fan of zombie stories, but this one was actually very good. I also like the part where Rick and Glenn cover themselves in zombie goo. I thought that was a very good idea because it would mask their scent. I always thought zombies hunted by scent so this is a great way to disguise themselves.
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