The Last Zombie

The first time I ever saw NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD I was bitten as surely by Romero's vision as the characters had been by the zombies stalking them. The concept of the recently dead rising from oblivion to a kind of un-life with an unquenchable desire to kill and eat the living...it was brilliant. Yes, there had been movie and fiction zombies before Romero's seminal film, but never like those! Romero's zombies were a stroke of horror genius. There is a great reason they have had this long life in popular film and fiction.

I had wanted to write zombie novels for years. I had plotted them out in my mind and never proceeded beyond jotting some notes because I figured...who the hell was going to buy a zombie novel? It just wasn't done!

Yes, there had been some zombie novels when I was thinking of the idea, but they were adaptations of the Romero films, or sequels to those films (such as John Russo's excellent RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD which preceded the film of the same name but which was a direct sequel to the events in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD). Finally, a few zombie novels popped up, but they were rare and the only one that did exceptionally well was Phil Nutman's WET WORK.

But I kept fiddling with the concept and eventually decided to write a short story dealing with zombies--"The New Ecology of Death", which I then adapted to comic script format and sold to Stephen R. Bissette's TABOO.

Then, with the appearance of print-on-demand and self-publishing, there was an explosion of zombie novels. Thousands of them. I am not exaggerating--THOUSANDS! So I decided to give it a shot, intentionally avoiding the pitfalls that I had noticed in longer zombie fiction: thinly veiled racism.

To me, zombie fiction was effective because it was classic paranoid fantasy. Along the lines of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS or THE PUPPET MASTERS or I AM LEGEND (from which the idea for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD bled out). But I'd never looked upon it as a cover for racist ideas and dogma. So, naively, I followed the zombie phenomena and pursued my own zombie novel (THE LIVING END), while trying to make contact with zombie writers and fans while I worked on that book.

And it was with some great shock that I realized that a huge number of zombie fans are right wing gun nuts and racists. And a large portion of the folk writing zombie fiction were right wing gun nuts and racists. It should have occurred to me before reading the comments on zombie fiction chat boards and following links from people posting--so many of which led back to gun-crazies and white supremacist websites. Then, out of curiosity, I decided to look up THE TURNER DIARIES an overtly racist novel. And it was obvious to me that there's not the thickness of a lizard's whisker's difference in that hate speech and most zombie novels.

Reading that racist piece of shit I recognized in it the plots of most of the zombie novels I'd ever seen or read. Instead of killing zombies, the "heroes" of that ignorant, hateful poison kill Jews and black folk and race-traitors. So it was easy to suddenly see why so many right wing extremists were attracted to zombie fiction.

Gun-crazed racists.

 
I did my best to create zombie stories that--while deeply rooted in the tradition of paranoid fantasy--were not infected with the kind of racism that makes so many zombie novels uncomfortably popular.

The zombie fad seems, at last, to be fading. I hope it has run its course like the zombie disease that features so prominently in most of the books about that particular monster. But I worry about the real monsters who wander among us...the gun-crazed racists who so adore the thousands of poorly-conceived, poorly written, poorly camouflaged racist books.

THE NEW ECOLOGY OF DEATH.

Bob Swims with the Fishes

My all-time favorite first magnitude spring in Florida is Salt Springs. Once privately owned, the state of Florida now claims ownership and it's a public recreation area and is part of the Ocala National Forest with access for everyone. Thanks goodness for our state and federal governments. If not for the Federal government, private concerns would either destroy or lock up all of the great places in our nation. If you love corporations and hate the government, fuck you on toast. You Tea Party, Republican Party, Libertarian Party, and Objectivist jerks can all kiss my happy white ass.

Although it's far from the ocean, the fresh water upwelling from deep in the earth passes through some highly mineralized strata and emerges in a relatively salty state. It's not as salty as sea water, but it's definitely not fresh water as we generally define it.

Because of the mineral content, plants and animals that one does not associate with fresh water are present in the spring and its run. Sea weeds fill the basin and are home to things like blue crab and ocean-going mullet. Just swimming around and looking at creatures like crabs, mullet, and pipefish is a wondrous thing in this place where one does not expect to see them.

The day we went the weather was pretty much picture-perfect. The air was warm, the water was beautiful, and the skies were bright and sunny. After a normal amount of time in the springs, Carole and Andy were ready to head out. But I couldn't be budged. I have never before, nor since, had so much fun swimming and snorkeling in a spring. I've floated in some amazing first magnitude springs, but this one was unique. I just couldn't get enough of it.

Finally, though, as the day was wearing on, I had to admit that we needed to head back to our campsite. Reluctantly I climbed out, dried off, and we pointed the truck back to the Juniper Springs Recreation Area where we were camped.

View looking back toward the head of the spring. (Click to enlarge.)

As spring runs go, this is a short one. It flows almost directly into the river and then down toward Lake George.

A school of mullet finds salty refuge in the spring. They were everywhere, swimming peacefully with the other fishes, and with me.

Good old Bob swimming directly over the main spring vent. Below me were all sorts of saltwater plants and animals. The blue crabs in here were absolutely enormous (no fishing or crabbing allowed).

Roughly about the time Carole was expecting me to get out of the spring and think about heading back to our travel trailer. Fuck that.

The more she wanted me out, the more I refused.

"Come and get me, copper!" said the overgrown kid.

Well, we're headed down toward the western panhandle of Florida. We're planning to explore some new springs, rivers, and parks. I'll try to post as I can.