At a generalisation, vampire fiction is left-wing (bloodsucking elites preying on humanity), zombie fiction is right-wing (“the peasants are revolting!”)
that is not zombie fiction. what zombie fiction is depicting it like that?
the george romero stuff were about consumerism and brainless shoppers mindlessly spending on crap. the dead rising series (spoilers here) literally has the bad guy be a corporation and the us government and military are complacent in it (the corporation even has an actual cure for zombies but that doesnt make them money like their once a day doses)
also zombies are basically what humans are to animals. seemingly never getting tired and always slowly catching up to you
Vampire fiction being leftwing tracks, but zombie fiction being rightwing doesn’t seem as clear-cut. There’s definitely a “finally I get to be a real man doing survival-stuff and justifiably kill humanoid beings with personal weapons” aspect to it that feels rightwing, but there’s also all the anti-consumerist and anti-corporation themes that are common to zombie fiction.
That’s one reading. Another reading is that vampires are bloodsucking foreigners using their exotic charms to tempt and corrupt innocent women into sinful acts. And if a foreign noble is a vampire, then it’s justified for America the heroes to depose them. Plus, they found a novel way to weaponise Christianity.
That’s right. Doctor Frankenstein was his father and creator.
It would be rude to refer to the good doctor without the honorific, so it stands to reason if someone mentions “Frankenstien,” they are talking about the monster.
IIRC, when he creates the being (who is obviously also called Frankenstein due to being Frankenstein’s son), he is a university student in the Mary Shelley book. Definitely not a PhD or medicine practitioner.
It’s quite a stretch to say that stitching together some corpses and reanimating the result means the creature is obviously your son and given your surname. If that were the case it would have been specified in the book, and it is not. The creature didn’t even like his creator, so why would he want to be named after him?
You’re correct about his title, though - he was not a doctor in the book.
Antinatalist maybe? The monster didn’t ask to be born into a world that hates him because they find him ugly, his creator denies him what he views as his only chance at happiness by refusing to make a wife for him, he ultimately kills a bunch of people and then himself because he’s angry at humanity… oh god, is the monster the original incel???
I feel like I’ve seen a few zombie movies that are critiques of consumerism and unthinking conformist politics, which are not typically conservative themes.
But it’s not my preferred genre so I haven’t seen many.
I have never ever heard of anyone interpreting zombie fiction as right wing. Like, just look at Night of the Living Dead. Actually, is any zombie movie even marginally right-wing? Zombieland?
I started on the comic before the show and then I realised how much there was and gave up.
But isn’t The Walking Dead more about the bad things that people do to each other? Power corrupts, lack of accountability makes for a crueler society, that kind of thing? When circumstances make people desperate maybe you shouldn’t exploit that? And it would actually be better if we could change circumstances so people weren’t desperate?
Edit: but Rick is also a dickhead right? So I guess if you’re a dickhead and see a dickhead protagonist then you might feel validated.
This sounds like something that was made up post-hoc because it sounds good. I have yet to run into a zombie story where they talk about how great traditional gender roles are, or a vampire story where they talk about taking control of the means of production. They are just stories. There is no reason that they need to be inherently political - much less to run along the particular political lines we have in society today.
We could even make the case that the opposite is true - the most common trope I know of in vampire stories is feeling sympathy for the vampire when they have their monologue about how hard vampiring is. And the most common trope in Zombie movies is that the people need to work together, be honest, and sacrifice for each other in order to overcome the hoard.
I watched Night of the Living Dead (1968) on Halloween and was surprised that the black guy was the only one portrayed as competent. I suppose part of the surprise was due to me assuming the movie was even older than that (1950s) because it wasn’t in color. (Then again, maybe they could do that because it was a horror movie and it just made it extra-scary for racists, LOL)
The “traditional gender roles” trope was definitely fully in play, though: the men fortified the house against the zombies while the women mostly sat around being useless, if not counterproductive.
Horror has always been a genre ripe for pushing social boundaries, and there’s been a lot of critical analysis about Night of the Living Dead as a critique on the Cold War and racism. So you’re not picking up on nothing, that was a purposeful casting and writing decision.
This sounds like something that was made up post-hoc because it sounds good. I have yet to run into a zombie story where they talk about how great traditional gender roles are, or a vampire story where they talk about taking control of the means of production
Vampires are classically allegories about scary foreigners spreading diseases and sexual immorality. See Stoker’s Dracula and Le Fanu’s Carmilla for the Ur-examples. There is, however, a really good modern reading of Dracula as healthy queer polyamory vs toxic polygamy. And Carmella is the inspiration for many of the canonical works of lesbian literature.
Eh. It’s true that Dracula was a scary foreigner, but he was also nobility, and most subsequent vampire works definitely lean into the nobility aspect instead of the foreigner aspect. Debaucherous nobility is a common theme in works that deal with non-monstrous aristocrats, too.
Vampires are anti-nobility allegories! Dracula is a vampire because he is a count.
At a generalisation, vampire fiction is left-wing (bloodsucking elites preying on humanity), zombie fiction is right-wing (“the peasants are revolting!”)
that is not zombie fiction. what zombie fiction is depicting it like that?
the george romero stuff were about consumerism and brainless shoppers mindlessly spending on crap. the dead rising series (spoilers here) literally has the bad guy be a corporation and the us government and military are complacent in it (the corporation even has an actual cure for zombies but that doesnt make them money like their once a day doses)
also zombies are basically what humans are to animals. seemingly never getting tired and always slowly catching up to you
Vampire fiction being leftwing tracks, but zombie fiction being rightwing doesn’t seem as clear-cut. There’s definitely a “finally I get to be a real man doing survival-stuff and justifiably kill humanoid beings with personal weapons” aspect to it that feels rightwing, but there’s also all the anti-consumerist and anti-corporation themes that are common to zombie fiction.
you forget the queer side of vampire left wing stories. which focus on horny lesbians rather than class issues.
I thought all vampires were sexy
https://youtu.be/iXpxnxAL62A
That’s one reading. Another reading is that vampires are bloodsucking foreigners using their exotic charms to tempt and corrupt innocent women into sinful acts. And if a foreign noble is a vampire, then it’s justified for
Americathe heroes to depose them. Plus, they found a novel way to weaponise Christianity.What does that make Frankenstein?
A doctor, didn’t you read the book?
Frankenstein is the monster
That’s right. Doctor Frankenstein was his father and creator.
It would be rude to refer to the good doctor without the honorific, so it stands to reason if someone mentions “Frankenstien,” they are talking about the monster.
Good doctor? No, he was evil, he was the real monster. His creature is the victim
He wasn’t a doctor in the book.
He never got a PhD. Neurotypical screeching.
No, he wasn’t. He dropped out. Didn’t you read the book?
IIRC, when he creates the being (who is obviously also called Frankenstein due to being Frankenstein’s son), he is a university student in the Mary Shelley book. Definitely not a PhD or medicine practitioner.
It’s quite a stretch to say that stitching together some corpses and reanimating the result means the creature is obviously your son and given your surname. If that were the case it would have been specified in the book, and it is not. The creature didn’t even like his creator, so why would he want to be named after him?
You’re correct about his title, though - he was not a doctor in the book.
Deontology in engineering and applied sciences fiction
Antinatalist maybe? The monster didn’t ask to be born into a world that hates him because they find him ugly, his creator denies him what he views as his only chance at happiness by refusing to make a wife for him, he ultimately kills a bunch of people and then himself because he’s angry at humanity… oh god, is the monster the original incel???
I feel like I’ve seen a few zombie movies that are critiques of consumerism and unthinking conformist politics, which are not typically conservative themes.
But it’s not my preferred genre so I haven’t seen many.
I have never ever heard of anyone interpreting zombie fiction as right wing. Like, just look at Night of the Living Dead. Actually, is any zombie movie even marginally right-wing? Zombieland?
Walking Dead certainly satisfies those gun nut fantasies.
I started on the comic before the show and then I realised how much there was and gave up.
But isn’t The Walking Dead more about the bad things that people do to each other? Power corrupts, lack of accountability makes for a crueler society, that kind of thing? When circumstances make people desperate maybe you shouldn’t exploit that? And it would actually be better if we could change circumstances so people weren’t desperate?
Edit: but Rick is also a dickhead right? So I guess if you’re a dickhead and see a dickhead protagonist then you might feel validated.
This sounds like something that was made up post-hoc because it sounds good. I have yet to run into a zombie story where they talk about how great traditional gender roles are, or a vampire story where they talk about taking control of the means of production. They are just stories. There is no reason that they need to be inherently political - much less to run along the particular political lines we have in society today.
We could even make the case that the opposite is true - the most common trope I know of in vampire stories is feeling sympathy for the vampire when they have their monologue about how hard vampiring is. And the most common trope in Zombie movies is that the people need to work together, be honest, and sacrifice for each other in order to overcome the hoard.
Those are dragon movies. It’s dragons that hoard things.
Any dragon who would hoard zombies has got to have their self-esteem in the shitter.
At least they last longer than peasants as toys for the brood, and the peasants wind up smelling the same in the end anyway
I watched Night of the Living Dead (1968) on Halloween and was surprised that the black guy was the only one portrayed as competent. I suppose part of the surprise was due to me assuming the movie was even older than that (1950s) because it wasn’t in color. (Then again, maybe they could do that because it was a horror movie and it just made it extra-scary for racists, LOL)
The “traditional gender roles” trope was definitely fully in play, though: the men fortified the house against the zombies while the women mostly sat around being useless, if not counterproductive.
Horror has always been a genre ripe for pushing social boundaries, and there’s been a lot of critical analysis about Night of the Living Dead as a critique on the Cold War and racism. So you’re not picking up on nothing, that was a purposeful casting and writing decision.
What an incredible oversimplification. Im in awe
I’m pretty sure it was something like “Dracula doesn’t have a castle because he’s a vampire. He has a castle because he’s a Count.”
If this is annoying and pedantic, I apologize. For whatever reason, the original post isn’t displaying for me.
Vampires are classically allegories about scary foreigners spreading diseases and sexual immorality. See Stoker’s Dracula and Le Fanu’s Carmilla for the Ur-examples. There is, however, a really good modern reading of Dracula as healthy queer polyamory vs toxic polygamy. And Carmella is the inspiration for many of the canonical works of lesbian literature.
Eh. It’s true that Dracula was a scary foreigner, but he was also nobility, and most subsequent vampire works definitely lean into the nobility aspect instead of the foreigner aspect. Debaucherous nobility is a common theme in works that deal with non-monstrous aristocrats, too.