Zomblog 2: What's In A Title?

What's in a title? Sometimes, quite a bit.

Seabrook's The Magic Island reflects the mystical perception outsiders often have towards Haiti. In terms of the section we read, this "magic" manifests the practice of creating Zombies. While the title The Magic Island may sound somewhat whimsical, many would view Haitian Voodoo as having more sinister undertones. This is controversial, but many are repulsed by its conceptions, particularly the drugging and enslavement of the Zombies.

White Zombie to many today, reminds us of the band of the same name. After all, it's just a cool-sounding title. Yet, for those of its day, the title reflected racial and cultural expectations. The only Zombies anyone had ever seen, if any, were Haitians. As such, the title reflects the novelty of a Caucasian Zombie, similar to later films like Blacula relied on the novelty of a black vampire. I Walked With a Zombie similarly reflects the interaction between Haitian and Anglo-American cultures, as the title would, today, not seem quite so shocking.

Finally, Out Of The Tombs is a play on both the emergence of the undead from tombs as well as a piece of popular New York slang, reflecting its locale and subject matter.

All of these titles have one thing in common: they reflect the cultures in which they were written or set.

Zomblog #1: Who Can Join Zombie Club

My Definition(s) of "Zombie"

1. A Haitian folk tale about a walking, semi-dead slave to a Voodoo bokor.
2. A monster used in fiction. Generally, is a mindless reanimated corpse with a ravenous hunger for human flesh. Except for when they're just people infected with viruses and not actually revived corpse. Or when they're not mindless. Or when they don't want to eat people. It's complicated.

These are Vampires, people. V-A-M-P-I-R-E-S

Frankenstein's big bad boy=/=Zombie

Feral Ghoul=Zombie

Generally, I would say as long as they feel like Zombies and not something else entirely (I'm looking at you, Richard Matheson). For example, the Feral Ghouls in Fallout are not undead, merely victims of radiation (or maybe radiation mixed with a government-created virus), but they're appearance, behavior, and in-universe role makes them feel like Zombies. Frankenstein's Monster and his ilk, meanwhile, are reanimated corpses, but they don't feel like Zombies. The Marvel Zombies can speak and have superhuman abilities, but their demeanor, decomposing flesh, and desire to consume the uninfected make them feel like Zombies.

Marvel Zombies=Zombies