Thursday, January 17, 2019

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.

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