I love disaster movies. I'll watch the cheesy ones ("Independence Day" and "I Am Legend"), and I'll watch the good ones ("28 Days Later," "Deep Impact" and "The Day After Tomorrow").
The more realistic the better is typically my barometer for enjoyment, which is why the zombie genre never did much for me. Historically, I've steered away from the "Land of the Dead" type movies, and horror movies in general, who's only redeeming factors are gore and the element of surprise.
But over a bonfire last year, a co-worker told me about this audio book he'd been listening to called "The Zombie Survival Guide." It "realistically" and methodically laid out how to defend oneself and wage war against an undead attack.
Having recently seen "28 Days Later," then its sequel, "28 Weeks Later," I found myself thinking: Maybe a zombie attack, in some way shape or form, is within the realm of possibility. I mean, I know it's not. But when I started listening to Max Brooks' "The Zombie Survival Guide," I began to let my mind wander.
Brooks, the son of Mel Brooks, painstakingly explains the physiology of the "solanum" virus. He explains civilization's best choice of weapons, vehicles, tools and battle strategies. He discusses class one, two, three and four zombie outbreaks, the final comprising a terrifying chapter called "Living in an undead world."
The book is funny, but not "funny ha ha." It's so dry and serious that it's easy to forget it's a work of science fiction. Especially in the section that chronicles the documented zombie attacks through history. It's sophisticated and well-researched enough that it could almost be convincing.
I started listening to Brooks' follow-up audio book on a trip up north this weekend. It's called "World War Z," and it's an "oral history of the Zombie War." Set a few years into the future, Brooks brings in some of his dad's friends to do the voice acting, including Rob and Carl Reiner and Alan Alda. Add Henry Rollins and Mark Hamill in there, and the book is both compelling and exciting.
I'm not finished yet, but I'm definitely a little edgy right now. I've had a few zombie-inspired dreams lately, and while my co-workers make fun of me for saying so, I insist (95 percent jokingly) that it could happen.
Maybe that's why I like these books and movies. While I spent way too much time pondering the likelihood of a meteor strike after seeing "Deep Impact," and I mentally began planning my exodus to the equator after watching "The Day After Tomorrow," I'm reasonably certain that an attack of the undead is out of the question.
Reasonably certain, but not positive.
Laugh if you will, but if and when the dead reanimate, I'll know just what to do.
I think I'm just a bit of a closet survivalist. No, I don't have a stockpile of guns and canned food, but every now and then, I daydream about living off the grid. But that daydream stops when I realize I don't know how to hunt or to fish or build a fire in the pouring rain.
Still, zombie lore is fun ... scary fun. Too ridiculous to take seriously, but just plausible enough to keep the possibility of World War Z in the back of my head.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
