Our discussion in class today got me thinking about zombies, besides the fact that I had no idea that people thought so much about zombies, I also found it interesting just how much they have permeated contemporary culture.  I found this article online and felt its discussion of the relation between consumerism and debt linked to a fascination with zombies in popular culture was similar to the theories we addressed in class.  In the article Fred Botting, a critical theory professor at Kingston University, compares interest in vampires vs. interest in zombies.  A few years back when the world was reeling from the financial meltdown of ’09 vampires seemed to be everywhere, Botting argues that this is because Vampires are linked to desire.  In times of crisis there are measures of austerity in place, it is difficult for most people to fulfill their consumer desires because there was a lack of credit. So, because of this people attached their desires to the insatiable desire of the fantasy figure of the vampire.  Now that the financial crisis is over and people have begun consuming again there is an increased interest in the Zombie. Botting describes the zombie as a  fictional figure that represents debt that will not die, like the zombie the credit market has developed into a perpetual cycle of debt that carries on without thought.  There is no escape and the world just keeps getting further and further into debt.  By developing a shared fear of the zombie, as is evident in the CDC’s zombie preparedness page, it re-directs the anxiety attached to the seemingly uncontrollable economic market to something less real and threatening.  It’s more fun to be afraid of a zombie attack than of another recession.

Fred Botting. “Undead-Ends: Zombie Debt/Zombie Theory.” Postmodern Culture 23.3 (2013). Project MUSE. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.