Overview

When humankind faces what it perceives as a threat to its very existence, a macabre thing happens in art, literature, and culture: corpses begin to stand up and walk around. The dead walked in the fourteenth century, when the Black Death and other catastrophes roiled Europe. They walked in images from World War I, when a generation died horribly in the trenches. They walked in art inspired by the Holocaust and by the atomic attacks on Japan. Now, in the early twenty-first century, the dead walk in stories of the zombie apocalypse, some of the most ubiquitous narratives of post-9/11 Western culture. Zombies appear in popular movies and television shows, comics and graphic novels, fiction, games, art, and in material culture including pinball machines, zombie runs, and lottery tickets. The zombie apocalypse, Greg Garrett shows us, has become an archetypal narrative for the contemporary world, in part because zombies can stand in for any of a variety of global threats, from terrorism to Ebola, from economic uncertainty to ecological destruction. But this zombie narrative also brings us emotional and spiritual comfort. These apocalyptic stories, in which the world has been turned upside down and protagonists face the prospect of an imminent and grisly death, can also offer us wisdom about living in a community, present us with real-world ethical solutions, and invite us into conversation about the value and costs of survival. We may indeed be living with the living dead these days, but through the stories we consume and the games we play, we are paradoxically learning what it means to be fully alive.

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9780190260453

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Reviews

Erudite and absorbing. ... More than just a survival guide, this book considers the literary, cinematic and theological history of the zombie - the vast popularity of the genre, and the extraordinary range of meanings and anxieties that zombies have incarnated over the years. * Sam Leith, The Spectator * Greg Garrett approaches this subject with great insight, intelligence, and sensitivity. The result is a well-researched but highly personal book that makes you feel like you're having a captivating philosophical discussion about life with a very wise and learned friend. Despite-or because of-its subject matter, it's a very human book. * Mark Protosevich, screenwriter of I Am Legend * Omnivorously researched, Garrett's book includes references to Cormac McCarthy, Dawn of the Dead and its remake, Game of Thrones, and the New Testament, among others. Zombies, it seems, are everywhere, and the 'zombie apocalypse' narrative is the perfect metaphor for life as we know it today: transitioning 'from one state to the other, a movement so shocking that we often stand ... mouths wide open, simultaneously marveling and horrified at the changes taking place.' Garrett's writing is as mesmerizing, and as he fleshes out his case, drawing new connections, Living With The Living Dead becomes impossible to put down. With a voracious appetite for pop culture, Garrett establishes himself as a bold new voice in the nonfiction genre. * Claire Foster, Foreword Reviews * Garrett's accessible and insightful inquiry into our zombie zeitgeist finds surprising depth in a theme usually dismissed as simple entertainment. * Publishers Weekly *

Garrett's accessible and insightful inquiry into our zombie zeitgeist finds surprising depth in a theme usually dismissed as simple entertainment. Publishers Weekly

Garrett's accessible and insightful inquiry into our zombie zeitgeist finds surprising depth in a theme usually dismissed as simple entertainment. * Publishers Weekly *

Author Information

Greg Garrett is Professor of English at Baylor University, where he teaches classes in fiction and screenwriting, literature, film and popular culture, and theology. Dr. Garrett is also Theologian in Residence at the American Cathedral in Paris and a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church. The author or co-author of twenty books of fiction, nonfiction, and memoir, Dr. Garrett is (according to BBC Radio), one of America's leading voices on religion and culture, and a frequent speaker and media guest on narrative, religion, politics, literature, and pop culture. He lives with his family in Austin, Texas.

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