Immortality of Zombies

 

With zombie sightings rising quickly over the weekend, I tried to calm myself by contacting some undead experts.

Joshua Blu Buhs is a scholar of America’s occult fears and obsessions, who wrote an insightful book about Big Foot a few years ago. (No, seriously.) He tells me that Americans first became interested in zombies in the late 19th century, and then again during the Depression when Bela Lugosi starred in “The White Zombie.” Once George Romero unearthed the putrid hordes for “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968, they’ve never stopped running around pop culture.

“But the loving and lovable zombie is a new addition,” Buhs says, referring to the recent novels “Zombie, Ohio,” “My So Called Death” and “Warm Bodies,” which was made into a movie this year. “They’re following in the steps of vampires, which have, of course, become very sexy.” What are you trying to tell me, Josh? “The line between zombies and us has been eroded: They is we, and we is they. And so events arise in which we play at being them: zombie walks and zombie races.”

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