Episode 0. Quinn, Stephen, and Bruce are joined by
guest Savvy Woods at the Parish Press Coffee Shop in Ruston, LA, as we discuss the upcoming pilot episode of Fear
the Walking Dead. Unfortunately, the beignet machine was broken, but we persevered.
- We summarize what we know about Fear the Walking Dead.
We discuss the main actors and characters, the setting in Los
Angeles at the very beginning of the epidemic, and speculate
about the year that this could be set. Modern society is
incredibly complex and therefore easily disrupted and possibly
destroyed. - We also discuss The Walking Dead as the first show
set in this universe, both the comic book and the television
show on AMC. In this universe, the monsters aren't
called zombies; they are called walkers or biters. The
pathogen that creates zombies in mysterious; at some point,
people realize everybody is already infected and will
reanimate if they die with their brains intact. - We move back from there to zombies in movie and
television. The White Zombie from 1932
is more closely based on folktales of people who are
controlled by a sorcerer called a bokor.
Oddly
enough, the James Bond movie Live and Let Die in 1973
stuck fairly closely to the traditional folklore, possibly
because it was based on the 1954 book by the same name.
Only this time, the voodoo elements were just a cover for what
the boss was up to.
Night of the Living Dead
introduced the new kind of zombie, one produced by natural
rather than supernatural causes and not controlled by
anybody. These zombies crave human flesh, sometimes
brains. - We end with the earliest zombies, based on African
traditions and developed in Haiti. Voodoo theology held
that the human has various aspects; the bokor could
capture one part of the soul and control the person's body
through it.
The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) was the only
successful revolt by slaves, and many people fled the
violence. A large percentage ended up in New Orleans, which
doubled in size from the migration. The immigrants came
with zombie stories along with the larger voodoo ideas and
spread throughout the south until they made their way to the
broader culture.
