Week Seven: World War Z

With all the hype over zombies recently, it was only inevitable they’d pop up in my readings. This week, the zombies are courtesy of Max Brooks’ novel World War Z. You might have heard of it. It was recently the inspiration for a movie starring some guy called Brad Pitt. It only grossed over $500 million and a sequel’s in the works. No big deal. I haven't seen it.

Anyway…

The book was on my to-read list for a while. One of my coworkers is nearly obsessed with it he loves it so much. I was excited to read it because of how much said coworker loves it—we have similar taste in movies and video games, so I thought maybe we have similar taste in books too.

I might’ve broken his heart when I told him I wasn’t a big fan of the novel.

I really wanted to like this book. I've always found the idea of zombies interesting, and like so many people, thanks to the impending 2012 zombie apocalypse that never happened, I had a plan on how to survive the outbreak (hide out in Cabela's with all the weapons and ammo. Walmart is next door for all everyday essentials Cabela's doesn't have and a state police barracks is across the street for additional weapon supplies).

But when I read this book shortly after watching the first two seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix, my reactions to the monsters wasn't anything to write home about. They’re brainless, just acting on survival instinct. Yes, they’re practically indestructible, but most monsters are. At first, I thought the main reason people were so scared of them or fascinated by them was the possibility of being bitten and “dying.” Again, that’s true of most, if not all, monsters—death is typically the outcome when dealing with beasties.

If nothing else, World War Z helped me realize that people are more afraid of the mass fear, chaos, and anarchy a zombie outbreak would bring rather than the zombies themselves. Yes, zombies kill people, but that’s their job and their only driving force. They don’t have the ability to be cold, calculating killers. I personally find a monster who plots more frightening than one who acts solely on instinct.

No matter my personal preference, the driving force of World War Z is the question of how would the world react to a global zombie outbreak. Brooks did a solid job mapping out the events of the zombie war and linking them. He explored the what-if? factor of a world flung out of its comfort zone forced to react to a debilitating horror and rebuild once the threat was controlled. I give him full marks for that. The amount of planning Brooks had to do to create an entire war shows, and the book wouldn't have been half as successful if he wasn't a thorough planner. Details that never crossed my mind, like how dogs could aid in the detection of zombies, he included.

The novel’s structure is also unique. The story of the zombie war is told through interviews with people throughout the world. On one hand, using the interview structure was a clever way for Brooks to show how widespread his zombie war truly was, and how any person no matter their sex, race, or creed was affected.

On the other hand, this structure didn’t work for me at all. I need a character or two to connect with while I’m reading. They could be the scum of the earth, but just so long as I empathize with them, I want to know what happens to them. Because of the interview style, I never had a chance to truly care about any character. I couldn’t remember their names at the end of their sections. So while almost every interview was packed with information that made me think, “Whoa, okay, that’s intense,” I still felt detached. It was sterile, like reading a newspaper, which seems like an easy problem to have when using the interview style.

As for the zombies themselves, they weren’t reinvented in World War Z. They were infected and could pass the virus onto a healthy person via a bite or any bodily fluid making its way into the uninfected. They were fast if they had their legs, for all intents and purposes dead, and the only way to kill them was to destroy the brain. These zombies were able to survive just about anything, including total and prolonged submersion in salt water. They were bad-ass for their near-indestructibility.

But I don’t think the zombies were the true monster in the story. Like I said before, this book helped me to see that the underlying fear of a zombie apocalypse goes beyond the superficial fear of the zombies themselves. The zombie war caused daily life to change. Most household technology was rendered useless. There was no more gas to run cars. Those with desk jobs no longer had desks to work at and had to learn trades. Also like I've said before, Brooks is thorough with his details. I read the fear of change on a global scale and the subsequent chaos to be the true monster of the story. Humans can be adaptable when they need to be, so the monster is vanquished when the zombies are controlled and there’s global rebuilding to accommodate a world where the dead walk.

While World War Z was successful in some ways, it didn't resonate with me. I’m no more afraid of a possible zombie apocalypse than I was before I started reading. A part of me is curious to see how the book translates on film. Maybe one of these days I’ll watch it. If nothing else, I hope Cabela's never closes so my zombie survival plan isn't rendered moot. Just in case.