Zombies and mnemonics
01/09/2007 . Source: Mark R. Leeper 
There was an article in the February, 2007, edition of Reason magazine, notes Mark, a well-known libertarian periodical, on horror movies about flesh-eating zombies. Reason is a somewhat respected outlet of libertarian views. Now having Reason magazine writing about flesh-eating zombie movies is itself a little surprising. Reason probably is more a place you would look for political statements and not a place one generally would look for discussion of films about flesh-eating zombies, even if freedom from death is the ultimate libertarianism. Buy Zombies in the USA - or Buy Zombies in the UK  I wrote about I AM LEGEND in the 07/20/07 issue of the MT VOID and the numerical mnemonic technique in the 07/27/07 issue. I have follow-ups on both of those editorials.
There was an article in the February, 2007, edition of REASON magazine, a well-known libertarian periodical, on horror movies about flesh-eating zombies. REASON is a somewhat respected outlet of libertarian views. Now having REASON magazine writing about flesh-eating zombie movies is itself a little surprising. REASON probably is more a place you would look for political statements and not a place one generally would look for discussion of films about flesh-eating zombies, even if freedom from death is the ultimate libertarianism.
Tim Cavanaugh, who wrote the article, was talking about the political implications of these films. And certainly there are some zombie films that do make some political jabs. This is a tradition going back to THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. That was one of the first popular films to have a black hero. I have seen it interpreted that the ending of that film is a comment about racism, though I would more have interpreted it as a statement against vigilantism.
But even with REASON's fact checking this article got some of the facts wrong. The article assumes that this newly invented monster, called "the zombie" is a variant on the traditional voodoo zombie. In fact, its origins are with the vampire and not to the zombie.
The article attributes the origins of the flesh-eating creature in current horror films to William Seabrook's sensationalist accounts of voodoo in Haiti. Films like WHITE ZOMBIE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, and KING OF THE ZOMBIES were indeed inspired by the Seabrook accounts. But there was never a suggestion that these zombies in any way fed on humans. In fact they were not particularly monstrous, except from the fact that they had come back from the dead and had eyes like a dead people.
Nobody likes the idea of people returning from the dead. But the voodoo zombies were not really threatening. Seabrook zombies were just a cheap and rather odious form of inexpensive labor. Zombies were people called back from the dead as cheap plantation workers. They came across the border between life and death to take the jobs that the living did not want. They were obedient to the commands of someone controlling them.
However, the flesh-eating so-called zombie films takes its origins from the film THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Romero did not call his voracious, dead creatures zombies. He just called them simply "the dead." But Italian releases inaccurately introduced the word "zombie" to describe them. . DAWN OF THE DEAD was released in Italy as ZOMBI. I don't know where they got that name from, but that was where the whole connection with zombies was formed. Perhaps aiding the misconception is the fact that Romero's dead seem considerably less alert and bright than Dracula does and move more like zombies do.
Then Lucio Fulci made a sequel called ZOMBI 2, which was released in the United States as ZOMBIE. Since then Italy, the United States, and Britain then made what must be dozens of these films because the concept was effective and the budget required was very modest. Put just about anybody in an old suit and have them put on a slack jawed expression and they make a very effective flesh-eating zombie. The films were a good investment.
But George Romero has said his inspiration for THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was from the Italian film THE LAST MAN ON EARTH by Ubaldo Ragona. That film was based on Richard Matheson's novel I AM LEGEND. That was the film I discussed in the 07/20/07 issue of the MT VOID in which there is a new pandemic plague that only seems to be fatal. Its victims appear to be dead but are only metamorphosing into a state that is much like that of the traditional vampire. Matheson takes many of the characteristics of vampires in Bram Stoker's DRACULA and explains them in scientific terms. But the main character in the film, Robert Morgan (Robert Neville in the novel), is besieged by hordes of vampires (or something much like them).
So there is more of DRACULA and much more of I AM LEGEND in the origins of the flesh-eating zombie than there is of William Seabrook's Haitian voodoo zombies. Don't believe everything you read in REASON magazine.
Now, for the other follow-up: Just before I left for my Canada vacation I wrote a piece on the mnemonic system I use to memorize numbers; this piece appeared in the 07/27/07 issue. It turned out to be quite useful once again. In Canada, of course, they measure temperatures in centigrade. Given a temperature in centigrade I would want to quickly convert to Fahrenheit so I would know if a forecast of 32 degrees was terrible or pleasant. I know 0C is 32F. What would be useful is to know the last two digits of the Fahrenheit temperature for 10C, 20C, ..., 50C. I can take it from there interpolating the approximate temperature.
10C = 50F
20C = 68F
30C = 86F
40C = 104F
50C = 122F
For those who remember the technique I outlined for memorizing numbers (or review it at ), a phrase to remember is, "Less Jiffy Fudge; sorry, Nan." The word "less" has an "L" sound which gives us a 5 and an "S" sound which gives us a 0. So "Less" translates to 50.
Less translates to 50F.
Jiffy translates to 68F.
Fudge translates to 86F.
Sorry translates to 04F (which I translate to 104).
Nan translates to 22F (which I translate to 122).
That translates the tens digit. The ones digits I just double and add. (This is not precise, of course.)
For example: 32C is (30+2)C or about 30C+4F which translates to 86F+4F or about 90F.
Got that? Simple, huh? Well, it is with a little practice.
Mark R. Leeper
(c) Mark R. Leeper 2007 |
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