I think I’ve been going about this Zombie thing all wrong. The first sign of trouble was when a trusted colleague revealed a dislike of Zombies. He didn’t get the relevance. After all, they are not ‘the other’ so much as they are dead things without the good manners to lie down. There are far better metaphors for ‘the other’–Aliens, mutants, sociopathic gang bangers, werewolves, etc. So, why use an essentially hollow metaphorical shell?
Because it is the hollowness that defines the argument.
I’ve come to see zombies as a metaphor for the craving we all, at one time, feel for something that is missing in our lives. We can become consumed by that craving and forget ourselves entirely until that craving is satisfied. However, as zombies tell us, that craving has no end. They want brains, but we may want fame, or wealth, or love, or passion, or belonging. Most of us can control the urges for what we crave, but what if we couldn’t? What if all of us thought about nothing but the craving? We’d be zombies soullessly searching for the thing that satisfies us but realizing that there is never enough of what we want to satisfy us.
Its a nascent theory, but I believe it has legs.