The Lessons of Zombie-Mania
By any observable metric, zombies are totally hot right now. Look at movies like 'Warm Bodies' and the coming 'World War Z', the ratings for AMC's hit series 'The Walking Dead' (12.9 million viewers for its recent season finale) and $2.5 billion in annual sales for zombie video games. Over the past decade, between a third and a half of all zombie movies ever made have been released. A glance at Google Trends reveals that in the past few years, interest in flesh-eating ghouls has far outstripped popular enthusiasm for vampires, wizards and hobbits.
无论按哪种可衡量的标准，僵尸题材在眼下都算得上绝对的热门。看看《血肉之躯》(Warm Bodies)和即将上映的《僵尸世界大战》(World War Z)等电影、AMC电视台热播连续剧《行尸走肉》(The Walking Dead)的收视率（其最近播出的完结季吸引了1,290万名观众）以及僵尸题材电子游戏每年高达25亿美元的销售额吧。过去十年间上映的僵尸电影占到了所有此类题材影片的三分之一到一半。稍加浏览谷歌趋势(Google Trends)就会发现，过去几年间大众
对食肉的食尸鬼的兴趣已经远远超过了对吸血鬼、巫师和霍比特人的兴趣。
Why are the living dead taking over our lives, and why have so many other domains of American culture, from architects to academics to departments of the federal government, been so eager to jump on this macabre bandwagon? Is it all just good, scary fun─or something we should worry about?
为什么我们的生活会被僵尸占据？为什么从建筑、学术到联邦政府各部的如此多的美国文化领域那么急切地赶着这股恐怖潮流？它是完全无害的恐怖乐趣还是我们应当担心的事情？
First we have to appreciate why zombies are so terrifying. The classic ghoul of George Romero films seems awfully slow and plodding. But what the living dead lack in speed, they make up for in other qualities. Zombies occupy what roboticists and animators call 'the uncanny valley' in human perception─though decidedly not human, they are so close to being human that they prompt instant revulsion. Another common feature of zombie narratives is that 100% of the people bitten by zombies eventually turn into zombies. Eve
n the most virulent pathogens encountered in the real world (say, Ebola or HIV) have infection rates below 50%.
首先，我们得了解僵尸为什么如此让人害怕。乔治•罗梅罗(George Romero)影片中的经典食尸鬼形象看起来极其迟钝缓慢，不过僵尸在速度方面的缺陷被他们其他方面的特质所弥补。他们在人类感知领域中处于被机器人学家和动画师称为“恐怖谷”(the uncanny valley)的区域──尽管他们绝非人类，但他们又非常接近人类，所以能够立即招致强烈反感。僵尸故事另一个共同的特点是被僵尸咬过的人最终百分之百都变成了僵尸。而人类在现实生活中遇到的即便是最具传染性的病原菌（比如说埃博拉病毒或艾滋病病毒）的传染率也不到50%。
These qualities matter because they map so neatly onto the genuine threats of our day. Zombies thrive in popular culture during times of recession, epidemic and general unhappiness. Traditional threats to U.S. security may have waned, but nontraditional threats assault us constantly. Concerns about terrorism have not abated since 9/11, and cyberattacks have now emerged as a new anxiety. Drug-resistant pandemics have been
a staple of local news hysteria since the H1N1 virus swept the globe in 2009. Scientists continue to warn about the dangers that climate change poses to our planet. And if the financial crisis taught us anything, it is that contagion is endemic to the global market system.
这些特质事关重大，因为它们恰好映射出了当今时代的真正威胁。僵尸题材在经济衰退、不幸福感普遍蔓延的时期在流行文化中大行其道。对美国安全的传统威胁或许已经消退，但是非传统的威胁却在不断侵扰着我们。对恐怖主义的担忧自9/11事件以来还未缓和，现在网络攻击又成为了我们的新忧虑。自H1N1病毒在2009年席卷全球以来，有关抗药传染病的内容屡屡见诸于引起情激愤的本地新闻报道。科学家们继续就气候变化给地球带来的危害提出警告。而如果说金融危机给了我们什么教训的话，那就是危机的迅速蔓延是全球市场体系的通病。
Zombies are the perfect metaphor for these threats. As with pandemics and financial crises, they are not open to negotiation. As with terrorism in all its forms, even a small outbreak has the potential to wreak massive carnage.
僵尸就是对这些威胁的完美比喻。与传染病和金融危机一样，它们是不容商议的。与各种形式的恐怖主义一样，它们即使是一次小规模的爆发也具备造成浩劫的潜力。杭州 一日游
Because the living dead resonate so strongly with the present cultural moment, it is no surprise that various promoters and policy entrepreneurs have used them as a 'hook' for their own causes. The scholar John Quiggin published 'Zombie Economics' as a way to grab reader attention about the ill state of current economic theory. Outdoor retailer REI marketed '13 Essential Tools for Surviving a Zombie Outbreak'─each available for purchase at REI stores. The annual Zombie Safe House competition challenges architects to design the best ghoul-proof home, and zombie 'fun runs' are now regular events across North America.
由于僵尸题材与当下的文化环境产生了强烈共鸣，不同的政策倡导者和政策企业家利用它们作为实现其目的的停工令的通知2021“吊钩”也就不足为奇了。学者约翰男孩变僵尸•奎金(John Quiggin)发表了《僵尸经济学》(Zombie Economics)赛尔号麒麟解析一书，以这样一个书名来引起读者对当今经济理论糟糕状况的注意。户外用品零售商REI在销售“逃过僵尸袭击的车正在追 电视剧13种必备工具”(13 Essential Tools for S
urviving a Zombie Outbreak)，每种工具都在REI的门店有售。此外，在一年一度的防僵尸安全屋设计比赛中，建筑师们为设计出最棒的防食尸鬼的住宅一争高下，僵尸“快乐奔跑”比赛如今也已成为了整个北美的常规体育活动。
Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have gotten into the act. In May 2011, the CDC posted a small item on its blog about what to do if the dead should rise from the grave to feast upon the entrails of the living. Within two hours, it had gone viral; the CDC's Web server crashed from the surge in traffic.
梦幻西游怎么赚钱就连美国疾病控制与预防中心(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention，简称“CDC”)也参与了进来。2011年5月，CDC在其博客上发表了一篇小文章，讲述了万一僵尸从坟墓中爬出来大吃活人的内脏时该怎么做。这篇文章在两个小时之内就大范围传播开来，CDC的网络服务器也因流量激增而崩溃。
发布评论