Zombies vs. vampires
Aug. 8th, 2010 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
womzillaWorking on editing a vampire article for NYRSF and was reminded of a generalization that came into my head during a post-session discussion at this year's ICFA:
Like all generalizations about literature, there are certainly exceptions, but I think that gets at the difference between the two major types of undead.
(I'm tempted to start going through the entire D&D taxonomy of undead--skeletons are the complete loss of identity, mummies the return of the repressed--but I'll spare myself before I try to draw distinctions between wights and wraiths.)
The moral threat of a vampire is the loss of conscience; the moral threat of the zombie is the loss of mind.
Like all generalizations about literature, there are certainly exceptions, but I think that gets at the difference between the two major types of undead.
(I'm tempted to start going through the entire D&D taxonomy of undead--skeletons are the complete loss of identity, mummies the return of the repressed--but I'll spare myself before I try to draw distinctions between wights and wraiths.)
