Zombies vs. vampires

[womzilla]

Working 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:

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.)

Comments

[washa-way.livejournal.com]

I like that generalization.

Now, what does it mean that vampires first became big during the reign of Victoria and came back under Bill Clinton, while zombies became huge during the G.W. Bush administration?

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

Thank you for my button and CD! I'm going to take both of them to work tomorrow.

Just had a lovely afternoon with Nellorat and Supergee. They met me after the show along with Sean and his wife Pam. We shopped at Books Do, had dinner at Shanghai and dessert at Francesca's. Good food and great conversation.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Wights & Wraiths are easy. (Corporeality is relevant.) Wraiths and Spectres and Ghosts are where the really stupid arbitrary lines crop up, and that's because they were split up for mechanical variety & relative challenge.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I really wish I had been there! I did get a lot of stuff done for NYRSF that needed to be done, though, which is next weekend. So there's a small upside.

The CD is actually a video CD of Boondocks season 3, ep. 1, "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman!" I figured if you hadn't seen it, you needed to.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

http://www.tor.com/images/phocagallery/art/Sean_Bieri/bieri3.jpg