Zombie Challenge: Haiku

For my second post for the Zombie Challenge I decided to do Haiku poetry zombie style! Granted, I haven't written Haiku since I was in elementary school, which was eons ago. So these are a bit rusty...so bear with me!

Zombies awake!
Let us go up, for fresh brains
and earth await!

Am I a zombie?
See my soul within! Awake!
And be a zombie no more.

I don't even know if these would technically qualify, but oh well, I gave it a go!

Zombie Bite Giveaway

Velvet at vvb32 is hosting another zombie giveaway! Click here for more information. If you take the zombie calculator test you will be able to win World War Z by Max Brooks.

This is how long I'd last if I were bitten by a zombie before becoming totally infected!


Created by The Oatmeal


My last meal would be anything yummy I could get my hands on! Before brains become the nasties I would eat!

Zombie Challenge: Movie Review: White Zombie

I bought four DVDs of Horror Classics a few years ago for Halloween and have been slowly watching them off and on. So I thought the Zombie Challenge by Velvet would be a wonderful opportunity to watch White Zombie with Bela Lugosi.

A young engaged couple find themselves in Haiti to meet a Mr. Beaumont who will setup a business opportunity for Nathaniel. But on the way meet a bunch of zombies and their master, who steals Madeleine's scarf...

Basically, Mr. Beaumont wants Madeleine for himself and convinces the zombie master to help and thus she's turned into a zombie. Her fiancee and a local doctor must save the day!

This was a fun and cheesy horror classic. These zombies weren't the undead that ate brains like today, but those who are put into a trance-like state and are under mind control, such as in the Voudou tradition. And this was the movie that introduced America to the concept of zombies!!! A true horror classic, for sure!

Zombie Challenge: Zombie and Its Origins Part II

According to Gary Rhodes in his book White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film common usage of the word zombie only really took off after the release of the highly successful movie White Zombie in 1932. There was even a court case over the use of the word zombie when the Halperins (the makers of the White Zombie film) wanted to make an unlicensed sequel (Revolt of the Zombies) to the original. According to More Word Histories and Mysteries the company that was suing them "successfully argued that most Americans knew the world only from the original film, even if it had been used previously in bestselling books and had already appeared in dictionaries." They also were able to force a witness for the Halperins to admit that "zombie had no general meaning in the English language and that not one person in a hundred knew what it meant before White Zombie."

And with the movie Night of the Living Dead in 1968 the association of zombies and Haitian Vodou was almost gone. From then on zombies were flesh-eating villains who could infect others and could only be killed by violent blows to the head! (Check out Pride and Prejudice and Zombies for this exact rendering of zombies)!

But there is also plenty of scholarly interest in Vodou and zombies. Ethnobotantist Wade Davis offered a scientific explanation for zombification: "Vodou sorcerers first induced a deathlike state in their victims and then woke them into a zombie trance by administering powerful drugs obtained from local plants and animals."

There's no doubt about it, there are plenty of resources on anything zombie, whether it's watching a movie, reading a book, or looking online! Go zombies!

Zombie Challenge: Zombie and Its Origins Part I

Zombies have origins in the Haitian religion of Vodou. The actual word zombie was borrowed into English from Haitian Creole (which comes from French and various African languages). It also comes from the Bantu language family of Africa and was brought from West Africa with slaves that were sent to French plantations before 1804. Various word origins include: zumbi "object with supernatural powers," and zambi "ghost, departed spirit," from the language Kikongo and nzambi "god" in Kimbundu.

According to More Word Histories and Mysteries:

...zombies are believed to possess only the part of the soul that animates the body, for they have been deprived of the aspect of the soul that gives them their individual personality and the ability to make moral judgments.

Zombie didn't appear in English til the 19th century in various historical works, but entered popular speech in the early 20th century. William Seabrook wrote a sensationalized memoir of his time in Haiti called The Magic Island and subsequently introduced the American public to zombies in 1929.

So fascinating. All of this information was taken from More Word Histories and Mysteries from the editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. I'll be adding more for another day!

Zombie Challenge!

vvb32 reads is hosting a Zombie Challenge on her blog in honor of the book Never Slow Dance With Zombies by E. Van Lowe, which comes out August 18th. And because I love challenges and zombies so I've decided to accept!

All I need to do is post an acceptance post, put this pic and challenge on my side bar and do two posts related to zombies during zombie week (Aug. 29-Sept.5) and then I will be eligible to win the aforesaid book! Woot, I love free things!

This challenge is open to all so check it out at her website!