Zombies Need Hugs Too . . . or, Humans Versus Zombies and the People Who Love Them

HvZ just finished.  In case you're wondering--yeah, I live on a college campus, and no, I don't play Humans versus Zombies.  But do I watch longingly from the sidelines.

HvZ (as we'll call it from here on out) is generally a college-wide event that takes place twice a year, during Spring and Fall terms.  It encourages Nerf sales and the stock-piling of stale marshmallows, and it brings people who might not otherwise see the light of day into the bracing fall air.  Basically, HvZ is a live-action roleplaying scenario, which simulates the (eventual and forthcoming) zombie apocalypse.  Players are encouraged to treat the whole thing as if zombies might actually jump out at you from around the corner.  And indeed, they might.

Their website calls it a "game of moderated tag," and what began as a simple game at Goucher College in 2005 has evolved into a cross-country extravaganza, inspiring corporate sponsorship, a documentary, and widespread media coverage.  So what's the big deal? 

Something like this needs an impetus.  Enough ink has been spilled over the sudden fascination with and revival of end-of-the-world speculation.  2012 is on the way, cults have loudly declaimed end-of-days (and then had to recalculate when it never showed up) and the ominous specter of terrorism looms over our heads.  And there's something to all that.

But why zombies?  Some have suspected that zombies represent a truly modern fear that transcends horror; not just the breakdown of society, but the complete disintegration of humanity.  Stant Litore, author of The Zombie Bible offers a few suggestions as to their continuing popularity.  He makes some good points, and mentions the thousands of people who annually dress up as zombies for zombie-walks nationwide.  So the enduring appeal of zombies remains.  

Think about it; we've been told that we're slaves to the machine.  We're manipulated and propagandized; the choices we think are our own are simply the machinations of Madison Avenue or a shadowy cabal of government agencies.  We go to war based on misinformation; we euphemize the truth and parse it into ever smaller bits.

We ultimately suspect that we are little more than mindless consumers, ever on the prowl for new things to consume--new toys to purchase, new iPhones to wait mindlessly in line for.  We are becoming, in a sense, zombies.

So maybe that's the psychology behind our fascination with zombies.  But it doesn't explain why hundreds of people would dress up for a week just to run around and act like Mad Max with a Nerf gun.  I think its something a little more primal than the need to survive; its the need for camaraderie.  We're communal creatures, and we have all experienced the anomie of modern times.  We feel isolated, lonely and downright individual.  We want to participate in a mass gathering, a collection of like-minded others who have the same passions.  Ultimately, then, HvZ is a confirmation of life, a reiteration of what makes us all human.  The yearning for connection and the hope we'll find someone just as screwball as we are.