Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...
Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...
Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...
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B<strong>in</strong>gham 11<br />
zombie exceeds death as every reanimated body becomes a harb<strong>in</strong>ger for more<br />
destruction. The ecological relationship we experience as readers is filled with suspense<br />
and tension, a tone mitigated ma<strong>in</strong>ly through the perspective of the graphic novel's<br />
protagonist, Sheriff Rick Grimes. Though we are guided to relate to Rick from the onset<br />
of the narrative, as time progresses and he becomes witness and subject to more violence<br />
and damage, the relationship becomes stra<strong>in</strong>ed. I trace these shifts aga<strong>in</strong>st circumstantial<br />
conditions like the absence or presence of community, family, security, supplies, and<br />
stability <strong>in</strong> order to analyze the goal of the creative work <strong>in</strong> generat<strong>in</strong>g social affect. I<br />
believe that the presentation of Rick's character and his struggle to ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> his ethical<br />
ideals while attempt<strong>in</strong>g to preserve his body and sanity holds a great deal of significance<br />
<strong>in</strong> regards to the present climate of American politics.<br />
Whereas Kirkman's characters desperately cl<strong>in</strong>g to a fa<strong>in</strong>t and futile hope for<br />
civilization <strong>in</strong> the face of ever-chang<strong>in</strong>g power relations, Moore's text <strong>in</strong>troduces us to a<br />
totally different possible world. Through the possible world of the Swamp Th<strong>in</strong>g, I<br />
argue, Moore envisions a solution to Kirkman's seem<strong>in</strong>gly unconquerable pessimism.<br />
His work is <strong>in</strong>herently different, though, because it was created earlier and resurrects a<br />
character first <strong>in</strong>troduced to the public dur<strong>in</strong>g a period of reform and environmental<br />
consciousness. Swamp Th<strong>in</strong>g was created by Len We<strong>in</strong> and Berni Wrightson, debut<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong><br />
DC Comics' House of Secrets #92 <strong>in</strong> July 1972. Reviv<strong>in</strong>g and adapt<strong>in</strong>g their idea,<br />
Moore's figure comes <strong>in</strong>to be<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> a moment on the cusp of planetary crisis. The<br />
character thus straddles two dist<strong>in</strong>ct periods: he is first <strong>in</strong>formed by a burgeon<strong>in</strong>g public<br />
<strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> the adoption of pacifism and <strong>in</strong>crease <strong>in</strong> environmental awareness and<br />
secondly through how these attitudes came to <strong>in</strong>fluence social life over time. By creat<strong>in</strong>g