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 39<br />
conflict or war.<br />
This expectation is then proven unreal through destructive<br />
transformations of body and lifestyle after the onset of conflict. Regardless of attempts to<br />
rebuild and restore some semblance of order, the communities which develop <strong>in</strong> The<br />
<strong>Walk<strong>in</strong>g</strong> Dead are impermanent; they are as doomed as any ancient empire whose once<br />
<strong>in</strong>numerable exploits have vanished and whose once impressive monuments are currently<br />
crumbl<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to decay. Understandably, there's a lot more separat<strong>in</strong>g these works than<br />
several centuries and their <strong>in</strong>credibly different content—I only hope to illustrate that<br />
complex issues affect<strong>in</strong>g the average person have typically appeared <strong>in</strong> popularly<br />
purchased forms of art s<strong>in</strong>ce pr<strong>in</strong>t<strong>in</strong>g became possible.<br />
At the forefront of current affairs and implicit <strong>in</strong> the narrative's imag<strong>in</strong>ed universe<br />
is an uncerta<strong>in</strong>ty about bodies besides one's own. S<strong>in</strong>ce September 11 th , 2001 the<br />
realization that an <strong>in</strong>dividual may forfeit his or her life to end the lives of others has been<br />
impossible to ignore. Undeniably <strong>in</strong>fluenced by this danger, the creative team who has<br />
produced The <strong>Walk<strong>in</strong>g</strong> Dead has turned every liv<strong>in</strong>g person <strong>in</strong>to a potential threat,<br />
capable of caus<strong>in</strong>g widespread kill<strong>in</strong>g at any moment. By forc<strong>in</strong>g readers to reconsider<br />
how they view and <strong>in</strong>teract with the human figure <strong>in</strong> this way, the creators have<br />
illustrated important concerns felt by American citizens after the terrorist attacks on the<br />
World Trade Center, Pentagon, and United 93. Though the body is not a weapon <strong>in</strong> the<br />
comic's zombie storyl<strong>in</strong>e per say, the elim<strong>in</strong>ation of consciousness when <strong>in</strong>dividuals<br />
become enemies transforms their bodies <strong>in</strong>to a symbolic <strong>in</strong>terpretation of the om<strong>in</strong>ous<br />
dangers we are fac<strong>in</strong>g as a society today. In an <strong>in</strong>terview with GQ's Alex Pappademus,<br />
writer Robert Kirkman even states, “9/11 was def<strong>in</strong>itely a big part of it, just because that<br />
was someth<strong>in</strong>g that was on everybody's m<strong>in</strong>ds. It was the first time that we'd ever really