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ACF Critic Series #30: The Walking Dead
Paul Cantor joins me for the second part of our conversation on his new book: Pop Culture And The Dark Side Of The American Dream: Con Men, Gangsters, Drug Lords, And Zombies. It’s time for the zombies–for the postmodern Western, The Walking Dead, from Shane to Wagon Train to our times of crisis, when we ask ourselves, could we be what we think we are without the institutions and technology that prop us up? Is American character able to withstand the test of the state of nature?
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Published in Podcasts
They so needed me on that show. I would have had them looking for a prison from the beginning. I have 50 years of Apocalypse training.
That’s the problem, Judge. You’d’ve solved the problem too quickly & then, no show!
It rarely pays to be ahead of America-
I get that you’re joking but there really is something to that. My point was that most of the issues of survival in all of these entertainment scenarios have been worked out for decades. In order for the show to work, they have to be dumb, and make every mistake along the way to learning for themselves.
Add one person who’s read science fiction and while your chances for surviving the zombies rise dramatically, your chance of surviving the harsh realities of ratings could disappear entirely.
I wasn’t joking, since I know a bit about you.
Of course, most people really would collapse in a zombie apocalypse. It’s part of the intention of the story. Catastrophes that are more plausible we’d be better able to deal with; still, someone who keeps his head & has thought this out now & then would have an advantage.
So these apocalyptic stories tend to be realistic about how bad we do in a crisis; not so realistic about crises we should fear. The story-based crises are always metaphoric, which is why they don’t need you to gum up the works–they’d never get to the point.
It would be worthwhile to have apocalyptic stories about people who should be prepared for them & see how they fare. People watch Bear Grylls–they’d watch that, too, not to say learn a few things!
Did you read @bossmongo‘s thread Not Naked, Not Afraid? There’s the star of your show.