The Zombie Group! discussion

Zombies eating/wanting brains is a huge trope in zombie lit and well, zombie everything. I've always been under the impression this started with the 1985 film "Return of the living Dead". Does anyone else know if that is in fact where this started, and if so why they added that into the movie? And regardless of where it came from why it's become such a huge part of the zombie mythos.

I don't know if it started then but i did read an interesting book, Warm Bodies. This book was very different from most zombie novels because its from the point of view of a zombie! In this book the zombies like any kind of flesh but the brains are favored because when you eat their brains you like see there memories. Brains are kinda like a specialty and they feel happier when eating them (kinda like getting High off brains)

There may have been some earlier and more obscure source of the brain eating, but the film of "Return of the Living Dead" was what popularized it. It was one of the first to combine humor/zombies/splatter, and it became a pre-internet meme to moan "braaaaains" like the zombies in the movie. At least, that's how I remember it. There was a reference to it in one of the Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror" episodes as well.

Also - Hannah, I looked up "Warm Bodies" based on your recommendation and saw it's being made into a film with Nicholous Hoult. Looking forward to the book and the movie now!

WOW! Its being made into a movie! That will be cool, i am now super excited!!!

Why do zombies eat at all? It's something I've never been able to understand... they don't drink, sleep, go to the toilet or do anything else, so why eat? Their bodies are decaying so they don't need nutrition (not that they'd be able to swallow and digest anyway).

I think it might just be an instinctive desire to help spread the infection. Love the "Warm Bodies" idea though!

I think the idea of zombies eating people adds to the horror that they constitute. Cannibalism is one of the ultimate taboos so it disturbs the reader / viewer. I think that the brain eating connects with our knowledge that this is where our consciousness or spirit resides. In a way, I suppose it resembles the way that ancient cultures practiced cannibalism to capture the spirit of their dead enemy. Brain eating zombies wrap all of this up in one relentless, horrific package.

David wrote: "Why do zombies eat at all? "

David - the idea of zombies eating really depends on the mythology behind each story. In one story I read recently, their idea was that a virus was just using the human body as a host to propagate itself. The only things a virus wants to do is grow and spread, so the zombies eat protein to feed the virus, and bite or spit to propagate the virus. I can't even remember which book this was - so many zombie books in the lead up to Halloween ;)

In other books, the zombies need nutrients to maintain their bodies and slow decay.

I hadn't thought about where the brains thing came in, but RoTLD is probably right. I think it was the first where Romero style zombies spoke: "Send more cops!"

Interesting, Ruby, thanks.

I've spent too long (the last 10 years) writing a series where the dead don't want to eat the living!

Autumn

@Ruby: Was the Book Feed? I just read that one and the sequel and she used almost those same words in there, it being a virus wanting to propagate. Also the line from RoTLD was "Send more ambulance drivers" (I just watched it with a friend last night). That line cracks me up every time!

In Breathers: A Zombie's Lament by S.G. Browne the zombies find out that if they eat human flesh it heals them. Well, maybe not heal, but lets their bodies act as if still alive for a short time. That was another one told from the perspective of a zombie and it was REALLY funny.

In most zombie stories it seems to just be instinct, but I like the variety of explanations and uses of flesh eating in the different stories people are bringing up. In The Reapers Are the Angels the zombies also gained strength when they ate (and there was mention of defecation as well). Questions of how they digest go hand in hand with basic questions of how they move without circulation and respiration to provide cellular energy. Anyone know of stories that address the physiology of the zombie in more detail?

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead and it's follow up (which follows the zombie physiology set forth in ZSG) World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War covers in some detail. Max Brooks specifically states the zombies don't digest anything and some zombies can be found that ate so much their stomachs have ruptured open.

It's interesting to see everyone's opinion on why Zombies eat brains.

I, too, read and loved Warm Bodies. I really enjoyed David's novel Autumn. I read Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? with my family (that was really cool!) And I'm a huge fan of TV series The Walking Dead. I love seeing Zombies stealing some of the paranormal spotlight.

But the idea of something dead eating flesh and brains really makes no logical sense. Where does the stuff they ate go? The body is no longer alive, so there is no digestion, no enzymes in the mouth to help break down food... You would think if it was just to spread a virus, biting would be enough, right?

When viewed through the zombie mythos of it being a virus thing the eating doesn't make a lot of sense, especially if said zombies are re-animated corpses. But I think as we all talk about this we should keep in mind that zombies being a viral thing is just the current fad of zombie explanations. As popular culture has changed over the years so has the most popular cultural explanation for zombification. From voodoo/magic to something from outer space to the huge toxic waste boogieman in the 80's. It being a viral/bacterial thing just seemed to be culturally where we are at right not.

Don't get me wrong, it's the one I find the most believable and enjoyable but like all fictional monsters the little things that make up the whole change with time and culture.

With that in mind I think the fact that zombies eat living people seems less believable with the current mythos. Personally it's what makes them scary to me. Being turned is horrifying, but being consumed by a group, or worse having to abandon a loved one and knowing the fact they were consumed is what saved you is the most horrifying.

The brains thing always seemed tacked on and I always wondered where it came from. After finding out it came from RotLD I think it made even less sense. I still wonder how that one aspect from that one movie has had such staying power.