Zombies have become associated with the walking dead. They are typically video game fodder, mildly shivery at first, but once you get past the idea of dead flesh and into the swing of whatever weapon you are playing, they become a bit more entertaining. Autumn Christian's story 'They Promised Dreamless Death' gives a timely reminder that it is not always that way and that, from time to time, it also helps to think of them as or to call them the 'living dead'.
Here's why...
In the African tradition, transplanted to Haiti, a dead person is revived and serves the bokor (sorcerer). In his book, 'The Serpent and the Rainbow'', Wade Davis theorizes that the victim is given a combination of drugs that simulate death. In the African tradition, after burial, the person is disinterred and awakened by the bokor, after which the person convinces himself or herself that he or she is now 'nzambi'. The combination of the trauma of the event and cultural belief in the nzambi lead the individual to believe that this is a valid state of existence.
If the victim is able to believe this, and if the victim accepts the belief then the conditions are satisfied for a zombie. In other words, the state of being a zombie is in some regards a matter of personal acceptance.
'They Promised Dreamless Death' updates this for the 21st century, whether intentionally or not. Faced with a huge amount of complexity and personal difficulty, people often choose to live in an emotionless way, automatically doing what they believe is expected of them, not what their own wills and emotions dictate. Sometimes the rut is a comfy place to be.
By the device of a hardware implant, she makes it possible for her characters to go through tough periods oblivious of difficulties or unhappiness. Like the African nzambi, it is a matter of personal choice, although the duress is mental, not physical.
The story is appropriate to its time. Life presents almost limitless challenges, made more complex by an immense amount of free choice which breeds confusion and uncertainty. Now more than ever drugs are available and recommended to manage emotions. Genetic science seeks to understand variations in personality and 'cures' can only be a short step away. The gene for introversion, for instance, has been identified. At the time of writing there is a furore over the potential incorporation of shyness, grief and eccentricity into DSM-5, the diagnostic manual of psychiatric disorders.
We run the risk of submerging our emotions by our own choice and / or social pressure, becoming latter day zombies. 'They Promised Dreamless Death' is an uneasy but valid look at how this might play out.
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