All good books should make readers think and relate it to our world, and so World War Z has spawned the following for me. Could the zombie virus be a metaphor for the way people interact - the way vibes fit together to make a larger atmosphere - like the way a good musical artist's strong personality and stamina makes for her fans' night through an awesome concert? Or maybe it could be the way ideas can go viral if everyone buys into it enough - which, ironically, was how the more developed nations suffered the most in the book, because those people who saw it happen first didn't tell other people about it, in efforts to keep their own reputations intact and make it go away by pretending it wasn't happening?
For me, the book was a good commentary on the way information travels or doesn't travel, because I've recently taken a real interest in the information technology field, where systems are so specialized that what helps or functions in one doesn't really function in another. This may be akin to the way that consumers find technical support for any given company so frustrating, mainly because the technical supporter can only troubleshoot based upon what little information he can fish out of the person at the other end of the telephone line, who may not be trained to really understand the problem is enough to even give the right information or ask the right questions.
It's also a good commentary on how we as a human race - especially in developed countries, where each human only really needs to fight for a good honest living - are completely obsessed with the destruction of the world as we know it. We like to imagine these things, because we'd like to think that if it ever comes to that in our lifetimes, we'd be prepared, at least somewhat psychologically, to much more literally fight for our physical well beings and gather all resources in order to survive. This phenomenon is also true for any robot wars or giant monsters or natural disaster films.
Because zombies like to consume other people to either make more zombies or just to eat brains and kill things, I thought it was analogous to - final analogy, I promise - the way people learn and take in information. Every day, I see the teachers in the school I work for prepare their curricula for their students to consume, and the more the students are willing to consume, the more successful they are. Just momentarily thinking of this in video game form, why were there no super zombie bosses? Haha. People's brains take in information no matter whether people want them to or not, and only the more educated people are more discriminate about what they want to take in. This morning, I realized I could only stomach nature documentaries and children's shows - especially if they are geared towards middle schoolers and high schoolers - because I only really enjoy educational media. In the case of chick lit, though, that's more of an emotionally affirming media.
Anyway, yay for learning to be an information sponge! Now to continue consuming ...
