Blame John Romero. They're what most people think of as zombies though. Nothing stops a word from having multiple definitions. It accounts for most of English. The problem with living languages is what words mean change. This is what zombie means these days.
edited 20th Nov '10 7:08:13 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickOh, um, I think I understand? Probably not.
The phrase "zombie apocalypse" is about an event caused in a certain way by a certain kind of monster. You are focusing on it being an event caused by a monster, which is not accurate. The phrase specifically means that the world is overrun by undead monsters that spread rapidly, wipe out humans primarily by eating or biting them, and are usually highly infectious. The trope is not supposed to be about any kind of apocalypse caused by monsters, so the word "zombie" is not unnecessarily narrow, because it more or less exactly describes the correct ingredients. Plus it is a popcultural term that means exactly that.
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.Zombie Apocalypse is not about a general invasion of monsters.
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.Yes, and the traits of that very specific monster are defining factors of a Zombie Apocalypse. The trope isn't about general invading monsters. It's about zombies and things that work like zombies.
edited 20th Nov '10 7:13:52 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dickgah now i've been deraild from my original point it snot the pont of what is and isn't a zombie which you are sort of driving me to at times it is the point hat the trope isn't exclusive to zombies of any kind.
We must survive, all of us. The blood of a human for me, a cooked bird for you. Where is the difference?We've been over this. We read the trope. It's about zombies and things that act like zombies. You have lost this argument multiple times already. We don't need to do it again. You're just going in circles and ignoring everyone else. That's trolling. Please stop.
edited 20th Nov '10 7:20:08 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dicki'm sorry but le tme take a look
- Richard Matheson's 1954 book I Am Legend, while it was about vampires and not zombies, is an important precursor to the genre. Matheson's novel was adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth, the most faithful adaptation, and later into The Omega Man, which apes the then-recent Night to a degree and turns the vampires into Luddite photophobic albino mutants produced by biological warfare. The most recent adaptation, I Am Legend in 2007, has the infected more like an odd cross between zombies and vampires. from the lit section of the page itself now is that about zombies?
Having read the book myself, they fall into the category of functionally zombies. They conform to enough of the zombie stereotypes that they are close enough for the trope to function.
edited 20th Nov '10 7:29:29 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickThey do. It was a prototrope at that stage. Still, those vampires are responsible for the zombies of today existing. Vampires or not, they're what a large part of the zombie mythos is based off of. They wouldn't have been vampires by traditional standards. Traditional vampires are far closer to modern zombies, or were until Stoker redefined them.
edited 20th Nov '10 7:36:36 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. DickI totally appreciate the sentiment of wanting to "do something", this wiki is awesome and it's great to contribute. But "I want to make a change" is a bad motive for making a change, that will end in tears.
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.i don't know I give up on this just drives me nbuts for some reasohn i'm a stickler for Genre Consistancy.
We must survive, all of us. The blood of a human for me, a cooked bird for you. Where is the difference?I've suggested a Monster Apocalypse supertrope for Zombie Apocalypse and such, but it's dead.
In any case, these are very specific tropes.
Half-Life: Dual Nature, a crossover story of reasonably sized proportions.No, they evolved from a combination of traditional zombies, pre-Stoker vampires, and Frankenstein. They weren't as different in the beginning. My best friend wrote her Master's thesis on zombies. I know far more about them than I want to.
edited 20th Nov '10 7:55:28 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

The creatures that we are calling zombies are what have been called zombies for longer than I've been alive. These are the traditional zombies now. The voudoo ones are largely forgotten culturally. Language and words evolve.
edited 20th Nov '10 7:01:12 PM by shimaspawn
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick