2012-01-25 16:14:01 från
”Swedish Zombie : What was it that made you start writing about the apocalypse and zombies? What were your first influences? Sean Schubert : I live in Alaska where Nature has a habit of surprising the population, making disasters and disaster preparedness a common topic of discussion. A zombie plague represents a variation of that discussion. “What would you need if…zombies attacked?” I saw Night of the Living Dead when I was very young (probably too young) and was fascinated by the implications of such a development. The prospect of being eaten alive is bad enough, but if …”
Taggar: handla böcker och köp böcker. Läs bokrecensioner om kultur och litteratur. Swedish Zombie : What was it that made you start writing about the apocalypse and zombies? What were your first influences? Sean Schubert : I live in Alaska where Nature has a habit of surprising the population, making disasters and disaster preparedness a common topic of discussion. A zombie plague represents a variation of that discussion. “What would you need if…zombies attacked?” I saw Night of the Living Dead when I was very young (probably too young) and was fascinated by the implications of such a development. The prospect of being eaten alive is bad enough, but if that fate is handed to an individual by someone he/she loved or knew in life then it raises that nightmare’s pitch quite drastically. Swedish Zombie : How do you look upon the zombies? What do they mean to you? Are they metaphors, or simply cool monsters? Sean Schubert : I’ve read reviews of literature and films where zombies are described as any number of socio/political metaphors. To me, the zombie isn’t as important as the story around the zombies. I’m more interested in the people who are struggling to survive and the measures to which they will go to survive. Someone could read Infection and think that perhaps my zombies are a walking metaphor for the tangible, possible worse case scenarios resulting from Climate Change; however, I never intended such a literal connection. Zombies are merely a catalyst around which my story evolved much the same way that a meteor, earthquake, or tornado can be for another survival story. Swedish Zombie : Zombie enthusiasts are often conservative. How much do you think that one should experiment with the concept? Sean Schubert : I’m not sure what is meant by conservative. I am neither socially/politically nor zombie fiction conservative. I like the Romero stalking hulk zombies as much as I like the Snyder running zombies. I don’t like zombies with special powers, like being able to walk on walls or transforming into some variation of an uber-zombie, but short of that I am pretty open to any variation of a zombie that can effectively suspend my disbelief. My zombies are a combination of the classical zombie and the new Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later varieties. The freshly turned zombie can move quickly with predatory instinct, but as they progress through the stages of decay their movement becomes much less fluid. Swedish Zombie : It is often hard to pick favorites, perhaps it is simply foolish to try. But are there two or three books in modern zombie fiction that you think has meant something extra for the genre? Sean Schubert : I would be hard pressed to name two or three. I’ve really enjoyed reading all of the Walking Dead series now that they have been gathered into graphic novel formats. I’ve just finished Rise of the Governor which is an expansion of the Walking Dead universe. While it wasn’t a fantastically written novel, the story was great and I’ve got no actual complaints about the writing itself. I also enjoyed reading the Zombie Survival Guide because that book showed us all that zombies and zombie fiction can be fun and light despite the very serious subject matter. Swedish Zombie : How do you consider the genre’s future? Zombies seem to be viable. Can this peek last and if so what is then required by the authors? Sean Schubert : The entertainment industry is very cyclical and very susceptible to societal changes and trends. Zombies, like all monsters and boogiemen, will eventually fade though this current wave of zombie fanfare seems to be very robust. I believe that authors can sustain the current fascination with zombies by keeping the stories easy to access for people’s imaginations. In order for zombie authors or any author of good fiction to help their genre to persist, the stories have to be believable and the characters need to be real. Swedish Zombie : A good book is always right. Some writers want to renew, others strive to convey an already well-known story with his oh hers unique twist. How do you look upon your own writings? Sean Schubert : I haven’t read many stories that deal with the cause of the initial outbreak. I tried to create a genesis of sorts that could be rooted in the real, physical world. I wanted to get away from supernatural or extraterrestrial causes for the event. In trying to give the zombie apocalypse a footing in reality and then creating characters who are just average people forced into extraordinary circumstances, I wanted to help my reader to relate to the story and decisions made by the characters. I really wanted my reader to be able to envision himself/herself in the same situation and ask “What would I do if that was me?” Swedish Zombie : Through the ages, writers and directors stuck to various explanations for the end of the world: infections from space, environmental degradation, military experiments, terrorism etc. Which scenario behind the zombie apocalypse do you think is most interesting / believable at the moment? Sean Schubert : I liked the 28 Days Later vision for the start of the apocalypse because it painted everyone involved as at fault; the government/military creating some kind of a bio/chemical weapon and animal rights activists releasing this threat into the population at large. I really like that because it shows how extremes from either angle can have a horribly adverse and unintended consequence to everyone. I don’t know if it is necessarily believable. I would hope that a lab of that nature would have much better security protocols in place, but I like the idea nonetheless. Swedish Zombie : What will you write in the future? What stories remain in you, do you think? Is there anything in particular you feel like writing? Sean Schubert : I am in the process of writing the third installment in my Alaskan Undead Apocalypse series. My original plan was to make this series a trilogy but I am not certain that I will be able to finish the story in only three books. Another story that I would like to tell is still apocalyptic but does not involve zombies. We have books and movies about alien invasions and the efforts of the human population to stand up to such. The story that I would like to tell is of a thwarted alien invasion that becomes an ongoing battle for survival between the now marooned alien invaders and the defiant human population. * * * * * Sean Schubert is the author of the Alaskan Undead Apocalypse . The first book in the series, Infection , is to soon be republished by Permuted Press . The following titles are Containment and Mitigation . ( Infection was originally published by Eloquent Books.) You can visit Sean Schubert at GOODREADS and FACEBOOK . Andra om Intervju , författare , Sean Schubert , Infection , Permuted Press , apokalyps , zombier
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