Warm Bodies

"When I was alive, I could never have done this. Standing still, watching the world pass by me, thinking about nearly nothing. I remember effort. ... I remember being purposeful, always everywhere all the time. Now I'm just standing here on the conveyor, along for the ride." (9)

Despite all the book's (understandable and expected) portrayals of zombiehood as dull and unsatisfying, this part strikes me as rather appealing. Much of real life does of course involve a lot of "purpose" and "effort", which can become pretty exhausting when it continues indefinitely. Yet this passage is unique in its seeming positivity, which makes me wonder if the author intended it that way at all. With the "death of the author", one could say it doesn't really matter, but I'm still curious; perhaps it's a bit of critique on modern life.

I remember reading in an anthropology class about an anthropologist from the 18th or 19th century who wrote an article entitled "On Cannibals", which made the point that in some ways the cannibals he was writing about were actually more "civilized" and intelligent than his own culture. This passage in Warm Bodies reminds me faintly of that, which is probably a bit of a stretch.

Maybe being a zombie wouldn't be all bad.