#kaelri

Me: Okay, we need to name this dead kid. Help?

Kael: Check his wallet?

Kael: Oh, this is probably someone you're writing.

Kael: What's he like?

Me: WHAT THE FUCK ELSE DID YOU THINK IT WAS

Are not my thing. I do a lot of fantasy and sc-fi, like a lot, but there is nothing about the zombie phenomenon I have ever understood. It just does not remotely grab my brain  (hah!) and also I have a hard time with gore, so overall, just, no.

And I said all of this, with an attendant side-eye, when Kael told me he'd been sucked into The Walking Dead and, what's more, had found it emotionally devastating. Because: seriously? Zombies? And this is what he told me:

"A plague. One that arises without warning, develops rapidly. With one brief exposure, it takes an otherwise-healthy person into a crippling fever. Society tries to ignore the problem, and then denies it. They try to downplay it, cover it up - which causes a failure to take real preventative steps, and therefore an even more rapid spread. Confusion, ignorance, panic, and the foundations of society begin to break down. The victims are blamed, judged and feared. You start to be afraid to go near people, touch them, make new friends. The only place you feel safe is outside urban centers, far from people, back in nature. Meanwhile, the survivors change. They're angry, hardened, resentful, and they have to get used to the idea that everyone they know is probably going to die a death that threatens their dignity, makes them subhuman in the eyes of other people. What does this sound like to you?"

Eight words in I was like "The Black Death," because medieval history is another thing I do. And that would be amazing as an answer too, because all this has happened before and all this will happen again, and pandemic disaster is whence our civilization came.

And then at the end, I realized it's also AIDS, and that was an even bigger wow.

I don't know if anyone's doing formal work on this. This is pretty much my only encounter with the show and any theories behind it, except for the time Ton watched it and slept with the light on for the next three days. But I just had one of those OH MY GOD moments over the idea that the zombie fascination is actually society trying to process the AIDS apocalypse that my generation is too young to remember, but is still there so powerfully in the collective consciousness. Because story is how humanity copes (something the internet and fandom at large, I think, would do well to remember, or at least think about more often.)

Because also: 

"The rules are, when someone gets bit or scratched, even a tiny bit, it's over in that moment. Even if they're outwardly fine, everyone (including them) has to deal with the fact that they're basically sharing a room with a corpse-to-be. I think that's something that was NOT a component in previous-generation zombie lit, and I can ONLY imagine that the visceral power of it comes straight from - yes."

Which is gutting to think about, because then I realized (and yes, I'm so late to this party, but I'm having one of those moments when the penny dropped hard enough to crack the sidewalk):

The title "The Walking Dead" does not refer to the zombies.

To put it another way, the 80s are the cold open where the narrator goes "Last time, on Earth..."

It also means I got to have this conversation with Kael, who is not only my trusty beta but also my trusted DM:

Kael: It seems that a lot of Eliza's conversations end with pregnant pauses that the other person doesn't quite have the willpower to pierce.

Me: I DON'T HAVE TO TELL A NARRATIVE STORY IF I DON'T WANT TO TAKE THAT MOTHERFUCKERS (Throws confetti.)

  Constraints are incredible for creativity. But sometimes it's so good to throw off all limitations and blinders and requirements and just write.

Because Kael is evil, he just sent this to me. Probably to get me to calm down from the vortex of Klaine-spiral I am creating. It didn't work.

So, I left Kael alone for 24 hours, which is usually a mistake because he tends to get drunk on computer-power when left to his own devices, and yesterday was no exception. But good things came of it!

My gracious gorgeous beta has made both epub (for Nooks) and mobi (for Kindles) versions of G.I., so if you are interested in those, just follow the link above! And then send Kael some love, because he deserves it.

-Kaelri, on worldbuilding for D&D.