The Last of us, World War Z and a ‘realistic’ end to our species

 The Last of us, World War Z and a ‘realistic’ end to our species

Zombie stories have been around since the 17th century described more similarly to ghosts than the more cannibalistic ones that populate zombie media in the 21st century. In the 1960s with releases of films like Night of the Living Dead zombies rose in popularity and began to more closely resemble what we see of zombies now. It is theorized by both the Stanford News and the CDC (Center for Disease Control) that the current population's obsession with zombie media comes from experiencing large scale disasters like the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the attacks of 9/11. The image above comes from a still of The Last of Us a T.V. series based on a video game of the same name, the image is of that story's depiction of a zombie. In The Last of Us the zombie infection is spread through cordyceps, a fungal infection that in reality only affects insects, however in the world of show/game it has evolved to infect people. People are infected either through eating flour products that had traces of the fungus in them, or being bitten by an already infected person. The fungus then very quickly begins to take over the brain turning ordinary people into zombies. The Last of Us has been praised for its use of such a realistic depiction of how humanity could be turned into the undead. Similarly in the novel World War Z the reporter Max Brooks (ironically also the name of the author) travels around the planet recording survival experiences of the zombie apocalypse which is slowly coming to a close. Both stories focus closely not just on the horrors of the zombies (like the one pictured above) but the way in which society completely collapses once the dead begin to walk amongst the living. There is also a desire especially in The Last of Us o retain some of the zombie’s humanities, as seen in the image above, through the fungus you can see that the person was/is wearing a suit and sneakers, despite the fact that he has almost been completely taken over by cordyceps there are still reminders that this was once a person.  

These stories focus on society or more specifically the collapse of society. Jeffery Alexander opens chapter four of “The Civil Sphere” describing the lack of focus from social scientists regarding the “construction, destruction, and reconstruction of civic solidarity itself. They are generally silent about the sphere of fellow feeling, the we-ness that makes society into society, and even less about the processes that fragment it.” (Alexander, 2019: 53). Alexander’s description of the civil sphere is a subsystem of society that is separate (to various degrees) from the economy, politics and religion. Civil society is its own system, independent from the other spheres that make up society. Alexander also discusses the fact that membership to civil society is determined based on “Primordiality is essentializing. It attributes qualities to persons by virtue of their membership in a particular group, one that is thought to be based on unique qualities which outsiders can, by definition, never hope to attain” (Alexander 2019:195). Civil society can often be viewed as something without limits, however like any existing society there is territory that covers the place of civil society, while granted this territory exits outside of the bounds of other territories (like economics) and therefore connection to this territory or place becomes essential and eventually exclusionary allowing only those with primordial qualities to exist in it, and therefore liberty is limited only to people within the bounds of the civil society sphere. 

Zombie stories, particularly ones made in the last twenty years have carried an element of realism within their narratives. They’ve steadily transitioned from being fantastical accounts to being cautionary tales on how fragile society is. So much of what is shown to be destroyed in these stories is that feeling of ‘we-ness’ that Alexander is discussing. With complete collapse of the civil society sphere that connects people to each other, and the institutions like wealth and race that prevent people from entering the civil society no longer carrying any weight these fictional apocalypse events begin to seem more possible. Alexander highlights the importance, but also the frailty of society itself, there is a constant danger of society falling or keeping certain people on the outside of the sphere unallowed to enter. With the pandemic of Covid-19 close on our heels these stories of mass extinction have become increasingly more likely and therefore we as a society desire to see how we would behave if faced with something as lethal as an undead apocalypse. Unfortunately for us both the creators of The Last of Us and Max Brooks are determined to show us the likely truth, that the pillars holding society (or perhaps more importantly civil society) up would come crashing down within moments. 

Don, Steinberg. 2023. “See The Real-Life Mushrooms That Inspired The Zombies in “The Last of Us” The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 28th, 2024 (https://www.wsj.com/story/see-the-real-life-mushrooms-that-inspired-the-zombies-in-the-last-of-us-fa067fde)

 Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2019. The Civil Sphere. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Anon. n.d. “History of Zombies - Origins, Pop Culture & Film.” History.Com. Retrieved March 28, 2024a (https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-zombies).