Testing Chat IV: A New Hope

[joviwan]

We're just some doofi on the internet.

[Crazedwraith]

or is it doofuses?

[Infinity Biscuit]

doofodes

[The Spartan]

Definitely not the third one.

[Oxymoron]

Idiots.

It's daffodils.

Even I know it.

[The Spartan]

[evilsoup]

man
so right now there'sa political argument going on
apparently a union recruited too many people into a local Labour party, and this is corruption somehow

[RyanThunder]

WWZ thread went up in TEO, didn't even make it past the OP before the dismissive statements of "stoopid writers din't have military bomb 'dem all" came out.

<snip>

This is the standard solution to zombie movie scenarios where the government/military still exist. Which is why I don't enjoy zombie movie plots where the government/military still exist, and greatly prefer them to skip over all that because I guarantee that any explanation they conjure will sound ridiculous and contrived.

[Djinnkitty83]

WWZ thread went up in TEO, didn't even make it past the OP before the dismissive statements of "stoopid writers din't have military bomb 'dem all" came out.

<snip>

This is the standard solution to zombie movie scenarios where the government/military still exist. Which is why I don't enjoy zombie movie plots where the government/military still exist, and greatly prefer them to skip over all that because I guarantee that any explanation they conjure will sound ridiculous and contrived.

I think the mistake a lot of 'lol military blows everything up' people make is forgetting that zombie-movies have a very strong element of dramatic irony about them. We, the audience, know it's a zombie movie, know that the zombies are mindless eating and killing machines who, if we just shelve our empathy for their somewhat human appearance, can be defeated rather easily.

The characters, however, don't know they're in a zombie movie. If they pay as much attention to international news as the average person, until the zombies are spreading across the US (from an American perspective, substitute your home country where applicable), most people would be hard pressed to say what's going on other than, "Oh I heard about some war or disease or something in Austro... Mozam... I think it's somewhere in Africa, anyways." And when it's spreading across the US, there's going to be thousands of conflicting reports of sickness, riots, protests about (x) issues, chemtrails, government crackdowns, all either understating or overstating the problem, telling people to ignore it completely, or that it's a liberal/conservative conspiracy, or that the government/opposing group is trying to dehumanize the ill out of racism, sexism, insurance company bottom lines, and that they should try and care for the ill rather than mindlessly killing them.

Those in charge of studying and coming up with ways to combat the zombiebug don't have the audience advantage of immediately knowing it's a zombiebug. Dramatic irony again. Studies have to be run, subjects have to be acquired. Weeks or months could pass before research shows that the zombies are in fact mindless automatons, and that it is safe to blow them up en-masse. Then there's the additional time involved with getting this word out to a populace so that the military can start their blow-everything-up campaigns without sparking massive revolt as people see family and friends strafed and carpet bombed. Even then resistance will come in the form of people who simply refuse to accept that message due to religion, political opposition using it to score points with their base, the simple psychological refusal to accept their wife, husband, daughter, friend, whatever is now a mindless monster.

Even the military can have the same issue. Militaries are largely run by the government, and governments are just as susceptible to misinformation and people following personal agendas at the expense of rationally examining the problem. Not to mention the issue of having to sort through thousands of accounts and claims, trying to sift fact from hysteria, religious or political bias. One thing the book did well is show how mobilization against the threat can slowed to a crawl as people try to subvert the information, or sit on it, or oppose it for religious ends, or to make a profit, or because they have an incomplete story and don't think it's as important as some other problem.

Add to this the fact that, no matter how bad-ass a military may be, it is still ultimately dependent on the society it protects for people and supplies. If action is delayed long enough, if enough of the population falls to the disease and enough infrastructure is destroyed, it doesn't matter how awesome the military is, that awesomeness is a limited resource and the wellspring, the population and infrastructure that supports the military, has dried up.

Now in terms of this specific movie, with how fast the zombies spread, take all the above problems and compress your deadline for finding solutions to everything to about a week. I have no issue with suspending my disbelief in that regard.

[RyanThunder]

Alright, sure. Where have they actually done that, like ever?

[Djinnkitty83]

Alright, sure. Where have they actually done that, like ever?

The book.

[Big Orangutan]

And arguably more millions of people died in the near total breakdown of civil order and from becoming refugees (ie dying from hunger/thirst/cold/exposure/infighting) than falling to the actual zombie hordes. And you had Pakistan and Iran turn against each other then fight a "small" nuclear war, with at least one nuke used when different branches of the fractured People's Republic of China turned against each other.

[Oxymoron]

I still can't help but laugh at the idea of Iran being portrayed as having nuclear weapons in a film that's supposed to be happening in the "current day".

Even worse when the events of the book were supposed to take place in the late 2000's / early 2010's.

Did Max Brooks also believe that Irak had WMD ?...

(note : the US president who led America in the war against the undead hordes in the book is supposed to be a stand-in for Colin Powell)

[adr]

so have you guys ever noticed how different ppl can be on forums and on chats

the diff between irl and not irl is well known but i find there is a similar diff between forum/email and chat too, which is slightly closer to irl

perhaps it is the real time aspect letting more little quirks show thru

idk

[adr]

Even worse when the events of the book were supposed to take place in the late 2000's / early 2010's

According to the Israeli government, Iran has been definitely rushing toward a nuclear weapon which they'll have within one year for at least ten years now.

[Oxymoron]

Isn't / wasn't Max Brooks a well-known member of the pro-Israeli lobby ?

[RyanThunder]

Alright, sure. Where have they actually done that, like ever?

The book.

Oh, then it's contrived and poorly written as anything else, so never mind.

[Djinnkitty83]

Alright, sure. Where have they actually done that, like ever?

The book.

Oh, then it's contrived and poorly written as anything else, so never mind.

Do you need some oxygen? Your smug dismissal was so lofty I'm worried the atmosphere's a little thin up there.

[RyanThunder]

Thanks, man, but I inflated my ego before heading up here, so it should be a few more months before I need head back down for more.

[timmy]

It's a good book. And the reason I'm offended by the film is that when they acquired the rights for the source material, they had a chance to bring a different kind of zombie apocalypse story to the screen. Then they realised it couldn't be done in their format, or was too hard so fuck it. See Super Mario Brothers(1993) for another example. Instead, it became an expensive Brad Pitt vanity project. This might be why I'm begrudging it. As I've already said, I'm not usually a movie snob.

[Veef]

Super Mario Brothers is the triumph of a man who turned an abandoned cement factory into a Dinotopia.

[timmy]

Don't you start.

Also I will enjoy Pacific Rim no matter what.

[Djinnkitty83]

It's a good book. And the reason I'm offended by the film is that when they acquired the rights for the source material, they had a chance to bring a different kind of zombie apocalypse story to the screen. Then they realised it couldn't be done in their format, or was too hard so fuck it. See Super Mario Brothers(1993) for another example. Instead, it became an expensive Brad Pitt vanity project. This might be why I'm begrudging it. As I've already said, I'm not usually a movie snob.

I can't object to that. I can pretend the source IP isn't connected and being used as a cheap cash grab, but everyone has a different line.

One thing the movie did do that I've never seen before is capture the worldwide destruction of a zombie apocalypse, which I enjoyed.

[adr]

i gots a question for you bilingual folks

i can more or less read spanish (at least simpler stuff like newspapers), but when i do, my eyes see spanish words, but the voice in my head is still english.

is that the same for those of you who are actually /good/ with a second language? or do you just read it and understand it directly, bypassing your other language?

[Veef]

Don't you start.

Also I will enjoy Pacific Rim no matter what.

hey what happens in robits stays in robits