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A review by meeners
Zombies: The Recent Dead by Paula Guran
2.0
based on her editor's introduction, i think paula guran is probably smarter than the majority of the authors in this collection. her introductions and commentary are really great, but i think she tends to be more generous in her evaluations than i would be. too many of the stories were simply tedious - either a little too earnestly bent on providing "social commentary" (without really understanding that social commentary doesn't work if you use zombies as a plot device or catalyst to force insight into the human characters - the point being that the zombies are human, too, or were, or may be...and therefore operate simultaneously as monsters AND as something more metonymic) or else a little too casually too-cool-for-school.
the neil gaiman story fit into this latter category for me, actually. i haven't read gaiman in ages, and this story reminded me why - he is a fantastic wordsmith, but his ideas are a little too self-consciously cool for me. maybe it's a bit unfair of me to say so - his story in here happens to center around an academic conference for anthropologists in new orleans, and i just happen to have have been at an academic conference in new orleans myself (with anthropologists! along with scholars in other disciplines) fairly recently - but the whole thing just came across as lazy and inauthentic. lazy and inauthentic because the digs at academia are only there in service of the story, and don't say anything meaningful in and of themselves. not to mention how "academia" is just shorthand for all the same old stereotypes you find anywhere else. i can forgive that as a rule, but not when the story depends on the stereotypes in order to work.
anyhow. i thought the kelly link story (which i'd read before, in magic for beginners) was one of the most outstanding pieces in here, but that should not surprise anyone who knows me and my reading preferences.
the neil gaiman story fit into this latter category for me, actually. i haven't read gaiman in ages, and this story reminded me why - he is a fantastic wordsmith, but his ideas are a little too self-consciously cool for me. maybe it's a bit unfair of me to say so - his story in here happens to center around an academic conference for anthropologists in new orleans, and i just happen to have have been at an academic conference in new orleans myself (with anthropologists! along with scholars in other disciplines) fairly recently - but the whole thing just came across as lazy and inauthentic. lazy and inauthentic because the digs at academia are only there in service of the story, and don't say anything meaningful in and of themselves. not to mention how "academia" is just shorthand for all the same old stereotypes you find anywhere else. i can forgive that as a rule, but not when the story depends on the stereotypes in order to work.
anyhow. i thought the kelly link story (which i'd read before, in magic for beginners) was one of the most outstanding pieces in here, but that should not surprise anyone who knows me and my reading preferences.