If
ever there were a good place to talk about zombies, the apocalypse, lost
civilizations, and science fiction, Coast to Coast AM is it. And that is exactly what I got a chance to do
Friday night (Feb 27). What a
treat! Coast to Coast AM airs on more
than 600 radio stations and is the nation’s premiere destination for late-night
radio. Host George Noory was smooth,
polished and professional. We spent the
better part of two hours talking about the walking undead. The central question was this: As fun as it is to contemplate a zombie
apocalypse, it’s just make-believe, right?
Nothing more than fodder for some harmless escapist entertainment in
novels, TV shows, and movies, right? Just
an opportunity to use creative makeup and dress up on Halloween, right?
Actually,
no. A real-life zombie apocalypse is not
beyond the realm of possibility, if you allow one basic rule that departs from
some (but not all) zombie tales: your
zombies can out of their minds and hyperviolent, but they must be sick, not dead. With that rule in place, you can proceed secure
in the knowledge that crazed, infected zombies really could kill us all.
Okay,
maybe we’re having too much fun here.
I
make this statement that the zombie apocalypse really could take place based on
two things. One, real-life news events
that I have witnessed over many years as a news professional made me want to trade
my journalist hat for a sci-fi author hat, and write a novel pondering what the
future might look like if those very real trends were to continue. (And, chillingly, some of what I wrote about
is already happening.) Second, I kept
the journalist hat on long enough to go to do some research in a major
university’s medical library in hopes of finding a disease causing at least
some patients to act in ways that you expect zombies to behave at the end of days. I found it.
If you allow me the leeway to suggest that a mysterious, never-cured disease
that’s struck twice before in human history, affecting a small percentage of
patients in the manner described, could come back in a much, much more virulent
form (and who’s to say it couldn’t, given that the second outbreak was exponentially
worse than the first) then yes, such an event could take place.
The
disease is described in the prologue to the novel, and that part of the story is
non-fiction. You can download that
prologue as part of a free sample, find out what the buzz is about, read reviews
from critics and readers, and find purchase options for several on line
retailers, all at this link. Find out why Publishers Weekly called A
Journal of the Crazy Year “A fascinating read all the way to its chilly,
barely hopeful conclusion.”
We
also hit on some other interesting topics, such as: Will current violent trends get worse (I
think so, but I hope not). Is current
social media technology turning the world into a hive mind, and if so, should
we be concerned (the answers are “maybe” and “definitely.) Should we fear the advent of artificial
intelligence? What are the implications
of the zombie subculture for Christians (live but sick zombies present less of
a problem). And perhaps most importantly—would
a compassionate, just, and loving God really allow a world-ending apocalypse?
The
official show summary page, including audio links, for my Coast to Coast AM appearance here.
Many
thanks to George Noory and the show producers for this wonderful
discussion. And I cannot let this blog entry
end without a shout-out to my publicist, Rachel Anderson. Nicely done!
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©2015 by Forrest Carr. All rights reserved.
©2015 by Forrest Carr. All rights reserved.
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