‘Survival Guide’ author endorses Obama in apocalypse
Zombie author Max Brooks performed a straight-faced stand-up comedy routine and Q&A Thursday night in the Russell House Ballroom to a crowd of about 200 people — mostly enthusiastic horror and video game nerds.
Brooks wrote “The Zombie Survival Guide” (2003), a humorous manual on how to stay protected in the event of an undead plague, and “World War Z” (2006), a book of first-person accounts of survivors in a zombie apocalypse.
Brad Pitt stars in the upcoming movie adaptation of “World War Z,” which is scheduled to open next June. Brooks’ parents are Oscar winners Mel Brooks (“Young Frankenstein”) and Anne Bancroft (“The Graduate”).
In his Carolina Productions appearance, the author went through the steps of how to survive a zombie plague. He talked about how the entertainment world creates dramatic moments in fiction that would not happen in the real world. People should use their brains and logic to survive.
For instance, the most vital commodity during a zombie plague would not be guns but water.
Not everyone strikes up a vested interest in zombies, or their apocalypse. And for Brooks, it’s not a love but a fear.
“I don’t love zombies. Zombies are scary. Zombies are terrifying. Love zombies? I do not love zombies at all. When I was a kid I lived in fear of them. I wrote this book so I could protect myself from them,” Brooks said in a preshow interview.
But what about the recent entertainment craze for zombie-themed television shows and movies — does Brooks enjoy the genre?
“In the way you like car crashes,” he said. “I have always been afraid of zombies, and I used to think if there were a zombie plague, what would I do to survive?”
And Brooks’ keys to survival are pretty universal.
“There is nothing zombie-specific about zombie survival,” Brooks said. “There’s nothing you would do to prepare for a zombie plague that you wouldn’t do to prepare for a hurricane. It’s the same stuff. I mean, I think that’s sort of the key. When I was researching ‘Zombie Survival Guide,’ I didn’t watch a lot of zombie movies. I did a lot of real research into real disasters preparedness.”
Who would survive the zombie apocalypse? The presidential election is less than a week away, and Brooks has strong opinions on which candidate would survive the attack.
“Obama. Obama off the charts,” Brooks said. “Romney’s party platform is all about dismantling civilization, dismantling health care, dismantling education, dismantling infrastructure — every man for himself. If you’re weak, you should die.”
Brooks believes Mitt Romney’s zombie handicap extends to a further political problem as well.
“That’s the sort of neo-Republican tea party message, which is like social Darwinism — the weak must perish, every man for himself ... It’s perfect for a zombie plague,” Brooks said.
And, according to Brooks, Romney has the zombie vote.
“Zombies aren’t intelligent, but if they were, oh, they’d be voting for Romney and the tea party. They would be like, ‘Please clear the field for us ’cause the last thing we want is a coherent civilization that’s ready to stand up to us.’”