 |
|
|
Indie
Lights Book Parade – Elise Abram, author
The Revenant
Raised from the dead as a revenant more than a hundred
years ago, Zulu possesses superior stealth, superhuman speed, and a keen
intellect. His only companion is Morgan the Seer, an old man cursed with
longevity and the ability to see the future in his dreams. Zulu has spent
the last century working with Morgan in order to save the people in his
nightmares from horrible fates. Branded a vigilante by the media, Zulu must
live his life in the shadows, traveling by night or in the city's underground
unless his quest demands otherwise.Morgan also has enemies. His twin brother Malchus, a powerful necromancer, is raising an army of undead minions to hunt Morgan down. Will Morgan and Zulu be able to stop Malchus from raising his army? How will they kill someone as powerful as Malchus? Is there more at stake than just their own lives?
Websites - http://eliseabram.com and http://britbear.eliseabram.com though the eliseabram.com site is the one I'll be posting and publicizing
for this event.
Twitter - https://twitter.com/eliseabram
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/EliseAbram
My buy links for The
Revenant are:
Abraham Maslow: Zombie Visionary?
"I ain't scared of no zombies" by Patrick Emerson
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kansasphoto/11260540383
Zombies are hot right
now. From The Walking Dead to Warm Bodies, rotting, mindless corpses
are all the rage. Here's an explanation as to why.
Zombies are mindless
automatons with a single imperative: to eat. They represent a loss of
self-control and self-determination. They represent creatures who have lost
their sense of self, their inner humanity, the essence that makes them human.
The fact that they still look human (sort of), only serves to remind us that
they are what we can become if we prioritize survival over other basic human
instincts like compassion and companionship.
Many of us fear a loss
of control. We compose living wills to ensure we don't become trapped in our
bodies relying on machines to breathe for us. We strive to better ourselves and
our education so we will have the means to do as we please, when we please. One
analogy is confinement. Children are often punished with time-outs, forced to
sit still and stare into a blank corner when all they want to do is play.
Prison, another source of confinement, is a place where people are forced to
bend to the will of the system, essentially having their autonomy stripped from
them. This is why both work as deterrents, because we fear the consequence.
The fear in zombie
stories comes from our understanding that "life" without
self-determination is not life at all.
All it takes is one bite (in some cases, a single scratch) and you will
eventually be stripped of your humanity, trapped in your own body, doomed to
roam the earth in search of food until someone, in an act of mercy, ends it for
you.
By contrast, the live
people in zombie stories lead a heightened life where every waking moment is
life-or-death. Their relationships, born both from hate and love, are intense.
They struggle with newcomers because they can't trust them, but to turn them
out into the world represents a loss of their own base humanity.
In 1943, Abraham Maslow
devised a Hierarchy of Needs, the parameters of which apply here. Maslow
proposed 5 states of being which motivate people. The most basic of which is a
physiological one, the need for food and water to survive. Safety is the next rung on the ladder, the
need to be physically healthy and financially secure. This is followed by the
need to feel as if you belong, as if you are loved. Next is the need for
self-esteem and self-respect. The highest level in the hierarchy is the need
for self-actualization, the ability to be everything you want to be.
Zombies are stuck on
the bottom step of the pyramid, forever leading a purely physiological
existence, while the people struggle with safety, health, belonging and
self-respect. The audience roots for them to move beyond this stage, to master
the lower levels of the hierarchy so they can move on to the final step. But, in
order to maintain ratings, the characters must never achieve
self-actualization, or the adventure will be over.
For Malchus, the
necromancer in my YA novel, The Revenant,
zombies represent power. The more he can raise, the more leverage he will have
when he seeks revenge against his brother, Morgan. Though he is partially
successful, he cannot master the task. Unable to eliminate the newly animated
corpse's desire for self-actualization, and to control their physiological
needs, he must put some of them down, which, needless to say, puts a crimp in
his plans.
 |
| Elise Abram |
 |
| Click here to enter |
Rafflecopter Giveaway:
Thanks to our wonderful parade authors
we've got fantastic swag baskets for three awesome winners! Prizes include
ebooks, gift cards and fun!
Remember, winning is as easy as visiting,
clicking or commenting--easy to enter; easy to win!
This sounds like an interesting and well thought out take on the zombie genre. I wish Elise well with this one. Currently I'm reading a book by some author by the name of Lisa Buie-Collard.
ReplyDeleteArlee Bird
A to Z Challenge Co-host
Tossing It Out
Best of luck to Elise! sounds interesting.
ReplyDelete