GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay
Drugs, blood and flesh: an analysis of the zombification found in Young Adults Literature The following extract belongs to “Best Served Cold” by the Canadian writer Justine Musk which can be found in the collection “Zombies: Encounters With the Hungry dead”: “The thought flickered like a candle flame and went out. And now he was back in the closet with the girl, breath mint taste of her mouth and tongue, the faint tang of tequila, and the cigarette smoke in her hair. And maybe there had been something strange about her, the limp, sluggish weight of her, but he hadn't paid much attention at the time. What he had noticed was the feel of the breast in his hand, the firmness of her thighs, the roundness of that ass, and it was all melting into the others, so many others, sweet young yummy flesh, the warmth and musk and tenderness that he believed could somehow save him, sucking it all up between his teeth, bodies writhing and opening beneath him, and he plunged inside one after the other after the other, and somehow it wasn't enough, not yet, he needed more, he was digging himself into their flesh, he was opening them up, he was cracking their bones to get at their marrow. He was burying himself alive in blood and meat and bone and hungry, so hungry, so hungry.”
The walking dead are around us, and they are hungry. Nowadays Zombies has become a well know ingredient to create a boom. Whether a movie, a TV series or a book, zombies are here to stay. And this now has been incorporated to books read by teenagers under the scope of the horror genre. Horror fiction is intended to terrified readers. It sometimes, but not always, includes elements of the supernatural. The endings of horror novels are unresolved. This genre is closely related to other genres, such us fantasy and science fiction, but while in fantasy good trump evil, in horror the evil force lives on (YA definition of horror). Thus, the first part of this paper will analyse Young Adult Literature. This paper propose “Best served cold” as an instance of Young Adults Literature (Fiction) and presents the idea of zombification as a metaphor for drug abuse. This paper proposes “Best served cold” as an instance of Young Adults Literature (Fiction) and presents the idea of zombification as a metaphor for drug abuse and its consequences.
GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay
Young adult literature (YAL) is for readers aged between 12 and 18, although many adults are known to enjoy the genre as well). The aim is to present readers a more honest view of the main characters’ hopes, fears and dilemmas (Herz & Gallo, 1996). The focus of YA fiction on adolescents has been changing through time as the realities of the readers in order to create connections with readers. Readers’ engagement with this genre increased over decades since they try to find books written specifically for a teenage audience (Donelson and Nilsen). Besides, authors and publishers know what elements to use to fulfil teenagers’ expectations. YAL authors incorporated into their books the same elements as those in adult novels: a consistent point of view, a significant setting, a well-delineated simple plot, vivid characterization, realistic and lively dialogue, and an attractive style (Herz & Gallo, 1996). Robert C. Small, who is dean of the college of education and human development at Radford University, introduces characteristics that identify YA fiction. According to Small, YA novels should reflect these criteria:
The main character is a teenager.
Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers.
The main character is the centre of the plot.
Dialogue teenage speech, including slang.
The point of view presents an adolescent’s interpretation of events and people.
The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, Intelligent, mature, and independent.
The novel is short, rarely more than 200 pages.
The actions and decisions of the main characters are major factors in the outcome of conflict (Herz & Gallo).
It must also be noted that YA fiction can be used by the teachers as supportive reading in the classroom. Its purpose is to cover the needs of those students who will not read the classic texts since YA novels are easy reading and intriguing. As conveying before, these readings will enforce the pedagogical aspect. Teachers might use Young Adult Literature for different purposes. For example, YAL demonstrates the range of human emotions and allows adolescents to experience them as a result of reading
GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay
quality literature. Furthermore, it also increases literacy and the ability to analyse literature. (M. L. Manning, 2006, p. 9 – 10). The short story “Best Served Cold” written by Justin Musk is considered Young Adult fiction. It presents a trending topic and an explicit behaviour of drug abused compared with zombies’ characteristics. Hide a girl in the closet, is bad decision, forget her there is even worst. After a wild night sniffing coke Thad takes a girl into his house, he is the kind of man that can´t refuse a woman. It happens that cheating her girlfriend isn’t that easy, when he comes home with a girl his intentions of getting sex with her are frustrated by his girlfriend arrival. On the rush of getting rid of the new girl, Thad locks her in his closet. Somehow time pass, he invites friends for dinner in his house. He feels that something is missing, he is forgetting something. After a while of enjoying his friends’ company, he realizes that the girl is still in the closet. Worried about the girl, he goes to look after her. He calls her and he only hears a grunting breath exhale. She approaches to him, gibberishing smelling like rotting flesh, indeed she is rotting from inside. He sniffs coke. He thinks telling the truth to his guests it is the best option. And so he does. He tells them that he has got a zombie in the closet. Everyone believes it is a joke. And start to comment on the event, mocking him giving possible explanations about the zombie case. It comes across to a guest, an urban legend stating that a type drug causes people to get zombie. Once it gets in your body, it acts like virus; a flesh eating virus. His level of thinking is not the finest as he was doing coke. He hears the zombie girl going downstairs to greet Thad’s guests. After meet her two of guests take her to the bathroom believing that she is just a girl that feels sick. Unfortunately, they found death there. Thad finds them after observing the bloodbath, elsewhere in the house someone started screaming when he notices that his world changed, he is no more a living human being. Turning now to the question of demonstrating that this story applies to YAL it could be said that at first “Best Served Cold” is not a YAL story because its main character, named Thad, is not a teenager (Small - Herz & Gallo). However, the main character, which truly is the centre of the plot, behaves and thinks like a teenager. For example there’s a moment in which Thad thinks about blowjobs and sex as something
GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay
that he cannot refuse to because that would mean “all broken mirrors and black cats and the number 666.” Readers may find this way of seeing sex similar to a thought an adolescent may think because they are discovering their sexuality. If the character in “Best served Cold” is not a teenager but he behaves like one, then it is possible for many people to argue that this story applies to YAL. Bearing in mind the previous point on YAL characteristics, it’s now the turn of events and problems in the plot to be analysed. The events presented in this short story shall be linked to teenagers (Small – Herz & Gallo). In “Best Served Cold”, Thad has thoughts about the situation of having a girl, he has just met, locked and under drugs in his closet. Thad also realizes that he is not able to think straight because the effects cocaine produces on him. In addition he reflects upon his relationship with his friends as follows: “Friend? How you could define ‘friend’?” If you define ‘friend’ as somebody with whom you generate consistent mutual positive regard then I would say ‘no’.”
This reflection upon some events in his life, signals another unique characteristic of YAL that is the main character as a teen who “is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature and independent” (Small – Herz & Gallo). What’s more, drugs and critical thinking are features that may be connected to teenagers that at this point of their lives are becoming more critical and are engaged, because of peer pressure, in mindaltering substances like drugs (Koelling, Holly). As regards the style of writing used in “Best Served Cold”, the author incorporates slang with words like bitch, blowjob or shit. Other feature is the length of the story only eleven pages. These features are keys when writing YA fiction (Small – Herz & Gallo). Equally important, the use of the following theme and archetype (Herz & Gallo) makes “Best served Cold” applicable to YAL. Young Adults Fiction it is supposed to dealt with universal themes alienation from one’s society or group; survival or meeting a challenge, social concerns, etc” (Herz & Gallo). In this case, the theme in question might be substance abuse. In other words, the main character abuses of cocaine as these brief extracts will exemplify:
GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay
[…]“where he kept some cash and a few prized video tapes and a stash of cocaine that would make Scarface proud”. (p.1) […]”and he guided her inside and went to his safe and chopped up some lines on the back of a framed Picasso […]” (p.1) “Thad sat down on the bed. He did some thinking. He did more coke…” (p.4) Adolescents may feel a connection with this topic dealt in “Best Served Cold”, however this doesn’t mean that the story is promoting the consume of drugs, the story in a way is presenting what may happen if somebody abuses of drugs. This is another proof that this story is connected to YAL. Bearing in mind the previous points, the second part of this paper will deal with zombification and drug abuse. It is clear that young adults develop faster nowadays than 50 years ago. They mature earlier, they know more, and they have a preoccupation with friends and peers (Manning & Bucher, 2009). Moreover, young adults have to deal with peer pressure, healthy issues such as eating disorders, AIDS and STDs and drug abuse. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) there are many reasons for using drugs: peer pressure, stress of life, emotional pressure, boredom, parental influence, media influence, ignorance, curiosity, easy access and to get attention. Through the years, young adult drug abuse has been seriously increasing. As a result, drugs have become a trend among them. Marijuana and prescription drugs are considered the most popular drugs used by young adult. However, they are not the most dangerous drugs available. It could be said that cocaine is the worst. Many people consume it. In a recent study, 3.4%of tenth grade students and 5.2% of high school seniors reported using cocaine in the past year. This drug has many risky effects. For example, headaches, nausea, decreased appetite, irritability, paranoia, loss of touch with reality, etc. Besides, the body can develop a tolerance to the drug, and the user needs increasingly larger doses of the drug to achieve the same feeling (Caron, Texas). As noted before, this paper will deal with the concept of “zombification”. The dictionary defines the word “zombie” as a person who is or appears to be lifeless,
GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay
apathetic, or totally lacking in independent judgment; automaton (The Free Dictionary). Nowadays, this lack of independence can be related to drug abuse and consumerism in lifestyles. In “Best Served Cold” the main character has “a stash of cocaine that would make Scarface proud” (p.1) and apparently he needs to consume it every time a decision has to be taken. Young adults’ drug abuse can be compared with the characteristics of zombies. Having considered that some of the reasons for using cocaine are emotional pressure, boredom, peer pressure and easy access, it can be said that the main character named Thad, uses cocaine to avoid his feelings related to a violent burglary he experienced. Besides, as he is a wealth man that posses many things, Thad gets bored easily and he looks for new experiences though cocaine. The main character and the other characters have easily access to this mortal drug since they “move in the same beautiful people circle”. Furthermore, the symptoms of the drug abuse manifest characteristics similar to zombies. For example, Thad has a lack of judgement since he cannot think clearly and take a decision when he realizes the girl he has locked in his closet has become a zombie. In addition to this, Thad demonstrates a lifeless appearance, a loss of touch with reality and difficulty to talk to other people. But, why is Zombification an appealing topic for YAL readers? Since the 60´s the pop culture has been inversed in the zombie thematic, the walking death has been the main attraction to young adults. These animated corpses raised by chemical pollution, or supernatural events are creating a global zombie infestation. Not only in films, but also, in TV shows and literature. Authors like George Romero and Stephen king have left a
trade mark in the horror genre; they were referents for many other writers to install a zombie phenomenon among readers. This last phenomenon have been growing through time, nowadays more and more followers of this genre get involved with the Zombie culture. TV shows like “The walking death”, movies like “The dawn of death” and stories like “Best served cold” gain popularity among young adults audiences. People buy books, watch films and even act like zombies. There are people building shelters, gathering supplies, learning to shoot a gun and even learning how to become a zombie.
GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay So what exactly is a zombie? The origin of the term “zombie” is found in Haitian In Haiti, it is believed that a sorcerer, called a bokor, can capture the soul of the recently deceased to raise the body and compel it to do his bidding. Zombies might once have been expected to work the fields, though now they more likely build spreadsheets, It is significant that for Haitians, the true villain is not the zombie itself but the bokor slave-master who created it in the first place-an important distinction given Haiti’s history as a hub of the slave trade and its gaining independence through the 1804 slave revolt. (www.faithstreet.com) What makes the thematic so popular is the taboo handle within the plot; an apocalyptic world where human beings are left to survive creates a sense of self-preservation that enhances readers with the characters experiences. This is the reason of zombie’s popularity; it resembles the society symbolism of a world in despair and human misery. It describes the factual human behaviour in an unreal post-apocalyptic world. What would you do if the world turned zombie? Will you survive? These questions give readers the arguments to gain interest on readings about zombies. TV shows, movies, video games, comics and books are spreading the flesh eating virus, zombies are now, officially, everywhere.
Admittedly, “Best Served Cold” presents remarkable and interesting characteristics and topics. In other words, this story might be appealing to young adults since it contains many characteristics that Young Adult novels have and the story relates a trending theme such as zombies with a contemporary social issue such as drug abuse.
GARAY, Lucía Mariel LÓPEZ, Cintia LAPROVITTA, Anahí Language And Written Expression IV Prof. Blas Bigatti 1stDraft – Academic Essay REFERENCES John Skipp (September 19, 2009) Zombies: Encounters With The Hungry Dead - Mark Justine: Best Served Cold Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Herz & Gallo, 1996 Donelson and Nilsen M. L. Manning, 2006, p. 9 – 10 Small - Herz & Gallo Koelling, Holly Manning & Bucher, 2009 The Free Dictionary Butcher, Katherine T. and Hinton, KaaVonia M. “Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation and Appreciation” 2013 Accessed Why do we love zombies? http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2011/10/31/why-do-we-love-zombies/10962
Drug facts http://drugfacts4youngpeople.com/node/64 Teen Cocaine Use http://www.carontexas.org National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) http://www.drugabuse.gov Teen drug abuse becoming an epidemic, must be adressed http://www.foxnews.com