ThE cOnCePt beHInd ThE mAN

I would not be shocked if Max Brooks was a time traveller who went back to 2006 to write World War Z as foreshadowing to Covid 19. Its shocking how similar the events of the book are to the events going on today. to start off, the zombie virus (I will be referring to as ZV) started in china much like Covid 19 (I will be referring to as CV). Both viruses where then covered up by the Chinese government and transported around the globe through legal and illegal means. The similarities continue to grow in number, That being said, the similarity I find the most frightening would be panic and denial. As the time traveler Max Brooks said himself on an interview with Vox, “We’ve been in denial too long, and panic is the fruit of denial. That’s not just society — that’s individuals. When you stick your head in the sand and you deny something, and you keep denying it long enough, then suddenly you get caught up in the problem and you’re not prepared for the problem, that’s when you panic. I’m starting to see that, and that is very scary. Panic is the one thing we do not need right now. If there was ever a time for clarity and facts, this is it.” He goes on to bring light the effects of panic, and how it has been similar to the events of his book, “People lose their minds and they do irrational things and they hurt each other. You don’t want that to happen. You’ve got to make sure you keep your head when things appear dark all around you. Because, number one, you can’t fix the problem if you’re too busy losing your mind. Then you have what’s called second- and third-order effects, where other people start to get hurt. I’m starting to see that with panic buying. So far there hasn’t been a lot of violence, which is great, and I hope it never happens. But the mass run on things like bottled water — in a pandemic, the water is going to keep running. It’s not an earthquake.” I think that Brooks words are important to take away. He’s stating that, through acceptance of you situation you can gain clarity and a level head helping you to be rational and safe in hard times.

Work Cited

Wilkinson, Alissa. “‘You Can’t Scare a Virus’: World War Z Author Max Brooks on Pandemics, Fear, Panic, and Hope.” Vox, Vox, 16 Mar. 2020, www.vox.com/culture/2020/3/16/21181504/world-war-z-max-brooks-coronavirus-pandemic-interview.

World War Z. Turtleback Books, 2013. 0

One of the first things I noticed that was a similarity between the book World War Z and modern day was its shocking resemblance to the Covid 19 situation we find ourselves in today. I found the (Vacseen) shared a crazy similarity to the mask industry today. Though, unlike the vaccine in World War Z, some masks do work. For instance, proper medical masks tend to cut down on particularly passing through them by over 50%. That being said, much like in the book, there are companies playing off the fears of the public by selling products that do apsolutly nothing such as cloth masks. In a study reported by BMJ, cloth masks let through around 97% of particals. 0

Celebrity’s

Pandemics are not fun. That’s just a simple fact. Being in isolation can be boring, lonely, and down right stressful. That being said though, everyone responds to isolation differently. Within this piece of writing, I’d like to share with you how celebrities are taking the news. Be warned, these reactions are so predictable that a book written Fourteen years ago gets them spot on. This book being World War Z.

The celebrity that are referenced in the book are never expressly stated by name (for legal reasons) but are hinted at, “You don’t mind if I don’t mention any names, ’kay? Some of these people are still alive, or their estates are still active, and…can you believe, they’re still threatening to sue.” All of these celebrity’s are held up in a giant, walled off mansion with enough provisions to last them a lifetime. Instead of laying low and coasting through the apocalypse, they decided to put themselves on live television, “every room in the house was wired for a simultaneous webcast that went out all over the world 24/7.” On top of this flaunting of their wealth, they created some very disingenuous content by forcing tears while hering and watch people suffer, “l had less respect for the ones who tried to fake some tears than I did for the little spoiled whore who called the rollerblading guy a “dumbass.”

Celebrity’s in our own world don’t seem to be doing much better. Throughout the Covid 19 induced isolation, many celebrity’s have been making tone def and ineffectual gestures of solidarity such as singing imagination with captions such as “we’re all in this together” while simultaneously showing the heavy class devide between them and the majority of the country. Unlike the ending to the celebrity storyline in World War Z, in witch the mansion gets stormed by regular people, the celebritys of today have instead become the victims of heavy memeing.

Works Cited

Hermione Granger Hermione Granger, et al. “Celebrities Have Never Been More Annoying: People Are Roasting Their Quarantine Content With Memes (27 Pics).” Bored Panda, 1 Dec. 1969, www.boredpanda.com/funny-corona-memes-mocking-celebrities/.

Lustig, Hanna. “24 Times Celebrities Have Been Completely Unrelatable during Quarantine.” Insider, Insider, 24 Apr. 2020, www.insider.com/celebrities-quarantine-social-media-distancing-have-been-completely-unrelatable-in-2020-4.

World War Z. Turtleback Books, 2013. 0