World War Z: Announced

[mmu1]

I would find that an odd attitude to find on a board devoted to RPG gaming. The root of speculative science fiction is asking, "What if?" I this case, the spread of the zombies is not really the point of the book. The human stories of what happens to people in this (scientifically absurd, I grant you) world that are the real point. They are written with craft, understanding, and artistry, and are what make the book good. The details of the zombies are thoroughly secondary.

True, the scientific impossibilities really are the least of the book's problems - but I'm not sure we can talk about the other ones without violating the rules about discussing politics...

Though I suppose it ought to be ok to mention that, for example, Cuba becoming the world's dominant economy in the wake of WWZ seems to me even less likely than the suspension of the laws of thermodynamics.

 

[Tetsubo]

If you happen to define "poorly written" as including anything that doesn't conform to modern norms known to science - such that we can't have a disease that is drastically more communicable than any before seen on the planet, for instance - then I guess I can't argue with you. I've already noted that the zombies defy the most basic laws of thermodynamics as well, so the virulence is hardly the worst technical offense.

I would find that an odd attitude to find on a board devoted to RPG gaming. The root of speculative science fiction is asking, "What if?" I this case, the spread of the zombies is not really the point of the book. The human stories of what happens to people in this (scientifically absurd, I grant you) world that are the real point. They are written with craft, understanding, and artistry, and are what make the book good. The details of the zombies are thoroughly secondary.

If you base a story line in the real world, I want it to behave like things do in the real world. While zombies are fantasy, a virus is not. I expect a virus to function like they do in the real world.

Base the story line in D&D or Star Wars and i will be much less picky. Put it in my backyard and it best obey the real world as much as possible. Reading a High School Biology text book would prevent most of the obscene errors seen in films that use a virus as a key element.

I am only willing to suspend disbelief so far...

 

[mmu1]

I wonder what good it would do to run over a zombie horde with a tank. I mean, outside of a really big plain or similar location it would not be feasible to cause much damage to a large horde before running low on fuel, while the horde around you is busy munching on the population.
If I remember correctly, during the military scene in WWZ the horde was approaching roughly along a motorway filled with wrecked cars. This terrain and the number of zombies would render most types of vehicles quite inefficient, even tanks. Especially if your goal is to stop the horde there and now.

The point is that the horde would be no threat to the tank, so it could keep on killing until it ran out of ammo, then head back to re-arm.

Also, you might be right about the WWZ scene, but that'd be just one more example of the author assuming terminal stupidity on the part of the armed forces in order to justify killing them off.

Oh, and just to make it clear I'm not just trying to nitpick - I've been reading Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead recently, and it (while you can still definitely point out holes in it, like in any zombie story) has a much better reason for the lack of organized military presence - after a while, most military units melted away as the individual soldiers began to worry about what was happening to their families rather than about the strangers they were supposed to be protecting. Which I can at least see happening in the course of a fight vs. zombies that takes weeks - it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the military actually losing pitched battles...

 

[Umbran]

Base the story line in D&D or Star Wars and i will be much less picky. Put it in my backyard and it best obey the real world as much as possible. Reading a High School Biology text book would prevent most of the obscene errors seen in films that use a virus as a key element.

I am only willing to suspend disbelief so far...

As I said, I cannot really argue that, as I feel it is a matter of taste. I personally see the effects of the fantastic on something familiar and contemporary as being far more accessible.

We have problems sharing the state of mind with Han Solo, who lives in a world full of aliens and massively powerful technology (and magic), as compared to getting into the head of a soldier that live in our own world, but is then faced with a horde of several million zombies that don't stop when he shoots at them, and continue marching forward, moaning. Or maybe the guys trapped in a market in Stephen King's The Mist. These people, their fears, reactions, and strengths are understandable, where Obi Wan Kenobit's aren't.

Plus, there's the simple major problem that "preventing obscene errors" will generally also prevent the story from being written. If the story is about people, one should not prevent it from being written on technical grounds. If Robert Forward (who writes science fiction that is mostly about the science) screwed up a technical point, I'd be annoyed. But WWZ is not about the science of zombiedom.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

the science of zombiedom.

Please Umbran, if you're going to call it by its technical name, at least attempt to get it right.

It's called "zombology."

 

[sirwmholder]

...Humans are very good at killing things...

You sir have just been siged.

William Holder

 

[grimslade]

I am only willing to suspend disbelief so far...

Or, since you've stated you don't read fiction anymore, not at all.

 

[Tetsubo]

Or, since you've stated you don't read fiction anymore, not at all.

Not true. I am an avid movie fan. I just want movies that make sense.

If you want to make a fantasy movie, make a fantasy movie. If you invoke actual, real world elements such as a virus, it should behave like an actual, real world virus.

If movies such as -I Am Legend-, -28 Days Later- or (the upcoming) -Doomsday- said, "It's magic!", I wouldn't argue. But the insist on saying that that a virus behaves in a way that a virus does not actually behave. Sloppy writing and directing.

 

[grimslade]

Not true. I am an avid movie fan. I just want movies that make sense.

If you want to make a fantasy movie, make a fantasy movie. If you invoke actual, real world elements such as a virus, it should behave like an actual, real world virus.

If movies such as -I Am Legend-, -28 Days Later- or (the upcoming) -Doomsday- said, "It's magic!", I wouldn't argue. But the insist on saying that that a virus behaves in a way that a virus does not actually behave. Sloppy writing and directing.

I was only jerking your chain a little.
I also agree with your point that at least some attention should be paid to pandemic forecasts and timelines. I am okay with a little bit of fudging to move the plot along but unaddressed discrepancies pull me right out of a book or movie. It is better if they at least acknowledge the 'fictioning up' of an element, rather than let it stand there like an elephant in the room.

 

[Tetsubo]

I was only jerking your chain a little.
I also agree with your point that at least some attention should be paid to pandemic forecasts and timelines. I am okay with a little bit of fudging to move the plot along but unaddressed discrepancies pull me right out of a book or movie. It is better if they at least acknowledge the 'fictioning up' of an element, rather than let it stand there like an elephant in the room.

I think all those dollar signs hide the elephants in Hollywood...