Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Zombies in the Night


Zombies have been paying some of my rent for years (though vampires and werewolves paid more of it.) Last night, thousands of them visited my dreams, perhaps trying to get something back for all the cash they've given me. As I've said in this blog before, the Thais believe that seeing the dead in dreams brings fortune and, most especially, money; but I am not sure whether the living actually count.

In this dream, several of us are trapped in a huge high rise in a world that seems to have been taken over by the George Romero creations. Well, strictly speaking, as I discover later, these are the Lucio Fulci zombies familiar from the late auteur's 1980s masterpieces. Among the people with me are Now, the manager of the Siam Philharmonic Orchestra, and several other music people.

I am trying to convince people that the world has been taken over by zombies and that we must fight. My impassioned pleas make no difference, however, so I finally take everyone down to a lower apartment, where a zombie party is in full swing. The zombies (a la Fulci) move slowly and don't actually notice us as long as we don't attract their attention. No one believes they are zombies. "I'll prove it," I say.

On the sofa, between zombies, sits famed science fiction author Tim Powers. "I'll prove it!" I say again. "I'll have them eat Tim Powers."

I prod them into action and presently one of them lunges onto Powers' lap. biting down into his guts. Tim doesn't notice for a moment (or maybe he's in shock) but presently begins to howl and shake his fists at the ceiling ... but now we are in a primaeval forest, and it's a werewolf he's becoming, not a zombie.

Now, it is true that Tim Powers played a zombie in my 1988 splatter feature, "The Laughing Dead," but I haven't thought of that it a while ... come to think of it, in my dream, he was wearing the same lumberjack shirt....

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