Kevin HonanZombie Story Critique ENTO 431Dr. Tarone

IntroductionZombie culture has swept over our culture with the same swiftness as the likes of vampires, werewolves, and wizards. The Walking Dead, AMCs hit thriller is as much addicting, as it is grotesque. Yet, unlike the fairytale stories of Twilight and Harry Potter, zombies possess a unique truth at the core of their tales. The illustrations and make up that go into making these stories realistic is a testament to a field that forensic entomologists explore every day of their career. The field of forensic entomology is not simply a fulfillment a strange sci-fi obsession this is a science that can save lives, and bring culprits to justice. The art of interpreting a bodys path, post-mortem, can be what brings peace of mind to the public. This literature will discuss the non-cinematic tellings of decay (via zombies, of course) through three short stories, and evaluate their credibility and reasoning. If accurate, there might be an even deeper reward to these tales aside from sheer entertainment.

BodyStory 1 excerpts : Family Business : Family business excerpts followed by critique 1 (cited properly)

There was a low moan, and Benny turned to see a gray-skinned man come shuffling slowly around the corner of the building. He wore ancient coveralls that were stained with dark blotches, but incongruously around his neck was a garland of fresh flowers. Marigolds and honeysuckle. The man's face was in shade for a few steps, but then he crossed into the sunlight and Benny nearly screamed. The man's eyes were missing, and. the sockets gaped emptily. The moaning mouth was toothless, the lips and cheeks, sunken in. Worst of all, as the zombie raised its hands toward them, Benny saw that all of its fingers had been clipped off at the primary knuckles pg 160 Source for analysis: In the long history of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, a plethora of autopsy reports have been described, ranging from bodies that died of age to ones that suffered some sort of traumatic death, as hinted by descriptions such as the face indicated pain. Due to the fact that zombies arises from being bitten and mauled by those of the infected class (other zombies), the latter will be assumed for the manner of death in which the zombie from Bennys description experienced. Among the sea of autopsy descriptions, page 179 of the B.M.S.J. stands out, delineating an autopsy performed 12 hours after death; describing the eyes as well as other parts of the face, sunken in while the lips were drawn over the teeth.3 A man stood looking out of the big bay window. He had sandy hair and a sparse beard, but now the hair and beard were nearly gone and the skin of his face had shriveled to a leather tightness. look for stuff showing about skin shriveling pg. 178

Cadaverine. I work a press to get the oils from the rotting meat." Benny's heart sank. Cadaverine was a nasty-smelling molecule produced by protein hydrolysis during putrefaction of animal tissue. Benny remembered that from science class, but he didn't know that it was made from actual rotting flesh. Hunters and trackers dabbed it on their clothes to keep the zoms from coming after them, becausethe dead were not attracted to rotting flesh. find something about cadaverine pg. 143

"Once a body has started to cool, theystop feeding mentioning body cooling of pre stages of decomp pg 159

Nothing? They don't rot away and die?""They're already dead, Benny." A shadow passed over the valley and momentarily darkened Tom's face. "But that's one of the mysteries They don't rot. Not completely. They decay to a certain point, and then they just stop rotting. No one knows why.""What do you mean ? How can something just stop rotting? That's stupid." this conversation can be talked about while referring to the rotting process. Pg 159-160

Talking about eyes and blood : They were clus tered on a narrow and almost water-locked section of the clearing; but far worse than that-each and every one of them was blind. Their eyes were pits of torn flesh and almost colorless blood. Page 170

Story 2 excerpts

Livor mortis reference : Most drowning victims, if you found them soon enough-say, within twenty-four to forty-eight hours, before the lobsters, crabs, and other scavengers scurrying around on the bottom of the ocean pg. 1-2

Good description again (touches on livor mortis) In all his years of diving, the one thing Jeff had never been able to get over-the single most fascinating thing-was the dead person's face . . . especially the eyes. Once the blood drained out of the head and upper body and settled into the lower trunk, the puckered skin turned as white and translucent as marble. Winding traces of veins stood out like faded tattoos just beneath the skin. Of course, some one with darker skin wouldn't be as white as alabaster, but the effect-at least on every body Jeff had ever recovered-was as fasci nating as it was gruesome. Pg 2

Talking about judging a bodys time spent underwater talk about how its different when analyzing a body underwater than it is on land: This man might have been swept over board during the recent storm and not been reported missing yet, but the condition of his clothes and skin seemed to eliminate that as a possibility page 4 of wor doc

same page as above, dealing with eye decomp in water, check up on this: But this man's eyes were still intact, even though he had clearly been underwater long enough for barnacles to attach to the chain and the cement block holding him down

Story 3 excerpts: Second Wind

The author lists his four stages of decomposition: Rancidification, Black Putrifaction, Butryric fermentation, and Dry decay. Page 233, you can compare this to the actual stages in real life

Further description of Rancidification after analyzing the steps in real life you can determine exactly which stages of decomposition are resembled in Rancidification:

Rancidification, the first stage, is far and away the most danger ous. That's when all the fluids in your body rot and go sour. The smell is fucking indescriba ble, but that's not what you've got to worry about. The souring releases huge quantities of gas, which builds up in your body cavity wherever there's a void for it to collect in. If you don't do something about it, the pressure of the gas can do huge damage to your soft tissues-rip you open from the inside out. But if you make incisions to let out the gas, every hole is a problem that has to be managed at the putrefaction stage. Pg. 233

Black Putrifaciton stage, page 234. Make note of the part where the author talked about temperature being cold and that is why the insects dont lay eggs on him, a good point.

I was already ahead of the game just by having a cold, controlled space of my own. No insects to lay their eggs in my moldering flesh; no air- or ground-borne con taminants. I used that time to start the embalming process. I needed it beca use by now my stink had matured into something really scary. I kept having to pour cologne onto my tongue to blitz what was left of my airway and nasal passages, beca use even though I wasn't in haling, the smell was still getting through to me somehow.

Stage 3: Fermentation What was left of my flesh changed its consistency, over the space of a couple of weeks, into something hard and waxy. Adipocere, they call it. It's kind of unsettling at first, be cause it doesn't feel like anything even slightly organic, but it has the huge upside that it doesn't smell of anything much. I could live with myself now.

Stage 4: Dry Decay stageDry decay mainly affects your bones, through a leeching of or ganic compounds called diagenesis, so I just let it happen and turned my attention to other things

lack of body repair: Page 239 I wanted to punch it, but that would have been a really stupid thing to do-no blood flow, so no scabbing, no skin repair. Any wound I opened in my own flesh would stay open unless I sewed it shut.

Conclusion

References: (References properly cited in Journal of Medical Entomology format.) 3: Shattuck, G. B. and F. B. Lund. 1897. Air-Embolism With Report of Cases, Clinical and Experimental. Bos. Med. J. 134: 179-181.

Include three references for three critiques and also include citation for the zombie story from which you picked from