World War Z: Book and Movie (*SPOILERS*)

*DISCLAIMER*  There will be book and movie spoilers in this post.  So if you intend on reading the book or watching the movie, stop here.  You have been warned.

When we were preparing to go to Alaska, one thing I did was search for a book to read on the plane.  Something that would be engrossing yet didn't require a lot of thinking, something entertaining but not altogether mindless. Since I am a zombie fan, I chose Max Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.  

In the introduction, we are told: "Although this is primarily a book of memories, it includes many of the details, technological, social, economic, and so on, found in the the original Commission Report, as they are related to the story of these voices featured in these pages.  This is their book, not mine and  I have tried to maintain as invisible a presence as possible" (p. 3).  Earlier we were told that all these stories and information were gathered as a UN investigation done by a single investigator with a cadre of translators and an ability to travel the world over.

The book opens with a brief status report on postwar conditions in China which had been decimated by zombies.  Then we travel to Tibet, Greece, Brazil and so forth around the world, until we finally land in Colorado.  The author tries very hard to use many different voices to tell this global tale that unfortunately, not all the voices are unique and some even come across as stereotypes.  The narrator, who tries to keep himself out of it, isn't always as invisible as he'd like to be.

This book does have a plot.  It took me a while to find it. The plot is how the zombie plague spread, how the plans to stop it spread, and what worked or didn't work.  The thread is found from one report to the next, each one linked but not always in obvious ways.

Not surprisingly, a zombie apocalypse (or any natural disaster or war) has collateral damage and this fictional conflict was no different.  Feral children, lack of food, cannibalism, the break-down of civility and civilization, and the recovery are all covered.

The zombies were quite similar and yet, different, from the zombies in Walking Dead, for instance.  These zombies can survive underwater - they're the living dead so oxygen isn't necessary.  They freeze in winter, kindly giving humanity a seasonal respite from those who would devour them. Head shots only to take them out, that must be universal, until someone comes along and totally changes the myth like Stephanie Meyer did with vampires; sparkly zombies would never work.

I like zombies.  They are a metaphor for all of humanity's fears and desire for control over that which cannot be controlled.   If you want to know how to prepare for TEOTWAWKI event, then this is a great book to start with.  But don't watch the movie World War Z thinking you'll get the same education.

As for the movie, the Prince Caspian Rule strikes again!  While I didn't necessarily re-read the book before I went to see the movie, it was fresh enough in my mind that I could tell when the movie deviated from the book (not that hard - almost the whole movie).  I also knew from seeing the trailer in other movies that this movie would not be like the book at all and it wasn't.

Truly, I wanted to see Hollywood fx bring to life zombies coming out of the water to attack boats.  I wanted to see the Yonkers battle.  Instead, I got a floating armada with zombies no where near, a man trying to get back to his family in Nova Scotia and  cartoonish computer-generated zombies climbing each other to breach a massive wall.  I got zombies that moved like lightening, never seemed to feast on human flesh, gnash their teeth and growl and go dormant when there's nothing to eat.

I always wonder how an author feels about his or her book being turned into a movie.  When I see that the author has some involvement in the filmmaking process, I feel a little better because I think the movie will be truer to the book than without the author's involvement.  Looks like Max Brooks was not involved in any way, shape or form, and it shows.

The first burning question in your mind now is should I read the book. Absolutely! The second is should I go see this movie or not.  See it, but wait til it comes out on Netflix and don't expect it to be anything like the book.  Bummer because that book, handled by an intelligent screenwriter, should have produced a much better movie.  Maybe in 25 years someone will re-make it since Hollywood can't seem to leave old movies alone (The Dirty Dancing Red Dawn Effect).

The New F Word

Monday, July 8, began 11 weeks of furlough for my Dear Husband and 649,999 of his government service colleagues. Before this red letter day, I had vowed to contact my congressional representatives to voice my frustration and to spur them on to act <ha! so naive in retrospect>.

On Wednesday, July 10, I did just that, and boy howdy! let me tell you what I learned.

My first call was to my Representative. The young man who answered the phone, in all honesty, shouldn't have been.  He stumbled over his words and way overused "Ums" and Uhs."  Poor kid.  I started off asking him what the Representative's position was on the furlough for government defense workers. The staffer or volunteer was silent, and then after a very long pause began to give me a lesson on how the sequestration and the furloughs came to be. That long pause was instructive, and where I learned my first lesson: If the item in question is a done deal, the representative or senator will have no opinion on it.  Duh.   My second lesson followed quickly on the heels of the first:  Think fast, remember your goal, and ask another question.  I proceeded to ask the young man what the representative was going to do to end the furloughs for the government service employees.  After a bunch of political-speak, I took the opportunity to explain how many people who lived in the county I do and commute into the home of the world's largest naval base or work at the shipyard or various other military installations in the nearby state so that the entire region's economy was going to be negatively impacted by these furloughs.  I told the young man my husband was a 20 year veteran of the Navy and now works to make sure ships are safe for sailors; that my husband felt this kind of treatment was a kick in the gut.  The young man said he would pass along my story to the representative.  I then ended the call, with a sinking feeling.

My next call was to the senator listed first in the directory.  This time, the phone was answered in a very professional manner by another young man.  He then transferred me to the Senator's staffer who handled military issues.  This was my third lesson:  Senators have staffers assigned to various areas of governmental concerns.  The staffer was not in, so I left a message, briefly explaining what I wanted to discuss.  I have not heard back from this person, but I will be calling her back <insert evil laugh>.  After doing some research on Senate staff positions, it appears that some senators also have assistants to deal with veterans' issues, Liaisons they are dubbed.  Furloughs are affecting many veterans so this might be the tack I take in my next round of calls to my congressional representatives.

The final call was to my other senator and was the most productive one as far as learning things.  Since I had learned about staffers, I asked the young man who answered the phone if the Senator had a staffer who dealt with military issues and could I please speak to him or her.  The young man said yes, inquired as what I was calling about and then transferred me.  This young lady was very soft-spoken and kind.  She listened to me, again trying to give me a lesson on the sequester and how the furloughs came to be.  Here is where I learned it is possible to wait too long to voice an opinion to a congressional representative; I should have been calling back when sequestration was first being discussed.  The staffer also informed me this senator had voted against the bill to reduce the furloughs because it contained cuts to other entitlements.  That did not make me happy and I expressed to the staffer that there is no need for entitlements if our nation cannot be defended.  I'll be the first to admit there is wasteful spending in the military AND in the government all around, local, state and federal levels.  For example, the $3.5 million dollars used to buy land around a base to protect a gopher species that isn't even endangered might only be a drop in the bucket, but it's as good a place as any to start!  If we could, somehow, recover even a portion of the $8 BILLION dollars that has "been lost to fraud and corruption" in Iraq alone, we might not have had to even have furloughs.

This staffer repeatedly said that she understood when I repeated to her what I had told the first staffer regarding my husband's situation.  While I appreciate the sentiment, she does not understand and she couldn't, unless her spouse or another family member  is a victim of the furlough OR she herself was furloughed from her job. Depending on her position, that could be a drop in the bucket or the difference between cat food and real meat.  It is quite interesting that the leaders of our country did not try to trim their office budgets first or take pay cuts themselves before they passed the buck down to the little people.  It is quite hollow for a man whose net worth is between $2.4 million to $10.9 million in 2009, to take a 20% pay cut in solidarity.

I also asked this young lady if The Powers That Be were aware of how tax revenues for the government would go down since people aren't being paid and are, therefore paying taxes on lesser incomes. I asked her if COngress was aware of the trickle down effect: that if people are not earning, that is money that cannot be spent in the economy - business will close, people will not eat out or shop or buy anything because their bills will have to be paid first and all discretionary spending put on hold.  She agreed with me but offered no insights or solutions except her understanding.

I also learned from this young lady that at the end of July there may or may not be a vote on the National Defense Authorization Act or such amendments thereto which may or may not end furlough.  Perhaps that is what Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was referring to: "In his memo today [May 14, 2013], Hagel said if the budget situation eases, he would strongly prefer to end the furloughs early. “That is a decision I will make later in the year,” he added. 

I questioned this young lady about who I should contact regarding this vote.  She indicated Harry Reid but cautioned his office might not take my call since I am not a constituent of his.  Nice.

So I went back to cleaning out my oldest Dear Son's bedroom, and alternating between raging and crying.  Dear Son's room got cleaned but I sure didn't accomplish anything else worthy of Wonder Woman.

Final take-aways:
I am resigned to the fact that in all probability, nothing will be done to end furloughs.   And that according to an eight page letter written by Chuck Hagel to the Senate Armed Services committee, furloughs would be replaced by lay-offs and reductions in force (RIF) meaning people would be fired. 

Government waste, fraud and abuse will continue.  The IRS will still get their bonuses.  The Obamas will continue to take extravagant trips at taxpayer expense. Many government employees will continue to use their government credit cards to fund their own selfish desires.

And average Americans, who work hard to do their part to ensure our sailors, soldiers, airmen, and guardsmen have what they need to accomplish the mission, will suffer.

BUT my hope is in the Lord not the government.