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The horror of assimilation: zombies and bio-capitalism.

Article Excerpt
Now that the Victorian government has given the green light to stem cell research the hype over the possibilities of 'regenerative medicine'--the idea that biotechnological research will allow the growth of human cells and eventually body parts to regenerate the human body and counter the ageing process--has risen to the fore once again. With few exceptions (including Geoff Sharp's contribution in the last Arena Magazine) there has been little critical attention directed towards the wider implications of such a technology. However this is beginning to change. Bryan Turner has argued that, while regenerative medicine might be able to stall or reverse some aspects of the ageing or degenerative process, others will continue. The result, according to Turner, is that 'mortality rates will decline but morbidity rates will increase'. The subject will inhabit a hybrid body part of which decays according to natural process, the other kept artificially preserved. For Turner this could usher in new levels of 'chronic illness', as well as a cultural condition governed by periods of 'prolonged life with no purpose'.

This horrible idea of death in life helps explain the enduring presence of the zombie figure in popular culture--a figure that in many ways equates with the power and horror of Kafka's Metamorphosis. Unlike other monsters whose pure otherness makes them relatively easy to hate and fear, the zombie, because it confuses the boundaries of death and life, of the human and the non-human, arouses feelings of dread and...

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