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* * * * * HERE BE SPOILERS* * * * *
Some Zombie Contingency Plans is about a guy called Soap
who - whilst gate crashing a house party in the suburbs - recalls to a girl he
has just met his past including how he ended up in prison following his theft of a
painting.
The opening line in the story is 'This is a story about
being lost in the woods' but the story isn't about lost in the woods at all.
Throughout the tale woods are only mentioned again in respect to the painting
and I don't see the theme of being lost or loss in general within the story.
This sets the tone for the rest of tale which is difficult to follow in places
and certainly requires a re-read to grasp fully.
That isn't to say the story is confusing in a frustrating
manner, the characters are all well rounded with no confusion as to who is who
and there are also no shuddering shifts in time or location. However the story
is defiantly fantastical in terms of the way the characters interact with each
other and also the language used.
Deceit is a major theme in the story, not only from the main
character but also from the supporting players. The main character's name is
Soap at the start of the story but then informs people that his name is Will.
We later discovered that his name isn't Will at all. The other character in the
story, Carly, also deceives the main character firstly by lying about the fact
that the house is her parents and later on hiding her true eye colour with
contacts. Based on this we can not take anything that any of the characters say
as being an accurate reflection of events; therefore we must doubt that Soap's
tale of how he ended up in prison and, as a consequence, doubt the whole content
of the story.
Soap refers to Art in the beginning of the story and upon
first reading we take these statements as merely his opinion on the subject.
Here a few handpicked quotes:
'Art was why Soap was in prison'
'He hadn't know much about Art'
'Art and prison were the kind of things that you had
opinions about, even if you didn't know anything about them'
'This was why people got pissed off about art'
It is only later in the story when we discover the main
characters real name is Arthur that these comments take on a whole different
level of meaning. I have only selected a handful of lines but the theme is
plain to see once you know the characters name.
It is also worth noting that there are no actual zombies in
the story. The character refers to zombies being simple and seems to make a
connection being the uncomplicated way zombies are and uncomplicated way his
life was in prison. Since leaving prison Soap appears to have wandered from one
place to the next with no real direction; when he was in prison he was unable
to make any decisions for himself; even wishing that zombies would attack the house
so that his life could once more be simple.
He makes a plan in the story of how
he would survive the attack and who he would save which seems to indicate he
wants to change his life but only if drastic circumstances forced him into this
change.
Some Zombie Contingency Plans is available for free online here and is part of 'The Living Dead’ anthology as edited by John Joseph Adams.
* * * * *
Read more of Mark Swain's writings here!
Review 06 - The People of Sand and Slag
Review 05 - Under St Peter's
Review 04 - Death and Suffrage - Dale Bailey
Review 05 - Under St Peter's
Review 04 - Death and Suffrage - Dale Bailey
Review 03 - Some Zombie Contingency Plans - Kelly Link
Review 02 - Sparks Fly Upwards - Lisa Morton
Review 01 - Dead Like Me - Adam Troy Castro
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Table of Contents - Guest Stars
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