Zombie Consumerism in "White Noise"

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Recommended: The impact of cultural influences on consumer buying behavior

When humankind turns directionless and destination less, when confusion confounds the society, when people act and react as if they are in world created out of hallucinations, when muddle-headed thinking becomes the accepted reasoning of lifestyles, take it for granted that they are the best candidates for and the ardent supporters of zombie consumerism. Phillip Mahoney in article Mass Psychology and the Analysis of the Zombie: From Suggestion to Contagion in the book Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture (2011) writes “What is important is that, for now “zombie” effectively operates as an “empty signifier,” capable of calling into existence an active, global front dividing those who respond to the call—in “whatever” fashion—and those who do not”(p.126). This is a situation of fiasco and confrontation, created out of the gifts of the materialistic civilization, the mad race for aggrandizement for wealth and heading towards the purposeless goal of more and more purchases, whether an individual genuinely needs those commodities or not! The subject matter (plot) of White Noise and the issues dealt with under the nomenclature of Zombie consumerism are more or less identical, just like the alternative beats of the same heart. Zombie Consumerism is an all-embracing concept and it can be part of any field of activity. When an individual buys goods just for the sake of shopping, without any rhyme or reason, without the genuine want, he becomes part of the zombie consumerism. Zombies do not belong to the world of imagination alone. They represent something culturally current. It can be anything, social unrest, social awakening, weird movies, science fiction, and they hold the mirror to show the pictur... ... middle of paper ... ...ash, chemical spill and the advancing, life-threatening black cloud, simulated evacuation, drug dealings, dangerous side effects of the drugs, killings and sex, rampart consumerism, underground conspiracies and human-made disasters etc. Such topics represent the concept of zombie culture. Works Cited : From Suggestion to Contagion in the book Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture (2011) writes “What is important is that, for now “zombie” effectively operates as an “empty signifier,” in “whatever” fashion—and those who do not”(p.126). Boluk, Stephanie (Ed.) Lenz, Wylie (Ed.) (2011) Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture. McFarland & Co Inc.; New York; English DeLillo, Don. White Noise (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Accessed on March 29, 2014

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