After tackling zombies in both fiction and nonfiction, Kim Paffenroth now turns to the real for an unreal story in VALLEY OF THE DEAD. Available exclusively from Cargo Cult Press, the novel finds medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri working on THE DIVINE COMEDY when he stumbles upon a zombie infestation. Here, Paffenroth talks to BOOKGASM about its inception, as well as zombie fiction in general.
BOOKGASM: How did you stumble upon the idea of making Dante the focus of your new novel?
PAFFENROTH: When I was working on my nonfiction analysis of the Romero films, GOSPEL OF THE LIVING DEAD, I remembered that at the beginning of INFERNO, when Dante and his guide, the Roman poet Virgil, first enter hell and see a bunch of souls, Dante asks who they are. Virgil replies that they are those who have lost the good of intellect, and have made reason slave to appetite. People without reason or intellect, who are just driven by appetite? Sounded like zombies to me.
Then I considered more how Romero, especially in the original DAWN OF THE DEAD, has his zombies endlessly repeat what they did in life. And again, that’s exactly how Dante thinks of sin and punishment: not that the damned have the objects of their sinful desires withheld, but that they indulge in them endlessly, like zombies in a mall.
So I saw that Dante and Romero were thinking along a lot of the same lines. Then it was a matter of how best to express that link. I’d done so in my analysis of Romero, but slowly, as I got more confident about my fiction writing, it seemed like another way to present the common vision: Dantean zombies, or a Romeroesque INFERNO.
BOOKGASM: Zombies are hot right now, but how long do you see the trend lasting? And what will you do once readers are tired of it?
PAFFENROTH: I think TWILIGHT shows us — whatever we think of the quality of the books — that a monster is never out for good. Vampires were gone for a long time, now they’re back in a particular instantiation that some find unappealing; zombies were big, then they were gone, then they came back with some new tweaks — e.g. fast zombies and smart zombies — that some “traditionalists” find unacceptable.
So the lesson, I think, is that monsters keep coming back, and they keep changing. I don’t see zombies being the alpha dog monster forever, but I don’t think they’ll disappear completely, and then they’re reconfigured by some author or artist in the future, they’ll be different again.
As for what I’ll do when readers are tired of zombies, I’m having more trouble now with what to do with the non-zombie stuff I write, because everyone wants more zombies! I’ll be glad when they ask “So, what’ve you written lately, besides zombies?”
BOOKGASM: You’ve written both genre-centered fiction and nonfiction. Do you find it difficult jumping between the two? Does one present more challenges over the other?
PAFFENROTH: I was trained to write nonfiction, so that was my “comfort zone” for a long time. But I’d always read fiction, and analyzed it, so maybe it was almost inevitable I’d give it a try. And now that I have, some days it seems to come more naturally than the nonfiction.
I think for both, there’s the lead-up to the actual writing that’s very daunting and can keep you from proceeding. With nonfiction, that’s the long period of research, when you’re reading other people’s work, and that’s fun, but sometimes it seems like there’s so much out there, why do people need another book or essay on this topic, and you despair of saying anything new. With fiction, there’s the outlining and thinking about characters and scenarios, and it’s hard to finally stop thinking about them, and start the ball rolling on their story.
BOOKGASM: Beyond this, what other projects do you have in the pipeline?
PAFFENROTH: I’m shopping a contemporary ghost story. I’ve just started the third installment in the DYING TO LIVE saga with Permuted Press, and I have another anthology out with them later this year. Then hopefully some more zombies, and some more non-zombie stories! —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• DYING TO LIVE by Kim Paffenroth
• GOSPEL OF THE LIVING DEAD: GEORGE ROMERO’S VISIONS OF HELL ON EARTH by Kim Paffenroth
• THIN THEM OUT by Kim Paffenroth, R.J. Sevin and Julia Sevin
OTHER RECENT BOOKGASM AUTHOR INTERVIEWS:
• Q&A with IDW Publishing’s Chris Ryall
• Q&A with SHADOWS IN THE MIST’s Brian Moreland
• Q&A with WORST NIGHTMARES’ Shane Briant
Related posts:
- Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth
- Dying to Live
- The Undead: Skin and Bones
- Bone Valley
- The Undead: Zombie Anthology
