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Author Topic: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?  (Read 4015 times)

CT

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Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« on: August 28, 2011, 01:14:15 am »

Just what it says, the book amazing and i love it. I just wanted to share the love with others. <3
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No, yep. That's what I meant too. I want to come out of the theater completely fucked up for weeks.

ToonyMan

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2011, 01:24:47 am »

I've read it.  The book was pretty good yeah.  I enjoyed it for the most part because it always switched the scenes and setting up with new interesting stuff.
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alway

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2011, 01:33:07 am »

I was going to link you to the wiki page about the movie, which is currently a WIP, with a simple warning of "don't squee so hard you wake up everyone around you." Then I found out there has apparently been an update about the movie. http://io9.com/5830389/world-war-z-movie-synopsis-is-nothing-like-the-book-internet-melts-down
*sigh*
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CT

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2011, 01:54:33 am »

FUCK THEM, FUCK THEM ALL  >:( why, why do they do that? If you have read the book you know it is nothing like the movie is supposed to be. DMOAIFNMAW{OGFMIA}SGFOGMAGP,
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No, yep. That's what I meant too. I want to come out of the theater completely fucked up for weeks.

MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2011, 02:08:16 am »

I liked most of the book, but Russia becoming a theocratic empire seems....significantly off, even with a global zombie outbreak.
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Vector

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2011, 02:11:41 am »

I liked most of the book, but Russia becoming a theocratic empire seems....significantly off

Curiosity: why?
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NRDL

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2011, 02:14:58 am »

I liked most of the book, but Russia becoming a theocratic empire seems....significantly off

Curiosity: why?

It would make sense, during times of hardship like, say, a zombie apocalypse, for the people to rely on a certain religion in order to stay sane.  I wouldn't be really surprised if an actual country would take advantage of a disaster to usher in a new era of religious dominance. 
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Gamerlord

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2011, 02:18:20 am »

THEY. ARE. DOING. WHAT?  >:( >:( >:(
THAT MOVIE HAD SO MUCH FUCKING PROMISE!!!  :'( :'( :'(

Vector

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2011, 02:20:48 am »

Everything I've read about Russia is that its countrymen tend to feel that it was the inheritor of the eastern part of the Holy Roman Empire's undiluted cultural legacy, and that in general religion/spiritualism is far more firmly rooted there than it is in the West.  Corruption in the church and the dominance of spiritual teachers in communities (I think--this, I am far less sure on)--that, and Stalin wanting to be number one--led to the strict atheistic tenets of Bolshevik communism, which, along with the usual fear-mongering of McCarthyism, became connected to Russia as a whole.

Take with a grain of salt.
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"The question of the usefulness of poetry arises only in periods of its decline, while in periods of its flowering, no one doubts its total uselessness." - Boris Pasternak

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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #9 on: August 28, 2011, 02:25:34 am »

I liked most of the book, but Russia becoming a theocratic empire seems....significantly off

Curiosity: why?
It seems silly, especially since it implies that the whole thing was started by an orthodox priest executing some infected soldiers. I could see this happening in a place where religious fervor is extremely high, but Russia was part of a communist state that persecuted religious beliefs for almost 80 years, and it only ended a couple of decades ago even if policies lightened after Stalin died. Russia's democratic status collapsing back into authoritarianism is more than plausible even without zombies, but a theocracy? There's no basis for that! At least there are still a significant number of communists in Russia, but as far as I know theocrats are quite limited even if there are plenty of religious people.


I could see a theocratic revolution happen in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, or even Italy if the world really got shook up, but just not in Russia.
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Vector

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2011, 02:29:07 am »

Hmm.  I still quite strongly disagree, but I will keep thinking about it.
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NRDL

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2011, 04:55:14 am »

I liked most of the book, but Russia becoming a theocratic empire seems....significantly off

Curiosity: why?
It seems silly, especially since it implies that the whole thing was started by an orthodox priest executing some infected soldiers. I could see this happening in a place where religious fervor is extremely high, but Russia was part of a communist state that persecuted religious beliefs for almost 80 years, and it only ended a couple of decades ago even if policies lightened after Stalin died. Russia's democratic status collapsing back into authoritarianism is more than plausible even without zombies, but a theocracy? There's no basis for that! At least there are still a significant number of communists in Russia, but as far as I know theocrats are quite limited even if there are plenty of religious people.


I could see a theocratic revolution happen in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, or even Italy if the world really got shook up, but just not in Russia.

But with the whole zombie apocalypse thing, you'd think that the government would be completely incapable of persecuting religious people, movements and minorities.  I don't know that much about Russia, or WWZ, so please correct me if I'm wrong about any facts.  What I don't think I'm wrong about though, is human nature.  Imagine an entire country being torn apart by zombies.  The people, not the leaders or powerful groups, but the majority of the people would need their religious faith in order to survive.  Sure, they could have faith in something else, but the point is, they need faith in something, so why not a religion ( not actually sure which religion is popular or practiced in Russia right now ). 

If anything, the whole "priest killing infected thing" would only serve to prove my point.  This act would no doubt have been very symbolic to those who have either seen or heard about it, and would only serve to bolster the religious fervor among the Russian populace.  I really wish I could get access to World War Z, that way I can get a better perspective, but from the looks of it, this priest would have either been a powerful leader, or a Christ-like figure, having descended from the heavens to wipe out the zombie plague.

Seems like something people, people who have faced danger from the zombies day after day after day, would want to believe in. 
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mainiac

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2011, 09:10:02 am »

The writing in that book was complete an utter garbage.  There was only one character, even though there were a lot of names.  I am much more interested in the book where widespread cloning lead to the entire world being filled with people with the exact same personality.  Plus the people in that book had an intelligence that might have been slightly lower then the zombies.  This book was the tilting point that made me realize that zombies had jumped the shark.
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ChairmanPoo

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2011, 09:14:01 am »

TBH I did not like it too much either.

Then again, I've always been kind of meh-ish about the whole genre.

But yeah, I've read better. (And far worse too)
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nenjin

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Re: Anyone read World War Z? (is there already a topic)?
« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2011, 09:27:12 am »

I've listened to about half of it as an audio book. I thought it was pretty decent, but then readers often go to great lengths to add characterization to their lines. So on that I can't really have an opinion, as it's impossible for me to separate the quality of the writing from the people reading it. (Also kind of hard to remember.)

That it's been swallowed by Hollywood comes as no surprise. Cue the FX departments making scenes of Blackhawks in the sky and air strikes on urban neighborhoods, and lonely zombies looking up into the sky asking "WWWHHHHHHYYYYYYYY?????"

It's funny, it's almost like Hollywood rejects the vision that we failed to defend ourselves adequately and is re-themeing the movie. Like "Oh noes, a movie about the aftermath will depress people and they won't see it!" When the reality is "Oh noes, people are bored with our last minute victory against catastrophe before they've even seen it!"
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