Writer Max Brooks, the world’s foremost expert on zombies, spoke to a crowd of approximately 500 University of Wisconsin-Madison students, community members and zombie aficionados Tuesday as part of the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
Brooks is the author of two of the most-widely read zombie books in the world, “The Zombie Survival Guide” and “World War Z.”
Brooks says the inspiration for “The Zombie Survival Guide” came from his childhood in Southern California where he grew up with natural disasters and read many survival guides but could not find a zombie apocalypse guidebook.
When he decided to write his own survival guide, Brooks said growing up in Hollywood he learned that great entertainment may not give good life lessons.
“In this country we don’t know where the line is between entertainment and education anymore,” Brooks said.
Applying common sense to his survival guide, Brooks wrote what he called the factual version rather than the “sexy” version. For example, he explained the overlooked but extremely important problem of hydration during an apocalypse.
“Realism might be boring, but it’s going to keep you alive,” Brooks said.
Brooks, a former history major, said he studied the history of warfare in his research for “World War Z,” and every theme from the book is from history. The origin of his zombie plague, for instance, is based on the history of the SARS outbreak in China and the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
While keeping the crowd laughing with jabs at a recent Hollywood movie starring Brad Pitt that “conveniently” had the same name as his book, Brooks gave valuable advice about how to survive any type of disaster, including criticism.
“The thing about criticism is that it only affects me when I agree with it,” Brooks said. He also explained the abilities to specialize and adapt are vital in disaster scenarios.
Brooks is currently working on a comic book series, which plots zombies against vampires to explore the importance of emotional and psychological preparedness in a disaster, especially the willingness to fail.
“If you’ve never had to struggle or fail, you will not be ready for adversity when it comes in your life,” Brooks said.
