I Think I Just Succeeded In Explaining Ideology To My Seven Year Old

I’m Actually Pretty Sure He Got It

Photo by Magda Ehlers

This morning, over breakfast, my son asked me if zombies are real. I answered him with a “no, but…” then realized I needed to provide some background. I pulled my copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein off the shelf — unread*, I’m ashamed to admit — and told him that two hundred and four years ago people were afraid of science and technology, and that Shelley managed to capture that fear and turn it into a monster who terrified people because they couldn’t understand it.

* I’m pleased that he wants to read it after I gave him a brief plot summary, so now I finally have an excuse…

We Need To Talk About The Zombies

While I walked him to school, I grasped for a way to describe my theory on zombies. (How convenient that I recently wrote it up after all these years!)