In an interview, Ling Ma, the author of the novel Severance, expressed frustration that the Cornell MFA program wanted her to write an “immigrant” novel. So, she decided to write about the theme of immigration, among other topics, in the context of a Zombie apocalypse. And why not? The genre has always been about the Uncanny Other, close to us, but not quite us, and couched in fear of our assimilation into them (and their mindless drive to assimilate us). This is that here – but Ma’s zombies are like us – stuck in routine, unable to crawl out of the task we must perform to make a paycheck and forced to repeat and repeat actions that take us further away from our desires and dreams. We are not so different from our shadow sides.
