“Zombies, their uprising and our anticipated armed struggle against the undead horde is a metaphor for plague—specifically, AIDS.”

In a cultural think piece on The Awl and POZ.com titled “Death to Zombies,” journalist Natasha Vargas-Cooper lays out in considerable detail her case for the AIDS/zombie connection. Most convincing is material from World War Z author Max Brooks. But his original tale—and not the Brad Pitt movie—included a longer incubation period, resulting in the “walking infected” being ostracized and feared. Now that we can relate to. Eating brains? Not so much.