both zombies and vampires are very blatant figures for the past. for what u.s. culture (meaning mainly corporate culture-for-profit and state-sponsored culture) insists is dead and forgotten. for the unfinished business of history that this country has always done its best to ignore.

this is pretty explicit in both genres from their beginnings. here are a few examples:

- the conclusion of the original “Night of the Living Dead” and its echos of what white cops actually do to young black men (then and now);
- bram stoker’s “Dracula”, with its xenophobic depiction of what happens when those on the margins of the empire come settle at its core (for a less bloodthirsty recent version of the Eastern peril, look at the ‘polish plumber’ tv ads from a few years ago);
- “Homecoming” – dead veterans against the war;
- “Twilight”, reminding us all that abstinence education and other religiously-driven efforts to substitute paranoia for information do one thing well: kill people.

the question is: will folks in the u.s. only learn from the past when it crawls out of the grave and starts to eat them? the evidence of the wars in afghanistan and iraq, of barely-subtler u.s. involvement in haiti and palestine and venezuela (and honduras?), of the current attempts to describe a bailout of the insurance industry as “health care reform”, etc. all suggest that even that may not be enough.

Steampunk I find can be very hit and miss. I agree with Heidi there isn’t really that much of it and at the very least it hasn’t hit the popular culture.

I will say I’m overly sick of Zombies and Vampires, though. Enough, we get it, you’re dead and scary. Next trope please.