LT: Tell our readers a little about your love of zombies, and what lead you to write Gospel of the Living Dead.
KP: Well, like a lot of people my age, I can remember the television ads for Dawn of the Dead. They had me hooked. Then, as I got older, I kind of forgot about the humble zombie. I did other things, and got interested in theology.
Then, in my work as a theology or religious studies professor, I started out with the Bible, but kept looking further from it for literary expressions of theological ideas. I first looked at “great” literature (e.g. Shakespeare, Melville, Dostoevsky), but then I started looking at pop culture, and that led to my nonfiction examination of the Romero films, Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth (Baylor, 2006).
As I watched his films again, it clicked how he was expressing his insight into human nature, and into a life lived without reason or purpose or a higher calling – it’s just mindless appetite, and someone like Dante would call that “hell” and Romero instead calls it “zombies” but you can see it on display all the time, all around us.
LT: How is your background in theological studies reflected in your work?
KP: I’ll be direct. I think too much of people’s piety, or of outsiders’ impression of Christianity, is summed up by the inspirational poem “Footprints in the Sand.” That’s a lovely, comforting sentiment, but it’s not the whole story of theology, which has to give some account of the evil, dark, scary, uncomfortable parts of life, the parts where God does not say something nice and sweet to us. So, while most people say “Zombies? But I thought you were a theology professor?” I don’t sense the disconnect. Zombies are just a made-up version of what always bothers us, and which we need our religion to give some answer to – death and suffering.
To give the technical term – all my fiction is to some extent a theodicy, a story of how evil and suffering can exist in a world created and governed by a good God. I try, further, to put in some hints of redemption, though it’s always in the overall context of suffering bordering on the hopeless or despairing, and it’s usually only hinted at, not fully realized in the narrative.
LT: What do you find evocative about the horror genre in general?
KP: I find the genre helpful because unlike popular piety, it focuses on the dark and painful. Now, that being said, I think the challenge is for horror not to limit itself just to the actual physical abuse going on in the story, but to depict a range of emotions and reactions. I don’t say that just for moral or ethical reasons, but also for aesthetic considerations: it helps give the literature more depth and complexity.
LT: Tell us about your own zombie fiction, and when the next book will be out.
KP: The next year is shaping up to be a big one for me. My new zombie anthology, The World Is Dead, was just published by Permuted Press. The German edition of my first novel, Dying to Live, will be out next month. That novel will also be re-released by Pocket Books, so it’ll finally be available in retail stores nationwide and not just online. My zombie version of Dante’s Inferno was published this year as a limited edition by Cargo Cult Press, and it’ll be released as a trade paperback from Permuted Press next year. I’m working on the third volume set in the Dying to Live universe and that should be out next year as well. I’m shopping a contemporary ghost story, and when that finds a home, it’ll also be in the publishing queue. So I think people who like my writing should have plenty to choose from in the months ahead.
LT: What authors do you like to read in your free time?
KP: I read a lot of nonfiction, actually – lit crit, history, and philosophy of religion are my favorite topics. In terms of fiction, I’m afraid I usually go back to the nineteenth century, or to a Gothic writer like Flannery O’Connor. In terms of current horror writers, I prefer those with a more lyrical voice, like Gary Braunbeck or Sarah Langan.
LT: After Dying to Live, what other projects do you have planned?
KP: I’m thinking another classic of western lit probably needs to have some zombies in it. I’m looking forward to that.
LT: Obviously you love George Romero’s work. What other film makers do you like?
KP: Walter Hill and Tim Burton. Visually stunning, both of them, and when they get the right script and actors, their characters are also very touching, even though they both have a sense of the weird or fantastic.
LT: How does music figure into your creative process? Is there any specific music that would make a good backdrop for your stories?
KP: I’m afraid I still listen to 80s metal. All the time, especially when I’m writing or driving.
LT: How about visuals? If you had your choice of anyone, what film maker would do an excellent version of a Paffenroth story?
KP: Clearly we need to get Romero and Zack Snyder to cooperate on that extravaganza. Can you imagine? You take something like the first fifteen minutes of the Dawn of the Dead remake, and combine it with some of Romero’s best feeding frenzies. Oh, what author wouldn’t want that?
LT: If you were going to write about another type of monster, what would it be?
KP: I’ve tried my hand at ghosts now a couple times. They’re delightfully the opposite of zombies – spirits with no bodies, instead of mindless bodies shuffling around. But ultimately they have the same problems, which are the same problems even as us “regular” people: they have trouble reconciling themselves to their pasts, and they don’t know how best to relate to other people. It’s just with zombies that’s taken rather literally – they try to eat other people, who try to shoot them in the head.
With ghosts, it’s gentler, but the dynamic is the same I think: the relation of living and dead, the problems of our pasts. They don’t know how they’re supposed to be, or why they’re here. Again, that sounds a lot like all of us, and that’s what I find fascinating about these fantastic creatures.
LT: What was it like to win The Bram Stoker Award?
KP: They do it up nicely – gowns and tuxedoes and a big gala. Very fun and thrilling. My experience was enhanced, as it was the first con I’d ever been to, and there I am in this ballroom with my name read as a finalist. Then they opened the envelope and read somebody else’s name! I was crushed. But they were playing it up – they said, “Oh no, wait, there’s another name! It looks like we have a tie!” Then they finally read my name!
I was so blown away that when I went to a bar afterwards, I was refused service, as the girl said I was obviously intoxicated already, and I hadn’t had a drink yet that evening.
LT: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
KP: Just to thank you for taking the time! 
©2009 Lori Titus
April 3rd, 2010 at 3:58 pm
what a nice post, thanks.
June 19th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
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