People are still blogging like it’s the end of the world, and that’s perfectly appropriate, though I personally got zombified a couple of hours ago and my narrative self is presumably wandering the fields of Dixon, looking for fresh flesh to munch on.  This kind of participatory narrative is fun to be a part of, and I’m glad I got in early.  I wonder if there’s any way of knowing how many people actually took part in the whole affair?  I pity Steve, over at My Elves are Different, who came up with the whole idea, but who also tasked himself with tracking everything and posting updates.

This post from Art Black was probably my favorite in its elegant simplicity.

I’m glad that a couple of people took up the idea that the zombie outbreak was due to infected produce originating from my home town.  That was cool; if only we could blame all the world’s problems on mutant corn smut.  A quick observation, though: in the storyline I’d started, there was actually no corn smut, it was just me in denial and pretending that the spatters of blood and bits of flesh I was seeing on the cornfields after the zombie migrant workers had gone on a rampage were a new type of fungus (I was originally going to go with ergot, then discovered that ergot doesn’t infect corn and doesn’t look as ugly anyway, though it has some really interesting hallucinagenic properties).  I mean, seriously: zombiegeddon or mutant corn smut? Which would you want to believe?  I was going to reveal this self deception later on, but people had already run with it so I didn’t.  That was fun.

I also noticed that several people blamed the zombie apocalypse on "unknown necrotizing fasciitis".  Heck, that one made it onto the Something Awful forums, and from there to Digg (though it never made it on to the Digg front page).  I’m going to go out on a limb and say I can legitimately take responsibility for that with this, my first post on the theme.  I did a little digging and found a post that mentions "unknown necrotizing fasciitis" and linked to my post (though I’ve lost it now).  Therefore I take full responsibility for linking the zombie outbreak with "unknown necrotizing fasciitis", or UNF, or "Crawford’s Disease".  Because I’m an egocentric schmuck that way, and will ignore any evidence that might contradict my thesis.  I just hope that Steve remembers this when he gathers up the best outbreak reporting in a couple of days.  Hint.  (Note: I kid. Seriously, I do.)

I also note that my site had over 500 unique visitors today, and almost 1,100 pageviews.  I think that’s more traffic than I’ve gotten over the past two months!

I asked over at My Elves are Different whether I can participate next year, and was told that apparently I’ve gone into complete remission, which I guess means yes.  Huzzah!

I had lots of thoughts about how the whole thing reflects certain cultural trends not just in the US but throughout the world, and how this participatory narrative (I love that phrase and will use it repeatedly from now on) captures and defines certainly elements of the "zombie (or ghoul) canon", but I’ll spare you those thoughts for now.

For those still taking part, keep going! I’m watching and learning and getting ready for the next zombiegeddon…

ETA: I’ve compiled all my entries from today into one spot.  Arranged in chronological order, even!  It’s all right here!