Zombie Points of View

The other day at work, my coworkers and I were stuffing envelopes with reports to mail out.  My one coworker, Tamara, who also happens to be a writer, and I got on the topic of zombies.  She asked me how I felt about the recent trend of creating stories from the zombie's perspective. 

Honestly, it doesn't bother me.  It's another viewpoint in a genre that has been done for a long time.  It's meant to change things, shake up the mundane.  Personally, I think if it can be done well, do it.  However, I think the normal definitions of "zombie" would have to change.  After all, being inside a creatures head that thinks about nothing but braaaaaains or doesn't think at all, that's going to get boring really fast.

I then mentioned that I personally would probably never do a story like that because I'm a purist.  The only zombies I write about are George Romero zombies.  And then I had to stop myself and backtrack.  The next zombie story I'm going to write has zombies who aren't traditional.  They have the ability to think and be trained, much like Bub.   

I got to thinking about the zombie genre and how us authors try to keep things fresh and exciting.  It made me realize that there's nothing wrong with the "traditional" stories, but it's also going to be fun to explore a whole new side to the zombie.  Heck, even George Romero toyed with the idea of smart zombies.  The bottom line is if it can be done well, if you enjoy doing it, do it.  Who's to say what you're doing is wrong?