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I think Tarantino put mysteries into Pulp Fiction for the same reason Scott wrote this post -- the mind likes to make connections where there are none. Scott d

I think Tarantino put mysteries into Pulp Fiction for the same reason Scott wrote this post -- the mind likes to make connections where there are none. Scott did this quite deliberately, to entertain us both on the meta-level and on the level. I suspect Tarantino added inexplicable elements so that we as the audience would be entertained by speculation. There's nothing underneath. If you want to see what happens when the writers lose their nerve and try to explain everything, watch Lost.

teilo 9y ago
> I suspect Tarantino added inexplicable elements so that we as the audience would be entertained by speculation. Which is exactly what I concluded.
- sevensor 9y ago
  Indeed. I went on a bit too long and buried my point, I'm afraid. What I wanted to draw attention to was the self-awareness of the original post: It's entertaining on both levels because although Scott puts a great deal of sincere effort into drawing out the connections, he's also well aware that there's nothing there.
foobarian 9y ago
On the other hand there is X files. There really needs to be an "engineer plot" genre where plot stays consistent to a small set of made up axioms. "The Strain" made an attempt. It boggles the mind why not in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy? The way most of them work it's like cold fusion landing in one's lap.
- qznc 9y ago
  People who love this genre hang out at https://www.reddit.com/r/rational https://www.reddit.com/r/rational They call it "rational fiction". There is quite some overlap with fan fiction, because people like to "fix" non-rational fiction. Eliezer Yudkowsky and his take on Harry Potter is the prime example. I can also recommend Alexander Wales who also made original fiction. Probably the oldest related work is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. Another name mentioned often in this genre is Brandon Sanderson and especially his Mistborn series, but I have not read it personally.
  - jaibot 9y ago
    Alexander Wales' rationalist take on Superman, "The Metropolitan Man", is great. Text: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man Free audiobook: http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/?page_id=1705 http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/?page_id=1705
  - foobarian 9y ago
    I can't thank you enough for this pointer. Just what I had in mind :-)
    - qznc 9y ago
      A slightly better pointer might be the wiki of the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/wiki/index https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/wiki/index
- Endy 9y ago
  Kind of like Mobile Suit Gundam in that sense? Everything matches the rules established and follows logically from it?
- krapp 9y ago
  >It boggles the mind why not in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy? The way most of them work it's like cold fusion landing in one's lap. Zombies, like vampires in the pre-industrial age, are meant to represent the horrors that lurk beyond the limits of human understanding and control. Although I'm sure some author has attempted to "harden" zombies like that, to me the more you try to explain them, the less effective they are as monsters. Because they don't work rationally, they're demons of the Id.
  - foobarian 9y ago
    Speaking of monsters from the Id, Forbidden Planet was another excellent piece of SciFi with a consistent logical framework. (Also: Leslie Nielsen's first starring role).
    - krapp 9y ago
      Also, IMHO, one of the best designed robots ever to appear in cinema[0]. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot
  - erikpukinskis 9y ago
    I thought vampires were more about people who feed energetically on other people. Child molesters and the like.
- baddox 9y ago
  Slow zombies probably don’t pose a huge “where does the energy come from” problem.
- gaius 9y ago
  in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy You will enjoy the book "The Girl With All The Gifts" Spoilers in link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts
- QAPereo 9y ago
  Zombies which don’t rapidly decay and fail make no rational sense, but that kind of zombie also makes for a lousy zombie tale. Zombies represent anxieties about life, death, disease, being eaten alive, etc.
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  > There really needs to be an "engineer plot" genre where plot stays consistent to a small set of made up axioms. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA
- teilo 9y ago
  > It boggles the mind why not in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy? From brains. Duh. ;)
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    I know someone who once trapped a cockroach in a box and sealed it shut. When the box was opened, years later, the roach was still alive. It had eaten some glue on the inside of the box, and then went into a kind of torpor, simply waiting for either death by dehydration or starvation or an opportunity to escape, whichever came first. Zombies are like that. They gorge on fatty foods, like brains, bone marrow, and body fat, then go into an induced stasis that outwardly resembles death. The zombinism vector is undoubtedly an endoparasitic fungus related to Cordyceps. Mycelium spreads throughout the host during the infection, preferentially following existing neural pathways, and flooding the body with antibiotics, to kill native gut bacteria and other possible putrefying factors. The normal digestive functions are destroyed. The regular circulatory system is destroyed. The only elements preserved are sensory organs, muscles, skin, and bones. All other functions are replaced by the fungus. The mycelium, as it followed the existing neurons, actually grows into a replacement brain and nervous system as it destroys the host's nervous system. The copy isn't perfect, though, and genetically hardcoded structures produce an instinctual desire to seek out and eat more fat. Destroying the head does not actually kill the fungus, but it does remove its ability to create a facsimile of a mammalian brain, by scrambling the template. It could still make the muscles twitch, but would have no means of coordinating them into coherent movements. I would therefore expect a zombie running low on energy to have almost no fat left, and ascocarps growing out of it all over, like cactus spines. It would probably resemble a spiky mummy. Any rotting appearance would be due to colonies of microorganisms that have evolved resistance to the fungal antibiotics. So it's not just eating brains, but also not spending as much energy as a human normally does while using the organs evolved to keep a human brain alive.
- Houshalter 9y ago
  In 28 days later the zombies all starve to death after six months or so. The hard part is just surviving that long without getting infected. Most zombies in fiction are implied to be supernatural though. So a scientific explanation is unnecessary.
LoSboccacc 9y ago
> try to explain everything Midichlorians

teilo 9y ago

> I suspect Tarantino added inexplicable elements so that we as the audience would be entertained by speculation. Which is exactly what I concluded.

sevensor 9y ago
Indeed. I went on a bit too long and buried my point, I'm afraid. What I wanted to draw attention to was the self-awareness of the original post: It's entertaining on both levels because although Scott puts a great deal of sincere effort into drawing out the connections, he's also well aware that there's nothing there.

foobarian 9y ago

On the other hand there is X files. There really needs to be an "engineer plot" genre where plot stays consistent to a small set of made up axioms. "The Strain" made an attempt. It boggles the mind why not in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy? The way most of them work it's like cold fusion landing in one's lap.

qznc 9y ago
People who love this genre hang out at https://www.reddit.com/r/rational https://www.reddit.com/r/rational They call it "rational fiction". There is quite some overlap with fan fiction, because people like to "fix" non-rational fiction. Eliezer Yudkowsky and his take on Harry Potter is the prime example. I can also recommend Alexander Wales who also made original fiction. Probably the oldest related work is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain. Another name mentioned often in this genre is Brandon Sanderson and especially his Mistborn series, but I have not read it personally.
- jaibot 9y ago
  Alexander Wales' rationalist take on Superman, "The Metropolitan Man", is great. Text: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10360716/1/The-Metropolitan-Man Free audiobook: http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/?page_id=1705 http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/?page_id=1705
- foobarian 9y ago
  I can't thank you enough for this pointer. Just what I had in mind :-)
  - qznc 9y ago
    A slightly better pointer might be the wiki of the subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/wiki/index https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/wiki/index
Endy 9y ago
Kind of like Mobile Suit Gundam in that sense? Everything matches the rules established and follows logically from it?
krapp 9y ago
>It boggles the mind why not in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy? The way most of them work it's like cold fusion landing in one's lap. Zombies, like vampires in the pre-industrial age, are meant to represent the horrors that lurk beyond the limits of human understanding and control. Although I'm sure some author has attempted to "harden" zombies like that, to me the more you try to explain them, the less effective they are as monsters. Because they don't work rationally, they're demons of the Id.
- foobarian 9y ago
  Speaking of monsters from the Id, Forbidden Planet was another excellent piece of SciFi with a consistent logical framework. (Also: Leslie Nielsen's first starring role).
  - krapp 9y ago
    Also, IMHO, one of the best designed robots ever to appear in cinema[0]. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robby_the_Robot
- erikpukinskis 9y ago
  I thought vampires were more about people who feed energetically on other people. Child molesters and the like.
baddox 9y ago
Slow zombies probably don’t pose a huge “where does the energy come from” problem.
gaius 9y ago
in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy You will enjoy the book "The Girl With All The Gifts" Spoilers in link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_All_the_Gifts
QAPereo 9y ago
Zombies which don’t rapidly decay and fail make no rational sense, but that kind of zombie also makes for a lousy zombie tale. Zombies represent anxieties about life, death, disease, being eaten alive, etc.
thaumasiotes 9y ago
> There really needs to be an "engineer plot" genre where plot stays consistent to a small set of made up axioms. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA
teilo 9y ago
> It boggles the mind why not in a single one of the zombie stories out there nobody bothered to wonder where the zombies get the energy? From brains. Duh. ;)
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  I know someone who once trapped a cockroach in a box and sealed it shut. When the box was opened, years later, the roach was still alive. It had eaten some glue on the inside of the box, and then went into a kind of torpor, simply waiting for either death by dehydration or starvation or an opportunity to escape, whichever came first. Zombies are like that. They gorge on fatty foods, like brains, bone marrow, and body fat, then go into an induced stasis that outwardly resembles death. The zombinism vector is undoubtedly an endoparasitic fungus related to Cordyceps. Mycelium spreads throughout the host during the infection, preferentially following existing neural pathways, and flooding the body with antibiotics, to kill native gut bacteria and other possible putrefying factors. The normal digestive functions are destroyed. The regular circulatory system is destroyed. The only elements preserved are sensory organs, muscles, skin, and bones. All other functions are replaced by the fungus. The mycelium, as it followed the existing neurons, actually grows into a replacement brain and nervous system as it destroys the host's nervous system. The copy isn't perfect, though, and genetically hardcoded structures produce an instinctual desire to seek out and eat more fat. Destroying the head does not actually kill the fungus, but it does remove its ability to create a facsimile of a mammalian brain, by scrambling the template. It could still make the muscles twitch, but would have no means of coordinating them into coherent movements. I would therefore expect a zombie running low on energy to have almost no fat left, and ascocarps growing out of it all over, like cactus spines. It would probably resemble a spiky mummy. Any rotting appearance would be due to colonies of microorganisms that have evolved resistance to the fungal antibiotics. So it's not just eating brains, but also not spending as much energy as a human normally does while using the organs evolved to keep a human brain alive.
Houshalter 9y ago
In 28 days later the zombies all starve to death after six months or so. The hard part is just surviving that long without getting infected. Most zombies in fiction are implied to be supernatural though. So a scientific explanation is unnecessary.

LoSboccacc 9y ago

> try to explain everything Midichlorians