In W.J.T. Mitchell's "Surplus Value of Images", Mitchell explores the many aspects of the image. Investigation of its influences on humans, how it defines people, and also this article could pertain to zombies are some of the main points of this excerpt.

Images are powerful on the human mind. Mitchell claims that "we do not merely "see" picture, we "drink" them with our eyes" (80). Like a basic function of life, images may be necessary to the human life. Also, whenever we view images, we are easily persuaded, like in visually stimulating commercials. The second half of the prior quote says that "pictures in turn have a tendency to swallow us up" (80). Humans can become influenced by pictures and images. Maybe it is only a magazine add by the types of images we see can mold the type of person we become.

That idea ties into the next topic I found interesting and it is how Mitchell sort of hints at the fact that images can define people. As said before humans can become engulfed in images have that be the basis of their morals. In the "Surplus Value of Images", on statement says how "artworks [are] the anvil on which one's values [are] tested and hammered out" (82). Loosely, Mitchell may be saying that images are the reason as to why people behave the way they do. Humans see an image, picture, whatever it may be and base their actions off of the reactions to the images.

Now for the zombie aspect, as least how I viewed it after reading this excerpt. Most of the middle section pertains to the type of details that create this relationship. In one paragraph Mitchell talks about species and how they "appear in the world"; most likely in the form of an image (86). A few lines later when he specifically talks about different species he says that "a species is neither good nor bad: it simply is" (86). As soon as I read it, the idea of zombie popped into my head because sometimes, depending on the literature, we have a tough time deciding whether a zombie is a good or bad creature. Maybe we just have to take the zombie as it is, an image. Further along Mitchell explains his idea of iconology. Very briefly, it is just how images can represent something else. He shortens iconology up to be "about the fear of images" (96). Again, zombies can be paralleled to this idea. Of course, as far as we know, no known humans have risen from the dead to become zombies yet, in movies and literature they are still scary. That is where the "fear of images" comes into play. Zombies make humans scared because we view images of them and have reactions to those pictures or words on a page. We do not necessarily have to touch them or any other physical sense be stimulated to know that zombies can be scary, we can tell by looking at an image. In general, the use of images have really helped in aiding the popularity of the zombie as a different type of media than books and literature.