Post-Work
In the aughts and early 2010s, there was a glut of zombie apocalypse fiction. The Walking Dead comics and television shows detailed a band of survivors as they traversed a wasteland inhabited by the undead. World War Z imagined the global response to such an event in both book and feature film form. Even comedic takes like Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Zombieland (2009) showed that should such an epidemic arise, life would never be the same and the skills most of us use in our day to day would leave us frighteningly ill-equipped. Back in 2011, Torie Bosch suggested that zombie fiction was popular for just that reason in her article “First, Eat the Lawyers.” The skills many white-collar workers have is woefully incompatible with life should there be an economic crash or a zombie apocalypse and, in some ways, is the reason why some individuals may feel a certain malaise about working office jobs in the first place. An email isn’t a real physical thing and, as Bosch writes, “we white-collar workers enjoy the illusion that our skills are meaningful.”
In Ling Ma’s novel Severance, the story bounces back and forth to a pre-apocalyptic world and a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a global pandemic. This fungal infection deteriorates its victims’ consciousness turning them into husks of themselves called “The Fevered.” Unlike traditional zombie fiction, The Fevered do not crave brains and charge at survivors, but instead just unconsciously repeat what they did in life. They sluggishly continue their jobs, folding clothes or sitting at office computers, or they sit in armchairs blankly watching television. It makes one wonder what their body would do should they get infected. Candace Chen, the protagonist, who had buried herself in menial detail-oriented work when her parents died, finds time to actively pursue her interest in photography once New York City, her home, becomes barren of any sort of society. It is reminiscent of how many took up hobbies or pursued passions during lockdown. Even in the novel, during a potential natural disaster, one character remarks how valuable time to one’s self is:
A day off meant we could do things we’d always meant to do. Like go to the Botanical Garden, the Frick Collection, or something. Read some fiction. Leisure, the problem with the modern condition was the dearth of leisure. And finally, it took a force of nature to interrupt our routines. We just wanted to hit the reset button. We just wanted to feel flush with time to do things of no quantifiable value, our hopeful side pursuits like writing or drawing or something, something other than what we did for money. Like learn to be a better photographer. And even if we didn’t get around to it on that day, our free day, maybe it was enough just to feel the possibility that we could if we wanted to, which is another way of saying that we wanted to feel young, though many of us were that if nothing else.
Before the end of the world, Severance depicts Candace’s day-to-day life work at a publisher. Her work involves coordinating with printers and suppliers to make bibles, something she has zero interest in. At one point, she discovers that one of the Chinese factories she works with may be closing down due to the lethal toxins caused by manufacturing some materials. The client urges her to solve the problem despite both of them being aware that these factories are putting their workers’ lives in danger. Despite this unethical revelation, she continues to return to work where she sits in a small office to make calls and send emails. Once the outbreak begins and The Fevered begin to show up, the novel quickly begins to resemble real life events. Work-wide guides on how work must continue through a pandemic, the introduction of N95 masks, and some workers moving to a work-from-home setup while others are tasked with “keeping the lights on” (Shockingly enough, this novel was published in 2018, not long before the real life events it resembles.) Candace doesn’t even make the connection that, similar to the factory workers, it’s her turn to put her life at risk by showing up to work.
It becomes clear that she is pantomiming work, like one of The Fevered would, and Candace eventually joins up with a group of survivors lead by a severe man named Bob. They scrounge for supplies and try to adapt to a new life in the wasteland. While Candace’s white collar skills aren’t particularly useful, it is Bob who seeks to create some semblance of the old world through the development a regiment and jobs for everyone. These strict rules and routines become just as suffocating and numbing as the 9-5 jobs of the pre-apocalypse. You don’t have to be a zombie fiction scholar to know that any group of survivors is going to have an internal struggle that parallels that of the mindless husks that surround them.
Ling Ma has crafted an incredible novel that touches upon modern anxieties around identity and work, but family is a critical theme as well. Candace is a second generation Chinese immigrant and there are sections of the novel that detail the hardships and work her parents went through to give her the life they dreamed for her. Once they pass, Candace becomes listless and wanders New York like a ghost before taking on a menial job. When the apocalypse happens, Candace sees many Fevered who continue to work too, but she does encounter a family of Fevered who repetitively pantomime sitting down and eating dinner together. They are frozen as not workers, but as a family.
Severance by Ling Ma is available wherever books are sold.
Stray Observations
I had the pleasure of attending a large group show that featured 10+ musical acts like Sun Astros, Checker, Briggance, and Gusher. It was a wide variety of musical styles, but was an overwhelmingly fun time. There is something about seeing live music, especially when it is local and groups you haven’t heard before, that is really a joy. Live music, what a concept!
I started watching the Adult Swim classic animated series The Venture Bros and, having finished the first season, I really appreciate the time capsule to the type of irreverent humor found in the early aughts. I know the show becomes much more layered and complex, but I rather enjoyed the simple subversive take on Hannah Barbara properties like Johnny Quest.
Short issue this week! Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe!