it's time to move on, dear writer/film-maker

I have a tingling in my elbows. When that happens, it usually means that I can sense what fictional characters are thinking. And something tells me that a certain breed of fictional characters - the ones that aren't really dead or alive - are tired of humans.

Ever since Stephanie Meyer came out with the Twilight series, there have been books, films, more books, more films: in short, an onslaught of fictional paparazzi on vampires, werewolves and their human hybrids. I think the Living Dead, as we shall collectively refer to them now, are a little annoyed with this (very possibly) misinformed representation of them and their lifestyle, particularly food habits.

I think we, as readers, must consider the consequences of encouraging indolent writers or film-makers in this world by consuming their uninspiring explorations into the world of the Living Dead. There can only be so much speculation about a population which, let's face it, we don't really know has decided is alive or not.

Let's turn towards a different species to excavate, create, berate, vegetate on. The secret life of cacti, perhaps? Or the reclusive world of marine invertebrates? How will we ever know what else will catch the attention of young people around the world as unpredictably as the Twilight series did, if we don't let go of the Living Dead? It is time to let them be.