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Works Cited

Aanchal Saraf, "Racial Capitalism and the Asian American Zombie in Ling Ma's Severance," Studies in the Fantastic 7 (Summer/Fall 2019): pp. 12-23.

“Capitalism and the Coronavirus: CP Ireland.” MLToday, 22 Mar. 2020, https://mltoday.com/capitalism-and-the-coronavirus-cp-ireland/.

Priscilla Wald, "Chapter One: Imagined Immunities" from Contagious: Cultures, Carriers and the Outbreak Narrative (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007).

Ma, Ling. Severance. Picador USA, 2019.

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In our reading guide for the novel Severance by Ling Ma, we explain how zombies are a motif of compliance within our capitalist society. Compliance is created through hierarchical power - like corporations and governmental institutions - to control the population, notably in times of epidemics when said control is imperative to the survival of humanity. While such authorities may manage to control the expansion of such outbreaks, they also prevent individuals from being in charge of their own lives, making them feel even more vulnerable to powerful and unyielding entities such as authorities or dauntless illnesses. The articles similarly illustrate how labour turns workers into “zombies” as they are forced to follow orders to survive under capitalism. Furthermore, capitalism, like viruses, is borderless in nature because of the outsourcing of production as shown by Spectra in the novel, and globalization - since roads and transportation used for commerce make it easier for anything to travel worldwide, either merchandise or diseases. The discriminative ways of a capitalist society are represented in Aanchal Saraf’s article as he describes the racialization of Asian Americans in the labour force. Asian Americans are forced to comply with dehumanizing working conditions which creates a repetitive cycle of unequal labour, therefore allowing racist norms to continue. Workers are alienated and separated from society in their day-to-day tasks and are thus unable to withstand their so-called place of home when Shen Fever begins to spread, leading to the exclusion of Asian people as a whole. Furthermore, capitalism thrives on the cheap, repetitious labour of the working class. For example, Candace is forced to work a “boring” corporate job to pay her basic bills and is stuck in a loop of doing familiar tasks that allow her to climb the corporate ladder. Spectra is also big enough to monopolize the production market, meaning that Candance has to sell said cheap labour to other publishers since there are no competitive companies to prevent it. Therefore, the capitalist society creates zombies that perpetuate the cycle of repetitious labour as is exemplified in passages related to Candace’s work, the daily life at the facility and her escape from New York. 

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Critical summary

“Imagined Immunities” by Priscilla Wald exposes through multiple outbreak narratives how the rise of megacities has created niches in which disease can easily spread. With the rapid industrialization and globalization of the world, epidemics are becoming an urgent issue that the human race faces. Viruses can now easily spread anywhere, to anyone, through commerce and trade. Without any borders to stop them, microbes do not abide by the social narratives of this world and show how interconnected the world’s population has become. Epidemics also shake the belief that human beings have the power to dominate and control the planet, exposing their vulnerability. Moreover, Saraf explains, in “Global Racial Capitalism and the Asian American Zombie in Ling Ma’s Severance”, that the actions of the United States strive to reduce Asian Americans to abstract figures in the representation of labour inequalities. Racialized views of Asian Americans were initiated by the revelation of the origin of the disease - Shen Fever - from the repelling factory conditions of Asian American workers. They were deprived of basic human rights in the workplace which Saraf compares to the zombie-like actions of the fevered in Severance. The Americanised culture of individuality is a big problem when dealing with the collective health of the world. We view epidemics as a third-world problem, and not until we see footage of “The American Ecosystem” being harmed does the north feel moved to take action. Order, enforced by institutions such as governments, thus becomes essential to stop the spread of diseases, both to control human interactions and to give the people hope of survival. 

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Close Reading (pp. 216-217)

In Severance, Ling Ma uses particularly remote and robot-like language to demonstrate the effects of isolation and dehumanization on the fevered. Their continuous need for repetition, along with their treatment in the Facility, forces them to act as zombies under Bob’s reign. The first paragraph at the start of chapter 19 begins with a description of daily life at the Facility, where Ling Ma writes in very short, choppy sentences to emphasize the restrictions and routine of the fevered. The majority of the sentences in this opening paragraph start with the word “they,” followed by a verb, which signifies to the reader that those in the Facility are collectively seen and treated as a group rather than as individuals. Bob’s power and authority over them have limited their freedom and therefore stripped them of their human qualities. This idea is also shown in the passage as Ma writes “he [Evan] has no leaving privileges” (216). While there is a sense of safety instilled in Bob’s demands, restricting Evan's movements reinforces Bob’s authoritative power and dehumanizes those under him. The subjects in the Facility are hardly referred to by name and are not able to express any traits that might distinguish themselves as being anything other than a zombie to Bob’s power. The first few words at the top of page 216 immediately reveal a cycle of routine among the fevered as Ma writes “[t]he days begin like this” (Ma 216), which discloses to the reader the repetition of their everyday activities, a seemingly defining characteristic of zombies. Another example of Bob’s commanding power over what appears to be his zombies is in the first line of the second paragraph on page 216; Bob conveys information to the group by telling them what they need to do that day. This use of hierarchical power gives off the impression of a “mob mentality” where the subjects in the Facility enact certain beliefs and behaviours from the people around them and, in this case, are representative of Bob’s desires.

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Close Reading (pp. 277-278)

In this passage, both Eddie and his car - the latter which further explains the role of nostalgia in the spread of Shen fever - reflect the motif of the zombie. On page 277, Candace observes a billboard depicting a grandfather hugging two boys, accompanied by the quote “LIFE IS KNOWING WHAT YOU LIVE FOR” (Ma 277). Ling Ma uses irony here as the billboard hints at the idea that the meaning of life is family when, under capitalism, companies like this one do not put family values above the gain of capital.  Later on, when Candace pushes Eddie out of his cab, “out of his livelihood”, she promptly takes his life away - or some part of him, perhaps the remains of his humanity - as  “life is knowing what you live for”, and Eddie’s was dedicated to his livelihood (Ma 278). Furthermore, if zombies are used as a symbol for enslaved people, Candace stealing Eddie’s life could also be seen as her getting ownership over him, meaning that she has mastered the fevered and managed to turn a deadly virus into somewhat of a deuteragonist. Indeed, the virus does alternate between supporting her - in giving her a means of transportation to flee the city for example - and contrarying her - by being the reason she has to flee the city in the first place. The car is also personified as a zombie as it is said to be moving “slowly”, “sluggishly”, and “at a snail’s crawl” (Ma 277). As a result of globalization, viruses can now spread more easily through trade and commerce, thus through roads and transportation, which makes Eddie’s cab a symbol of the borderless nature of diseases and a vector of Shen fever (“Imagined Immunities” 30). Stealing the car reinforces Candace’s mastery over zombie-like figures and gives her some form of control despite humans’ vulnerability when faced with dauntless epidemics. Finally, the car is a relic from the past, an “old, shaky Ford” thus riddled with nostalgia (Ma 278). Contrastingly, Candace uses it to leave New York, another severance making her even more unrooted to the world and unaffected by nostalgia.

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 Close Reading (pp. 24-25)

Ling Ma’s novel, Severance, wisely compares the current capitalist Western Society to an emerging Zombie apocalypse. This process happens by prioritizing profit over people, which ultimately leads to the dehumanization of ourselves and others. The Newgate publisher represents the large corporations that control capitalism and Candace represents the working class and labour force. In my close reading of this passage, I noticed that the word supplier ( referring to the workers making the gemstones and Spectra)  is mentioned nine times and Candace is only mentioned once by name. This language shows how the workers are reduced down to simple supply chain terminology. Candace refers to the people making the gemstones at the beginning of the passage as “workers” and then starts solely referring to them as “the supplier” as the Newgate publisher shows no signs of empathy. Having Candace's name only mentioned once by the publisher echoes my point of how little regard the publisher has for anything except her product. My next point is shown through Candace’s mini-character arc as she is forced to become a zombie herself by shutting off her conscience in order to fulfill her job.  The passage starts with Candace taking a deep breath, following the word “lungs” repeated 5 different times by Candace. She then tells the Newgate publisher that “ the gemstone granules have been tearing up [ the workers] lungs” (Ma 24). The vivid image of the lungs represents the basic form of life. However, the publisher is unphased.  The Newgate publisher speaks “ stiffly and slowly” as she explains to Candace that she is disappointed in this news (Ma 25). These two adjectives show a robotic or zombie-like tone. This is similar to the adjective ``Mechanically” which is used to describe Candace’s dialogue as she is cornered into apologizing for the inconvenience of people dying, which is getting in the way of the production of the gemstone bibles. Lastly, the New Gate publisher says “ we’re committed to the gemstone bible”, blatantly exposing that her priority is her product, not people. Using the word “mechanically” ultimately shows Candace's forced compliance with the Newgate publishers as she must follow their orders to keep her job.