While horror may make us squirm or quake, it will not make us cry at the pity of things. The vampire may symbolize our horror of both life and death, but none of us has ever been uprooted by a symbol. The zombie may conceptualize our sickness of the flesh and its appetites, but no one has ever been sickened to death by a concept.
Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
1991, pessimism, supernatural-horror-stories, symbolism, vampire, zombie