Annihilation

For this week, under the topic of The New Weird, I read the novel Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. One particular theme that I noticed throughout the novel is the constant presence of curiosity and how that goes hand-in-hand with reality. The novel retells not only the experience of being in Area X, but also how the main character got there. It seems that every expedition that has traveled to Area X have done so out of curiosity for finding themselves, or the truth of their specific field (i.e. biology, psychology), and ended up learning and experiencing much more than they could have intended. In the beginning, it's portrayed like this area is similar to a wildlife preservation, with seemingly pristine natural flora and fauna that have been undisturbed unlike that of the outside world. As the story progresses, their curiosity leads them to explore the "Tunnel" or "Tower" inside of the ground, as well as the rest of Area X. The more that they explore and examine, the more natural and seemingly normal environment starts to change in their perspective. They realize there is more to the place of Area X than they were told, and that this place changes people in mental and physical ways. There are moments of human bodies turning into natural substances like fungi or wood. This discovery only leads to more curiosity, there is a need to know why, how, and when this is happening. The main character even seems desperate at times to learn just a sliver of truth about what's really happening. The other characters in the story are curious as well, which leads them all to death in one way or another. There is speculation that death is not truly death in Area X, and may be a transition from one natural form to another. Even at the end of the novel, the curiosity still drives the main character to take the path of her husband in hopes of finding him in some form. However, the tone of Area X towards the end changes from a terrifying and awful place, to more of a place of purity and natural, even on the subject of death and transformation. The overarching theme here is that the more of what we believe to be real or normal proves to be different, the more curious we are. I think this curiosity to understand the abstract is a natural human tendency. This twist on reality, and the resulting curiosity can be a very definitive theme for the genre. Other media has used this predefined structure of reality as a way to break down our bias and make the viewer think in a new way about what could be possible. I personally really enjoyed this reading, the most of any so far, and I look forward to new pieces in this genre.