Annihilation

Blog #4

Week of 9/23/19

What does weird mean? When thinking about this, the words “odd” and “not normal” come to mind. When you Google the definition of weird, it states, “suggesting something supernatural; uncanny”. To dive deep, in all things weird and unusual, I choose the novel, Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer.

This story is surrounded by all kinds of weird but the main one is the mysterious environment, we are introduced to. Unlike other books, where the main focus is on how the characters develop throughout the story, this one is all about Area X. This location has caused great mystery for years. After eleven failed attempts to discover the origin of the odd mutations that have engulf the land, there is more mystery than there are answers. The government agency, the Southern Reach, will not give up and are sending out their twelfth, a group of all female specialists. The importance of Area X to Vandermeer is evident from the start because the reader is given a detail background history of a mutant land but the main character remains anonymous and is referred to as, the biologist.

 You think that’s weird? Well, it gets weirder because the group is also in the dark of their teammates names. This tactic is to keep them on the task at hand because the world they have entered is a cause for distraction in its self. For example, they come across a type of plant that has imitated its self into the shape of the human figure. After reading this scene in the book it got me thinking that whatever is causing the mutations in Area X is curious about the human world. This curiosity has cause it to create and imitate things that are recognizable but at the same time unrecognizable. The plant life is not the only thing that is changed. The farther one enters into Area X the more a person is not who they once were. There is also this sudden attraction that happens between the biologist and the environment. At first I thought it was her interest in finding out what happened to her husband but it develops into some unexplained relationship with Area X. Or perhaps a spell. Which leads me to think that whatever is causing these weird unexplained events must have powers that are other worldly.