Week 4 - Annihilation (6)

     For this week's reading, I read Annihilation. I very much became very interested and fascinated by the plot of this story early on because I love the mixture between horror and sci-fi that the author made. After reading this book as well as watching the trailer for the movie, it reminded me a lot of the movie Arrival. I draw this parallel from many observations but the one that I think best represents it is how in both stories, the character's are introduced to sights and places that would have been "unimaginable" or so abstract in their form that they completely shatter their viewers relation and connection to what is real, and what is not. Another way to say that is "we don't know what we don't know, because we don't know it!" Although that is not some elaborate and super deep thing to say at surface level, I believe the core message and power that it creates is the sheer curiosity we as humanity have for the unknown. 

    The unknown is represented in Annihilation through "Area X." This ominous and what appears to be a "cursed location" essentially has a history of leaving no survivors. Once you cross into Area X, you are simply at the mercy of the unknown and the million different things that could entail. Every explorer who ventured into Area X either didn't make it out with their life, or was forever changed after returning. With death being the final stage in those that made it out alive back into the "real world," whatever that means. What strikes me is that despite all this, the biologist and her team still decide to lead the 12th expedition into Area X. I don't believe they did this because they thought it could be "fun" or something good to put on their resume. I believe they chose to do this because of the subconscious urge we as humans naturally experienced when faced with something so unknown to what we know to be reality and the laws and rules that that entails. Knowing that there is somewhere out there that we could venture to that is completely different and foreign to what we have just naturally accepted as what this world we live in is all about, is something that I can't see just "forgetting about" or going "eh, I think I'll just pass and continue living the same life I always have here in reality when there's literally an Area where reality is completely defied." It is this intuition that I believe lead the Biologist to not only set out on her expedition knowing the risks entailed, that were almost certain. But, also what lead her in the end to continue searching by following her Husband's journal with the idea it may lead to finding him, and at the minimum, allow her to experience the potential beauty and horror that her Husband likely encountered in his final moments. 

    Another reason I really enjoyed not only reading Annihilation, but also learning about the "new weird" genre, is that I believe stories like that and those that would be considered under this genre, has so much potential in the future to become even more mainstream. With computer graphics and CGI advancing at the rate it is now, I believe viewers are going to be wanting more "out of this world," "reality-bending," and simply "weird" thriller type movies that expose the viewer to sights and ideas that to them, they never could have imagined in their own heads. What I mean by this is answering some of humanities greatest unknown questions. Such as, are there other dimensions/worlds out there? Is our existence here on this planet parallel at all to these other worlds or places of existence? If that is not the case, then what are they like? Do their natural laws such differ from ours? How do they communicate? What is their purpose for existing? I really liked how in the movie Arrival, they answered a lot of those questions I just presented in the way they presented these almost "squid" like aliens who came to Earth, how they don't communicate like us but use much more advanced and unimaginable ways to communicate. Ways that most people would look at and think it was just too weird and out there to even fathom. 

    I like when writers and creators put forth their "weird" and "surprising" answers to these big questions we face about our existence. This type of story telling should be encouraged, it should be viewed as not some "fringe" thing to put forth these ideas that might turn a few heads. Because if you aren't turning at least a few heads writing in this "new weird" genre, then you aren't doing it right!