Week 4: Annihilation

“The New Weird” is defined by a series of uncanny experiences felt in a plot, it gives the reader a sense of an unknown, often supernatural threat, a feeling of suspense. In Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, it is hard to point a finger to what exactly is the threat the the characters are facing. I think one of the main causes for this feeling of uncertainty I had while reading was the narration through the eyes of the biologist, a character that works both as an expositional narrator and as a character that discovered the many mysteries surrounding Area X at the same time as I did as a reader. One of the most tense parts of the story, for me, was when her and the surveyor started going down the tower/tunnel structure to investigate it more. The detail in which the biologist describes their path as they go deeper and deeper, culminating in them finding the body of the anthropologist, had me tense and curious as to what would happen next. For that whole sequence, I was not sure who was the main threat in the storyline. Was the psychologist manipulating every step of the other group members and killing the dissidents? Was there a higher power responsible for the atrocities and supernatural occurrences in Area X? Looking even further into it, I wasn’t even sure if i could trust the biologist herself as a reliable narrator and source of information for the plot. After all, looking into this world through her eyes meant that I only got a sliver of the story. What if this story of the biologist’s path to insanity? Using the “uncertain” to create an uncanny feeling in me as a reader formed a deeper level of engagement with the story. Annihilation took me to a new level of suspense in science-fiction.