The concluding installment of the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, 2014; Authority, 2014) ends where the story began: in a cloud of hallucinatory mystery. We leave knowing more about Area X than we started; we may not understand it any better, but we leave transformed, as do all travelers to that uncanny place.
"Acceptance" takes us back inside the mix of pristine wilderness and Lovecraftian madness that is Area X. The area is spreading, and all of our primary characters find themselves trapped inside. Through a mix of journal entries and other point-of-view shifts both past and present we explore the secrets that Area X still keeps. The primary PoV characters are Saul (the lighthouse keeper referenced in the other novels, who was present through the creation of Area X), the Director/the Psychologist, the Biologist and Ghost Bird, and Control. In particular we get the run-down on the Director’s previous trip into Area X (with Whitby) before the twelfth expedition took place. We finally find out more or less what Area X is and how it came to be, but it isn’t explored too thoroughly. The wrap-up of the series doesn’t take away too much of the mystery and madness that made Annihilation so special; nor does it leave too much unexplained. I found it to be just the right balance.
I think every writer has words and images that they return to. I thought it spoke to the heart of this series that the words and concepts that seem to return repeatedly are compost, colonizing, and stitching. They all work themselves neatly into the secret heart of the madness that seethes within every inch of Area X. I’m frankly surprised to see a story such as this trilogy that can maintain that Lovecraftian sense of madness and horror while also providing just enough explanation to satisfy a modern audience.
I found Saul’s story particularly interesting. Even though it’s largely a means to an end for a fascinating reveal, Vandermeer gives Saul plenty of personality and layers, as well as a connection to the modern-day story through the Director/the Psychologist.
The original Annihilation is still my favorite of the trilogy, but the story as a whole is fantastic. There’s enough detail that I think it will reward re-reading a time or two as well. In particular there are some uses of hypnosis that cast previous events in a very different light.
My rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 out of 5 stars) - I liked it.
Some interesting points from others I found on the web:
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Anyways:|
Uh, on to the "plot" of Vandermeer's. Well, semiotics aside, my best guess is that Area X is this sort of a "Noah's Ark" for a (very different) sort of extraterrestrial life that can, at its whim, transcend spacetime. Remember the flashes/visions that Saul had, of a "burning comet falling from the sky"? Something crashed in front of him, OR, he saw the crashing in a vision AFTER he was "infected" (or initiated) by the 8-petal-flower-of-brightness. Another character had such a vision, I can't recall if it was Ghost Bird, the Director or Control. The image was of total devastation by stars falling. So, basically, what happens is this (rough draft, ha ha):
1. Alien species which we will call the Brightness exists on a far away world which has similar biology and ecology to ours (remember, expedition members into Area X couldn't at first grasp they were in fact on another 'planet' (the unfamiliar night sky and the ripples in the sky), because the flora and fauna were similar - OR, Earth's flora and fauna were transported somewhere far away to preserve life).
2. An apocalyptic event wipes out most of the Brightness species.
3. Instinctively, or technologically, the Brightness somehow (this was sort of described in a passage of someone's ruminations, in Acceptance), "seek out" a fertile world for themselves to "seed" (or some sort of technology or primal organism of theirs). Having the ability to travel through space and warp time, for some reason, an amount of their "brightness" gets trapped into one of the two lighthouses, where it hibernates. (The glass of the beacon, the lens.)
4. For some reason, the S&SB are sent to investigate for paranormal phenomena in the area, and eventually, they (Henry and Suzanne) pin down the "phenomenon" - they find the anomalous 'light', something happens, it or they break the glass lens where it is 'stuck', after which the brightness (seed) falls down where then, Saul sees it, is attracted to it, touches it, and so it enters him/infects him, and starts to change him. With its ephemeral or light-based biology intertwined with his, there seems to be also some kind of 'species' memory transfer, via DNA or something else - he recalls a 'burning star' crashing in front of him, but then sees nothing. Two solutions to this: it was a memory, so it didn't happen to him (but was a racial/DNA memory of the demise of the alien species), OR, it was real, and he, getting "Brightened" attracted another "brightness seed" to his location in Area X/The Forgotten Coast. This second landing was in fact the topographical anomaly site, and the crash in fact created the Tower, which is just a camouflaged crater/impact site, on the bottom of which, as we discover in the finale of Acceptance, is a portal but ALSO ANOTHER FLOWER (so, a seed, an alien in effect), which guards or is placed near the portal. Remember, the first flower infected Saul, the second flower infected Whitby (he saw it bloom, probably touched it, no one saw this except him, but after that he changed!), and the third "visitor" is obviously kept at the bottom of the Tower, which may well have arrived by the crash Saul saw many years prior.
5. In the meantime, Southern Reach tries to make sense of this. The alien visitors function as either symbiotes or parasites to a human host - depending on the host. In Saul's case, the alien completely takes him over, internally shutting him out and externally mutating him to extreme extents, so he becomes the Crawler. Whitby is also completely taken over, or driven mad. However, those are contacts of a certain kind, where a flower of light infects them. The biologist, though, and others, are infected via a sort of spore, a second type of encounter, like the writing on the wall from the Crawler/Saul. The interesting part about this is that, once someone is infected by this second way, the spores, they become two people, a clone is formed. Then, battle commences, and usually the original is killed (remember, most of those who return from Area X, have to enter the Tower, meet and get infected by the Crawler, and exit via the portal on its bottom. Also remember - in Annihilation, the Biologist and her crewmates discover a dead body lying on the stairs, down in the tower. The body (or was it bodies?) seemed to have died without a struggle... In essence, they were the dead originals, whose clones traversed the portal and exited Area X). So basically, these Brightness alien species control a portal through which they send faux copy-humans, perhaps as sort of expendable sentries, because they lack complete memory, and they die soon (the biologist being one example, not sure why - perhaps because she was already internally disciplined and detached from her personality. Because what the Crawler's spores can clone is that which is not attached to one's semiotic mental identification - therefore, most of the other candidates end up almost wiped out when cloned by the Crawler and die soon. But the biologist, who identified herself with her profession, got cloned (or was she cloned?) more completely, because large chunks of her neuro-semiotic-identity were left intact after she got infected by the brightness? But we also meet the fully mutated "biologist". Hmmm... Confusing. Perhaps the clones are sent back to explore, and the originals, if not killed, are mutated per the rules of the Area X 'alien planet' ecology).
6. Uuuuummm. So basically, to me, it's a (first?) contact story. Although, a weird one, because the alien species are... well, very weird, incomplete (because possibly pretty much wiped out too), and very alien regarding their modes of operation and communication. There is a very strong possibility of an invasion, though.
If I get any other good guesses... I'll share. For now... this is pretty much it, barring something I've forgotten (and undoubtedly I have).
P.S. Both Ghost Bird and Control didn't get infected by the flower before the portal on their way out. The placement of this flower right before the portal may be strategic - if infected by it, another "Crawler" will go OUT of Area X and EXPAND the borders of Area X even further. And what/who expanded the borders of Area X the second time...? That's right, Whitby. How? Probably touched the flower! DAMN!
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