Fictional Setting Within the “Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer”

Fictional Setting Within the “Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer”

Science fiction (SF) is used in various settings to formulate narratives that explain the future or help in understanding technology. The book “Annihilation” by Vandermeer clearly illustrates these SF characteristics. The book which is the first of the author’s series “The Southern Reach” is based on exploration of a mysterious region which is identified as “Area X” which is researched by several research groups on a government assignment. Previous expeditions are said to have been unsuccessful in their endeavors while the last group which consisted of the biologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor and a psychologist have only one remnant “the biologist.” Like most Science Fiction narratives, “Annihilation” is based on a fictional setting where the location, environments and the existence of area X are putative. 

From the narrative, a total of 12 expeditors have embarked on the journey to make sense of the ecological events happening at Area X. The 12^th group which consisted of four women a biologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor and a psychologist try to crack what their counterparts were not lucky to find. The biologist who is the narrator explains their experience of the strange things that happened on the excursion. During the early days of their trip, they find a tower which had not been included in their initial excursion plan (VanderMeer, 2014). Area X has an inhabitable nature which explains the multiple unsuccessful expeditions. The mystery of the logic of keeping sending researchers while the latter never survived is yet to come to light. 

Science fiction writers use catchy hypothetical scenarios to capture their readers while introducing them to theoretical galaxies and possible existence of other enigmatic creatures. In the book “annihilation”, the author uses a fictional region where the plot is based, the area is popularly identified as Area X. The Area is cut from the rest of the world for a couple of decades. The area is inhabitable with a non-mentioned tower that is covered with overgrowing reeds and further down the coast stands a dilapidated lighthouse. Inside the dull tower the expedition believes there exists a cryptic creature which the narrator identified as the crawler (VanderMeer, 2014). The tower is covered with some green spores which the biologist inhaled and started mutating. 

The exorbitant ecologic events at area X are a representation of modern-day environmental uncertainties. The author portrays the ambiguity of life just like the narrator struggles to understand how she is unable to fathom the ecology of the surroundings; the reader is at crossroad and is confused with how such a distinguished place could co-exist in the current world. Writers tend to use their work to express personal beliefs or illusions to the universe. As highlighted in the Vandermeer’s review of the book, “Annihilation” story represents one of his explore across the globe. The narrative showcases how strange the world humans are used to can translate to once they try to understand it deeply. Additionally, the tale depicts how people react when faced with unfamiliar circumstances. “Annihilation” portrays that as humans believe they already know and understands the world they live in but in reality they could just be on the cusp to begin understanding (Iossifidis & Garforth, 2022).  All the expeditions tried understanding the phenomenon behind Area X but none came to the fully realization of what led to its current situation. The abstruseness represents how complex nature is in general. 

Vandermeer’s apocalyptic novel strikes a thin line between being entirely fictional or a curative prediction of the future. Scientific advances and excessive human manipulation of the ecosystem have time and time again bore adverse effects that might be eruptive in future (Iossifidis & Garforth, 2022). Area X depicts a region where human existence has become extinct and inhabitable by humans. From the narrative, the area was inhabited by humans who were overshadowed by nature. The extraordinary ecology inhabiting the space have become dominant and corrupted any sign of human species into unrecognizable kind of being. As identified from the narration “The members of the last expedition had eventually drifted off, one by one. They simply disappeared from Area X and, by unknown means, reappeared back in the world beyond the border. They could not relate the specifics of that journey. This transference had taken place across a period of eighteen months. But other phenomena could also result in “premature dissolution of expeditions” (VanderMeer, 2014, p. 7). From the passage it is vague to conclude that the author just created this idea as mere entertainment or was it a protégé that was possible in the future. 

The book uses scientists throughout the plot objectively as they depend on facts where they tirelessly tried to make sense of Area X through their findings. The characters find the environment they are in skewing their perceptions which lead to a great rift among the group. Their first test on facts and perception when they come across the spiral tower that was not deemed to exist on the initial itinerary. The group could not even agree on whether the submerged bunker was a tower or a tunnel. As the excursion went on, the biologist noticed that the environment continued to transform which affected her perception more.  

On their first visit of the tower they witnessed cursive writings which they did not deduce much from but upon returning, they felt like the tunnel was alive. “But after an hour of downward progress, the surveyor stopped on the steps below me. “Before we encountered again the words written on the wall … the tower was breathing. The tower breathed, and the walls when I went to touch them carried the echo of a heartbeat … and they were not made of stone but of living tissue.” (VanderMeer, 2014, p. 32). The conflicted observations create a rift on what Area X comprised. 

“Annihilliation” by Vandermeer like most fictional narrative served its intended purpose. As Mattsson (2021) states, the book is an unreliable narration which is set to deliberately misguide the reader questioning the storyline’s credibility. From the onset of the narrative, the characters’ minds are altered which questions the objectivity of Area X. More so, the language used by the author throughout the plot is ambiguous which makes the story confusing. The biologist acts as the protagonist and as the only narrator where the narrative is based on her journal and her husband’s. Area X is deemed as broad which requires perception from different characters for the reader to get the clear picture of what this mysterious place. 

Further the narrator is affected by the spore she inhales during the excursion which eludes her perception of Area X and this further questions the credibility of this narration. “What’s wrong?” the surveyor was asking me, voice muffled through her mask. “What happened?” I grabbed her hand, forced her palm against the wall. “Do you feel that?” I asked, unrelenting. “Can you feel that?” “Feel what? What are you talking about?” Still, I persisted: “A vibration. A kind of beat.” I removed my hand from hers, stepped back. The surveyor took a long, deep breath, and kept her hand on the wall. “No. Maybe. No. No, nothing.” “What about the wall. What is it made of?” “Stone, of course,” she said. I took a deep breath. I wanted it all to spill out: that I had been contaminated, that the psychologist was hypnotizing us far more than we might have suspected. I got my shit together because we were going to go forward and the surveyor couldn’t see what I saw, couldn’t experience what I was experiencing. And I couldn’t make her see it” (VanderMeer, 2014, p. 32). The narrator had been affected by the Area X toxins which distinguished what she saw from her counterparts, this further compromised the reliability of the biologist’s journal writings. 

Science fiction might be a mere entertainment to the common reader but for scholars they view these narratives with a critical analysis. The book “Annihilation” by Vandermeer is believed to explain the explain the ever increasing climate change crisis. The author uses symbolic characters “the scientists” and an imaginary environmental to narrate of possible new climate features brought forth by chaotic ecological disruptions. Climate change is a dominant theme in the twenty first century and scholars believe that usage of fiction narratives to give the reader a glimpse of a possible Anthropocene is a viable way to draw them in to the effects of the extreme human manipulation to the ecosystem (Iossifidis & Garforth, 2022). The author portrays Area X as a space beyond human rationality despite the numerous unsuccessful expeditions into the wilderness, there is no official explanation of Area X and the occurrences. The author seems to insinuate that trying to hang onto humanity in a space destroyed by human activities is illogical. Usage of a nondescript Area X and the unsuccessful expeditions sheds light on the what humans imagine of the Anthropocene. Once the damage is beyond control, no human will be left to tell the tale. 

In conclusion, “Annihilation” is set as a science fiction narrative and this is evident with the existence of an Area X which is surreal to the usual environment in the planet. The plot of the book which revolves around a group of four scientists, the biologist, the psychologist, the surveyor and the anthropologist brings the reader into an imaginary realm that exists beyond the earth’s horizons. The book has a mixed interpretation where the reader may find the story unreliable while scholars view it as great climate fiction theory. The overreliance of one narrator “the biologist” questions the credibility of the observations made in Area X. On the other hand, scholars argue that such imaginative narrations of a possible Anthropocene help bring humans on board to imagine the adverse effects of human manipulation to the ecosystem. Indisputably, the book “Annihilation” by vandermeer fulfilled its intended purpose as per the reader’s expectations and interpretation and certainly qualifies as an exemplary science fiction narrative. 

References

Iossifidis, M. J. M., & Garforth, L. (2022). Reimagining climate futures: Reading annihilation. Geoforum, 137, 248-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.12.001 

Mattsson, F. (2021). “We Did Not Trust Ourselves”: A study of the unreliable narration in Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation. 

VanderMeer, J. (2014). Annihilation: A Novel. Macmillan.