The Area X Trilogy may be over, but its slow madness lives on on my brain

The Southern Reach Trilogy, Vol. 3: Acceptance – Jeff Vandermeer (2014)

            Sometimes when you finish a novel you are left with a deep longing to somehow continue your experience in the world that the writer created out of words on paper.  It can hurt to detach oneself from a world that only truly exists in one’s head.  This is why so many beloved books are read and re-read throughout one’s life.  However, sometimes you read a novel that is so unnerving that once you finish you are glad you escaped with your mind intact!   Many genre books function in this manner, from science fiction to fantasy to hard-boiled detective fiction.  You may never re-read that book, but the world within its pages will forever reside in the recesses of your brain.  I think Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy perfectly fits that description.

            Having read the first two volumes of the trilogy, (Vol. 1 review, Vol. 2 review) I knew what I was getting into with Acceptance, but it did not make things any less engrossing or disturbing.  Like much of my favorite speculative fiction, The Area X Trilogy does not concern itself with merely pushing a plot along to its finale.  It instead takes time to explore the minds of the characters, their motivations, their lies, the things they keep secret, and the things that make them who they are.  It is in these sometimes delirious interludes that the true dread arises as I read. 

I have long been of the opinion that the things going on in people’s minds can be far more frightening than their actions, partly because they are part of a delicate subterfuge, and partly because there is no way to know what someone else is actually thinking.  We go through life assuming that the smiling person who greets you when you get to work is actually smiling inside instead of plotting how to kill you and get away with it.  It makes living easier.  The human mind is the one truly unpredictable thing in the Universe.  Jeff Vandermeeer understands this, and uses it to great effect in this trilogy, as we progressively explore more and more of the main character’s internal monologues and concerns.  It is far scarier to change slowly, to understand and notice the small variances as they happen, than it is to change all at once and then have to live with that change.

 

The way Acceptance brings the story of Area X to a close is a good one.  I prefer to be given hints and suggestions rather than detailed exposition specifically tying up the threads of a story.  Ending the books in any other way would have felt cheap.  Instead, I finished the last pages of this novel and felt a deep sadness, and a strong sense of the novel’s own world blowing wide open, hinting at the extent of the changes Area X brings about once it is through with the protagonists.  I am certain that in the coming weeks my mind will find itself drawn back to think about these books, and the story within.  Thank you to Severian from the Sonic Youth Gossip Forum for the recommendation!

(This book can be purchased here :  AMAZON  )

Volume 2 of the Southern Reach Trilogy keeps the unsettling story going

The Southern Reach Trilogy, Vol. 2: Authority – Jeff Vandermeer (2014)

            Where to begin…Well, this is the second volume of Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy.  The first volume, (Annihilation, reviewed HERE) dealt with a mysterious and seemingly malevolent area of coastline labeled “Area X” that was cordoned off by the government, into which were sent expeditions to explore it by the Southern Reach, the organization created to monitor and explore this odd development.  Annihilation told the story of a member of one of the expeditions, a biologist, and her experiences in Area X.  This second volume, Authority, tells the story of a man who is assigned to the Southern Reach as its new Director, and what he finds there.

            This is a very clever structure that has been set up by Mr. Vandermeer.  Having us, the reader, engrossed in the unsettling experiences of the biologist in the first volume, he then shows us an outside angle, by having us follow the new Director as he takes over the Southern Reach following the biologist’s group’s excursion into Area X.  The two volumes take place sequentially, so it feels like a continuation of the story.  This in no way reduces the amount of dread created in the first volume.  It only amps it up, for is it not always worse to find out that those in power, those that are supposed to have a handle on things, actually are just as flummoxed as anyone else?  Where do you turn for guidance and help when you realize that the ones that “know” actually know nothing?

            In the first volume, none of the characters are provided proper names, instead being referred to by their job title, such as Biologist, Linguist, Psychologist, etc.  In this volume, everyone is named early on except for our protagonist, who chooses the nickname “Control.”  It is not until he begins to unravel the deep insanity at work in Area X and the Southern Reach that he begins to associate more with his given name.  It is quite awesome to essentially shadow his mind at work, for he is a person expertly trained in interrogation techniques, and his internal monologue sheds light on things that a layperson would never think of, such as the change in tone or body language that signifies fear, or willingness to cooperate, etc.  This is a problem for Control as he begins to second-guess himself and his intuition, only to find that his mental tools are not adequate for what he encounters.

Does this look innocuous to you?

            The first volume in this trilogy read like an existential horror story where the true horror is the breakdown of the human individual, while this second volume read like an enigmatic detective tale, where the information gathered leads to a mind-fuck conclusion, one that Control cannot escape or ignore and one which affects the greater group at large. I am very excited to break into the third volume, Acceptance.  I can only guess at what is to come, but if the first two books are any indication, it will warp my brain and leave me gasping for breaths of reality!

(This book can be purchased here:  AMAZON  )

If Volume 1 is this unnerving, I cannot wait for the rest!

The Southern Reach Trilogy, Vol. 1: Annihilation – Jeff Vandermeer (2014)

One of my people over at the Sonic Youth Gossip Forum and I were discussing weird books and he turned me on to this trilogy, which Severian stated was a cerebral horror/science fiction oddity that scrambled his brain and, if I so liked, I could let it scramble mine as well.  It is a fairly recent publication so I ran over to the campus library and checked out a hardback volume containing all three novels.  It is good to work near a high quality library!

I had never heard of this book series or the author, but I am always open to new weirdness.  This book did not disappoint.  What seems like a fairly straightforward exploratory science fiction tale quickly gets deeper into weird, dark corners.  In this first book of the trilogy, Annihilation, a botanist shares her story as she heads out with several other specifically chosen professionals to explore a wild and nearly mythical expanse known as Area X.  As the expedition arrives at their base-camp in Area X, the story reveals details about the protagonist’s life and her reasons for volunteering to join such a risky expedition.  We find out that her husband had gone on a similar expedition to Area X, and what returned from it was not exactly right.  The intense and lengthy preparations for this undertaking are also described, while we learn more and more about our protagonist’s prior relationships with her family, career, and husband.  As the story progresses it begins to take on a form of delirium, as if it is I, the reader, that is being mentally “annihilated.”  I wish I could describe the details more but I do not want to ruin anything for those that wish to read this weird and quietly disturbing book.

What is found in Area X and the situations that arise from these discoveries could have been treated as a simple, if bizarre, science fiction tale, but Vandermeer is more interested in exploring the effects such things have on one’s mind.  One of the scary aspects to me is that the discoveries and facts are not what become critical in this tale, but the suggestion of meanings behind the discoveries.  There is no omniscient narrator to explain things to the reader, and we are along for the ride, as if we sat in a corner of the protagonist’s mind and shared in everything she feels and experiences.  It really feels as if one is losing control, especially since none of the people in this book are given names.  That is one of the requirements for joining the expedition.  None of the participants was to know each others names.  They are referred to by their profession; botanist, psychologist, linguist, etc.  Giving things names helps us humans feel as if we are in control.  Too bad almost nothing in Area X can be named.  At one point the people discover a large structure that seems to go deep underground.  While the expedition takes to calling it a tunnel, our protagonist refers to it as a tower.  That may seem like a small thing but it touches on what we humans like to imagine as our shared consciousness.  It really does not exist.  One persons tunnel is another persons tower.  The world we live in is created in our own mind.  It is for us and us alone.

Some parts are so specific, so true to what relationships can be, that it feels as if the writer wrote them after examining me and my life for a few years!  That is a very odd feeling, and one I hope continues as I begin the second part of this trilogy which is titled Authority.  I hope I don’t go nuts!

(To read the first chapter of Annihilation, click here: http://io9.gizmodo.com/read-the-mesmerizing-first-chapter-of-jeff-vandermeers-1520682658 )

(This book can be purchased here:  AMAZON  )