Mason Pocklington - Annihilation

For this week's reading I read Annihilation, and also watched the movie out of class to be able to compare. As far as the week's topic of "weird" goes, the movie seems to hit the mark more than the book did. The definition of "weird" as I have understood it to have translated into the modern day is simply different or unexplainable. This can be demonstrated more efficiently and with more opportunity in visual terms than written terms. The movie has more opportunity to visually demonstrate just how "weird" Area X is by using things such as colors, creatures, videotapes and watching people react to it all.

The book differs in the movie from how it deals with "weird", though. In the novel, the team relies on journals of others and writings from the biologist to express to the audience how Area X is described and interpreted. However, in visual form, the movie had no need for journal writings to express just how "weird" the X was. Especially in both the movie and novel, the idea of "weird" seemed, in this case, to be strangely linked to a form of attraction as well. In the novel it's seen as the biologist explores Area X and discovers all the forms of life, and at the end when she decides to stay to further understand the X and find her dead husband. In the movie we see it as the group having their individual past issues and troubles, how they're driven and attracted to the X as a way to get out of modern life. In this way, the idea of the "weird" attracting almost "weird" people, as in different.