Picked this up today in Gibraltar for something to read and had to fight a macaque for it because he thought it was food.

I just finished reading Absolution today and have lots of questions. Would love to discuss!

Misc:

- Why was Henry alive again at the end of The False Daughter? Did the Rogue and Tyrant send Old Jim back in time?
- Was Old Decomp (the site of the Dead Town biologists' burial) the future location of the Tower? Is the circled X a representation of its stairwell? If not, what is that symbol?
- What was the 'flying' from Lowry's camera in Authority? Did that segment just not happen in Absolution, or was it offscreen?
- Was 'pulse and impulse' just a fun phrase to echo (between Old Jim and Lowry) or does it have some thematic meaning?
- What does the later disappearance of Team Leaders 1 and 2 from their island signify?

The Tyrant:

- Was the alligator really just an alligator?
- What's the thematic significance of its name, the Tyrant?
- Why did eating the rabbit cameras influence it to assist the Rogue?
- Was the Tyrant also the 'boat' that Lowry escapes?
- Where did the Whitby-body in its mouth come from?

The Rogue:

- Did anyone actually guess that the Rogue was Whitby before it was revealed?
- Or have other theories on who it was when first reading Absolution?

Personally, I was convinced from the Rogue's first appearance that it was Control, post-Acceptance, on a mission to fix the past and prevent or improve the timeline. Supported by its knowledge of Central tactics and in particular its familiarity with command phrases, which Control experienced, overcame, and weaponized in Authority. Pretty disappointed by the actual identity since it seems so out of character for timid-frazzled-scaredy-cat Whitby. Why would an Authority go Rogue? To seek Absolution, of course! Why would a Whitby go Rogue? ... all of my question marks. He seemed fully subverted or suborned by the end of Authority; the idea that he would be attempting to rework the terroir that had so enthralled him just doesn't seem right.

Finally, do you think long-term survival (of individuals or communities) is possible in Area X? The biologist, the assistant director, and the false daughter all adjusted fairly well, but would that be tenable for groups, or over greater spans of time?

Do you think you could survive?

1) Why is Saul such an awesome character? I reread Acceptance at least once or twice a year and mostly for Saul's story. Something about his character just feels great. This absolutely normal guy who becomes patient Zero for one of the most intense and mind bending situations possible.

2) Do you ever find yourself having to remember that Ghost Bird is of Area X? Like... You have a voice for a part of the "other" in the story. I was thinking about it today of how she sort of fills the role of turncoat but also not really. She's not against anyone and is really only just trying to figure all of this stuff out. But she's still a product of and therefore an extension of Area X.

Just two random fun thoughts I've been having randomly that I needed you all to know about.

Here’s card 3 in my attempt to make alters for a commander deck! I had a tricky time with this one as I’m not really familiar with painting or perspective. I tried my best, and overall I’d say it turned out pretty good! I’m very happy with how the lettering turned out on the walls.

I was tempted to delay drawing the Tower/Tunnel until a later, more deck important card came up but I couldn’t think of anything more fitting for this card. If anyone has ideas about other card alters I’d absolutely love to hear them! Thanks all!

Saw Jeff give a reading last night (from Absolution), he said that Abdication (forthcoming) is to be a more melancholy addition to the SR series, set on the Oregon Coast. Pic is from Cape Kiwanda.

Give back to that which gave to you

My interpretation of The Crawler as the Biologist saw it in Annihilation. This is the moment when she is going up the staircase and looks back at it. There is a fluid nature in the description as something everchanging. Given I was drawing a static image, I tried to emulate this effect with continually overlapping layers and photobashing.

The first layer is a centrifuge of frozen liquid with a crystalline "shell" over top. The arm is comprised of a few different textures, mainly morel mushroom tops and mosses with Tillandsia usneoides (spanish moss) overlaid on top. The face is an inverted painting I made, loosely referencing William Dafoe's face from The Lighthouse. To get a "falling into" effect there is a halo above Saul's head of cathedral arches. Based off of Vandermeer's description, my interpretation of looking at the Crawler is like looking at the sun for a prolonged period and getting solar retinopathy. Thus, I had referenced Edvard Munch's The Sun.

When the Biologist initially looks at the Crawler, the brightness is so great that the experience could only otherwise be described through the other senses until she adjusts to the light. Later when she takes a second look:

Staring back at me amid that profusion of selves generated by the Crawler, I saw, barely visible, the face of a man, hooded in shadow and orbited by indescribable things I could only think of only as his jailers. The man's expression displayed such a complex and naked extremity of emotion that it transfixed me. I saw on those features the endurance of an unending pain and sorrow, yes, but shining through as well a grim satisfaction and ecstasy.

I am halfway through absolution and have read every book before it. Unfortunately I stopped reading due to other life events and have finally had some time to jump back in…and I feel as lost as the first expedition lol…can anyone give a brief description of some characters/events? I feel lost moving forward and I don’t understand some references…I’m at the party where Jim had an altercation with the Rogue and Cass is patching him back up. Chapter name is Dissolution 016: Water lives here.

Rabbit cameras?: Why was Jim unsettled by it?

Man Boy Slim: no idea who this is

Henry

Why Old Comp blew up?

I vaguely remember an alligator and that it got lost but not sure about the significance of its harness.

No spoilers please. I would re-read it but I’m trying to get this book under my belt once and for all. Much appreciated ❤️

I just finished the book and LOVED it so im wondering if the movies is worth watching. From what i heard from a friend of mine I get the impression they changed the plot quite a bit which always tweaks me about about film adaptations, so is it like really really different from the book?

I’ll be careful to avoid spoilers but while the original Control was explicitly inspired by Southern Reach the new game has some plot lines IMO directly inspired by the novels.

A big section of the game, for example, is based around a research team of various disciplines who are sent out to explore the frontiers of an expanding area under supernatural control. Suffice to say things don’t go to plan. At one point the expedition psychologist muses that they “should have brought a biologist”. 😃

Beyond that it’s an incredible game. The art direction is sublime, and it offers perspectives on similar themes including ecology, the search for meaning in a world that doesn’t make sense, and the futility of trying to master nature.

Extremely strong recommend. Other games in the same universe (Alan Wake 1 & 2, Quantum Break) are also amazing.

My bf got me this beautiful fresnel lens for our anniversary! We’re both big Southern Reach fans, and we love lighthouses! But im worried having this around will usher in a new Area X in my house… Any advice?

is it the squad’s self-destruction?
or is it the annihilation of identity because of trying to comprehend something fundamentally incomprehensible to the human mind?
or, is it the biologist effectively self destructing by choosing to stay in Area X?

also what if, while humanity sees Area X as an invasion, it is humanity that IS the infection entering it?
like, we interpret Area X as hostile because we assume humans as entitled to probe and define it. and when it warps and attacks humanity, its deemed dangerous. but maybe for Area X, we are the invasion, a kind of infection disturbing its ‘pristine wilderness’

im reading authority right now and im losing my fkn mind lmao.

Do not read below unless you want a major moment from the new novel spoiled, and the state of very important questions revealed, and to see major moments for two serious characters. Like DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THAT RIGHT NOW (HUGE SPOILERS FOR ALL NOVELS AND 5TH NOVEL)

I was shocked to not find this here on the sub when it was so popular on fb. Is that because we are not allowed? I personally am fine with spoilers they often just make me more excited to read (even endings) but I feel like some people here who have ANY aversion to spoilers or just don't want core premises and ideas revealed now will read this to their own folly.

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From August 28th on Jeff's fb:

"Cormorant can trace the bifurcation of the Old World and the New World to the moment when, from between the bars of his cell, he watched Jackie and Jack Severance die by firing squad amid the chaos of PAX and purges at Central. The courtyard stones leaked blood, which looked brighter than could be real. But he’d seen it himself, Jack so ancient he had become a little man with a curved back and a cane, Jackie somehow larger than human, snarling against the wall, dressed in a business blazer, professional slacks and sensible high heels. He doubted she had chosen it, that the prison guards had given her something they thought retained some dignity. But what dignity was there in bullets exploding your face, splashing the stones with your blood and brains?

He could not see Jack’s expression, but Jackie held her head high until the moment the bullets took her, just below the nose and high in the hairline. Cormorant had meant to look away, but the Major had tricked the count as some sort of rough mercy. The moment before felt like a historic photograph, reduced to black-and-white, but there was no history now, no history books.

Jack’s curling form, bowed and jolted into the dirt had a natural trajectory, from how he’d hardly been able to stand, the way he wept there on the ground with half his head missing and the blood gushing from his chest. He was still talking to himself as his systems shut down and his eyes never closed. Jackie had buckled, still stood somehow, stared confusedly upward at the sear of blue sky and sagged, toppled onto Jack, dead already.

Then they’d be dragged to the side and tossed on the pile, to make room for the next group of traitors.

Cormorant remembered the slick hot oil smell of spent shells, spent skulls, as he watched the swallows crisscross the courtyard between the verdant shade trees to either side. It had been a military museum once, dedicated to a last stand by patriots. He was in a prison cell tourists had inspected just a year or two ago. Kids unaware of import or how quickly the future could collapse had run laughing through the cold stone maze of it, while the adults drank soft drinks and cans of beer at black metal high-top tables with umbrellas against the hot tongue of the sun now clattered and shoved to the side of the courtyard. A pile of chairs next to the pile of bodies.

How high could you pile bodies until you needed to move them? What passed through the minds of the condemned as a distraction, Cormorant top of the heap, the lead traitor, the lead provocateur, by no choice of his own. The chattering, leering insanity of it, to be watching through those bars as almost everyone he’d known at Central was paraded forth and dispatched. Agents, spies, historians, psychologists, analysts. A fire sale on death. A yard sale with the throats slashed.

When Cormorant heard the key in the door, he shivered, tried to stop from falling, wondered if he’d have Jackie’s resolve, there, against a wall painted with other people’s guts.

But the moment never came. The Major appeared in his cell instead and offered him the black magic of a reprieve, operational freedom that was actually purgatory. But anything was better than winding up on the pile of bodies. Cormorant gibbered, he ranted, he pleaded, even though the Major had already granted him clemency, and after a moment, looking into that grave, wizened face, with the hint of the odor of anise, realized that the Major had pardoned him. He wasn’t going to end up in the other place."

-- from Abdication, out in October 2027

Paging Ghost Bird…