Annihilation and Decoding Metaphor

"I hate metaphors. That's why my favourite book is Moby Dick. No fru fru symbolism, just a good simple tale about a man who hates an animal."

maybe the real annihilation was the friends we made along the way.

"why is that everything we lives for dies while our pain gets to be immortal" okay Dan cool I guess, I have work to do today but this existential terror is fun too

"I have nothing against these people... I just have a deep, seething hate for them coming from my very core." - Dan, paraphrased.

I hate how I’ll look up a movie analysis and all I’ll get is “movies ending explained”

these are the folks who complain about high school literature classes as adults.

Two years later, and I'm still howling about "Annihilation 2: Rennihilation"

Hm. So I was writing a witty comment about finally understanding why my English teacher's were so frustrated with our (plot heavy and surface level) literary analysis in highschool. But I scrolled down a bit afterwords and found my own comment from 3 years prior and my opinion was quite different. I only returned to this video on accident after finally reading Lovecraft and wanting to explore more existential/cosmic horror. This video popped up. And I guess seeing a fragment of myself through an opiniom that's changed so much in 3 years... its like accidentally thematically relevant.

"Why is it that everything we live for dies while our pain gets to be immortal" _ holy shit that's a great summary of the theme

"I love being a marine! Hoorah" Yeah, got it! You got what Jarhead was about!

I am SO SICK of seeing people talk about that damn water glass! NO, that's not "water mutating", water doesn't even have DNA to mutate, ffs....sigh. No, that's just how water moves. It's called surface tension. You see it literally every single day. They only focus in on the glass to show the theme of refraction. You know, the thing the characters LITERALLY TALK ABOUT AT SEVERAL POINTS OF THE FILM.

"The purpose of ambiguity is to frustrate the audience, to deny a clean sense of diegetic closure and thusly force engagement with the metaphorical." This quote has quite literally changed my life and how I look at art. I remember first watching annihilation and being blown away, immediately seeking out the types of videos mentioned in the beginning of this one, and feeling disappointed and unfulfilled in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on just then. Like he said, the literal plot explanation is not and never was satisfactory to me, and it was only after watching this video that I realized *why*. I only felt a sense of closure and satisfaction after understanding the thematic elements of this story. One of my favorite shows ended recently. Its ending was very ambiguous, and I was frustrated for a hot second before I stopped looking at the story literally and looking at it thematically instead. I built my own thesis statement about the show and came to my own conclusion about the ending and not only was it satisfying, it meant so much more to me now. As a college student studying stem, I don't know how long it would have taken me to rediscover my love for thematic analysis and finding meaning in art if it weren't for this video. I've legitimately started writing essays for fun about the themes of stories that compel me. I've started working themes into my own writing/art. And it is so, so fulfilling -- the sense of joy at discovering how the pieces of a story fit together, or of working the last clue into place in a piece of art I'm making, is unmatched by anything I've ever experienced. All because I watched this video. So, thank you. I think this is legitimately my favorite video on youtube.

"They're bound to have a kid eventually who will be even more shimmer-like" is one of the worst phrases I've heard or read this year, and goddamn that is saying a lot.

Dan, you just have such a way with words. I had to transcribe this bit. "There is an existential horror to the nature of intimate relationships. That opening ourselves to others - allowing them in - brings with it an annihilation of our singular self. We merge, we reshape, we combine and replicate, and mirror. And, on a level that is terrifying, to be with someone is to sacrifice something of who you are. But it's also beautiful." - Dan Olson

15:09 this so strongly resonates with a line from Josie about Shepard's fate, "I think as she was dying part of her mind became part of the creature that was killing her. Imagine dying frightened and in pain and having that as the only part of you which survived. I wouldn't like that at all."

Everytime i see the thumbnail i remember the "but do the aliens fu-" joke at the end and watch through all the analysis again and am satisfied by the little comedic chaser for dessert

"I know writers who use subtext, they're all cowards."

Your point about rejecting the ambiguous endings when the ambiguity is the point reminded me of all the people trying to decide what "really happened" at the end of Inception, when the point was that it didn't matter whether it was real or not, which was clearly shown by Cobb not waiting to see the top fall and running to his kids

This movie fascinates me. When I first saw the scene where Josie chooses to merge with the Shimmer, I had this very strange and intense feeling of 'Yes, this is what I would do'. And somehow it felt very important to know this about me, though I'm still not sure what to make of it exactly.

I knew there were Jarhead sequels, but the line "I love being a marine" I just I can't How ... Somebody clearly literally never read the fucking book