The connection between the two has been made before due to the "shimmer" resembling the visual hallucinations brought on by LSD. But there's more:
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The plants taking human form is very reminiscent of the effect of seeing human figures everywhere when under the influence. This is explained as the over-activation of the part of the brain's visual cortex that identifies bodies and faces.
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The multifarious flowers and colourful bacterial colonies might symbolize the random synaptic connections associated with the drug's influence, i.e. the idea that it makes different parts of your brain, particularly ones that normally don't communicate, communicate.
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The giant reptile and the manbearpig might equally be metaphors for the older layers in Paul MacLean's triune model of the brain (not subscribed to by neurologists but part of pop culture), i.e. the reptilian complex and the paleomammalian complex, or for "bad trips".
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The ending is what ties it together: ego-death, or "complete loss of subjective self-identity", which sometimes results after a very high dose of the drug.
Might Annihilation not be about the impending alien invasion of Earth but instead an allegory for human consciousness undergoing the effects of the psychedelic drug?
Submitted May 05, 2018 at 11:34AM by bale_mirth_control https://ift.tt/2JUukHF
