This week, our class was introduced to the “New Weird.” It was a term that I was somewhat unfamiliar with, but now I have a good idea of what it is. This genre employed a wide-spectrum ranging from horror, sci-fi, and fantasy elements. In general, an important aspect I saw the difference between the “Old Weird” and the “New Weird” was how it uses complex story-making and more modern disgust.
I chose to read “The Neglected Garden” by Kathe Koja for this week. In this story, the writer implicates scenes that gross the reader, specifically how a garden is growing in the character Anne. In my opinion, it was very creepy reading how plants grew on her body and how bugs just crawled on her. I can see this story in relation to the movie we watched in class, “Annihilation”, using the aspect of the uncanny. I say this because both stories have environments that perceive to be somewhat familiar to the reader, although changed in a very unsettling way.
My second point was how most “New Weird” stories are more focused on world-building and story arcs. From my point of view, some of the “Old Weird” used simple plots such as a monster, which was clearly identifiable right when the audience perceives it. For example, vampires- everyone knows that they want to kill humans, and the protagonist wants to hunt it down. On the other hand, Annihilation puts the reader into a world where everything is strange and unknown. I believe that the “New Weird” is an evolution from the “Old Weird”, although the “Old Weird” can serve original and classical narratives that people can have a preference to.
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