Thank you. This was simply wonderful. “Happiness for everybody. Free. And nobody will go away unsatisfied.”

Very detailed and informative. Great job!!

I read the southern reach trilogy as an acceptance of uncontrollable change and a lack of power in comparison to nature. Although my interpretation was a bit different, I still love the analysis.

@TheEldritchArchives

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! I had never considered that! It's a great interpretation of the story. The Southern Reach (an artificial human organisation) is trying and failing to control/contain the power of Area X (nature). Ultimately John "Control" Rodriguez (the head of Southern Reach) has to learn to let go of the culture he has grown up in and surrender to the mystery and power Area X. My mind is blown!

Man this is some excellent analysis! You deserve so many more viewers

I searched for "Stalker" & "Annihilation" right after watching the former for the first time, because I felt there were some similarities. A great documentary you did there with way too few views!

@TheEldritchArchives

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! :)

Great analysis and interesting video. Nice work!

@TheEldritchArchives

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks mate!

It’s all Colour Out of Space and Dagon by h.p. Lovecraft from the twenties. There’s a great Nick Cage movie of colour.

Wow, so glad I found this channel. Subscribed!

Great job on the analysis! Thank you for the time and effort.

I’m only a few minutes in, but from what I understand and my own experience of awe and fascination with this type of media archetype is simply: the mystery of the unknown. Mystical beauty as an art. I find similar tones in the Abyss from the anime Made in Abyss, where a localized ‘alien’ world invites adventurers to explore and reclaim magical artifacts from it. It’s basically fantasy anime Stalker lol I’m actually trying my own hand at writing a short story about a ‘Zone’ and someone who must venture into it. It’s my favorite story archetype by far: man vs nature vs the mystical vs himself.

great art work you have included

this was a very nice essay good job

Not that ANYBODY is ever gonna see this, but - if you like "Roadside Picnic" & "Stalker" (the film and the game) as well as "The Southern Reach Trilogy" - "Annihilation", etc...than you might enjoy UK author Ian McDonald's "Chaga" series, starting with the 1995 novel "Chaga" - aka "Evolution's Shore" in the US (the title which caught my attention in the book store) - as well as it's more-or-less direct sequel "Kirinya", and the related novela "Tendeleo's Story" (short, but in some ways the best of the bunch)ē and there is a short story called "Toward's Kilimanjaro" that introduces the Chaga and the main character from the first novel and re-occuring character from the second novel (and mother of the protagonist from the second novel) a...red-haired Scottish journalist sent to Africa to cover the ever-growing Chaga "colonization"..."xenoforming"..."infestation"...there (there was a 3rd novel, "Ananda"(I believe was the title?) announced several decades ago, but has neven been released. Sadly. Anyway, on "xenoforming", McDonald says that this idea first came to him after watching "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and becoming interested in the idea of the Genesis Device replacing the local *biosphere* of any world that it was dropped and detonated on. The "Chaga" is named for the first tribe to encounter - and be changed by - it, on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. They are also where the popular mushroom gets it's Western name - interesting because the many of the Chagaforms are evocative of mushrooms, various fungi, and coral - maybe not a total coincidence, as it doesn't just supplant the native life, like the "shimmer" in the movie, it alters life, learns from it, changes it, and is changed by it...and it ONLY seems to take hold in the land and sea of the Southern Hemisphere. Stopping at the Equator. And yes, if IS a metaphor for Western Colonization on one hand, BUT, the people in Africa and South America and natives in Australia and the Pacific Islands, etc, are at first forbidden from going into the Chaga - "for their own protection", and to "prevent contamination outside of the zones", HOWEVER, this interdiction is done by the West (and China) by military force, and this protection involves murdering in cold blood, any colonists (yes, colonists, *native* colonists) attempting to enter the zones. And really, it quickly becomes (well, eventually *impossible*) clear that this is out of the West's fear of the native populations discovering how to manipulate and control and *use* the Chaga - which they DO - really before the West does. They fear losing control...of the world. MOST ESPECIALLY by the time of the second book, and the novela, when it becomes clear that basically the Chaga can be used to create a post-scarcity economy...and is giving indigenous Africans and South Americas and Aboriginal Australian, and Pacific Islanders, and those in the West Indies direct access to space. Basically they fear that large parts of the Third World will surpass the First. Anyway, so, the books, while I have read them all multiple times, are not perfect...we get African people and African culture and African characters (and a main bisexual female character) are written by a straight, white, cis, male. But I came away personally with a more profound respect of African culture and it's exploitation by the West. Though also there was holds-no-punches portrayal of the *VIOLENCE* of the gang leaders and warlords - *on* their fellow Africans! Some parts of the novel were downright hard to read. BUT...Gabby's character is NOT a "white saviour" of ANY kind, so there is that. Also, there I a major difference between the Chaga series and the others like "Roadside Picnic" and the Southern Reach series is that there isn't that overwhelming sense of "cosmic horror" in the Chaga series, and the books, while full of wonder, aren't as philosophical as Picnic or Reach. But...there is mystery and wonder and some creepiness because the earliest humans to encounter the Chaga "seed packets" are changed in much more drastic and weird and chilling ways than the later...settlers, many of whom aren't *outwardly* changed at all - they just seem to have a connection to the Chaga, and almost seem to have some subconscious control of what they might become. They retain their humanity, where as early...experiments...by the Chaga become more fantastical and weird and alien...er...otherworldly. It's (so far) never answered what the exact motivation behind the Chaga...the "why"...it's not aliens anything like US behind it...there an intelligence behind the Chaga, but it's more like the Chaga itself thinks - and their probably were not plant-based creators behind it, but one prevailing theory is that it...arose and evolved within interstellar gas clouds.

great video!!

excellent analysis

You miss "The Colour Out of Space" tale, from HP Lovecraft. And that it predates Lindsay's novel.

Roadside Picnic and it's inspirations are amazing. I'm going to have to give Annihilation a watch now. This was a great comparison. Thank you.

Great video, cheers

Great video

Under rated video!

Really cool video. And nice "Secret of Mana" Artwork at 0:53. ;)

I may be 2 years late to the conversation, but I'd like to throw my opinion put there for the sake of interaction. First of all, good video! I'm so happy to see someone talking about these books and movies, they certainly deserve more attention. Sadly (or not) I'm here to disagree with your takes on Roadside Picnic. Even tho I agree with you on the showing of the bureaucracy that builds around the Zone, I wouldn't go as far as to consider it only a critic on the Soviet Union. It can be easily applicable to any system of government, and it shows how most systems are doomed to corruption through the influence of human greed and selfishness. You can draw parallels between the individual corruption and the collective corruption through out the story: Stalkers, the Institute, the government, the black market and all the economy around the Zone are deeply bound to each other. That said, I'd also give it credit for the themes of search within the human soul. We can see Red Schuhart's discontent with himself and his life through out the story, unconciously seeking for meaning inside the Zone. Reaching the end of the novel we can see the desolation of his soul when confronted with the question "what is your deepest desire?". This is a question that stayed present in the movie and (surprisingly!) in the video game. The Zone as a selfdestructive escape to a hollow life/reality is an important theme in all Stalker media, which is also a theme in the Annihilation movie! Anyway, cool video and great analysis!

@daniel5730

8 ай бұрын

I do agree Roadside Picnic is one of the least political novels of Strugatskys.

Adam Kurtis kills it, nice analysis😶‍🌫

I want to watch your videos but instead I'm just creating a pile of pre-reading I need to do first!

Finally someone points this out

Annihilation and Stalker are superficially similar, but the themes and tone are completely different. I'm not smart enough to articulate HOW they're different, but they don't really seem all that similar to me except in the broad plot points. I haven't finished the video yet, so I'm not sure if I'm agreeing or disagreeing with you, but those are my thoughts going in.

Well done! Regarding the Stalker character in the Stalker movie, it seems to me that he’s the only character that does not come to acceptance. He seems to struggle with the idea that the professor and the writer don’t have faith, from what I remember. But not sure what to make of that ^^

I've never heard of Stalker but will check it out now. Annihilation was amazing IMO so I'm curious about anything with a similar theme.

@daydreamdirty

Жыл бұрын

The Stalker series is quite amazing and focuses on these 3 things: the factions, the artifacts (and in searching for them) and lastly, the zone and with each game, there’s more and more focus put upon them besides upgrades for the weapons and gear.

@Melman599

Жыл бұрын

@@daydreamdirty he never mention stalker game. he's talking about movie... you should watch it too.

@WiseOwl_1408

Жыл бұрын

@@daydreamdirty No one is talking about the video. Book or movie. Games are nonsense

@mrch6200

Жыл бұрын

Stalker is available here on youtube, full movie in 1080p

@zissimus8462

Жыл бұрын

@@WiseOwl_1408 I would'nt call them nonesense. Eventhough they don't rech philosophical depths of the film or book, they still excell(and sometimes even surpass the book) in the atmosphere. Surely it's way more relaxed sort of fun but I'd say it's worth someone's time nevertheless.

have you read Rene Girard? contrasts nicely with Cambel😶‍🌫

Stalker is the film that killed the sleeping pill industry

@daniel5730

8 ай бұрын

If your zoomy receptors can't handle the slow pace of the movie you can always watch it parallel to some Family Guy episodes or Subway Surf gameplay

FINALLY someone says that Annihilation is a rip-off of Stalker.

@davedouglass438

10 ай бұрын

The author mentions that book/movie, but gives more credit to Bernanos' "The other side of the mountain." Is the purpose of this admission to deflect from some supposed theft from "Roadside Picnic?" Seems unlikely!

Roadside pinic and annihilation remind be of a lovecraftian story about thinga hunmans can't understand.

what's funny is the new puss and boots movie very much follows this same basic formula too!

Stalker is original 💯

Another good example of this type of story is Solaris.

Great analysis! I'm amazed with both Roadside Picnic and the Southern Reach Trilogy and I've always feel those stories somehow conected. I'm glad I found your essay. Also, love the artwork you use to ilustrate the video, they fit perfect. Keep the good work!

I just read the fucking books and plan to watch the movies and you show up in my feed????? My phone is spying on me... I'll be back

Really loved the video. I also thought there were some (unintended) connections to the amazing short story "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood.

@TheEldritchArchives

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you 🙂 Yes! Absolutely! The Willows was actually one of the stories i was going to talk about in the video, but i found the similarities werent quite close enough for it to have a section. The Willows is more subtle in its weirdness than either of these two works.

I completely disagree. I think Alex Garland was unequivocally influenced by Tarkovsky's Stalker. I think the references are blatant to the point of homage.

And then, Disney took the same idea and made it into a childen's story: Frozen 2. :) Great video, by the way. Stalker is still such a classic.

@TheEldritchArchives

3 жыл бұрын

Whaaat! This is the first i've heard of Frozen 2 being like Stalker or Annihilation! Might have to check it out.

@revolutionevolution8571

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheEldritchArchives It is different enough, way more commercial, less artistic and spiritual, but basically, yes, there is a mysterious "zone" (a forest) with unexplainable phenomenons inside, cut off from the world, which the heroes enter and inside, you can find a "room" (a cave) that promises to give you the answers your great questions. These similarities are are quite obvious, I immediately thought of Stalker and Annihilation when I saw it.

@fatezaragosa2540

3 жыл бұрын

Holy shit your right i never thought of it that way.

@SenkaBandit

Жыл бұрын

@@revolutionevolution8571 frozen should be a criticism of soviet bureaucracy

Типичная "ameribrain" интерпретация "Пикника на обочине". Аркадий Стругацкий, между прочим, в отличии от брата, был убежденным коммунистом,. И, в частности, в "Пикнике на обочине" прямым текстом говорится, что зона находится на территории одного из последних капиталистических государств. Далее по тексту не раз указывается на то, что вся индустрия полулегальной контрабанды выросла вокруг зоны именно как результат разложения капиталистического общественного строя.

@marteawqakuq7455

Жыл бұрын

y también menciona un escritor que se aproprió de culturas no europeas y las forzó dentro de las premisas del cristianismo. la jornada del héroe es conceptualmente racista, pero a estos gringos les encanta.

@MemeN210890

Жыл бұрын

Que risa la mezcla de idiomas en la discusión jajajajj estoy de acuerdo con que llamarla una crítica ala URSS es francamente reduccionista. Roadside Picnic es sobre mucho más que eso.

@daniel5730

8 ай бұрын

Они были левыми, но это не значит, что они не могли критиковать советскую номенклатуру, в общем они адресуют этот "парадокс" в каком-то из писем. Но соглашусь что "пикник" практически аполитичен, в отличии от "Улитки на Склоне" где они в шаге от прямой сатиры.

No one remembers annihilation

Showing yourself in a trashy setting looks dumb dude… just dont show yourself and keep it voiceover.

@EQOAnostalgia

Жыл бұрын

What are you complaining about? This comment is dumb lol.

Bro. You are sooo wrong about the Roadside picnic. It has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do to any bureaucracy. You really sound bizarre. Did you even read it? The story is about the contact between two civilizations, and that the higher civilization gave no shit about the existence of the other one. You know, that is really a problem with all Westerners, who despite all their training and best effort do not really understand any non-Western ideas.

@marteawqakuq7455

Жыл бұрын

he also cite an author that, like westerns usually do, put all cultures under the same (western) umbrella. Campbell also said the Hero's Journey could never be about a woman. And even if could, Annihilation is about the poor control humanity have in face of nature, about how little we know. All of the books have this exact same message. So sad how this guys can't think about anything beyond and hyper individual level.

@tylerbrown9797

Жыл бұрын

@@marteawqakuq7455 I am so damn tired of the joseph campbell suffocating every other discussion about storytelling in western culture. It has hurt the imaginative capacity of popular storytelling in western culture.

"was a time when every home had a goblin and every church had a God "