The point is that Portman's DNA embodies the Ship of Theseus. So much of Portman's DNA is dividing with Shimmer-infused DNA it's ambiguous how much of the "original" Lena is actually the original "Lena" anymore.
-Vader
Since we're going all Greek here
I think Portman is more of a Chimera since that includes the structural changes
in composition resulting from the different genes whereas the Ship of Theseus is an exact replica of the same parts taken apart and put back together. The Ship of Theseus is just about perfect for The Prestige though (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcivmBojzVk). The only difference is that the atoms don't get re-used since the original "survives" but he still ultimately gets disintegrated far earlier than the clone who lives longer. Its still the same thought experiment since the question is whether or not what makes us us are just specific arrangements of matter and nothing else.
Chimerism is a regular thing in genetics e.g. organ donors, mother's who bore children etc, but usually nothing noticeable happens (https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... chimerism/). Plus a Chimera is a female monster possessing traits from different animals like with the creatures we saw in the film (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chimera). The color of her iris changes during the final shot, probably indicating that she'll go through something serious.
I agree with you, but Chimeras are ordinarily used to evoke much greater differences between the original and the 'new' creation vs the Ship which shows repetition / sameness / possibility of slight differences.
A lot of Ship thought experiments and so on talk about A.) if replacements are identical B.) if replacements are slightly less identical etc etc all the way down to C.) where they're not very identical at all, in each of those categories is the 'Original" a new thing.
In respect to Lena, the main take-away I thought was that she broke a pattern of self-destruction / bent not broke as you say, and in doing so she also "surrendered" to the changes inside her in respect to whatever point of difference was between her and Alien Isaac, with him ignorant of her affair...
also I'm not totally sure how actually deep any of this stuff is, but there's something deeply resonant for me that the Shimmer A.) refracts all information (DNA, biological, therefore emotional, etc) but also B.) its solution to "self-destruction" and pain seems to include total unification of all life into patterns of self-similarity (fractals!)... which in part is a pretty Eastern idea you see pop up in lots of anime of collective consciousness and other things like that.
I agree with you, but Chimeras are ordinarily used to evoke much greater differences between the original and the 'new' creation vs the Ship which shows repetition / sameness / possibility of slight differences.
A lot of Ship thought experiments and so on talk about A.) if replacements are identical B.) if replacements are slightly less identical etc etc all the way down to C.) where they're not very identical at all, in each of those categories is the 'Original" a new thing.
In respect to Lena, the main take-away I thought was that she broke a pattern of self-destruction / bent not broke as you say, and in doing so she also "surrendered" to the changes inside her in respect to whatever point of difference was between her and Alien Isaac, with him ignorant of her affair...
also I'm not totally sure how actually deep any of this stuff is, but there's something deeply resonant for me that the Shimmer A.) refracts all information (DNA, biological, therefore emotional, etc) but also B.) its solution to "self-destruction" and pain seems to include total unification of all life into patterns of self-similarity (fractals!)... which in part is a pretty Eastern idea you see pop up in lots of anime of collective consciousness and other things like that.
gotta see it again, though.
-Vader
Given the final shot I think the ultimate off screen outcome will be the Greek Myth version of a Chimera but yea what we actually experience is more of the gradual, minute, and psychological metamorphosis which is more akin to real life/scientific conception of the word yet still very far from it obviously. The Scientific American pregnancy thing I linked mentioned that it can lead to autoimmune destruction of the body which obviously have psychological affects but as far as anyone knows the mother doesn't start meaningfully expressing the genes from the other half of the kid's genome, namely the father's traits. The dramatic real life chimeras are usually all destruction so whatever psychological transformation may happen is the result of serious loss of function as opposed to something generated that might be beneficial. Although being in a debilitated state can cause the mother to have some spiritual epiphany, which seems conceivable. That article does mention some maternal benefits from the child's cells but again nothing dramatic plus its almost half her anyway. Yea like all metaphors its not perfect but it immediately rang in my head when you mentioned the other related Greek myth of Theseus' ship.
I haven't thought about the eastern unification/fractals stuff. Naturally I gravitate to the more biological stuff, hence chimera, but one of my former professors, Ted Sider, is actually in your ship of theseus wiki article, cited for some philosophy paper "Four Dimensionalism" in the last section all the way at the bottom. It looks impenetrable but I guess this movie gives me enough of a reason to make the effort. His Logic for Philosophy book written for undergraduates is totally readable though. I haven't watched a whole lot of anime, which is ironic because Yu Yu Hakusho is probably my favorite TV show solely out of the nostalgia. Hopefully I'll stumble into some of those that tackle the concepts that you're referring to.
If you've ever studied Eastern Religion or Philosophy you see a lot of the cultural collectivist mindset reflected in more spiritual or metaphysical ideals. A big part of it is obviously because ideas and constructs are more like flowing water, IE a continuum, as opposed to discrete categories or binaries.
I see some of that stuff pop up in the internal logic of how some of The Shimmer seems to be working. IE:
Maybe I'm misreading it and I do think this is a movie needed to be seen a few times to 'get' some of what it's throwing down, but Annihilation seems to be suggesting 'The Shimmer" almost as a great riff on "The Zone' from Stalker where it embodies the states of whatever moves inside of it, so if our cells and our instincts are destructive and violent, those will naturally manifest within The Shimmer, whereas if we're peaceful or whatever, it will reflect that too (Portman).
However, The Shimmer is also a cosmic horror/weird fiction sort of "Cancer" in the Lovecraftian tradition, and I think itself as an entity exists outside simply of "mirroring" or "refracting" what's inside of it, since its "solution" to "help" whatever destructive tendencies are brought in is for the "data" it accrues is for combination, fractal replication, where the divides between man, 'nature', 'the self', 'society' as constructs all seem to blur into one singular (perfect?) self-perpetuating system.
It almost reminded me of some more American sci-fi outside of Eastern stuff and Tarkovsky, like the Donald Sutherland remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or something like that.
All that said, while parsing out what this stuff 'means' is always fun, mostly as a movie made in purely cinematic terms, Annihilation is one of my favorite experiences in years and I found it delightfully surprising and overwhelmingly transportive. Highly recommend everybody who can* checks it out in theaters or Netflix in a few weeks. Supporting this kind of art is crucially important for the survival of intelligent cinema.
How does it compare to Ex Machina in terms of style and themes? Directing similiarities? Curious if Garland has found his style.
He transports his style from Ex Machina cleanly to Annihilation, and you can feel an increased confidence in some of his choices (visual and with sound). Not much parallel in terms of thematic content beyond some broad stuff.
Ex Machina is the more cohesive and complete between the two movies, but Annihilation aims so much higher.
