Borne

Flying bears, biotech, giant amoeba-like creatures that can speak. What did I just get myself into?

It’s known as the “new weird,” a subgenre of horror that my recent read, Borne by Jeff Vandermeer, perfectly encapsulates. From horror to sci-fi to fantasy, the new weird incorporates elements from various different genres. In the case of Borne, it does all three.

The novel opens with the image of a giant, flying bear, called Mord, who rules the dystopian city the protagonist lives in. Through this, we immediately get a glimpse of the scale at which this novel works in. The very existence of such a fantastical creature, in addition to the Mord “proxies” we see later on in the novel, invokes a sense of fantasy in the reader while the dystopic future and massive amounts of biotechnology lay out the foundation for science-fiction. On the other hand, the blood and gore present throughout the novel, coupled with the actions of the creature Borne, suggest it is horror. You would think that with all these conflicting ideas it would be impossible to come up with one cohesive narrative, but boy would you be wrong, for, in the end, everything comes together to tell one hell of a story.

Perhaps the most interesting or, as some would say, “weird” character in the novel is Borne, an amoeba-like creature made with some type of biotechnology. When the protagonist, Rachel, finds him, he is quite small and acts more like a plant than a conscious animal. However, he soon grows in both physical size and mental capabilities. Within no time, he is thinking, feeling, moving, talking, and even eating, yet not defecating. This turns him into somewhat of a child in Rachel’s eyes, who raises him, yet an object worthy of suspicion in Wick’s. Due to the efficiency of such a creature, Wick is distrusting of Borne, inevitably creating tension between him and Rachel. His distrust would soon prove justified however, when they discover that Borne had been impersonating them, changing his appearance to look like them as he spoke to the other. Nonetheless, Borne does this in an attempt to help them get along, unaware of the consequences. This juxtaposes his child-like innocence with his disturbing actions making him both a creepy, murderous monster, yet also an innocent, inquisitive child. I could hardly think of anything more unsettling. Most would venture to say it’s downright weird. Yet how do we define the term “weird?” On the surface, it sounds like such an arbitrary word.

Depending on their culture and personal experiences, people generally have different definitions on what is and isn’t weird. This is because we often consider what we see all the time and what we’ve grown up with as “normal” behavior. Thus, anything that exceeds this is considered weird. With this in mind, it is clear that something is defined as “weird” not based on what it is itself; rather, it is defined based on what it is not, compared to that which surrounds it. Things are therefore “weird” because they are unconventional.

In the case of Borne, he is unlike any creature most humans in the modern day have ever seen. However, due to his efficiency and capabilities, he is also unlike any creature Rachel and Wick have seen in their day. He is, then, weird both to the reader and to the characters. His impersonation of them heightens this as, because he had not eaten them, Borne could only barely pull it off. During his conversation with Rachel as Wick, Rachel noticed this almost immediately due to small idiosyncrasies in his behavior. In this case, instead of him being considered weird because he is too far from the character’s normal, he is weird because of how close he is to said normal, but not quite all the way there. This makes his behavior uncanny more than anything, as he is so close to normal that you can’t quite put your finger on what is wrong, causing great unease.

Regardless, it the so-called weirdness of Borne and the circumstances that surround him that defines the novel, placing it in a category of its own. Personally, I’m conflicted as to whether or not it’s my cup of tea, but it was certainly an enjoyable read nonetheless, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something out of the ordinary.