#james lowry

[james-lowry]

[woodsywarbler]

guys do you wanna hit up the wetlands after work its 98 F there are bugs and only 45 minutes of daylight left and a storm is brewing - the limpkin

[dysfunctionalcreature]

I really can't stop thinking about this parallel between the second to last page of Absolution, and the very end of Annihilation....

[indecentwarwlf]

lowry says 'fuck' or some variation of 'fuck' (including 'fuckling', 'fuckers', 'fuckbuddy', 'fuckside', 'fuck-a-mole', 'fuckshot', 'fuckshit', etc.) in the First and Last section of Absolution 1,192 times*.

and i get why people would find that jarring/annoying to read but To Me it's the perfect loop around to the beginning of Annihilation when the biologist comments that it's fine that the linguist dropped out of the expedition at the last minute because words continuously fail in Area X.

lowry loves saying 'fuck' and making explicit sex references and using his vulgar words to both rile up the other exped mems and to soothe himself when he's scared. a compulsion which increases in intensity in the lead up to them entering Area X and culminates in him flat-out panicking in the KCUFFUCK chapter and saying 'fuck' more times in one paragraph than i've ever seen in my life. after which i have to assume that one of the psychics or hypnotists of the expedition uses a mind control trigger phrase to prevent him from swearing again. (understandable)

when he regains the abilty to say 'fuck' later on (reasons unknown), he doesn't swear nearly as much as he used to -- still a lot more than any other narrator we've had, but not multiple times a sentence like he does at the beginning of the section. his 'fuck' usage continues to drop off towards the end of the book until he's barely swearing at all (for him) by the time he makes it back to the barrier.

the reason for his decrease in 'fuck' tics can't be because he's any less scared than he was at the beginning of the section. his experience in Area X might be the worst experience out of any of our other narrators and that's after it's been filtered to us through his haze of drugs and toxic masculinity and 'fucks'. if anything, he should be saying 'fuck' more often than he does and yet, he's not.

his 'fuck's have left him. he has no more 'fuck's to give.

linguistics has failed in Area X, science, technology, cartography, spycraft, bureaucracy, the occult art, music -- all failed in Area X. now 'fuck' has failed too.

*not including his more pg-13 euphemisms for 'fuck' like 'eff' or 'mofo' and not including all the times he wanted to say 'fuck' but couldn't. so 1,192 full bodied 'fuck's (give or take me getting distracted or missing the button on my clicker counter)

[trawl]

there’s no right side of the bed with a mind like mine, with a body like mine

[possessable]

perhaps my favorite and most stupidest thing i've drawn of lowry thus far

[agentnoun]

Finally reading Absolution and I got a lot to say about what a nuclear bomb “The False Daughter” was later, but first:

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about Lowry’s narration in the last section and I am pleased to report they’re all wrong and it in fact rips. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

[thinkanamelater]

I have so many Lowry/Whitby/Control thoughts and most of them are incoherent 🫶 they'd be sooo bad for each other 😍😍

(Control doesn't know how much of it is him being hypnotized or how much he actually cares for Whitby. Whitby is not even hypnotized he's just. well. himself. Lowry may not even get physically involved, he gets off on manipulating them both)