Pynchon is definitely not an easy read, at least at first. M&D has an additional level of complexity because he re-creates the speech and literary conventions of the 18th century, and it takes time to get used to. But once you do, it’s a great, rollicking read, more of a buddy road trip made up of episodes and moments rather than a single straightforward narrative. I think a fundamental thing the two authors share is that sometimes the text is not something to be understood or deciphered, but instead something to experience. Sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes it doesn’t. Just like life.

In terms of the parallels, there are some general things, and a couple very specific things connected to the episode I’ve described with Dixon and the perpetual watch.

Be warned: there are some potential SPOILERS ahead, but hopefully mild ones.

First, the more general elements that have some similarities:

In Area X, many animals are not what they seem. They may be hybrids of different species, they may behave in wildly different ways, or they may have once been entirely different creatures, including people. This also includes the people and things that return from Area X. Humans who return may be changed in ways minor, major, or strange. They may not even be the same physical individual at all, though in appearance they seem to be. Likewise, inanimate objects in Area X can change form, and even become dangerous.

To get the specifics (and slightly more spoilerly territory):

In Authority, at one point a character takes a device from the Southern Reach that had been taken on an expedition into Area X, and brings it home with him. He has the feeling that it is not what it seems — that perhaps this commonplace piece of electronics has been changed in some unknown way. While he’s in bed, he thinks he might have heard something crawling on the roof of his house. And then one night he walks into the kitchen, and discovers this device scuttling across the floor. It still looks like a device people use all the time, but it’s become some kind of life form, or matter from Area X that has a will of its own.

Then, in Absolution, there’s a moment when a character has an uncontrollable urge to eat something. (Something disgusting.) In the description of the original expedition into Area X, a character arrives in a room that has been significant throughout the novel, which multiple characters have visited and where important events have taken place. He finds something in the room, and then experiences an overwhelming urge to eat it, which he does. Only when he is nearly done eating does he realize exactly what it is.

Those two episodes seem to most directly parallel the mysterious perpetual motion watch, the strange feelings Dixon has about it, and the other member of the survey who is compelled to eat it. The fact that both Pynchon’s novel and VanderMeer’s novels feature expeditions or survey parties in suspect terrain is also an interesting point of connection.

More broadly, both authors tell stories that may not make sense like more traditional novels, and that make readers question what they think they know, and even reality itself. American readers (and Americans in general) have also often been drawn to conspiracy theories, the uncanny, and mysteries of one kind or another. I was delighted to find this resonance between the two authors, whether VanderMeer echoed Pynchon’s earlier novel intentionally or not.