Jeff Vandermeer's Borne

Everything about Borne is quite weird - the people, the monsters, the setting; they all possess qualities of the unfamiliar. Vandermeer wastes no time throwing you into the compelling, weird world he has created and it is a bit overwhelming at first. I found myself wondering what was happening in the story as Rachel, the narrator, starts going on about biotech, the Company, and Mord as if I was a part of her world and should know these things like the back of my hand.

The weirdest character in the story is Borne. Borne was so unique and malleable that I found it almost impossible to envision in my mind what Borne actually looked like. The wild descriptions of Borne's appearance, how he looked like a plant, then a slug, then had tentacles, multiple eyes, changing colors, differing sizes, shifting forms - really threw my imagination for a loop.

I decided to listen to an audiobook rather than read myself. I am glad I listened to the book because the vocalization of Borne's voice did a lot for his character as every time he spoke, there was a very child-like quality to his speech. The childishness of his voice was juxtaposed by so many of Borne's actions - especially the murdering of people around the city. No matter how much Borne grew or learned or did, he still somehow exuded this bizarre innocence akin to a human child.

Borne was at times a love-able, cute character and at other times a mysterious, creepy monster. His ability to change between these two completely different personas heightened his weirdness. Perhaps the strangest thing he ever did throughout the whole novel was taking the shape and voice of Wick, having a conversation with Rachel as his doppelgänger, and then doing the same thing to Wick but as Rachel instead. Its unnerving to think that every day conversations you have with someone you love and trust could have actually been had with some biotech creature pretending to be someone they’re not. Tender moments, angry conversations, sexual encounters – all of these experiences between Rachel and Wick were now being questioned as genuine once Borne was caught shapeshifting. It is not a surprise that this conflict is the straw that broke the camel’s back as Borne was ultimately kicked out.

During class, I made a connection between Borne and the movie Under the Skin. The final scene we watched where the man walked into the black abyss and came face to face with a previous victim reminded me of Borne’s thoughts on the people he killed. Borne never expels anything he consumes – he only gets bigger and stronger. Since Borne never sees their remains, he feels as if all the people and animals he has killed are simply stored inside of him, still living somehow in a strange alternate reality within his body. When the man disintegrated and only his skin was left, I imagined that’s what happened to people inside of Borne. Perhaps a fragment of themselves – whether it be a body part or their soul – really did stay in Borne for eternity, just like the husk of the man was trapped inside the murky blackness of the void. Nothing about that scene in the movie or the people trapped inside Borne makes any sense – and that is exactly why ‘weird’ is the perfect word to describe his character.