The Coma

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Carl is in the office making notes on papers late into the night. His secretary calls to remind him that the last train leaves in 25 minutes so he leaves. On the underground he sees a young woman being hassled by some yoofs. He intervenes and they stomp on his head. Carl is rushed to hospital in a coma. The novella begins with Carl trying to figure out what’s happened and then how he can awaken and return to his life. Scott, A. O. (27 June 2003). "Film Review; Spared by a Virus But Not by Mankind". The New York Times . Retrieved 31 January 2016. It’s interesting how Garland looks at language as well - Carl has been in a coma for so long that he begins to forget how to use and the meaning of language. He throws out unconnected words and then muses on why those don’t make sense but others do, like the ones he uses to express himself. Or do they? Towards the end, the gibberish begins to make sense to him. Does that mean he’s freeing himself from the bonds of the author? Does that mean he’s deteriorating - that he’s actually dying and his brain is giving up?

Miller, Ross (14 July 2006). "DB Weiss takes on Halo script". Engadget. Archived from the original on 22 September 2020 . Retrieved 23 September 2022. Detail. Spectacular. Fractal. The threads that constructed my shirt, and the smaller threads that constructed the larger threads. The shapes of the clouds above, the shapes that led to further shapes, and the slow movement of the clouds across the sky… Presented by my memory effortlessly, with no act of concentration. No pause to assemble or consider the image as my gaze swept from left to right, or up or down, or anywhere.”

verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Annihilation' director Alex Garland chats with CNET about the upcoming film (YouTube). CNET. 8 February 2018. Event occurs at 14;40 . Retrieved 18 March 2018. I can understand some readers’ frustration at the way this novel meanders but if you’ve read Garland’s most famous work, The Beach, you’ll know his theme of aimless wandering is a favourite of his. The Coma is an extension of that theme, delving further into our identities and our search for meaning.

Garland and Tameem Antoniades co-wrote the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. They won a 2011 award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain. Garland also served as a story supervisor on the game DmC: Devil May Cry in 2013. A reviewer for Bookslut said, "Initially, some of Garland’s motifs and literary devices seemed too elaborate and obscure; yet on a second read they disentangle and shine." [4] Garland made his directorial debut with Ex Machina, a 2014 feature film based on his own story and screenplay. Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac. the film won a Jury Prize at the 2015 Gerardmer Film Festival and earned Garland a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Garland, Alex (10 April 2015). "INTERVIEW: Director Alex Garland on Ex Machina". HuffPost. Interviewed by Zaki Hasan . Retrieved 21 June 2018. Annihilation' director Alex Garland chats with CNET about the upcoming film". CNET. 8 February 2018 . Retrieved 18 March 2018– via YouTube. @ 32m15s-33m30sThere’s also other ways to interpret The Coma: it might be an exercise in exploring narrative fiction from the perspective of the character. Carl is a character in a novel, so this story might be about him slowly realising this. All he knows are the facts that the author has supplied him with that we see in the opening passage of the book: he works in an office with papers, he has a secretary, he was brutally assaulted, and he’s in a coma. When he thinks about other aspects of his life, he draws a blank. If that could happen to Carl, could it happen to us – are we characters in a story we’re not aware of?

Fritz, Ben; Brodesser, Claude (3 February 2005). "Halo, Hollywood, Microsoft readies video game for first pic". Variety. Archived from the original on 5 April 2005 . Retrieved 23 September 2022.In 2005, Garland wrote a screenplay for a film adaptation of Halo. [14] D. B. Weiss and Josh Olson rewrote this during 2006 for a 2008 release, [15] [16] although the film was later canceled. [16] In 2007, he wrote the screenplay for the film Sunshine, which was his second screenplay to be directed by Danny Boyle and to star Cillian Murphy. Garland served as an executive producer on 28 Weeks Later, the sequel of 28 Days Later. He wrote the screenplay for the 2010 film Never Let Me Go, based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. He also wrote the script for Dredd, an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comic book series from 2000 AD. In 2018, Karl Urban, who played the eponymous role in the film, stated that it was Garland who deserved credit for also directing Dredd. [17] The Coma is a novel by Alex Garland, illustrated by his father, Nicholas Garland. [1] It explores the boundary between the conscious and subconscious mind. The Coma was published in 2004, eight years after Garland's first novel, The Beach. But there is no real answer to The Coma. The ending is that most polarising of finales: open-ended. In a way, that’s the best choice to end it - to give the illusion of finality while leaving poor Carl in his spiral of never-ending searching. In that interpretation, this is a very true representation of being in a coma - the same thing going on and on forever until you either wake up or die. Though really a narrative of aimlessness could never have a solid conclusion due to its nature. The Coma is a haunting story on the nature of reality and the search for identity. It could also be read as many other things like the purpose of memories in informing our reality, the aim of narrative in our lives and our art, and, more simply, a fine, unusual entertainment for fiction lovers everywhere. Definitely well worth a read. The Coma isn't without its moments. A trip to a bookstore and a record shop are entertaining digressions that recall Garland's culturally attuned ear (and made The Beach a big hit). But with The Dark Tower's urban identity crisis hovering in recent memory (with text and literal illustrations to boot), these two moments feel lifted from Stephen King's muddled riffs.

Robinson, Joanna (30 March 2016). "Oscar Isaac Re-unites with Ex Machina Director to Join the All-Female Cast of Annihilation". Vanity Fair . Retrieved 30 March 2016.Garland made his directorial debut when he wrote and directed the sci-fi thriller Ex Machina (2014). The film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won him three British Independent Film Awards (Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best British Independent Film). His second film, Annihilation (2018), was an adaptation of the 2014 novel and was also a critical success. He wrote and directed the miniseries Devs (2020) and the horror film Men (2022). Grobat, Matt (21 January 2022). "Alex Garland Reteams With A24 For Action Epic 'Civil War'; Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura & More Set To Star". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 4 April 2022. Urban in Shirey, Paul (7 March 2018). "EXC: Karl Urban Says Alex Garland Directed Dredd & Updates on Reprising Role". JoBlo.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2018 . Retrieved 8 March 2018. A huge part of the success of 'Dredd' is in fact due to Alex Garland and what a lot of people don't realize is that Alex Garland actually directed that movie. ... I just hope when people think of Alex Garland's filmography that 'Dredd' is the first film that he made before Ex Machina.