Trunatrschild
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Do you intend for your characters to seem rather hopeless in life or is this just my interpretation?
Jeff VanderMeer
If you mean in the Southern Reach novels, certainly many of the main characters are in dire circumstances. But I wouldn't call them hopeless in life. When you're mired in certain kinds of situations you just have fewer options.
More Answered Questions
Robin Sloan
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Throughout the Southern Reach books there's a great creepy litany that we hear many times, the one that begins "Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner …" How did that come to exist? Did it spill out of you in a feverish torrent, never to be revised, or did you polish it like poetry?
Christopher Walborn
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
As a reader, one of the best things about discovering a new author is the opportunity to discover additional writers through following the author's influences, peers, and the new writers championed by the author. What authors or specific works would you like to introduce to someone who's mostly familiar with "literary" classics? (I don't like the literary/genre dichotomy, but what easier way to describe it?)
Christopher Walborn
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Authority has two sections that seem to be a nod to Roadside Picnic: the "Maybe they called it a holiday retreat" passage on pg 37 recalls the passage from which the novella gets its name, and the image of military vehicles on pg 189 echoes an image from Stalker. Were these conscious nods? There were also echoes Lem's Solaris. Are these Eastern European writers touchstones for you? I'm looking forward to September!
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