Jeff VanderMeer
Honestly, most of it is out of personal experience. Influence is a weird thing in this case, since the real big influence is the natural world and my personal experiences in it. But I would have to say that the nonfiction of Rachel Carson as well as fiction by Michel Bernanos’s novella “The Other Side of the Mountain,” Leena Krohn, as well as Algernon Blackwood in stories like “The Willows.” Kafka is an influence on Authority, along with Le Carre. I’m really not sure about influences on the third book, Acceptance. I can’t think of any, but I’m also very close to it and a lot of influence just settles into the back of your mind in a subconscious way.
It would be wrong not to mention the movie Alien because although often called a horror movie it actually has a very smart script in terms of characters trying to do the intelligent thing but being undermined by betrayal. So I admired the way the main character was portrayed. The early movie of Cronenberg I binged on prior to writing Authority, and I dissected scene-by-scene Kubrick’s The Shining to help with Authority. I also recently saw a German film titled The Wall based on a novel, which would have been an influence had a I seen it earlier. A novel by a Catalan author, Cold Skin, shares some affinities about isolation and lighthouses, but I read it after I wrote the novels.
It would be wrong not to mention the movie Alien because although often called a horror movie it actually has a very smart script in terms of characters trying to do the intelligent thing but being undermined by betrayal. So I admired the way the main character was portrayed. The early movie of Cronenberg I binged on prior to writing Authority, and I dissected scene-by-scene Kubrick’s The Shining to help with Authority. I also recently saw a German film titled The Wall based on a novel, which would have been an influence had a I seen it earlier. A novel by a Catalan author, Cold Skin, shares some affinities about isolation and lighthouses, but I read it after I wrote the novels.
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?
Artur Nowrot
asked
Jeff VanderMeer:
Hi, Jeff! One of the most distinguishing features of Wonderbook was the inclusion of pictures and paintings to provide a visual stimulus for the readers' creativity. My question is: do you use works of visual arts as inspiration for your creative process, e.g. when imagining fantastical settings? If so, do you draw from your favourite styles/artists, or do you consciously search for something new that might be of use?
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