Jeff VanderMeer: AREA X: The Fictive Imagination in the Dusk of the Anthropocene

SONIC ACTS FESTIVAL - THE GEOLOGIC IMAGINATION
Jeff VanderMeer: AREA X: The Fictive Imagination in the Dusk of the Anthropocene
28 February 2015 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
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Jeff VanderMeer presents his thoughts on relevant and outdated approaches in fiction in the context of his bestselling Southern Reach Trilogy, including brief readings from his novels. The Southern Reach Trilogy features Area X, a hyperobject that resists comprehension while exposing the limitations of human thought. In this modern era, what constitutes escapism or commodification in near-future fiction, what are old ideas in new clothes, and what is truly revolutionary? How can the philosophy behind new ways of looking at the world inform fiction?

[@patthomas2013]

These books were brilliant.

[@wemusthavechannelstocommen619]

Finished all three. Enjoyed them. Reminded me of Lem and Lovecraft.

[@kaid3566]

Yes, I just realized after finishing Annihilation that it was a very similar theme to Lem's fantastic 1964 novella "The Invincible." It's truly astonishing what Lem was coming up with from behind the Iron Curtain! I can't recommend this one highly enough.

[@PseudoMystic]

I don't really get these comments on him being a bad speaker, if the criticism is that he's not speaking more slowly and accessibly when he should, I think his wording is reasonable given that he's talking to a niche crowd in the first place. I found it enjoyable to get some light shed on his literary philosophy and concerns. I even think a few things he says here are quotable, "Every place is leaking some ghost." stands out to me in particular.

[@PseudoMystic]

That said, in transcribing portions of this for a presentation, yes his sentences are run-on and he's trying to cram an hour into 30 minutes. I was able to follow along and I assumed those watching this are also caffeinated weirdos. Also, he sounds nothing like this in interviews, so I assume he assumed he was talking to a crowd that would be able to follow along as well.

[@PseudoMystic]

@Chris McRoy I like when people articulate *WHY* they find something shitty instead of just asserting that it is. And yes, what was "ye" thinking?

[@PseudoMystic]

@Chris McRoy Thank you for your thoughtful and well worded reply. I sincerely wish you the very best and hope you continue to find media that you can enjoy sharing your opinions about, and that in the course of sharing those opinions people treat you fairly and give your a chance just as everyone deserves to be given a chance and not dismissed indefinitely.

[@patrickdoyle81]

Great writer, bad orator.

[@NoMastersNoMistress]

Jeff makes a strong case for Nazi punching and calling out the Christian cowardice that enables Nazis and capitalists, because those are the matched swine driving the slow apocalypse.

[@tamerofhorses2200]

Take your meds

[@bauble2618]

loll the shady comment towards station eleven at the end

[@baris90inan]

So, I just finished the series. It is very easy to read series for me, second book was the worst in that sense though. I was shocked with the endind because I was expecting an explanation of the area x phenomenon, but there were not. Is that thing came from outer space or from this world? I think it is from outer space, because it changes environment with changing livings/animals in the environment. Anyway the ending is not very problem for me but when I read good read reviews I felt bad because people said there were millions of symbolism. I hate symbolism. I am fine with area x came from outer space or from within earth but I dont like symbolisms like area x represents noahs ark or some other symbols. Thanks for the speech I enjoyed it. Thanks to Jeff Vandermeer (I had to check his last name from the book cover :)) and the folks upload it to youtube.

[@systemvoid]

I wouldn't say that it is specifically an ark, more so some kind of alien or interdimensional environment repairing machine that was created by what is suggested to be a race of long lost aliens or interdemensional creatures (the leviathans that Control dreams about). Their environment was dying and they created Area X as a machine to rebuild their dying world and it's environment. However when the government experimented on the lighthouse, they opened up a door that let Area X in and infected the lighthouse keeper, contaminating the machine. everything that happens after that is just the machine Area X trying to do it's job, but actually warping the human earth that it doesn't recognize back into something more organic to the Alien world. That is why i think it specifically targets DNA and life, it is trying to basically break down everything back to building blocks and then remold it into something new, which they accept as inevitable towards the end of the series.

[@systemvoid]

Chris McRoy very insightful, thanks Chris

[@systemvoid]

@Chris McRoy you've just explained one very basic interpretation of a very open ended book. I understand the concept of panspermia. thank you for spewing Dawkins at me though. What then is your explanation for the contact that Control has with the "leviathans" that the book hints have created and mastered this concept of biological machinery. Is it not possible that another dimensional/cosmic being could harness this natural power and use it for their own utility? I believe this is what is causing the corruption, as a machine like this could very quickly become a self replicating Von Neumann machine that could spiral quickly out of control, probably consuming the beings that originally invented it. The "dark arts" that the scientists were dabbling in opened up a rift in space/time, and a sliver of the machine that was in that void slipped into the lighthouse keeper's finger, causing his DNA to be the base sample that the machine is using as a CONTROL. See how I use structure to my comment and examples from the book to prove my point instead of pointless name calling and spewing of a vague philosophical idea?

[@systemvoid]

@Chris McRoy Such wonderful insight as always, thank you Chris

[@PseudoMystic]

@Chris McRoy Bruh if that's how spicy you get with people that have different interpretation of some sci-fi novel then how do you react when you disagree with a character in a book? How can you even stand reading? And "ths dark arts that caused this to happen" is sounds weirdly magical for someone dissing religion.

[@AudioPervert1]

nice book .. held it till the end. A bit of Alien, a bit of neotropic post-feminist, a bit of the old american way of dying and overall how stupid the experts can be, when thrown together to face the unknown. To me, the book is about how we were say 20,000 or 50,000 years ago.

[@crackavillian]

when people that write beautiful are forced to speak in public..why do managers and publisits think this needs to ba a thing?

[@Mi-yc3oy]

Genius series. Thank you so much for sharing this. But, yeah, he is an *awful* speaker. 😏

[@Norp-i7m]

He seems like a perfectly good speaker to me. Are you having trouble following?