Home Technology Jeff VanderMeer talks about his new novel and ‘disturbed court jester’ Elon Musk

Jeff VanderMeer talks about his new novel and ‘disturbed court jester’ Elon Musk

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Jeff VanderMeer next to book cover for Absolution

Ten years ago, author Jeff VanderMeer has released three terrifying novels that delve into the mysteries of Area The publication of Destruction, Authority, And Acceptance (collectively referred to as the Southern Reach Trilogy) immediately earned him fame within the science fiction community for their explorations of environmental collapse, government dysfunction, and horror. Destruction won both the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards for best novel in 2014 and was adapted into a film Destruction (2018), a film by director Alex Garland, starring Natalie Portman.

VanderMeer has since been busy publishing multiple novels and essays often dealing with similar themes while vocally advocating for climate change solutions and conservation efforts from his home in Tallahassee, Florida. Ten years have passed since readers were introduced to the Southern Reach trilogy, but its sci-fi storylines of mutating landscapes and oppressive, out-of-control government bureaucracies often feel more real than ever. In any case, it’s the perfect time for VanderMeer’s return to Area X with his new novel, Absolution.

Published on October 22, Absolution serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the first three books, and features the return of two characters from the original storyline. Popular science spoke with VanderMeer just two days after Hurricane Milton’s devastating landfall in Florida. The prolific author and literary critic discussed his new novel’s haunting, deliberate parallels to reality, the importance of both fiction and humor in dark times, and Elon Musk’s slow transmogrification into a “deranged court jester.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The barrier to Area X as depicted in the film adaptation of ‘Annihilation.’ Credit: of utmost importance

The original Southern Reach trilogy was released in 2014. How have the themes of climate change, technological abuse and corrupt bureaucracies evolved since then?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there is actually a hurricane Absolution… [A hurricane] is almost something too big to imagine, especially when it overtakes you. We build in places where we shouldn’t build and destroy the environment while there are natural buffers that would actually help protect against storm damage and flooding. There is also an exploration in it Absolution of extremely dysfunctional systems and how they lead to disruptive and disfiguring people who have to work beneath or within them.

The things in the book are not that far removed from the distortions that these systems are currently imposing on us. They may seem more banal, right? But actually they are just as devastating.

It also feels like even a lot The technology leaders of Silicon Valley quickly turn into more twisted versions of themselvesmuch like what happens to characters after they enter Area X.

Something I like to do in my writing is adopt the persona of someone who deals with bleeding technology, [someone] are involved, sometimes derailing or derailing the technology. For example, you have Elon Musk who locates his SpaceX spaceport right next to a nature reserve and doesn’t care if he destroys a migratory bird path. [He has] no understanding of the world around him…

[Related: SpaceX accused of dumping polluted Starship wastewater in Texas for years.]

Is there a way out of that mentality for people like Musk and his fans?

Don’t know. I was actually quite shocked – even though I shouldn’t have been – by those images of Elon Musk looking up at Trump. The look on his face is reminiscent of a deranged court jester Titus Andronicus or something, you know? Like something The mask with a red death. We see someone who is supposedly connected to the ‘logic of technology’ degrade himself in such an illogical, almost superstitious way. Almost medieval. It was quite shocking.

Speaking of ‘medieval’, how can people break away from that ‘superstitious’ worldview regarding the inherent, undoubtedly positive benefits of tech culture?

It’s like someone growing up in a fundamentalist religious family, shaking it off, becoming progressive, but not shaking off the underlying train of thought. They apply the same kind of things to the new ideology. The same goes for what we’re talking about here.

Even solar energy is being turned into an extractive industry. In Massachusetts they choose sites not necessarily based on suitability, but on the fact that they can also harvest the site for timber and do sand mining before installing the panels. Under capitalism you can start to lose hope in the logic of these things, because if even solar energy can be turned into something that is actually negative, for no good reason other than greed, then we really haven’t learned the lesson.

[Related: Solar power got cheap. So why aren’t we using it more?]

What is the solution in those situations?

We must have sustainability anchored in our ideas about new technology. It’s quite alarming when we get innovators who don’t think about these issues. It kind of feels like there’s some sort of “brash, braggadocious tech bro” ambivalence, like, “We just need to disrupt this field.” We don’t really have to worry about all the consequences.”

Florida is a microcosm of how things are playing out in the US. Some states follow certain federal practices, and some states do a lot of inconsistent, illogical things. And so in the end they just end up treading water.

Also, this idea that we can somehow limitlessly take things from the real world to support the virtual world without the virtual world eventually collapsing is also kind of crazy. It goes back to this scam that a certain segment of those cliché techies have been telling the public that “innovation” is any kind of new thing that is bright and shiny and has enough will to power behind it. That’s really what it is. They want something that is nonsense to gain power. It is literally the definition of a scam.

[Related: Florida is a preview of our climate change future.]

You previously wrote about the need for a writer to integrate climate change and irresponsible technology into their work. Do you see that happening more often?

There’s a lot more of that in fiction, and in the right way. I don’t really think fiction should be predictive in the sense that it’s something we refer to for actual policy. I think it is more useful to give us psychological profiles and an interiority, so that certain effects of the climate crisis live in our bodies, so to speak.

It’s really important not to see climate change as a science fiction element or device, but as something we’re actually living through right now. It is not the province of the near future. The time has now come. Just because it’s unevenly distributed doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen in some pretty intense ways, even if it doesn’t happen that way to all of us.

How can writing from a non-anthropomorphic perspective actually help humanize and contextualize stories, especially when it comes to climate change?

One thing fiction can do is bring us to a better understanding of the non-human world, and that can impact the way we see its value. Because it’s also so important to our own survival – beyond the intrinsic ethics of not just destroying and killing things for no specific reason. You’re trying to get to a place where the reader will follow you enough that they can still understand it somewhat. They can hold a different point of view.

[Related: Why the tech billionaires can’t save themselves.]

What keeps you going these days? What keeps you hopeful for the future?

I can speak more towards Florida now than anywhere else. In any case, state leaders have overstepped their bounds in some of these policy areas to such an extent that you see a lot of local activism. You see people from a broad political spectrum coming together to vote out county commissioners and others. You see more involvement in local government from young people and just from people in general. You’re seeing more and more coalition building along very unlikely lines, because of common interest, because you’re really talking about the survival of people to some extent.

It can’t all be doom and gloom, can it?

As a novelist, I’m never really interested in anything that’s monotonous Absolution is probably least about environmental issues and most about dysfunctional systems. But there’s a lot of absurdity and humor in it, so it’s actually a pretty funny book, even though it’s also very serious. I think that’s important too.

Humor is a very powerful way to expose some of these things [those issues]… I think it’s a very effective way to keep extremists off balance.

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