where lies the strangling fruit...Area X - The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer

it's discussed quite a bit on the Annihilation thread

the similarities are exaggerated imo

The basic premise is the same. But the plots and styles and what they're ABOUT are miles apart.

i read through all three of these books a few weeks ago and they've stuck with me more than i expected, given that i didn't enjoy them particularly while i was reading them

elliptical, allusive storytelling about investigations of the unknowable is really hard to pull off and i think this trilogy largely fails - the questions raised and the absences deliberately left by roadside picnic and stalker are fascinating but they're also satisfying stories in their own right, but vandermeer's attempts to do the same are just frustrating imo

Roadside Picnic also does a very good and odd thing of Hard-Bitten Capitalism running up hard against the Ineffable, which Area X is not interested in.

I've heard Vandermeer has been annoyed about the association and insisted on a whole other bunch of influences which he listed in the books?

have you got a link for that? i enjoyed the books, tho the first the most, which combined organic/psychic/linguistic fear (that last important) with mystery and inconclusiveness.

roadside picnic is obv wonderful but as JM says doing something different. v working class, v making use of new technologies in a commercial way. area x is an environmental threat and a biologically uncertain zone.

it feels odd that he shd get so antsy about it. that said, authors and stuff they’ve written. it’s a sensitive matter (and in fact i sympathise having gone off the deep end at someone who i felt had ripped me off. i mean i was right but i was rong)

I cant find what he said. Maybe it was on twitter

In the past month or so I have read the Borne semi-trilogy and once again I'm wondering why I gave that much of my time to someone who thinks "food stuffs" is two words

I feel like these books could convince committed vegans to start eating meat again. I am finding I want to buy a car and learn to drive just so I can accelerate global warming.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EydihauWEAEdpxT.jpg

lol

lol thom. 'The Strange Bird' was way better than Borne, and the best thing I've read from him apart from the Area X books.

His bad books are very bad, and he writes way too many books, it's unbecoming.

the strange bird was a lot better than borne!

dead astronauts was worse than both tho

i can't understand having the self-confidence to write even one mediocre book

WHERE LIES THE STRANGLING FRUIT THAT CAME FROM THE HAND OF THE SINNER I SHALL BRING FORTH THE SEEDS OF THE DEAD TO SHARE WITH THE WORMS THAT GATHER IN THE DARKNESS AND SURROUND THE WORLD WITH THE POWER OF THEIR LIVES WHILE FROM THE DIMLIT HALLS OF OTHER PLACES FORMS THAT NEVER WERE AND NEVER COULD BE WRITHE FOR THE IMPATIENCE OF THE FEW WHO NEVER SAW WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. IN THE BLACK WATER WITH THE SUN SHINING AT MIDNIGHT, THOSE FRUIT SHALL COME RIPE AND IN THE DARKNESS OF THAT WHICH IS GOLDEN SHALL SPLIT OPEN TO REVEAL THE REVELATION OF THE FATAL SOFTNESS IN THE EARTH. THE SHADOWS OF THE ABYSS ARE LIKE THE PETALS OF A MONSTROUS FLOWER THAT SHALL BLOSSOM WITHIN THE SKULL AND EXPAND THE MIND BEYOND WHAT ANY MAN CAN BEAR, BUT WHETHER IT DECAYS UNDER THE EARTH OR ABOVE ON GREEN FIELDS, OR OUT TO SEA OR IN THE VERY AIR, ALL SHALL COME TO REVELATION, AND TO REVEL, IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE STRANGLING FRUIT—AND THE HAND OF THE SINNER SHALL REJOICE, FOR THERE IS NO SIN IN SHADOW OR IN LIGHT THAT THE SEEDS OF THE DEAD CANNOT FORGIVE. AND THERE SHALL BE IN THE PLANTING IN THE SHADOWS A GRACE AND A MERCY FROM WHICH SHALL BLOSSOM DARK FLOWERS, AND THEIR TEETH SHALL DEVOUR AND SUSTAIN AND HERALD THE PASSING OF AN AGE. THAT WHICH DIES SHALL STILL KNOW LIFE IN DEATH FOR ALL THAT DECAYS IS NOT FORGOTTEN AND REANIMATED IT SHALL WALK THE WORLD IN THE BLISS OF NOT-KNOWING. AND THEN THERE SHALL BE A FIRE THAT KNOWS THE NAMING OF YOU, AND IN THE PRESENCE OF THE STRANGLING FRUIT, ITS DARK FLAME SHALL ACQUIRE EVERY PART OF YOU THAT REMAINS.

i still have fond memories of reading these books. they hit me at the exact right time. that creature doing the writing was so memorable! and trippy. i know everything is psychedelic now but i thought that there was stuff in these books that hit upon those feelings of being on psych drugs that other things don't get to. deeper dream feelings. whereas some of the psychedelic nature horror movies that have come out since these books came out don't really. including the bad movie made out of these books.
i just had a dream last night where i was taking old moldy sausages out of a freezer and they slowly turned into what looked like long dead frozen creatures and i put them all into a black trash bag and walked outside and the backyard of my house had a stream of what looked like moving white concrete or clay running down a hill and then i saw there was a huge black pool of thick liquid that people were playing in and i couldn't understand what the blackness was. i kept walking so that i could put my trash on the curb.
not every book or movie can get me to that place that already exists in my head. but these books did it.

I’ve held off on going beyond the first book (on the advice of many people), but man… Annihilation blew my mind.

Or: Scott OTM

Scott you need to write a novel

Raymond the whole trilogy is worth reading imho, the middle one is a little meh but the final one had me biting my damn fingernails