When you think about the complexity of our natural world - plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example - a smartphone begins to look like a pretty dumb object. Jeff VanderMeer More Quotes by Jeff VanderMeer More Quotes From Jeff VanderMeer My mom is an artist and my own fiction is deeply visual. Jeff VanderMeer mom artist fiction If the reader enters a kind of immersive experience reading a book, then I have to enter a kind of immersive state to do my best work. Jeff VanderMeer kind reading book All musical talent is absent in me, to the point of being unable to play board games that require you to hum a tune while others guess what it is, since all my humming sounds the same. Musical instruments have always seemed like alien artifacts to me, even as I really admire anyone who can play one. Jeff VanderMeer musical games play If I could play an instrument, it would probably be a cello or an electric guitar. Jeff VanderMeer instruments guitar play My parents read to me a lot as a kid, and I started writing very early, probably spurred on by Aesop's fables. Then they gave me The Lord of the Rings way too early for me to fully understand what I was reading, which was actually kind of cool. It was almost better - comprehension's overrated when you're reading. Jeff VanderMeer reading writing kids Angela Carter's fiction blew me away and really instilled a passion for writing, bolstered by Vladimir Nabokov. But in general, I can't point to any one thing. I just always loved books and writing. Jeff VanderMeer passion writing book You can be deeply non-serious and still focused, disciplined, and on task. Jeff VanderMeer tasks stills serious My best time to write is right after coffee and breakfast - four eggs because, full disclosure: I'm really a komodo dragon - and that's because then I'm energized but not so awake that the critical voice clicks on, the voice that sometimes says, "Don't write that," or "Man, that sentence is terrible - you should give up and go pet the cats." Jeff VanderMeer giving-up coffee writing The one thing I always come back to as a writer, what I consider my bedrock, is a lot of charged images that appear in the text. Jeff VanderMeer bedrock one-thing I like delivering a message, but what I find interesting is providing those details in a different context. Then the readers can make up their minds what it means. Jeff VanderMeer mind mean interesting I think I got a complete picture of what the lives of scientists are like. My father is of the opinion that if scientists are allowed to follow their nose, eventually it results in something. Unfortunately that doesn't always happen. What I came out of it with, in a non-cynical way, was that the scientific process is as messy as anything else. There's nothing wrong with that. That's just the way it is. Jeff VanderMeer opinion father thinking I have received emails from readers who have said that they were emotionally impacted by the books, and they feel they are more environmentally aware and energized to do more. So that's hopeful to me. It is at least evidence of what I'm trying to do - trying to convey very intense emotional experiences by being very close in on character points of view to make you feel it in your body. That's one way to get the point across, by evoking a visceral response. Jeff VanderMeer emotional character book I don't believe that climate-change fiction will change the mind of a denier because most of the deniers I've met are basically in a cult situation. It's a faith issue. It's not a rational issue. There's no fact that's going to change their mind. They simply believe in the cult of climate-change denial and it somehow feeds into the rest of the mythos of their own life story. Jeff VanderMeer denial mind believe I find myself in this bizarre position in which everything I write and talk about is pretty much about this issue, the environment. It feels a little too comfortable, because at the end of the day I can rationalize that I'm doing my share. I don't know if I actually am, I don't know if I should be more of an activist than I am. But at the end of the day, everybody needs to do those things that they're most likely to continue doing, and that aren't going to burn them out. Jeff VanderMeer environment bizarre writing It should be totally fine to question the objectivity of scientists and the power structures in scientific institutions. The physical laws of the universe are objective, but human beings in any context are not. That includes with regard to science. To some extent, the supposed objectivity of science has given a lot of extra cover to very subjective and eccentric approaches to exploring aspects of ourselves and the universe around us. Jeff VanderMeer exploring scientist extras Once you realize there's less logic in human institutions than you once thought, you see the narrative potential in just about everything around you. Sometimes, in fact, it seems as if the human world runs on inefficiency and erratic behavior. Jeff VanderMeer logic running world My mother is an artist, and I have a strong visual sense. I almost always choose the cover art for my books. Jeff VanderMeer strong mother art I believe the best creative writing lessons live in the specifics. Jeff VanderMeer creative writing believe The best visual book I can think of is Lynda Barry's What It Is, but although I refer to it all the time it's not a creative writing book per se. Jeff VanderMeer writing book thinking If I wasn't a writer, I don't know what I'd be. Probably a marine biologist or something. Jeff VanderMeer biologist marine knows
