Jeff’s answer to “Authority has two sections that seem to be a nod to Roadside Picnic: the "Maybe they called it a ho…” > Likes and Comments

I wondered if those stories weren't just reverberating so strongly because of my fondness for them. And I'll have to seek out the Nabokov—thanks for pointing it out.

I dove into Authority days after Annihilation. Over a week after finishing them both I'm finding myself still considering them. I'm still working over the themes of autonomy/manipulation, resistance to change leading to destruction/acceptance of change leading to mutation and possibly survival. The thought about forms of communication—the knife as message—and how that destructiveness can be merely due to an inadequate receiver for the message. This is where I saw the Solaris corrolary. I'm enjoying working out, after the fact, how Biologist and Control are perhaps examples of a way forward, sharing similar concerns, but responding within their own context—they both eventually broke out from under the manipulations pressing on them. There seems to be more there developing underneath the lines of the plot.

P.S. I found out about Annihilation from Charlie Fletcher's blog post, "JEFF VANDERMEER ATE MY HOMEWORK."

Yeah--that was interesting, the Fletcher one. I wouldn't rule out some Solaris influence, I guess, but I can't remember having read it. Might have as a teenager.

Please don't think I'm suggesting that your books are derivative. Not at all. I'm actually more of the thought that literature is or at least ideally can be a conversation with past and future literature, and the way that ideas play off of other works only increases the impact and depth of them. Your novels have surprised me in sticking with me—that always surprises me and ensures I'll be reading more of them. I am currently enjoying making my way through Wonderbook—I'm really liking the approach you took with it.

Even though it is coincidence, Annihilation really seemed to me like the VanderMeer take on Andrei Tarkovsky source material. Stalker is one of my all time favorite films and I had read Roadside Picnic right before Annihilation, so I was predisposed to see connections between the two, even if though they were entirely imagined.

Anything from Tarkovsky gets my vote. Stalker has a few images which haunt me. I love that Tarkovsky's adaptations are so loosely based on the source material. I understand why this aggravated the authors, but to my mind, the film adaptations complement rather than intruding on the novels. Faithful films are often a bust, and my mind has often already tread that ground anyway.

Oh--I don't think you were saying that. The only reference that bother me is Lovecraft because I totally utterly completely don't get his fiction.

It's tempting to read Lovecraft and perpetuate bad psychiatric literary criticism. It's all deranged, sulfuric fire with no chance of catharsis (ctharsis?), written in a livid prose that I can only stomach in small doses. Which makes me think of another question that I'll ask separately.