spiders
@spiders
Anonymous User asked:

what's your favorite theme that you always love seeing in fiction?

hmm, probably "encounters with the more-than-human world," and by that i dont just mean "nature" but even moments of understanding with everyday objects too. im kinda capturing with a broad brush animism and ecofiction here

jeff vandermeer's anhiliation trillogy, and dead astronauts, are great examples of what i mean in sci fi. the anhililation trilogy is about venturing into a space which absolutely refuses to be easily picked apart and understood by humans, and Changes them when they try to understand it. also, to draw on my latest read for a very different kind of it, merricat in "we have always lived in the castle" also kinda does this; she very much has a kind of autistic hyperempathy for the house and the things in it that is extremely relatable to me; a kind of household animism. psalm for the wild-built is also a great example, a main character who has spent so long in the human world seeing a place not built for humans for the first time, and coming to understand themselves so much better because of it

(in nonfiction, books like Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (which is a Strong recommend, go read that book) and Becoming Animal by David Abram (which is pretty good but i have my complaints) both feature this heavily; it is in fact, what those books are about! ironically, i dont really like most "nature writing" though, because it tends to be weirdly nationalistic, and individualistic, and a bit colonialist, often reinforcing the false binary between the "human world" and the "natural world" as though they are two separate things, instead of one nested within and growing out of the other)

another place where this pops up is in miyazaki movies, many of which prominently feature encounters with spirits, or else a kind of animistic view of the earth.

of course i also love works with dissociative, derealizative, or surreal themes. but really, i think that dreamlike states are simply yet another way we surrender ourselves to beings of a world beyond everyday easy understanding. to have a dream is, in some ways, to have an encounter with the "more than human world".

i love this as a theme because it is humbling. it reminds you that you don't understand everything, that you are a small creature in a vast world. it encourages you to leave the freqently walked paths of your daily life and go find things you dont yet understand, to keep in mind the needs of animals, and plants, and objects which thanklessly help you live your life, to respect them. it encourages you to think about the world and yourself differently.

thanks for sending in a question!! i love recieving asks, especially about books.


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in reply to @spiders's post:

i love that theme a lot too haha :) i do think theres something comforting in that humility as well, at least when it comes to how often the conclusion comes to be that while the universe may be uncaring, it never truly is heartless, however offbeat that heart can come across.
i really need to read the annihilation trilogy (it feels like one of the few books in the wake of that sorta House of Leaves-esque weird fiction thing that at least gets what gives it its emotional core without coming across as too sophomoric), but that braiding sweetgrass book sounds great!! in general, sci-fi always fascinated if only for that "larger and more vast than us" idea that's always a favorite of it, as well as me being a latent space fangirl lol