“Natural places are no different than human cities. The old exists next to the new. Invasive species integrate with or push out native species. The landscape you see around you is the same as seeing an old cathedral next to a skyscraper” – Jeff VanderMeer, ‘Acceptance’
That’s a wrap on section three of Behind With Knife! No Red Wedding in our part three, it’s true, but—and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say what the title implies—someone got really stabbed with a knife this week. Not just the porkchops at Olly’s, either. Here’s chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14, and chapter 15.
What I’ve Been Reading Lately:
A book that wraps up the initial run of the Southern Reach Series. See, these three books were published over an eight-month period in 20141. A fourth book, Absolution, was published in 2024. I’ll probably read it at some point, but I wanted to get the orig trig in first. Marinate on these three, the same way the rest of the world did. Plus, I got another Shirley Jackson-winning cosmic horror book on the schedule. Anyway, I keep inaccurately referring to this as the Southern Reach Trilogy, which I suppose I apologize for. Still, I’m treating this book as a wrap-up book. And how does it do as a wrapup book, Chris? Well, let’s get into Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer.
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer: one of the most subtly scary lines in all of literature comes near the end of this book: “why be afraid of what you could not prevent?” Remember that at the heart of this series, something different is threatening to take over the globe. In the movie adaptation, it’s pretty straightforwardly aliens. Still, Area X is a remade version of our world, something new and radically unlike what we know. For all the political and spy maneuvering of the second book, we’re shown here that it was somewhat pointless. Remember how in Game Of Thrones, after all that political intrigue, it kinda boils down to Who Can Face Down White Walkers? There’s an apocalypse at the center of the Southern Reach Series. Not Denzel-memorized-the-Bible-in-the-desert apocalypse, though. More like the “nature is healing” sentiment taken to militant lengths.
We have multiple narrators here, and time jumps. We’re shown the present and the past, the lead-up to when and how Area X started. Do we get clear answers, like “definitely alien microbes?” No. I’d be disappointed, though, if there was “a grand unified theory,” as one spy says is definitely never coming. The novel becomes incredibly scary as the end approaches, chapters becoming shorter, more urgent, and more fateful. The question at the heart of the novel is terrifying, especially when you start thinking about geologic time. The world has been remade, multiple times over. We’re currently in the midst of this planet’s sixth mass extinction. Did the planet care that the dinosaurs went extinct? Did the planet care when it rained for two million years straight, then had volcanic eruptions for another eon after? Does the planet care that humans are rendering it uninhabitable for life as we know it? No. The planet marches on. There are always survivors after an apocalypse. Things just look different
Should you read the Southern Reach series? It’s dense, it’s at times difficult. The books are around 250, 330, and 337 pages, but feel longer. You don’t get a ton of answers, in a way that feels satisfying to me but might bother some. I found this trilogy incredibly rewarding. If it doesn’t quite make me feel like writing, it absolutely inspires me to make my stuff scarier, more unsettling. Sci-fi fans will like it, and cosmic horror fans will like it. And hey, it’s not a trilogy. I will probably read Absolution sometime next year, and will definitely seek out more Jeff VanderMeer.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? We lost D’Angelo this week. I know that’s awful news, and these links are also gonna be awful. At some point, I’ll get back to posting links to my friends’ poetry (so many people have published stuff lately!) and DeMar DeRozan highlight videos. But ICE is still terrorizing my home, the president is still treating the greatest city in the world like it’s somehow a threat to be beaten into submission. It doesn’t seem to be getting a ton of mainstream attention. Or, at least, I thought that this sort of Gestapo/Klan action at the behest of the federal government would raise more alarm bells for people than it does. So anyway. I bet you’re a fan of Voodoo, D’Angelo’s seminal second record with “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” on it. I hope you are also a fan of his third album, 2015’s Black Messiah, which is absolutely hypnotizing and beautiful. Here’s a live version of “Charade,” one of my favorites. RIP to a legend.
- ICE teargassed some of my neighbors in Albany Park this week. Everyone in Chicago is my neighbor, but Albany Park’s pretty close to actually my neighborhood. Melody Mercado at Block Club has the story. Lest you think anti-Black racism won’t make an appearance in ICE’s assault on Chicago, Dave Byrnes and Tonia Hill at The Triibe have the story of a Black man detained and the neighborhood of East Chicago gassed.
- Lest you forget that these are real people ICE is snatching up for no reason, here’s George Retes—a U.S. citizen and veteran—talking in Home Of The Brave about his experience being detained by ICE for three days. He missed his daughter’s third birthday.
- Back to the gassing of East Side, ICE also caused a car crash down there. The gas was in response to concerned neighbors coming outside to see what was happening. ICE threw a teargas canister at a baby. Maxwell Evans, Grey Lucas, and Patrick Filbin at Block Club have the story.
- Be wary of stunts like J.B. Pritzker going on Jimmy Kimmel Live to give dispatches on “war-torn” Chicago, which Jake Cox reports on in Block Club. I’m a Big Pritz fan, but he has not acquitted himself well during ICE’s invasion. He says the right things. But deploying the Illinois State Police at Broadview has been a disaster. ISP has been arresting protesters and neighbors, and helped the situation get so out of hand that the mayor has shrunk designated protest zones around the Broadview
concentration campholding facility. That’s state police and elected officials, from the governor to a mayor, effectively running cover for ICE. “Never call cops” applies to when you’re a governor, too. We want more than tough talk, J.B. We don’t want the Khan to be just a meme. - Chicago—as in *Fred Hampton voice* THE PEOPLE OF CHICAGO—is fighting back against these fuckin jagoffs. Always read Kelly Hayes in these situations, here’s her Organizing My Thoughts post about Chicago showing up. Francia Garcia Hernandez at Block Club has reporting on ‘Whistlemania,’ some zine-making and whistle distribution events in Chicago. Charles Thrush at Block Club has coverage of Rogers Park’s response to raids over the weekend—proud to say I was at this response, and that’s all I’ll publish about that. Lastly, Edward McClelland at Chicago Magazine has the story of Chicago Organizing For All.
What’re you still doing here? Go read Behind With Knife!
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. If there’s any benediction to the Southern Reach series, uh, may you be known by your name and not your profession, however, if at some point, you are nameless and known only by your profession, may you become monstrously one with The Brightness and also may your doppelganger have a cool nickname. Hopefully, if you haven’t read the Southern Reach series, this inspires you to do so, without giving too much away. Have an unsettling weekend.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris
- labeled an “innovative” publishing strategy, I just think it’s cool when a writer goes in knowing what they want to do, and then does it. Yes, JVM has gone back to the Southern Reach, but this original trilogy can always stand alone as a complete document. That’s cool, no matter how many times he or anyone else continues to play in this sandbox. ↩︎