Jeff VanderMeer
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jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Jeff VanderMeer
@jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
69K followers 1.4K following 8.8K posts
NYT bestselling author of the Southern Reach series, including Absolution. Repped by Joe Veltre at Gersh. he/him
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jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
I really want to read Bruno Latour's book about Aramis, the failed Paris public transportation project of the 1970s, after seeing it in a museum in French. BUT LOOK HOW AWFUL THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE COVER IS!! Arggh. (More in the alt text.)
A shit for brains fucked up disgrace of a dipshitical cover with yellow frame the exact hue of Big Bird turned into a school bus with ARAMIS in sans serif black letters highlighted in relief by piss yellow and Bruno Latour's name forever defiled by a seemingly blasphemous *different* sans serif font in white with birdshit black highlights to make it look three-dimensional if you consider the early video game Pong three dimensional. Below this atrocity the velvet lavender hue chosen for inside the outer yellow--the color contrast similar to the effect of shoving a banana skin over an egg plant and shouting "fucking seamless, lads!"--is filled up with a black and white photo of train tracks but to the reader register as a ladder as in "if i climb that long enough will it lead me somewhere I can't see this shitty ass cover." That the "square" of the photograph is a kind of rogue rhomboid only further makes a felony crime the fucking symmetrical blue lines in the upper third of the cover no doubt drawn there in desperation by a cover designer who was by that time in a design situation comparative to Napoleon at Waterloo, if Napolean had actually been a composite of a dead frog embracing a broken stapler. A clean crisp white background anchors a sophisticated use of minimalism with bruno latour's name in black in the upper left and centered between that and the photograph in the lower half, the title aramis in a light blue that matched the vertical rectangle of blue in the photo. Below the title the subtitle of "ou l'amour des techniques" is nicely subservient to the title but still prominent. The photo, which shows an Aramis car compartment from outside the doors is a wonderfully complex visual image controlled by and given clarity by vertical lines formed by the open doors and the flow of the interior. The red swathes of the interior architecture and the cream white exterior and interior walls create a nice contrast, with the blue on an interior column a lovely pop of color. The photo seems to sum up the challenges of this public transportation project and also the clashes of various stakeholders. The additional information in text below the photo continues the blue into the bottom of the cover, again drawing the eye in a pleasing way. In all ways, the cover invites the reader by being sophisticated, unified, colorful with being garish, and is a match to the reputation of the author.
November 10, 2025 at 7:48 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
An illegal street racer pulled up to me in Malta & threw This House of Grief at me, shouting, "Read it, you English dolt!" Then screeched off. This is a terrible way to get me to read anything but I picked it up from where it had ricocheted off a now dead pigeon and devoured it in 2 days. Brilliant.
This House of Grief "Powerful and unforgettable. It bears comparison with In Cold Blood" - Kate Atkinson black cover, white text except author name in black on pink strip at bottom painting of a white car in water at bottom left
November 10, 2025 at 6:09 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
still thinking about these battling chairs in nantes and whether they are still locked in struggle
small metal chairs on their front legs wedged up against a small chess table surrounded by the violence of small sharp long shards of stone floor seething toward the middle under the table with moss between the shards making the effect more frenetic
November 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Around Paris with @annvandermeer.bsky.social today.
small square paintings of chickens on window panes with red gold and blue backgrounds knitted pink piggies with cute eyes in a row WELCOME in red on the mirror ceiling with the word in neon signage below upside down amongst ferns a door with a design of circular brown wood and black metal shields in appearance
November 10, 2025 at 4:50 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
your moment of calm
November 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Best lighthouses I saw in Malta.
lighthouse in a stone circle with stone pathway to it, with a red top like a rubber nipple, but more like the rubber nipples in ren & stimpy when the horse said call the police than like you know feeding a baby with a bottle. A similar lighthouse to the red one earlier, but with a green nipple at the top. a squat, girthy lighthouse on a kinda cliff not a lighthouse but I'm sure that boat seeing that weird three pronged fish sculpture thought oh yeah that's the shore i should avoid that also i'm a boat i don't have a brain so i probably will beach myself right next to that thing because i just don't know any better
November 8, 2025 at 9:37 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
the best holes i saw in malta
a hole full of marine water that looks a little like a long fish with a narrow tail. a hole in the rock full of marine water that is a little round at the top and then fairly narrow as it flows down toward a larger hole at the bottom (out of view) a hole like a piece of toast full of water some green shallow holes in pavement full of greenish water with a square hole for a mouth so it looks like a surprised face because there's like reddish rust around it. well, okay, possibly not the best hole but pretty unusual as holes go.
November 8, 2025 at 9:24 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Your moment of calm: An angry fish fountain. Feel the calm overtake you.
November 8, 2025 at 9:17 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Do you need a happy bird? I think you do.
November 8, 2025 at 9:13 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
My shittiest night-time photos taken on the ferry back from Gozo.
glass reflection of the screens inside the ferry along with the rivulets of rain and the glimmering swords of a bright row of lights on the short, upside down plus the screen of a laptop computer open on a really stupid cooking show a man's face swirls into the reflection of the window with gold gougings and blue lights a bank of curling lights in the dark almost looking like the lit-up side of a container ship, except it's just the lights on shore all fucked up man i was tired by this point and just wanting the ferry ride to end and the english tourist standing up to look out spewing loudly coughed germs out of his pie hole to stand the fuck down and mask up. a golden honeycomb light effect of a huge resort or hotel with some rather placid and adorably gentle lines of light to the left of it.
November 8, 2025 at 9:07 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
I have preordered Ice by Jacek Dukaj, translated by Ursula Phillips. Out in the US in January. Looks pretty damn fascinating.
right: ICE AN ALIEN WINTER A FROZEN EMPIRE Embark on a mind-warping journey into the frozen heart of an alien realm. left: book cover in black and white with wave wing in black lines and fuzzy large black I C E down center with author name Jacek Dukaj out to side lower right much smaller
November 8, 2025 at 1:28 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
More knockers and knobs I have known. #lolwhatevenismybrandnow
nekked person with breasts and stuff in copper like relief in a poseido sea way cause two fish mebbe gar only david solomon could tell looks like rock fish grimacing or toadfish but is devilish man with stylized stuff white but tinged green against brown door porpoise or dolphin with squished in water mammal pug face in gold with green accents against a grey door looks like rock fish grimacing or toadfish but is devilish man with stylized stuff all verdigrised to heck and back against brown door
November 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
your moment of calm
November 7, 2025 at 7:51 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Some wildlife to balance the knockers and knobs.
thrush snail in green leaves lizard lizard lizard lizard lizard! i saw a new lizard that is green with kind of green and black spots and a rusty throat. on a rock. with cute feet. English sparrow all fucked up on acid, meth, and beer chirping "Oi! You flithy ****, you meatbags I kick in the bollocks, you..." you get the idea. And then going "ha ha ha wee wee I am French, from his hole in the rock."
November 7, 2025 at 7:14 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
A sighting at Mgarr Ix-Xini (Gozo Island) of the rare Maltese "Kuluvert Sriep," a region-specific communal duck that has evolved to move like a snake for purposes of deceiving predators. Our taxi driver went on at length about this species, including what Maltese constellation was the duck snake one
November 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Anyone want to argue with the fish?
ancient angry-looking fish fountain wants to fuck you up and eat yer bones and then drool its bloody spit into the sand colored basin beneath, scarface style oh yeah
November 7, 2025 at 12:50 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
knobs i have known
forest man gold knob knocker on pale blue door lion gold knob knocker on red door gold dolphin on pale choco door lion knob on red door
November 6, 2025 at 10:52 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Around Malta today with @annvandermeer.bsky.social and @goblindegook.bsky.social ...
rungs for a swimming pool ladder into the open sea, frothing, with rock tidal pools in the foreground for oh aye if you go into davy jones' locker with a ladder ye will come out unscathed by any manner of leviathan and prance across the ocean floor like a water pixie with gills not that band formed by mr black who then had a kind of hit or miss solo career lovely avenue of turret balconies in blue, like little windows cupolas or oh gawd i don't know the architectural name but they're all blue and curved and have windows in them and they're not actually turrets but my mind is failing me a lighthouse like a red rubber nipple as in the days of yore with ren and stimpy, set amongst a circularly low fortification surrounded by dark blue water a turret of sorts in the left lower side seems to surveil and stream the clouds and blue sky in the rest of the photo my apologies as apparently tonight my wordsmithing powers are low
November 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
your emergency moment of calm...
November 6, 2025 at 8:44 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
the line of protection... like the valley in dosadi experiment
water-covered rock with a cleft in it leading into a deeper space, with crabs and shrimp lining the light-colored shelf of rock.
November 6, 2025 at 8:39 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
your moment of calm...
November 6, 2025 at 8:37 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
i had some time with nature this morning, lots of hidden life here
jeff hunched over in blue shirt and cap photographing tidal pools in malta photo by ann vandermeer
November 6, 2025 at 1:17 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
My favorite part of the conversation. (Put the whole thing on fb and added a bit more to the alt text here.) There was a lot more talk of testosterone and special pleading that the one guy's was okay without doing any cryosleep. Oy.
T1: I wrote a book about my big health journey this year. So you see the testosterone is documented in the book and the cryosleep. T2: I only have this one beer. Is there a better place for low taxes that you know of? And this is my first beer in three months. (Yeah right) T1: Oh, sure, I am sure. There are many ways to avoid the taxes anyway. I agree. But my book is mostly about the diet and how my testosterone went up 640. T2: I cross train sometimes and there is my business and my wife is happy , so happy, so I am in good shape. Wake up in morning and eat whole chicken is fine. It is science getting in shape and then you have the whole day to digest the chicken and you are doing well. (Mansplains diet to man who despite other faults does have a good handle on diet.) T1: I don't know about the chicken. The whole chicken? Maybe half. And your testosterone is fine. T2: Never any complaints. Never. My... is always fine. My wife uses colagen. She has many children. By me. T1: Okay then. That is great. Testosterone. I wrote a book. Biohacking. T2: Is that Vesuvius? T1: No, Sicily. T2: Where is Vesuvius then? T1: Turkey I think. Different peninsula. T2: Ah. I like to surf. T1: Regular surfing? T2: Yes in the least amount of water. T1: What do you mean? T2: That looks like Vesuvius though. Where do I buy it, your book? Amazon? T1: Well, I am just now finishing it and then I guess I will print it somehow. T2: Okay. That would be good. T1: Yes. It will be good. T2: Okay yes. T1: Yes. (after more champagne) T2: Oh, you like noise-canceling headphones? I do. I can't hear my wife with the noise canceling while she is yelling at me yelling and yelling and is the best thing ever I cannot hear her. T1: They are fine. I like them to concentrate on my testosterone. Like, when I swim. T2: Malta shitty airlines shitty place. I come here only for my health. T1: Sea is nice I swim a lot like I said and testosterone goes up. T2: I hate the sea but sun is nice. This is true.
November 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Around Malta today with @annvandermeer.bsky.social
bas relief sculpture in wall of three fairly unhappy heads two pigeons, one black one the usual rock pigeon special, snuggling on a far distant tree branch some cool ass pink yellow flower thingee Eurasian robin on a stump
November 5, 2025 at 4:04 PM
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Safely to Malta for the book festival, after Paris and Nantes. Where we have brought the rain to a country with 360 days of sunshine.
clouds above gardens and terraces
November 5, 2025 at 1:33 PM