i finished hummingbird salamander and hmmm i kind of want to reread it again to sort out my thoughts on it. theres so many layers of facades in things– Jane’s childhood home being all painted add fancied up but it takes less than what an hour for the trauma and continued familial dysfunction to be exposed underneath, Jane rewriting her memories of Ned to be an idealistic, tragic martyr instead of someone capable of manipulation and poaching endangered salamanders they both loved, etc etc.
the mountain of furs and taxidermy was so evocative, and the way Jane’s life crumbled because the mystery and allure of Silvina was so much more vibrant to her than the life she had made w her family– it makes me a little insane. like Silvina, chasing after this vision or different life, but how sturdy are the foundations of a an idealistic eco community built on the furs of animals poached to extinction, on environmentalism steeped in coloniality and ‘mann what if we’re the disease’ that crept closer and closer to ecofacism, on cult dynamics and mind games?
setting up all of that, knowing she would be upending Jane’s life to tell her that Silvina’s family is the reason her brother died? i think she had other reasons to start Jane on the trail of clues she left, but that letter she left, i think Jane couldnt think of anythign approaching “fuck Silvina” bc she needed to cling onto this parasocial relationship she had w her bc what else did she have left? not even the pristine memory of her brother, not even the memory of her daughter’s face.
the book has a rly doomer perspective but also like, it makes a lot of sense wrt who the narrator is. it makes sense that Silvina idolizes Humboldt and this idea of “humans are all bad for the planet” considering her billionaire upbringing and life and the way her family tried to claim indigenity they didnt hv. it makes sense that Jane only sees the horrors in the world/society near the end of the book bc she’s burned all bridges and actively avoids contact w other ppl. she’s a self described centrist too lol. but yeah the level to which she distances herself from other ppl– how else could this hv gone? what can she see of the good of humanity when she avoids it as much as she can?
its kind of jarring thinking ab how Jeff Vandermeer wrote this after Borne, but i feel like both are slices from different parts of the same thing in a way. its interesting thinking ab how connection and bonds w others, even though frought, is integral to the story and protagonist of Borne and how rejecting deep connection except in the parasocial sense of Silvina is a running theme in hummingbird salamander
