A self-immolating desire for the truth

I highlight a lot as I read, but rarely review what I’ve highlighted. I finally got around to trolling through several years worth of quotes, and was rewarded with several gems like this:

Nothing that lived and breathed was truly objective — even in a vacuum, even if all that possessed the brain was a self-immolating desire for the truth.

Area X Trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer

I was going to just drop that quote into an obvious place — my article “Objectivity is Overrated” — and get on with my day, five minutes tops. But my creative attention was hijacked! Two hours later I’d substantially rewritten and expanded that little article. So much for whatever else I was supposed to be doing this morning.

I have a thousand more pressing publishing priorities, but sometimes I still do my job like a cat chasing a laser pointer.

The Area X novels (AKA the Southern Reach Series) are fascinating, but an acquired taste, surreal and unsettling. Worth a shot if you love wilderness, though.