Call and Response: They Eat Squid, They Don't Worship Them...

Received via website feedback form:Dear Mr. VanderMeer, I have to admit right off the bat that I'm not terribly familiar with your work; though I've seen your name on the shelves at stores and on various contents pages while thumbing through anthologies, the only real contact I've had with your fiction comes from book reviews. But I recently noticed something unintentional about my own (unpublished) writing, and I figured the best way to find the answer to the question it raised was to ask you directly (it will make sense in a second). I'm an aspiring writer and I've been working on a novella recently. After watching a documentary about the ocean I decided on a whim to give the society about which I was writing the quirk that they venerated octopuses as sacred animals, and to make their faith and culture full of octopus-imagery. I thought I was being terribly original, but recently I remembered reading about your own Ambergris stories, and the importance squid have in Ambergris.However, I don't remember enough about the details of the squid's importance to the people of Ambergris to accurately gauge if I need to change my story around. I'd go and read the stories themselves, but I don't want anything else about them to accidentally creep into my own society of cephalopod-worshipers. So I suppose my question is this: if a new writer like myself writes about a society that sees the octopus as an analogue to the sacred cow of India, is that too close to what you've written for comfort? I can honestly say it wasn't my intention to lift the idea of a cephalopod-venerating society from you--I just happen to like octopuses-- but if it turns out that's what I unconsciously did, I'll go back and give the folks living in my little town a non-cephalopod to worship. I wouldn't want anyone, least of all yourself, to think I was trying to take your ideas and pass them off as my own. Thanks very much for your time. [- Name Withheld]Response:Nobody in ambergris worships squid. They eat them...I have also been in situations where I didn't want to read something before writing something. But you will need to go back and read City of Saints after you finish to make sure. [I thought it was nice of him to ask. - Jeff]