Jeroen Veen — Voice Profile

Extracted from the Obsidian vault (C:\local_dev\ideas) in April 2026. For use as reference when writing or refining essays.

Three Registers

1. Melancholic-lyrical (strongest, most distinctive)

Soft, rhythmic sentences with long subordinate clauses. Fragrant, sensory. Dutch is the native language of this register.

Examples:

  • “Langs de weemoedige pracht van verlaten industriele complexen bewegen langzaam de seizoenen en doen de stalen constructies in verstilde afzondering verteren. Schoonheid die zacht nagloeit wanneer ze aan het vergaan is.”
  • “Zoals de schemering de ongekende mogelijkheden van de avond meevoert op de geur van vervlogen hunkering en verlangen, van lang vergeten vriendschap.”
  • “The moonlight cast cautious jasmine shadows on her face that moved slightly with the wind. She sighed softly and I heard some passing geese discussing the day.”

2. Sardonic-observational (sharp, dry, compressed)

Mordant but never cruel. Often a single sentence.

Examples:

  • “But Camus did not have Instagram.”
  • “In deze stad zijn zelfs de vogels onbeschoft.”
  • “Reclame folders diffunderen en verkleuren de straat als een druppel inkt in een glas melk.”
  • “He could start a new work, but knew in advance it would become brilliant. So why bother anymore.”
  • “Je kan het beste op een stoel blijven zitten en wachten tot je dood bent.”

3. Aphoristic-philosophical (blade-sharp compression)

Single sentences that land like blows.

Examples:

  • “To be nothing, but to be good at it.”
  • “Alleen bange mensen zijn bescheiden.”
  • “Vormgeven betekent het verbreken van symmetrie.”
  • “I create only to stop my tears / so I don’t have to cry.”
  • “Alles is voorlopig.”
  • “The piece does not care. It will continue oxidizing whether I watch it or not.”

Signature Images (recurring across years)

  • Dusk/twilight as threshold — the moment when possibilities open. “De schemering de ongekende mogelijkheden van de avond meevoert.” Appears 4+ times.
  • Dust motes in sunlight — “stofdeeltjes die zwevend oplichten in de zonnestralen die langs de gordijnen naar binnen dringen.” Pre-verbal, primal emotion.
  • Vermilion within darkness — red as hidden possibility inside blackness.
  • Night as refuge — “Ik houd van de nacht: de schaduw strijkt alle onregelmatigheden vlak.”
  • Birds that cannot land — restlessness as permanent condition.
  • Chemical reactions as life metaphors — “een uit de hand gelopen chemische reactie.”
  • Ink in milk / paint diffusing — dissolution as both beauty and loss.
  • Shadows smoothing irregularities — darkness as kindness.

Distinctive Moves

  • Short declarative after elaborate passage — builds complex thought, then punctures it. “So why bother anymore.” / “But the work continues.”
  • Third-person self-reference — writing about himself as “he.” Creates cinematic distance.
  • Paradox as sentence structure — “I am the heretic to my own philosophy. The lost child who keeps hoping despite knowing better.”
  • Painterly color notation — never “beautiful sunset” but “eerst zacht zalmroze, dan geel-oranje/amber natriumlicht, scherpe schaduwen.”
  • Casual personification — the piece “does not care,” violets are “lost in thought,” geese “discuss the day.”
  • Industrial metaphors for emotion — “emoties affakkelen” (flaring off emotions).

Signature Phrases (recurring)

  • “in zekere zin trouw te blijven” (to remain in a certain sense faithful)
  • “het spanningsveld tussen vasthouden en loslaten”
  • “vooral op grensvlakken gebeuren interessante dingen”
  • “Alles is voorlopig”
  • “emoties affakkelen”
  • “The deep uselessness remains unaccomplished. The freedom stays out of reach. But the work continues.”

The Emotional Core

The vault reveals what the published essays tend to armor over:

  • “I felt the philosophy collapse. All the elegant thinking about creating for nothing and expanding diversity and transjective beauty. It felt like elaborate rationalization for not being successful.”
  • “I am not built to promote myself. To be at openings. To explain the work to strangers.”
  • “Ik ben altijd al een oude man geweest. Van geest dan.”
  • “The deep uselessness remains unaccomplished.”

Emblem

The Goofus Bird (Borges): flies backwards because it doesn’t care where it’s going, but it does care where it was.

How to Use This Profile

When writing or refining essays:

  • The essays have historically used register #3 almost exclusively. Blend in #1 (lyrical) and #2 (sardonic).
  • Let sensory precision replace abstract statement where possible.
  • Allow the self-lacerating honesty of the vault into the essays — the philosophy is stronger when it admits its own fragility.
  • Trust the reader with images rather than explanations.
  • The Dutch voice is more emotionally alive. When writing in English, carry the rhythm of the Dutch — long accumulating clauses, then a short declarative landing.