Iain Banks interviewed by the Internet
From Mark Wilson:Link (via Oblink)
Q: What do you think is the one, single, most vital collective development that humanity needs to make before it has any hope whatsoever of evolving into a Culture-like society?Iain Banks: Genetically modifying ourselves, I suspect. Finding the set of genes that code for xenophobia in general - these days usually expressed though sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, Romaphobia and so on (and on, and on) - and knocking them out. Possibly then we'll be nice enough for the Culture or something like it. Of course maybe inventing true AIs will be enough, always assuming that they're as benign - and yet sympathetically interested in us - as they are taken to be in the Culture.
The one thing that won't be enough is getting to a post-scarcity society; a statistically valid number of us have lived in something very like that for the past decade and a bit and we still collectively behaved like slavering morons, so it'll take more than just having more toys than we know what to do with to make us truly civilised.
I mean, nil desperandum and all that, but - still - don't hold your breath.
the latest
latest episodes
if we kidnapped Iain Banks and Vernor Vinge and forced them to mate.....
In a way, this is pretty amazing. Here we have a Far Lefty screaming about our (alleged) constantly-eroding civil rights, portraying the telecom companies as Bush's evil henchmen invading people's privacy, but it's perfectly okay with Cory if people's most intimate 'privacy' -- who they are -- is invaded before they're even born.
And as he rails against a modern depersonalizing society and promotes steampunk and individuality, it's perfectly fine with Cory if they alter your genes so that we all end up as automatons in a harmonious Utopian society -- just as Aldous Huxley predicted.
Amazing.
Dr Mercury, you've mistaken "Cory" for "Iain Banks." I suppose it's an easy mistake to make, provided you're a straw-man-proffering flame-artist posting in the worst of faith.
Or if you're just an idiot.
Which one is it? It's hard to tell from your posting history, which runs about 50-50.
What's more, you've mistaken dystopias-that-Iain-Banks-depicts for society-Iain-Banks-would-endorse. It's either shocking or risible, but either way, it sure makes you look like a wiener.
Hmm... seems like a Rube Goldbrick solution to the problem, to me. Why bio-engineer the fear out of people when all we really need is high-quality, universally-accessible education?
...erm... Goldberg. (and that is why one should Preview their posts... )
or in #2's case, don't make them.
#3 & #4
Zing-a-ling-a-ding-dong!
I can't wait to read this interview later on, when I have the time. Iain Banks is my favourite autor of all time, I love his work.
There was a pretty interesting article about the Wasp Factory over the weekend, comparing the original shocked/horrified reviews to it's current status as syllabus material in some school english classes..
Awww. Here I was expecting some sort of emergent consciousness to do the interview and it looks like it is just a bunch of random people on the Internet. What a let down. I already was planning t-shirts and everything.
On the up side, it is an interesting interview. I like Ian Banks, though I admit I haven't read the majority of his work.
That said I'm not sure about the assumption that xenophobia is either a) genetic or b) bad. Fear of the unknown is generally a good defense mechanism. Removing xenophobia completely... well that may have some negative effects on the long-term survivability of the human species.
Wait a second: why is Ian Banks offering commentary on Ian M. Banks' Culture novels?
Well, serendipitious. I just finished Matter last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. Need to look up his other stuff.
@10 Aloisius
Xenophobia itself might not be genetic, depending on your definitions. However, there is plenty of psycological research to suggest that humans have a built-in "us and them" mentality. We tend to help those in our group (whether racial, cultural, religious or even totally arbitrary groups selected by experimenters) at the expense of other groups. We also tend to regard other groups with suspicion and be quicker to assume that they're acting maliciously; again, this still works if it's just randomly assigned groups and even if the experimental subjects know that the grous are random.
The nature/nurture debate is always a bit fuzzy, but this type of tribe/group behaviour has been seen everywhere it has been looked for. I'd argue that it's an innate -- and so probably genetic -- part of our humans' (possibly primates') psychological makeup.
If you're interesed in reading up on this, searching New Scientist's archive (www.newscientist.com) for "racism", "xenophibia" etc. will give you some interesting pop science articles to start you off.
@11 Contrasoma
They're the same person. He uses the name "Iain M Banks" when he writes Sci-Fi and "Iain Banks" for everything else. Presumably to warn people who hate sci-fi away from his sci-fi books, but I'm not too sure.
Don't knock him until you've read him!
I may not have all of his work, but not for lack of trying. I do have 25 of Iain (M.) Banks' books on a shelf and have enjoyed reading many of them twice. Currently waiting impatiently for the next one to be published. Other books in this house will be sold or given away to make room for more of his work. I buy duplicates too, and give them to friends to read trying to spread the magic. Scotland seems to produce an abundance of good Science Fiction writers.
I buy Cory's works too :)
I trust any author whose name begins with Triple-Vowel action.
I gave The Algebraist a shot, and I really liked it up until the part where plot halted on the planet of the Dwellers. It started off fairly serious and then it got ultra-wacky, which was cool, but a bit out of place given the pacing up to that point.
Excluding getting derailed by that 100+ page episode, I really liked the universe he'd set up and the characters & themes therein. It appeals to the same part of my brain that caused me to enjoy Dan Simmons.
Is there another Banks book that I should start with, or should I just roll up my sleeves and Endure the Silliness?
Strophe, I love them all..
If it's Culture-verse you want, try Use of Weapons or Excession**.
If it's Sci-Fi but not Culture, try: Feersum Endjinn
Otherwise try them in the order written :)
And def check out his non-M. books too, he is a fantastic author.
The Bridge is pretty wacky, but amazing too. And Complicity and The Business are great.
**Excession is AMAZING, if only for the Mind-speak etc.
Eh, Excession can be a bit off-putting to the new convert to the Cult of Banks, I think. Use of Weapons is my all-time favourite Banks book, but the parallel timelines structure of the alternating chapters might be a bit confusing unless you already have some familiarity with the Culture books.
I'd recommend Player of Games as a good introduction to the Culture, although I don't think there's much wrong with following the order of publication and starting with Consider Phlebas, although the ending's a bit of a downer.
Excession was the first Banks book I read, and I loved it. I'll admit it took me a while to get into though; when I finished I immediately re-read it and got a lot that I hadn't spotted before.
Player of Games and Excession would be my choices for first introductions to the Culture (sci-fi) novels. They both give excellent introductions to the Culture, albeit at very different scales (human vs. machine/contact).
If you prefer non-sci-fi I'm not sure which book to suggest. They're all good, though I'd particularly recommend any of The Business, Walking on Glass (slightly Sci-Fi), and Whit. I was going to add a few more, then realised I was listing his entire output. His non- science fiction books seem more heterogeneous to me; they all have very different premises and structures. I pretty much like them all equally, except for The Wasp Factory, which I felt was being deliberately disturbing, purely to provoke a shocked reaction.
Nelson, you are exactly right about Excession, it is a mind-shift to really parse what the hell is going on, with all the tech-jargon and coded comms.. It took me at least a couple of reads to get the first couple of chapters, let alone the whole thing..
I think I would go through them in chronological order, if I could do it again fresh.
I've re-read most of them a few times, but I'm just thinking now of all the places and situations, it's a massive big blur of stuff I love remembering little snatches of, and thinking: which one was that? Who does that happen to? Did they make it out?
Like the LazyGun, and those guys with the window in their stomach to see their organs, and the land-train-prison-transport-thing, and the religious order who live out on the stormy cliffs in a massive temple - where wass'er'names' sister is chained to an endless rail-system around the walls, and the glass-bottom swimming pool - suspended kilometeres above a canyon in a mountain-top hide-away, and radioactive passports, and running through buildings and streets from the constant barrage of shells, and floating up the inside of the hugh tower under a little balloon, and the Minds, and the ship names, and all the glorius tech, and the ship classes, and the Affront..
All bril-li-aaaant!
I LOVE THEM ALL.
..can you tell?
My favourite Banks book, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is "Against a Dark Background" - the detail is overwhelming, and the story is faultless. More recently, I read "Look to Windward" when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it, and pounced on "The Algebraist" - and was left somewhat dismayed. It just seemed all too, well, conventional, compared to the rest. And then I read "Matter" - and still didn't feel sated, somehow. The story just seems patchy, and the ending seems unsatisfying (IMHO). I will console myself with another read of "Consider Phlebas" and "Excession" and "Against a Dark Background".
As far as I'm concerned 'The Business' is a Culture novel with the serial numbers painted out.
@Bugs #18
According to the author 'The Wasp Factory' Wasn't written to shock. Some years ago I saw Banks at a Reading/Q&A/Signing session. The question was asked whether he'd written 'The Wasp Factory' to shock. He said he hadn't, he'd just written a book, but he'd been asked that question so often that he'd decided to write a book to shock 'Complicity' was the book.
And Complicity fail to shock, completely.. what's a fella to do?
I always thought the same thing and for some reason found that disappointing.
My favourite would have to be Inversions, which is a Culture novel without The Culture.
Inversions freaked me out a little, because I had been hanging on for the new 'Culture' novel for ages. I was pretty disappointed, purely because I had gobbled up as many Culture books as existed at the time, and was desperate for more. In fact, I completely missed the Culture references in it and thought I had really gotten ripped off :)
When I re-read it later it definitely stood on it's own merit, and I liked it a lot more. It actually does a lot for the Culture universe, suggesting the different stages of development of small, isolated pockets of the galaxy. Matter does something similar with the shellworld, but even they have an awareness of their place in the galaxy. I suppose Use of Weapons has an almost pre-revolutionary-France style world too, but again, with a knowledge of the stars.. and much heavier weapons.
However much of a genetic component there is in xenophobia, there is clearly a cultural/psychological component, which can be learned, and unlearned. E.g. http://www.friendsacrossamerica.com/klansman.html
Given that the name of his advanced-but-not-perfect culture is, well, The Culture, it is surprising to me to hear Banks offer genetic engineering as a fix without at least mentioning all of the cultural innovations and developments which we already see around us moving in directions away from xenophobia.
The point that achieving material abundance won't be enough by itself is well taken. And the trend toward reestablishing more equitable distribution of said abundance is imho a great example of both cause and effect of our (painfully slow) shift away from xenophobia.
I recommend reading Iain M. Banks in publication order which would be "Consider Phlebas", "The Player of Games", etc. even though "The Player of Games" is more accessible. "Consider Phlebas" is told in non-chronological order, quite unusual back then but is now a common technique.
The Iain M. Banks books don't have to be read in publication order because the stories are stand-alone though set in the same universe. The exception is "Look to Windward" which should be read after "Consider Phlebas".
I like his non-M (non-SF) stuff equally well. "The Crow Road" is my favourite of these.