What does /lit/ think of Iain M Banks and his work? He has literary, non-genre novels and science fiction novels, as well as thrillers. I’m getting back into the Culture series because my dad always forced me to read Wasp Factory as a kid. What an immensely talented wordsmith with breadth and depth. I feel like Wasp Factory in particular is right up this board’s alley. The twist is amazing and it lives in this antisocial world that only Frank and 4chan NEET alike seem to inhabit.
>>25203324British people and especially British writers with few superstitious exceptions have never managed to outgrow the peculiar pomp self-assured sense of superiority bred into each member of those damp and dreary isles. Even when they champion the abolition of the delineators of race, class, and sex, they do so with the same eager anticipation a Viking might have before a battle; knowing that as the great men of the master race, they die in this life to put on golden immortality in Valhalla.White Man's Burden, in the enlightened Briton's mind, applies to the lowborn and all their swarthy continental inferiors, not just the coloured savages of Asia, Africa, and the Americas.Of course, they will never admit this outright. But it is inescapable in their literature, in their humor, and in their character.
>>25203416That’s not even copy pasta. Well done. If it’s not AI, I’m proud of u.
>>25203422<3
>>25203416What a great wad of non sequitur snot. You don't know who Banks even is. Push off, bint.
>>25203324I've read the whole Culture series and it's by far the best sci-fi lit I've ever been exposed to. There are a few duds here and there but Banks is the first leftist I know honest enough to admit his economic model only works in magic post-scarcity scenarios
>>25203324I only could read Feersum Endjinn; his SF is generally hard to chew for me. I have to read The Wasp Factory yet.
>>25203324The Wasp Factory was so-so. More akin to Zombie than something like American Psycho and therefore more boringer. The Culture series I’ve gotten 3 books into and I can’t decide if he’s doing something interesting by which the insidious nature of the Culture will be revealed or if he’s genuinely jacking off about some AI Federation of Planets that is always right and all resistance to it are stinky nonbelievers in which case it’s ass and a waste of time.
>>25203984>I can’t decide if he’s doing something interesting by which the insidious nature of the Culture will be revealed or if he’s genuinely jacking off about some AI Federation of Planets that is always right and all resistance to it are stinky nonbelievers.It's the latter. The Culture is always portrayed as flawless
>>25203984>>25203991You're missing the point. The Culture is deeply hypocritical because on one hand they pretend to be laissez-faire and non-interventionist (we're so much better than you that eventually you'll want to be like us) but at the same time maintain covert operations with political goals all over the galaxy. This sometimes goes VERY wrong like it did with the Chelgrians. This constant conflict drives the plot of most books. Although I do agree that the Culture is presented in a little too perfect way and they basically never face an actual realistic threat with maybe one exception in The Excession
>>25203324Loved Banks and still do. I picked up reading through his culture series and the world still holds a dear part in my heart.
>>25203924he's write
>>25203936
>>25204640lmao more like the SGV Reddit amirite my fel-AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!
>>25204729GSV*I commit honoraburu seppuku now
I've only read his scifi. Great stuff, ten out of ten for excession, nine of ten for the rest because it's not excession, Affronters are hilarious.
>>25203991>The Culture is always portrayed as flawlesstf are you talking about? The culture is constantly portrayed as hypocritical and a bunch of meddling jerks doing exactly the things they profess to be against. Horza specifically works for the Iridans in the war against the culture because he hates their hypocrisy.
>>25207377Banks was a secular humanist so I suspect he would not want to live under the Idirans, and they are the aggressors, but he was a strong enough storyteller to write a novel from the POV of a fucked-up chud who admires their Nietzschean / religious fanatic / whatever-ist combo and pulling the reader inside his head. When Horza grabs the laser gun towards the end and goes total madman, I was right there, but he was fighting Idirans at that point but it didn't matter because he was out for REVENGE.
>>25204093>Although I do agree that the Culture is presented in a little too perfect way and they basically never face an actual realistic threat with maybe one exception in The ExcessionWhich was funny. A single autistic retard annihilates an entire alien warfleet using stolen gear.. and then it realises that it's a caveman staring at a weaponised fuckmaster9000 interuniversal carriage, with vibrating drip tray.
>>25203324Communiggers from outer spaceNot much worthwhile about them but when you say this, inevitably TEE HEE BUT MUH SHIPS WITH FUNNY NAMES
>>25208210>Iz guna b crapitalizum fureva yoAre you unfamiliar with even this little show called Star Trek? Don't talk about stuff you haven't read, shit for brains.
