Discussion

“As a humanist, atheist, and socialist, he preferred to place his trust in techno-scientific development, rather than his faith in gods, or his capital in the market”

Joseph S. Norman on the legacy & utopianism of Iain M. Banks’s #scifi Culture series

7/13

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2023/11/better-to-create-your-own-on-the-legacy-and-utopianism-of-iain-m-bankss-culture-series/

#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #utopia

The Bottle Imp

'Better to Create Your Own': On the Legacy and Utopianism of Iain M. Banks’s Culture Series - The Bottle Imp

The Culture – Iain M. Banks’s ‘personal utopia’ or ‘secular heaven’, explored and expanded in ten sprawling, epic texts published between 1987 and 2012 – is one of the most radical creations in all of literature. It is an intergalactic civilisation often viewed as completely without poverty, inequality, material scarcity, internal conflict, or imperial drive; […]

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 2 weeks ago

@bookstodon

HIPPY COMMIES WITH HYPER-WEAPONS

“I think space opera in general celebrates a certain manic wildness and vivacity of vision, a refusal to be constrained”

A Few Questions About the Culture – an interview with Iain M. Banks, on Strange Horizons

6/13

http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/a-few-questions-about-the-culture-an-interview-with-iain-banks/

#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture

Photo of Iain Banks standing in front of a display of his 2012 Culture novel THE HYDROGEN SONATA. His hair and beard are both grey. He is grinning as he extends one hand towards the display – and to a large banner that reads

25 YEARS OF CULTURE

THE ONLY *BANKS* YOU CAN TRUST — Photo of Iain Banks standing in front of a display of his 2012 Culture novel THE HYDROGEN SONATA. His hair and beard are both grey. He is grinning as he extends one hand towards the display – and to a large banner that reads 25 YEARS OF CULTURE THE ONLY *BANKS* YOU CAN TRUST

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 2 weeks ago

@bookstodon

“As a humanist, atheist, and socialist, he preferred to place his trust in techno-scientific development, rather than his faith in gods, or his capital in the market”

Joseph S. Norman on the legacy & utopianism of Iain M. Banks’s #scifi Culture series

7/13

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2023/11/better-to-create-your-own-on-the-legacy-and-utopianism-of-iain-m-bankss-culture-series/

#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #utopia

The Bottle Imp

'Better to Create Your Own': On the Legacy and Utopianism of Iain M. Banks’s Culture Series - The Bottle Imp

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 2 weeks ago

@bookstodon

“Banks… envisions the overcoming of scarcity as the signal achievement of the civilization made by the Minds, & yet he focuses time and again on objects of unfulfilled desire”

—Alan Jacobs on the Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M Banks, for The New Atlantis

8/13

https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-ambiguous-utopia-of-iain-m-banks

#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #utopia

The New Atlantis

The Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M. Banks

Alan Jacobs on Iain M. Banks's "Culture" novels and the price of bliss.

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 2 weeks ago

@bookstodon

“Our strange wee country is as complex as any alien civilization, & getting it as right as Banks did in The Crow Road required every bit as much world-building skill as his Culture”

—Simon Stephenson travels THE CROW ROAD for Reactor Magazine

9/13

https://reactormag.com/the-difference-is-entirely-one-of-setting-iain-banks-the-crow-road/

#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture

Reactor

The Difference Is Entirely One of Setting: Iain Banks’ The Crow Road - Reactor

It was the day my grandmother exploded. That might just be the greatest opening line ever written, and I am allowed to say that because I did not write it. It is the opening salvo to Iain Banks’ 1992 novel The Crow Road. Few Tor.com readers will need any introduction to Iain M. Banks, acclaimed […]

Assoc for Scottish Literature

@scotlit@mastodon.scot · 2 weeks ago

@bookstodon

Why has Iain Banks’s Culture series – “a world where your Bezoses & your Musks are not just irrelevant, but actively sought out & disempowered” – garnered a billionaire fanbase? Kurt Schiller examines ultra-rich misreadings & delusions for Blood Knife

10/13

https://bloodknife.com/culture-war-iain-m-banks-jeff-bezos/

#Scottish #literature #fiction #sciencefiction #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #billionaires

Blood Knife

The Culture War: Iain M. Banks's Billionaire Fans - Blood Knife

The Culture novels are far-future communist space opera from an explicitly socialist author. So how do we explain their wealthy, hyper-capitalist fans?

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