Iain Banks
(Well, here we go again. My third official contribution to the timeline.)
(Entry from Speculative Words Encyclopedia, published by Speculative International, 2015)
BANKS, IAIN
Iain Banks (1954-2013), also known as Iain M. Banks after his adopted middle name of Menzies. Scottish socialist politician, composer, playwright and author whose commercial output was divided between subversive and satirical literary fiction (under his given name) and more direct science fiction (under Iain M. Banks). Banks wrote in an astonishingly range of styles and themes, from gothic horror, to family satires and to the high-concept science fiction that later gained him international fame. However, like Graham Greene before him, scholars typically view his work as being on a wide spectrum rather than the artificial separation that Banks (or his publishers) put upon them. Among the genre authors of the post-New Left generation, his works have stood tall as an internationally popular milieu with fans both in his native FBU and across the world. His later political career cemented his status as a thinker as well as an entertainer.
Born in Fife to a professional ice skater and an officer of the Franco-British Admiralty, Banks came of age during the tumultuous years that followed the end of the Second World War. After the reconstituting of the former United Kingdom and France into the Franco-British Union, the country and its fellow AFS nations would see itself involved in numerous small-scale proxy conflicts against its ideological opponents in the United Republics and the Soviet Union. Banks's officer father, though often called to duty, was never forced to move too far away from Scotland, allowing Banks a rather stable childhood (only ever having to move once at the age of nine). After completing High School, he would go on to study English, philosophy and psychology at the University of Stirling.
Banks had been a voracious reader from an early age, and his desire to write naturally followed. His introduction to the science fiction genre came through a friend's copy of Kemlo and the Zones of Silence, a book written by the prolific juvenile author Reginald Alec Martin. As he grew older, he began to ingrain himself in science fiction fandom, corresponding with already established authors such as J. G. Ballard and, fatefully, Michael Moorcock (himself a future socialist politician). Friendly critique from these writers of his early literary efforts, including an adventure novel called The American Lift-Jet* that he had completed at sixteen, would serve as early instruction for the young author...but it would also prove fateful in other ways.
It is hard to overestimate the effect this correspondence would have on Banks's future politics. Although he had already been exposed to socialist ideas from a young age (he had read a battered copy of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists in his early teens), it was here that his politics would fully form during this time period. The world of science fiction in the 1970s was a hotbed of political radicalism, heavily inspired by the rise of the New Left both at home and abroad. Thanks to Moorcock's editorship of New Worlds, many pieces of speculative literature from both the Soviet Union and the United Republics had made its way to the FBU. Most infamously, an obscenity trial would force rocker and author Mick Farren to defect to the United Republics in 1973. Discussions with Moorcock and other comrades about life in the United Republics drove Banks to a simple conclusion, in his own words: "The future was happening across the pond, and we in the Capitalist World were being left behind." This epiphany would go on to inspire his creation of The Culture.
In 1984, after toiling away in the world of magazine science fiction, Banks would finally have his major publishing debut; Not with a science fiction novel (that would come later), but with a subversive and Kafka-esqe contemporary novel called The Wasp Factory. A reconfiguration of classic Gothic Horror tropes, dragged into the 20th century, it told the tale of an isolated Scottish family living on a small island through the eyes of a 16-year-old child named Frank. In between descriptions of Frank's grotesque and ritualistic activities (including building crude dams, digging holes, and maintaining a collection of makeshift weapons to kill small animals), the novel ruminates on the effects of isolation, poverty, patriarchy and atomization on the human psyche. The novel caused a scandal in the FBU and was an instant best-seller. Critics decried the novel as depraved for its casual violence, while its defenders acclaimed it for its dark humor and pointed social critique. Banks would produce two more contemporary novels , Walking On Glass and The Bridge, which further expressed this signature mixture of Kafka-esqe surrealism and social commentary, while also mixing in elements of pulp science fiction (creating early examples of so-called 'Slipstream' literature). Later novels such as Espedair Street would tap into Banks's love of rock music (he had played keyboards for a few amateur bands in his twenties), and The Crow Road with his fascination with 'comfortable mysteries', being a dark parody of the genre.
After those first three novels, however, came the publishing debut that Banks had been longing for: his first science fiction book, and the inaugural volume (at least in publishing order) of his now world-famous milieu known as The Culture, Consider Phlebas. Taking its title from a poem by the arch-conservative poet T. S. Elliot, it tells the story of a mercenary working on behalf of a theocratic alien race operating in opposition to the Culture itself, a stateless and post-scarcity civilization of numerous races and species (including AI), all united in their general ideology and all 'governed' by a group of eccentric Artificial Intelligence called 'Minds'. Our protagonist manages to capture one of these minds, and is then betrayed by his original employers and forced to flee to the outreaches of space, joining a pirate crew to survive. Ultimately, he perishes attempting to protect the Mind, and in the end the Mind is returned to The Culture and later becomes a sentient star ship, naming itself after its savior.
Banks's creation of The Culture was a combination of numerous influences. Partly the result of his previously mentioned envy at the progress of the Comintern-aligned countries, it also was the result of a general love for the kind of Golden Age Space Opera that such authors as E. E. 'Doc' Smith and Osimov** produced, combined with the more careful and intricate world-building of American authors such as Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin and Cordwainer Smith. Smith's Instrumentality universe, with it's enormous and intricate future history in particular, was a major inspiration for the creation of The Culture, specifically as a civilization meant to be the exact opposite of Smith's cold and dystopian technocracy. Whereas the Instrumentality was decaying and coming out of its stifling Dark Age, The Culture was meant to be dynamic, ever-expanding, and over-all a force for good in the universe. It's people, living on space stations and ring-shaped habitats called orbitals, led a seemingly utopian existence where post-scarcity had ensured goods and services for all at the point of need, making the concept of property completely foreign. They also enjoy such benefits as sexual freedom, immortality, glands implanted to produce mind-altering drugs, and casual body modification and gender reassignment. Technology in the Culture universe is of an incredible scale. As Banks himself once quipped: "Writing science fiction is like playing a gigantic church organ, one with four keyboards, two more keyboards for your feet, a hundred different switches and a load of stops to pull out, because pulling out all the stops is very important."
Of course, as Banks himself would often comment: "Good does not always equal nice.". The Culture is always willing to use peaceful means to further its aims, and views violence as an unsavory last resort. However, when its existence is threatened or its allies put in danger, it will not hesitate to use violence against its enemies. Many Culture stories revolve around the individuals who carry out this violence, working under the umbrella of 'Special Circumstances', a special decentralized wetwork group that engages in espionage, sabotage, assassination and even full-scale war against those who seek to destroy it. The Culture is pacifistic on principal, but is also capable of terrifying fury. This is in opposition to the likes of Newt Gingrich's Communion universe, where violence is often pre-emptive (Banks himself was a rather vocal critic of Gingrich's work, as well as his anti-FBU views that he found to be 'gob-smacking in their insanity'). Other books in the series, such as The Player of Games (about a Culture citizen who undertakes a board game tournament on a primitive feudal world), and Use of Weapons (about a non-Culture inhabitant adopted into the Culture for the purpose of spying) often involve social observations of an outsider looking in, either from a Culture citizen to a primitive world, or a non-Culture citizen experiencing the Culture for the first time. Military and matters of warfare are also a constant, often involving sentient battleships and their crew.
In spite of their clearly political bent, and Banks very open political opinions, he rarely was actively involved in political organizing or theory, viewing his own ideological sophistication as being "of the Robert Tressell*** variety". However, that apparent apathy would come to a rather dramatic end in May of 2000. That year, in protest of Prime Minister Spencer-Churchill announcing that the FBU would begin supplying weapons to the Federation of Malaya, he assembled a camera crew and traveled to Paris to the Party headquarters of the Entente Section of the Communist International. Walking through the door, he was filmed meeting General Secretary (and his lifelong friend) Michael Moorcock, wherein he was given a complimentary copy of the Red And Black Book**** and formally sworn in as a Party member. One week later, he would announce his bid for a seat in parliament under the Party's banner. This would ultimately prove successful, and he would enter parliament in 2001 as an MP for Fife.
Banks's time in parliament would prove fruitful. With the likes of later General Secretary Peter Capaldi, Banks would prove to be one of the first generation of FBU politicians in the ESCI to assert themselves after decades of the Party being largely dominated by the French. Together with Capaldi, he would found the "New International Alliance", which is credited with the Party's recent surge in popularity. Ideologically, Banks found himself hewing closer to the "Worker's" faction, aligning with the 'centrist' line of the Communist Labor Party of the United Republics. He would also travel to the United Republics several times during his tenure.
Despite his time in politics, his writing career continued largely unabated. His additional income also allowed him to further his interests in his second love: music composition and the performing arts. With a group of musician friends, he produced a concept album based on his novel Espedair Street, which included performances by the likes of Roger Waters and Billy Bragg. With the aid of playwright Maxton Walker and composer Gary Lloyd, it would be expanded into a full-blown rock opera. With the aid of composition software, he would also enter into classical and semi-classical musical composition as well.
Sadly, this later explosion of creativity would be cut short. On April 3rd, 2013 he made the somber announcement that he had been diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer. The next day, he announced his retirement from Parliament and the cancellation of all of his future appearances. This would also culminate in him asking his long-time girlfriend, film festival organizer Adele Hartley, for her hand in marriage. "I have asked her to do me the honor of becoming my widow.", he announced with his trademark cheekiness. "We find that ghoulish humor helps."*****
He would finish his last novel, a satirical social realist novel called The Quarry, two weeks before his death at the age of 59. His funeral would draw over three thousand attendees, and would include eulogies from Moorcock, American author Kim Stanley Robinson, ESCI General Secretary Capaldi, and Soviet author Vladimir Vasilyev. According to his wishes, he was buried in his native Fife.
*OTL this book was called The Hungarian Lift-Jet.
** ITTL's version of Asimov.
***Tressell was the pen-name of the author of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Highly recommend it.
**** Proper title is The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs. ITTL's equivalent of the Little Red Book. More info here.
*****I didn't make this up. This is an actual quote.
(Entry from Speculative Words Encyclopedia, published by Speculative International, 2015)
BANKS, IAIN
Iain Banks (1954-2013), also known as Iain M. Banks after his adopted middle name of Menzies. Scottish socialist politician, composer, playwright and author whose commercial output was divided between subversive and satirical literary fiction (under his given name) and more direct science fiction (under Iain M. Banks). Banks wrote in an astonishingly range of styles and themes, from gothic horror, to family satires and to the high-concept science fiction that later gained him international fame. However, like Graham Greene before him, scholars typically view his work as being on a wide spectrum rather than the artificial separation that Banks (or his publishers) put upon them. Among the genre authors of the post-New Left generation, his works have stood tall as an internationally popular milieu with fans both in his native FBU and across the world. His later political career cemented his status as a thinker as well as an entertainer.
Born in Fife to a professional ice skater and an officer of the Franco-British Admiralty, Banks came of age during the tumultuous years that followed the end of the Second World War. After the reconstituting of the former United Kingdom and France into the Franco-British Union, the country and its fellow AFS nations would see itself involved in numerous small-scale proxy conflicts against its ideological opponents in the United Republics and the Soviet Union. Banks's officer father, though often called to duty, was never forced to move too far away from Scotland, allowing Banks a rather stable childhood (only ever having to move once at the age of nine). After completing High School, he would go on to study English, philosophy and psychology at the University of Stirling.
Banks had been a voracious reader from an early age, and his desire to write naturally followed. His introduction to the science fiction genre came through a friend's copy of Kemlo and the Zones of Silence, a book written by the prolific juvenile author Reginald Alec Martin. As he grew older, he began to ingrain himself in science fiction fandom, corresponding with already established authors such as J. G. Ballard and, fatefully, Michael Moorcock (himself a future socialist politician). Friendly critique from these writers of his early literary efforts, including an adventure novel called The American Lift-Jet* that he had completed at sixteen, would serve as early instruction for the young author...but it would also prove fateful in other ways.
It is hard to overestimate the effect this correspondence would have on Banks's future politics. Although he had already been exposed to socialist ideas from a young age (he had read a battered copy of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists in his early teens), it was here that his politics would fully form during this time period. The world of science fiction in the 1970s was a hotbed of political radicalism, heavily inspired by the rise of the New Left both at home and abroad. Thanks to Moorcock's editorship of New Worlds, many pieces of speculative literature from both the Soviet Union and the United Republics had made its way to the FBU. Most infamously, an obscenity trial would force rocker and author Mick Farren to defect to the United Republics in 1973. Discussions with Moorcock and other comrades about life in the United Republics drove Banks to a simple conclusion, in his own words: "The future was happening across the pond, and we in the Capitalist World were being left behind." This epiphany would go on to inspire his creation of The Culture.
In 1984, after toiling away in the world of magazine science fiction, Banks would finally have his major publishing debut; Not with a science fiction novel (that would come later), but with a subversive and Kafka-esqe contemporary novel called The Wasp Factory. A reconfiguration of classic Gothic Horror tropes, dragged into the 20th century, it told the tale of an isolated Scottish family living on a small island through the eyes of a 16-year-old child named Frank. In between descriptions of Frank's grotesque and ritualistic activities (including building crude dams, digging holes, and maintaining a collection of makeshift weapons to kill small animals), the novel ruminates on the effects of isolation, poverty, patriarchy and atomization on the human psyche. The novel caused a scandal in the FBU and was an instant best-seller. Critics decried the novel as depraved for its casual violence, while its defenders acclaimed it for its dark humor and pointed social critique. Banks would produce two more contemporary novels , Walking On Glass and The Bridge, which further expressed this signature mixture of Kafka-esqe surrealism and social commentary, while also mixing in elements of pulp science fiction (creating early examples of so-called 'Slipstream' literature). Later novels such as Espedair Street would tap into Banks's love of rock music (he had played keyboards for a few amateur bands in his twenties), and The Crow Road with his fascination with 'comfortable mysteries', being a dark parody of the genre.
After those first three novels, however, came the publishing debut that Banks had been longing for: his first science fiction book, and the inaugural volume (at least in publishing order) of his now world-famous milieu known as The Culture, Consider Phlebas. Taking its title from a poem by the arch-conservative poet T. S. Elliot, it tells the story of a mercenary working on behalf of a theocratic alien race operating in opposition to the Culture itself, a stateless and post-scarcity civilization of numerous races and species (including AI), all united in their general ideology and all 'governed' by a group of eccentric Artificial Intelligence called 'Minds'. Our protagonist manages to capture one of these minds, and is then betrayed by his original employers and forced to flee to the outreaches of space, joining a pirate crew to survive. Ultimately, he perishes attempting to protect the Mind, and in the end the Mind is returned to The Culture and later becomes a sentient star ship, naming itself after its savior.
Banks's creation of The Culture was a combination of numerous influences. Partly the result of his previously mentioned envy at the progress of the Comintern-aligned countries, it also was the result of a general love for the kind of Golden Age Space Opera that such authors as E. E. 'Doc' Smith and Osimov** produced, combined with the more careful and intricate world-building of American authors such as Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin and Cordwainer Smith. Smith's Instrumentality universe, with it's enormous and intricate future history in particular, was a major inspiration for the creation of The Culture, specifically as a civilization meant to be the exact opposite of Smith's cold and dystopian technocracy. Whereas the Instrumentality was decaying and coming out of its stifling Dark Age, The Culture was meant to be dynamic, ever-expanding, and over-all a force for good in the universe. It's people, living on space stations and ring-shaped habitats called orbitals, led a seemingly utopian existence where post-scarcity had ensured goods and services for all at the point of need, making the concept of property completely foreign. They also enjoy such benefits as sexual freedom, immortality, glands implanted to produce mind-altering drugs, and casual body modification and gender reassignment. Technology in the Culture universe is of an incredible scale. As Banks himself once quipped: "Writing science fiction is like playing a gigantic church organ, one with four keyboards, two more keyboards for your feet, a hundred different switches and a load of stops to pull out, because pulling out all the stops is very important."
Of course, as Banks himself would often comment: "Good does not always equal nice.". The Culture is always willing to use peaceful means to further its aims, and views violence as an unsavory last resort. However, when its existence is threatened or its allies put in danger, it will not hesitate to use violence against its enemies. Many Culture stories revolve around the individuals who carry out this violence, working under the umbrella of 'Special Circumstances', a special decentralized wetwork group that engages in espionage, sabotage, assassination and even full-scale war against those who seek to destroy it. The Culture is pacifistic on principal, but is also capable of terrifying fury. This is in opposition to the likes of Newt Gingrich's Communion universe, where violence is often pre-emptive (Banks himself was a rather vocal critic of Gingrich's work, as well as his anti-FBU views that he found to be 'gob-smacking in their insanity'). Other books in the series, such as The Player of Games (about a Culture citizen who undertakes a board game tournament on a primitive feudal world), and Use of Weapons (about a non-Culture inhabitant adopted into the Culture for the purpose of spying) often involve social observations of an outsider looking in, either from a Culture citizen to a primitive world, or a non-Culture citizen experiencing the Culture for the first time. Military and matters of warfare are also a constant, often involving sentient battleships and their crew.
In spite of their clearly political bent, and Banks very open political opinions, he rarely was actively involved in political organizing or theory, viewing his own ideological sophistication as being "of the Robert Tressell*** variety". However, that apparent apathy would come to a rather dramatic end in May of 2000. That year, in protest of Prime Minister Spencer-Churchill announcing that the FBU would begin supplying weapons to the Federation of Malaya, he assembled a camera crew and traveled to Paris to the Party headquarters of the Entente Section of the Communist International. Walking through the door, he was filmed meeting General Secretary (and his lifelong friend) Michael Moorcock, wherein he was given a complimentary copy of the Red And Black Book**** and formally sworn in as a Party member. One week later, he would announce his bid for a seat in parliament under the Party's banner. This would ultimately prove successful, and he would enter parliament in 2001 as an MP for Fife.
Banks's time in parliament would prove fruitful. With the likes of later General Secretary Peter Capaldi, Banks would prove to be one of the first generation of FBU politicians in the ESCI to assert themselves after decades of the Party being largely dominated by the French. Together with Capaldi, he would found the "New International Alliance", which is credited with the Party's recent surge in popularity. Ideologically, Banks found himself hewing closer to the "Worker's" faction, aligning with the 'centrist' line of the Communist Labor Party of the United Republics. He would also travel to the United Republics several times during his tenure.
Despite his time in politics, his writing career continued largely unabated. His additional income also allowed him to further his interests in his second love: music composition and the performing arts. With a group of musician friends, he produced a concept album based on his novel Espedair Street, which included performances by the likes of Roger Waters and Billy Bragg. With the aid of playwright Maxton Walker and composer Gary Lloyd, it would be expanded into a full-blown rock opera. With the aid of composition software, he would also enter into classical and semi-classical musical composition as well.
Sadly, this later explosion of creativity would be cut short. On April 3rd, 2013 he made the somber announcement that he had been diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer. The next day, he announced his retirement from Parliament and the cancellation of all of his future appearances. This would also culminate in him asking his long-time girlfriend, film festival organizer Adele Hartley, for her hand in marriage. "I have asked her to do me the honor of becoming my widow.", he announced with his trademark cheekiness. "We find that ghoulish humor helps."*****
He would finish his last novel, a satirical social realist novel called The Quarry, two weeks before his death at the age of 59. His funeral would draw over three thousand attendees, and would include eulogies from Moorcock, American author Kim Stanley Robinson, ESCI General Secretary Capaldi, and Soviet author Vladimir Vasilyev. According to his wishes, he was buried in his native Fife.
*OTL this book was called The Hungarian Lift-Jet.
** ITTL's version of Asimov.
***Tressell was the pen-name of the author of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Highly recommend it.
**** Proper title is The Selected Works of Eugene V. Debs. ITTL's equivalent of the Little Red Book. More info here.
*****I didn't make this up. This is an actual quote.
