404 :/
A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
51–60 of 363 posts
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#52By a large margin my favourite author. The Wasp Factory was the first novel of his I read and it was great, but Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games utterly blew my mind.
I read Consider Phlebas in one go during a day off between finishing my final year project at Uni and starting revising for my finals - would have been May '88.
Left a bit of an impression on me....
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#53Appears the site is down (deleted?) The BBC have a news article on this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175
His publishers have the full statement: http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/a-personal-statment-iain-banks....
Damn, this sounds like a Klatskin tumor, a "rare" cancer. My father hat that kind of tumor as well. He died within 8 weeks of first developing jaundice.
Let's stop trying to make people click on cheery-colored buttons and do something about this fucking disease instead.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#54He shouldn't just accept this. There has to be something to be tried. With his notoriety, the option to try some experimental new treatment should at least be considered.
The BBC article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22015175) states that he may undergo chemo once his jaundice clears up, so it doesn't seem like he's planning to just go entirely quietly, but the reality is that he has to make a tradeoff between possibly making his last months or year (or hopefully a bit more, if we're lucky) total agony to extend it by what is unlikely to be more than months, or try to be comfortable for as long as possible.
Cancer treatments is still ridiculously primitive, unfortunately, largely boiling down to doing lots of damage while trying to keep the patient alive longer than the cancer.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#55FWIW, I've ordered the first three novels of the Culture series. I didn't know of Iain Banks until today and his terrible news. I just wish he'll live the most playful last months of his life with his soon-to-be wife. We cannot wish for anything less.
Does anyone know his financial situation, too many authors (two examples, RAW and PKD) seem to end up dying while having to eat dogfood if that, and unable to pay the rent and other bills. Not that its fun to die if you're rich, just that he shouldn't have to eat dogfood in addition to the stress of the disease. If he's in bad financial shape I could easily buy a couple more of his novels in kindle form (not that I need to buy them in yet another form, but if he needs some cash, well now's the time...)
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#56He shouldn't just accept this. There has to be something to be tried. With his notoriety, the option to try some experimental new treatment should at least be considered.
Most physicians that I have talked about all agree that quality of life is more important than the quantity in this types of cases. Every treatment of late stage cancer is very invasive and rarely successful. If he wants to spend a month as healthy as possible with his widow to be instead of two vomiting and feeling miserable that is his choice and the correct one in my opinion.
There are few things that prolong life, most of them prolong the suffering and increase the emotional drain on the loved ones.
I wish him to make the most of what he has left.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#57Another person that might be cryopreserved [1], but probably won't be, much like the 150,000 who passed in the last day or so [2]. Many sorts of terminal case can actually lead to better quality cryopreservation under present legal restrictions [3], in comparison to the drawn out and uncertain end of aging, precisely because they are more rapid and certain in time. (Or might be plastinated [4] in the alternate histor…
Hmm...except that cryopreservation is still, as of this point, a complete crock of shit. Trying to find a necromancer would be more productive.
As an ex-biologist, I can assure you that horrible cellular damage is being committed to these "preserved" people. I used to flash-freeze all sorts of cells, ranging from bacteria (e. coli) to animal (IMCD3 and MDCK kidney) to human (Human Embryonic Kidney, Primary cortical and hippocampal neurons).
These protocols are pretty simple. Pellet and re-suspend a small vial of cells to dilute out the media, replace with a special preservation media then dunk the entire 5mL vial in a big pot of liquid nitrogen for a few minutes. Then it goes into the deep freezer (-80C).
Sadly, even though this is a tiny aliquot that is frozen almost instantly, cell death on thawing and resuspension is immense. Like, it's a good day if 50% of the cells live. It usually doesn't matter, since these cell lines are immortalized and they just start growing again, but it illustrates the point. Despite the most ideal circumstances, cells hate to be frozen.
Now, imagine you are trying to flash freeze an entire body. They do this by perfusing preservation media through your blood, relying on your body's circulatory system to get the media in all the right places. This takes time. Perfusing a small mouse with formaldehyde takes at least 5-10 minutes. A human body? Practically ages I would guess.
All the while, cells are dieing left and right because they are no longer getting a steady supply of oxygen (and instead a bath of relatively cytotoxic preservation media). When the body is finally perfused fully and dunked into liquid nitrogen...flash freezing isn't immediate. The outer layers freeze much faster than the inner layers.
Ok, so just freeze the brain? Same problem as before, just on a slightly smaller scale.
Ignoring all the cell death that has been happening for the last hour, how about thawing? Well, let's pretend its a "good day" and 50% of your cells live. That might be ok for your skin, liver, or spleen - they are going to be unhappy but still alive. But 50% of your neurons dieing? Hmm. Also take into account that neurons don't regenerate. You just killed half your brain. Even super optimistic numbers, 70%-80% survival rate, still leave a lot of your brain as goo.
This is all just biology. I'm not even touching the morals and ethics of companies that are under no obligation to actually do what you paid them to do (since you are dead).
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I became a fan of his after reading just a few chapters of The Player of Games, and have since read almost everything he has ever published. He is an author of extraordinary skill.
The Player of Games is one of the few sci-fi books I recommend to readers interested in the genre.
Which Banks book should I start with? I was going to start with the Player of Games after your comment, but it turns out it's part of a series, and Consider Phlebas is the first one. Does it matter?
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#59I am very upset about that... In my opinion he's the best living science fiction author... but not for long, I guess... :-( I've read most of his books (all of his SF books). The Culture is an amazing universe, but the rest of his works are also outstanding.
I rank him in my top tier of writers along with John Barnes.
Excellent call-out on Barnes; he's one of the most under-rated authors out there.
If you haven't read his stuff, pick it up.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Player of Games is one of the few sci-fi books I recommend to readers interested in the genre.
Which Banks book should I start with? I was going to start with the Player of Games after your comment, but it turns out it's part of a series, and Consider Phlebas is the first one. Does it matter?
I've read in a Amazon review that it is recommended to start with Consider Phlebas, then The Player of Games and finally Use of Weapons (as a first start into the Culture, that is).
I've bought them three myself and will read them in this order.