This is really sad news. One of my favorite authors, and seems like a great guy. Fuck cancer -- we really need to fix this, fast :(
I feel selfish for being sad that his last book is an Iain Banks book vs. Iain M. Banks (culture). :(
A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
271–280 of 363 posts
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I read Consider Phlebas and was very underwhelmed by it. Huh. Same here. I've only read CP and I honestly could not tell why everyone is so excited about Banks. Okay then, I'll add a few more titles to my wish list. Thanks!
Consider Phlebas is more of a literary novel that happens to take place in the future. I like all of Banks' work and thinkSwombat's suggested reading order above is spot on, but I also think Consider Phlebas is by far his best work.
Silly nitpick: doesn't Consider Phlebas take place in our past?
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
If research was better paid, more people would be researchers. So more money is needed. As much as I'd like to do my share in X, if I can't make a living of it, I won't dedicate my whole life to it. Some will, but many won't.
And if it didn't require 12 hours a week (or some similarly horrible figure) writing grant proposals instead of doing actual research
There's really no way around the need for written grant proposals, so the solution seems like "research teams should allocate a decent wage for a good grantwriter". Surely there are talented technical writers out there who would happily join with these noble causes, if only the jobs were there (and financially viable for the writer).
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#274Terrible news. If you're not familiar with Iain's work you owe it to yourself to drop everything and start reading the Culture series[1] right now. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series
Terrible news. If you're not familiar with Iain's work you owe it to yourself to drop everything and start reading the Culture series[1] right now. In fact go give all of his books a try (hey - we're allowed to read non-SF here too aren't we ;-)
Iain's non-SF work is wonderful, and often so very Scottish. In particular, I love the opening to Espedair Street:
"Two days ago I decided to kill myself. I would walk and hitch and sail away from this dark city to the bright spaces of the wet west coast, and there throw myself into the tall, glittering seas beyond Iona (with its cargo of mouldering kings) to let the gulls and seals and tides have their way with my remains, and in my dying moments look forward to an encounter with Staffa’s six-sided columns and Fingal’s cave; or I might head south to Corryvrecken, to be spun inside the whirlpool and listen with my waterlogged deaf ears to its mile-wide voice ringing over the wave-race; or be borne north, to where the white sands sing and coral hides, pink-fingered and hard-soft, beneath the ocean swell, and the rampart cliffs climb thousand-foot above the seething acres of milky foam, rainbow-buttressed.
Last night I changed my mind and decided to stay alive. Everything that follows is . . . just to try and explain."
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#275This is horrible news. We are all poorer today, all of us. Banks is an inspiration to all who read him - of what could be, what can be, what is to be. Cancer has claimed a terrible toll in my life. Three in my immediate family and counting, the countdown very fast for one of them. And now it seems to have turned its unwelcome gaze to my intellectual treasures. I hate this disease, I despise it so much it's hard to ex…
The 300 was far from useless - it was in fact the vehicle that enabled the Methuselah Foundation to do any of what it did: gain enough social proof and funding to invest in Organovo, boost SENS research far enough to gain funding from Peter Thiel and others, ultimately enabling it to spin off into the SENS Research Foundation, work behind the scenes to make the research community much more accepting of aging research…
For shame..
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Consider Phlebas is more of a literary novel that happens to take place in the future. I like all of Banks' work and thinkSwombat's suggested reading order above is spot on, but I also think Consider Phlebas is by far his best work.
Silly nitpick: doesn't Consider Phlebas take place in our past?
yes. And It makes a lot more sense if you're already familiar with the Culture, in which case the perspective of CP (from an avowed enemy of the Culture) is a lot more interesting. A prequel of sorts, but one I'd almost read last.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for this - I read Consider Phlebas and was very underwhelmed by it. Just now I struggled to remember much of the plot even though I read it less than a year ago. I'll check out some of your other recommendations.
> I read Consider Phlebas and was very underwhelmed by it. Huh. Same here. I've only read CP and I honestly could not tell why everyone is so excited about Banks. Okay then, I'll add a few more titles to my wish list. Thanks!
Consider Phlebas was sort of a literary lark. Start with Player of Games. Also, it all only works if you like the idea of The Culture. Really, it's the main character of all of the books. If you aren't cheering for The Culture, the books aren't going to work for you.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#278Earlier 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?
The Culture books are not really a series so much as a collection of stories all taking place in a single imaginary universe. Plots and characters from one book occasionally turn up as background details in another, but there is no reason to read them in order.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#279This is tragic and heart-breaking.
Please be strong and live every minute to the fullest.
But I do have one constructive comment perhaps someone can get to this author.
>The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it’s extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.
>As a result, I've withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry - but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we'll be married and on a short honeymoon.
As great as it will feel - I think this is a disgusting thing to do to a woman and this author should reconsider.
[EDIT: Let me rephrase this to: I think they both should reconsider. I think this is something that Adele will regret, regardless of whether she knows this now, for the reasons I cite below. I say this with some experience.]
What are the two possibilities? That this short marriage and honeymoon will be sad and awkard - or that it will be blissful and happy?
Both of those are terrible, horrible for her to live with for the rest of her life. [Edit: again, something she might not realize now.]
Giving someone a few months of happiness before widowing them is something I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Even the middle possibility (if the short marriage and honeymoon is neither blissful nor very sad and awkward, but just is) would then simply give someone Widow status.
I think this author should call this particular plan off.
There are a lot of great ways to enjoy life and do the most you can. Please make the best of them all.
Re: A Personal Statement from Iain Banks
#280This is tragic and heart-breaking. Please be strong and live every minute to the fullest. But I do have one constructive comment perhaps someone can get to this author. >The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it’s extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last. >As a…
I'm a woman. And I say, if Adele wants to end her time with Iain this way, let her. Wikipedia says they've been "together since 2006". In her position, I'd rather remember six years with a wild last year or so of doing all those crazy things that got put off than six years with a last year of just sitting there watching the man I love die.
Also it is quite possible that Adele would pretty much consider herself a widow for a good while whether or not she married Iain.
I mean, really. I don't think this is a thing being "done to her". I don't know anything about her, but if she's anything like the kinds of women Iain writes about, she's perfectly capable of making her own decisions, and is quite aware of what she's gotten herself into. And is, as you urge in your second sentence, trying to be strong and live life to the fullest.