Talk:Iain Banks/Archive 1

Archive 1

Wasp Factory Spoilers

Hm, it's incredibly difficult to write about The Wasp Factory without inadvertently giving away information that the reader should discover by himself. --Pinkunicorn

Precisely why I left it alone! --sjc 12:35, 30 July 2001 (UTC)

(much later) I think I will put a Wikipedia contains spoilers sign above this and do it properly. This is a deeply unsatisfactory article as is. --sjc 13:45, 7 August 2002 (UTC)

Publication Dates

Anyway, big debates about the Culture aside, are we sure about some of the facts in this article? Publication dates especially: I'm fairly sure that at least some of Walking on Glass, Canal Dreams and Espedair Street were published pre-1990. (I don't have the books to hand but will check as soon as I have a chance.) Also, I'm confused about this "Complicity"/"Retribution" name change; I rented it as "Complicity", is this a US thing? (Was it ever released there?) -- Bth 13:45, 7 August 2002 (UTC)

This is what I have:

Science Fiction

Consider Phlebas (1987)

The Player of Games (1988)

The State of the Art (1989)

Use of Weapons (1990)

Against a Dark Background (1993)

Feersum Endjinn (1994)

Excession (1996)

Inversions (1998)

Look to Windward (2000)

Novels

The Wasp Factory (1984)

Walking on Glass (1985)

The Bridge (1986)

Espedair Street (1987)

Canal Dreams (1989)

The Crow Road (1992)

Complicity (1993)

Whit (1995)

A Song of Stone (1997)

The Business (1999)

Dead Air (2002)

And Raw Spirit will be out in November 2003. --sugarfish 06:50 24 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Pen Names

It seems to me that this article should mention somewhere the fact that his books are published under two "pen names": Iain Banks for the novels; and Iain M. Banks for the science fiction. --Bovlb 23:11, 2004 Mar 8 (UTC)

It does, in the first sentence! --Sam Francis 10:33, 9 March 2004 (UTC)

Doh! That could hardly be more obvious, could it? Arguably, it should also be on the list of books. --Bovlb 15:25, 2004 Mar 9 (UTC)

Not a bad idea. Anyone have any further thoughts, a mere 1.25 years later? Alai 07:48, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

New Culture?

Is there any information whether Banks will write new Cuture novels? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 00:40, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

See TF Article, under Miscellany. Although no source is attributed... Excession 22:20, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Publication date of Use of Weapons?

I have it as 1991. Can anyone provide a reference to it being 1990? Guinnog 00:15, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• The Orbit Books edition has a 1990 copyright. Justin Bacon 04:02, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

New book; title?

I changed the title to reflect an anon edit. Now I feel nervous in case it was just a joke. Can anyone help provide a ref? --Guinnog 15:53, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

If you want a reference then try his publishers: http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/search/bookdetails.asp?isbn=0316731056&Source=3 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.6.34 (talk) 07:22, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Amazon also lists it. Getting the ISBN was a big help; I wonder who that anon actually is? --Guinnog 08:22, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Civilization Addiction

Shacknews on his troubles with Civ IV. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tadman (talk • contribs) 23:03, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Interesting, because in Complicity his protagonist plays a similar sort of game endlessly. I suspect this isn't Banks' first run-in with world/history simulators. Cheers, --Plumbago 07:06, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

I've tried to source the story in the Independent (UK) (where the Shacknews item says it was published), but can't find it. I don't think Shacknews on its own is enough of a source. So the item's removal seems fair for now. --Plumbago 16:08, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Player of Games always reminded me of Civ. --maru (talk) contribs 16:51, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

It is ten year old news! I believe it was actually Civ II he was talking about back in 1996. See http://www.futurehi.net/phlebas/text/banksint08.html

The source for the current story was his recent reading at the Edinburgh Book Festival (16th August 2006) in which he mentioned playing Civilisation and eventually deleting it from his machine and throwing away the disks. He also mentioned that his latest book has been delayed. A sloppy journalist put these two unrelated items together and managed to create something that has started doing the rounds and seems to be being embellished at each stage.

The original Independent article is at http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article1220060.ece but you need a subscription. The Pandora column is a gossip thing so the first bit that you see for free is unrelated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.85.54 (talk) 17:53, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Iain Banks says in an interview with SFX Magazine in 1995 (I believe in Issue 1) that he uninstalls Civilisation when working on a novel because he gets distracted by it, but then goes back and plays it between books (and given he only takes about 2-4 months to write each book, with one being published every other year, this is a fair amount).--Werthead 21:57, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Ah-ha. Well, this timeframe makes sense given the appearance of a Civilization-flavoured game in Complicity. Cheers, --Plumbago 08:41, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Bio section

I have edited to added a nessary Bio section. It is better to separate the history from the intro stats. Also, I have no problem with the info on his father and mother, though it doesn’t seem pertinent or policy. I do however see that according to Wiki policy, citations are required and are nessary. Anyone could come along and just say they did this or that, or their parents did this or that. In order to adhere to the guidelines sourced material; need to be cited. Mystar 18:25, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Banks Attitude vis-a-vis the Culture

From the article:

...The Culture, which he describes in intricate (and sceptical) detail...

How is he sceptical of the Culture? I've read all of them and this is not something that has struck me. -- Tarquin

Banks spends a lot of time Culture-bashing. Let's consider the first real reference to the Culture and its emissaries in Consider Phlebas: he positions it as an intellectual-military fascist complex hiding behind the cuddly facade of anarchic liberalism (kind of prophetic of Blair and New Labour really). It is an indictment spoken by the imprisoned changer Horza: "You want to know who the real representative of the Culture is on this planet? It's not her" [..] "it's that powered flesh-slicer she has following her everywhere, her knife missile. [..] it's the real emissary." Virtually the entirety of his Culture work is an indictment of the Culture, he has very little to say in their favour, and, well, I certainly wouldn't vote for 'em on the basis of his few recommendations which are a form of damnation by the faintest of praises... The whole thing about it is that it's not really science fiction. It is a fairly agile and thinly-veiled socio-political polemic on technological and corporate society... -- User:Sjc

That's a very different inerpretation to mine. Have you read Banks' notes at http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~stefan/culture.html ? I think he's being Utopic in the classical vein, but exploring the real consequences of that. Horza's opinions toward the Culture are not Bank's, I think; it's part of theme of Phlebas of portraying the Culture from the outside. Gurgeh in Player is clearly a misfit, his isolation is accepted in the Culture, but as Chamlis points out, he needs risk, which the Culture can't provide in the way he wants (until, of course, it does...). It's a realistic Utopia: death, tragedy and melancholy still exist because they're an inherent part of the human condition. The theme of Phlebas is: "under what circumstances might a pacifist society be moved to war?" The Culture's desire to do "good works" through the Contact and SC sections is analogous to past philathropists moved by Christian guilt. -- Tarquin

Yes, I did: they are a kind of very useful anodyne for the uninitiated, and I can just picture Banks in his local in Fife working on them with a sardonic smirk writ large across his face. I agree that Horza's perspective is not Banks. But. And the but is that it is very significant in that this is precisely how Banks chooses to introduce the Culture. (In all of Banks' work there are these onion-like layers at play: e.g. the various deceptions perpetrated in The Wasp Factory, Complicity, Crow Road, Whit. Nothing in a Banks novel is ever what it seems.) The Culture is fundamentally decadent and post-modern in its self-absorption. Or so it likes to present itself. The reality is that it is a military machine with a mission: galactic domination on its terms and its terms alone (consider the mission in Player of Games). The evidence however is not just Horza. It comes from virtually every point of view: the Minds who consider humans an irrelevance, from Special Circumstance who argue that the means justifies the means, and from the 3rd person omniscient of Banks himself: the misdirection of virtually every position in the Culture (e.g. the question of who the narrator in Use of Weapons will be), the sardonic names for the Minds, etc. etc. etc. Banks is talking both critically and sceptically all the time in his work; what on earth makes you think he isn't sceptical of the Culture? -- sjc

Jumping in a couple of months late ... I think Banks has an ambiguous attitude towards the Culture, seeing both the good and bad sides. I would say he's sceptical in the "questioning everything" sense of sceptical. But for the average Culture citizen, it's essentially a very good place to live (and Banks is on record as saying he would like to live there): humans may (or may not, it's arguable) be irrelevant to the Minds' larger concerns, but the Minds have still taken the time to make life extremely comfortable for them, and humans who don't like it can always leave if they want to. It does have its bad sides, but I think you may be reading too much into the fact that he often portrays the Culture from the outside (or the outer edges) looking in: when it comes down to it, stories set on an Orbital watching people go about their contented lives wouldn't be very interesting. The worst thing about the Culture is that they have no concept of moral relativism: they know what's right, and they are prepared to go and impose it on everyone else by any means necessary (it's interesting to note in this regard the bit in PoG where Flere-Imasho (sp? I haven't got the book on me) takes Gurgeh round the seedier parts of the city, to try and shock him back into a Culture frame of mind after he's started to identify "too much" with the Azadians). As a side note, I don't think you can talk about anyone in the milieu meaningfully seeking "galactic domination" - various parts of the sequence (especially the appendices to Phlebas) make it very clear that the galaxy is big. -- Bth

The whole ensemble of books struck as very much Culture-positive- just contrast the Affronters in Excession to the Culture. The worst Banks ever really says seems to me to be along the lines of 'the Culture is the worst system, except for all those other empires'. If anything, it is a jab at the US, as presented. -- Maru Dubshinki 12:15 PM Sunday, 03 April 2005

The BBC have an interview with Iain Banks up at http://www.bbc.co.uk/mysciencefictionlife/ where he describes why he ivnented the culture (as a reaction to the American trend of very right-wing future societies). The interview makes it very clear that he does not regard the Culture as an insidious idea, but more as a personal Utopia.

However I note the offending sentence has already been removed. -- Jon Dowland 12:35, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

"Contributions"

In the "Contributions" section, some of the items are listed by title of the compilation or zine, and some by title of the item contributed. This ought to be sorted out one way or the other. —Tamfang 23:02, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Separated

Banks' latest novel was reviewed the other night on Radio 4. In passing it was remarked that he had recently separated from his wife, and the reviewers commented on whether this appeared as a theme in the novel (it was also suggested that this event was the cause of the delay in his completion of the novel). Anyway, beyond this "in passing" (audio) source, I can't otherwise substantiate this, but the article probably needs altering to correct for it. Does anyone have anything to help? --Plumbago 10:47, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Mentioned in the Times: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article1394671.ece --Annafdd 14:04, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Also the Independent: http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2281403.ece ; I've changed that. If he was married for 25 years as the article says, then the 1992 date given for their wedding is presumably also wrong. Infact, as that's unsourced, I'll remove that as well and just ref the article re him having had a 25 year marriage? Rocko b 15:15, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I think the 25 years may refer to how long he and his wife had "been an item". I think the 1992 date of marriage is correct. --Plumbago 15:22, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Ah, that'd make more sense. Actually, poking around - you're right, he got married in '92 in Hawaii apparently. Nice. Anyway, I'll stick the date back in and keep my editing finger holstered a bit longer next time. Rocko b 18:30, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Didn't know where to put this comment, so here it is. While I think the entry for Banks is good, there is no critical discussion of his writing influences, in terms of genre elements or style. It would be much appreciated. Similarly, in the Alistair Reynolds entry there is NO mention of Banks who surely must rate as a MAJOR influence on that writer. I mention this for purely selfish reasons - I enjoy both writers and would like to branch off from them and explore authors mining a similar vein. Thanks, SWE 211.30.130.103 (talk) 07:07, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Favourite place

In the 'Contributions' section it says that he contributed to something called A Sense of Belonging to Scotland, giving his favourite place as ' The Forth Road Bridge'. I think it's fairly likely that should be the Forth Bidge (also known, but wrongly to purists, as the Forth Rail Bridge), since he grew up in its shadow and based the structure of The Bridge on the structure of the bridge.

I'd just change it, but I've never seen the book, so I can't be sure. --Devilgate (talk) 14:11, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Disclosure

I have made quite a few edits to this page and wish to disclose that I've been in occasional snail-mail contact with the subject of this article since 1995, and that in 2000 I met him in a pub in Edinburgh and he bought me several beers. I don't think any of my edits have breached any guidelines, but I want to mention this possible COI in case I edit here again. Can't wait for the new book! --John (talk) 01:06, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Nobody is going to get concerned about that. A lot of editors of this and other articles to do with science fiction are SF fans who go to conventions and are on first name terms with a number of authors. Things only get to be a problem if someone is the author, their partner, agent, publisher, chair of their fan club etc. and this prevents them from being able to contribute to the article in such a way that they support the balance of critical opinion as published in reliable sources. If you're able to write, say, that The Wasp Factory had an extremely varied critical reception when it first appeared and later editions appeared with several pages of quotes from both positive and negative reviews such as Fay Wheldon calling him the "great white hope" of British literature and other writers complaining that his imagination was sick, then this would display sufficient detachment for you to be abel to contribute without ay likely difficulties.--Peter cohen (talk) 18:31, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

External link spam

Yes, the link to the Prague literary festival is spam. Look at the contributions of the editor who added it, PragueWritersFestival (talk · contribs), and the contributions of the IP editor 90.178.197.111 (talk · contribs). And, in Banks's case, it's kind of misleading, because, although he was scheduled, he didn't actually appear at the festival. --ShelfSkewed Talk 05:20, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

It looks to me to be an acceptable collection of interviews and other material, but if you have looked further into it, I accept your findings. Happy editing, Goochelaar (talk) 09:13, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

It's not the appropriateness of the content that matters in cases like this, but the way the link it was added. The idea is to discourage hit-and-run editing by users who are not interested in the general improvement of Wikipedia but only in adding links to a particular site. There are lots of potentially useful sites out there, and it's not hard to imagine every article trailing a huge link farm at the bottom. In most cases, it's best to find a way to use an external link as a reference for article content and to limit the size of the External links section. But if you, as a conscientious contributor to this article, have no problem with the link, then neither do I. Cheers!--ShelfSkewed Talk 19:30, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Cars

Someone removed some bits on Banks' cars recently. I read the comment on the edit but the ammount does not seem that out of this world and the source is a pretty good one. I say it should stay in but I want to avoid any arguement so Im asking here first before I revert anything.

Opinions?

John CaptinJohn (talk) 14:50, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Does he write about expensive cars in his novels? Nitpyck (talk) 06:58, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

If memory helps, there is at least a scene in one of Banks's novels (The Business?) in which one character, to persuade another character to do or telle something, "tortures" the latter's car (Ferrari? Porsche?) by revving it up too much. Goochelaar (talk) 12:38, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Passport

No mention is made that he now has a new passport. He is again making appearances outside the UK & this is probably a relevant fact. Ref: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/iain-banks-i-never-had-any-illusions-about-gordon-790223.html HuwG 203.208.87.119 (talk) 00:53, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

Political affiliation

Has Banks ever actually self-identified with any political philosophy? While he has been clear in interviews about his criticism of conservatism, his books are taken to advocate anything from socialism, to liberalism, to anarchism. Does he personally state his stance on such philosophical matters? Does he identify as a particular kind of socialist, liberal, or anarchist?--Cast (talk) 16:19, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

The entire section on politics is poorly written and doesn't make much sense. I'm sure there's something worth saying about Banks politics, but what's currently on Wikipedia isn't very good. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.243.228.7 (talk) 19:50, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Life and work

The first paragraph of the section "Life and work" is now a truly amazing dog's breakfast which makes almost no sense. I'd love to have a bash at it but I don't know the material or the sources well. Would someone - who does know those things - like to have a go at it please? It's currently not just not GA, it's more FAA. :) Cheers DBaK (talk) 16:12, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

I have undertaken an initial review and copyedit, but it may need further work, as the entire article needs further work.--Soulparadox (talk) 05:52, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Indeed it does, but many thanks for sorting out that particular place, which now makes sense! Cheers DBaK (talk) 13:42, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes. Let's also avoid the temptation to over-write it; it should be clear and concise. The possessive form of the subject's name is "Banks's", not "Banks'". Constructions like "London, England" should be avoided. --John (talk) 08:23, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Terminal Cancer

It's just been announced that Iain Banks has terminal gall bladder cancer: http://www.iain-banks.net/2013/04/03/a-personal-statement-from-iain-banks/

Athanasius (talk) 10:23, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Let's get to this to GA/FA as our gift to Iain

Very said. Would anyone be interested in getting this article to Good/Featured article in the near future? Would make a nice gift for Iain before he moves on. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:10, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Yeah it'd be a good idea - there will be a lot more people visiting the page and it might as well be given the push to GA status. Looking it over, there is only one request for a source - address that and the article will be B class. It might be an idea to give it a polish and get a GA review, which will flag up any areas that need work. It should be easy enough to address those points and submit it again - I doubt it will be to hard to get it to GA. The only place I think that needs expanding is the work section - given that is where his claim to fame comes from it seems like it should form a larger percentage of the article. (Emperor (talk) 15:32, 4 April 2013 (UTC))

I absolutely do not want to be rude or pour cold water, but might it not be a little lèse-majesté to think that the status of this article might be a nice gift for Iain Banks? I feel that he might have bigger things to worry about at the moment than whether his WP article is FA or GA or whatever, and it seems potentially a little self-aggrandizing for us to think that this is something important for him. Unless of course you know otherwise. At the same time, I do of course think that it is a good idea to improve the article anyway - no question there! - I'm just not sure that it's appropriate to claim it as a gift for him. I'd be more comfortable saying we want to get it to GA because it is a good idea for the encyclopaedia, which is really why we are here. With best wishes to all, DBaK (talk) 07:34, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Well, I am not claiming it's going to turn his life around, but it is a reasonably safe bet he would like to hear that his article made the front page of Wikipedia. So I would like for us to be able to give him even this fleeting moment of good news, as long as we still can. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 15:57, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks - I'm touched by your faith, and will certainly do whatever little I can to help, regardless of the anticipated effect. :) Best wishes DBaK (talk) 16:05, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

So if I was doing a GA review, which I have experience with in the past, here is the list of issues to be addressed:

• expand lead
• consider changing desnsity of references to end of sentence. For example, first para has five sentences, and five end of para reference. Which claim/sentence is backed up with which reference? The current structure suggests that all five references support all five sentences equally, which I find doubtful. Also, if anyone was to add a sentence to the middle, with or without the ref, this would become a mess.
• I agree that the works section could use expansion, if we can only find sources
• awards section is an unreferenced list; I've added a corresponding tag
• Bibliography section is inconsistently referenced; looking at FAs about writers it seems it is acceptable for the list of work to be unreferenced, so I went ahead and removed the single unformatted ref. There are some comments in that section, which probably should be moved somewhere else, in particular the "It also includes works of fiction more characteristic of Banks's writing published as Iain Banks.", which seems ORish without a ref, and should be in text.
• refs seem ok, after I removed to spam-like links; one book needs page numbers however.

Please note I had not read the prose for copyediting and such, as this is not my forte. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:11, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

I'd suggest only listing the awards that Banks has won, rather than all those he has been nominated for. These sources include critical overview of his work: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. There's a lot of critical asessment out there, especially if you have access to Questia etc. Less so biog detail. Scottish writers talking II looks like it would be a great resource, if anyone has access to it.Span (talk) 22:21, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

I may be able to obtain some academic articles. If anyone needs anything specific, ping me on talk and I'll see about it. PS. Regards won vs nominated, I think we can list both, but probably would be best to split them, and all should be referenced. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 03:57, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Article history is interesting: [7]. About ~100-150k people visited the article in the few days since the announcement; the viewability is back to old levels now. It will likely spike again, so we can estimate that any improvements we do will be read by a similar amount of people. Or likely, higher, with obits running in many more places than the previous annoucement. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 13:56, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

Awards

Bugger! I've just heard that he's died. But what I wanted to say was "Iain Banks received several literary awards" is a misleading preface to the Awards section because many of the things listed are nominations for awards, not awards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.132.222.203 (talk) 16:37, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Atheist?

Is he an Atheist (its on the Categories list at the bottom)? Im not saying he isn't, just that I didn't know and its not mentioned in the body of the article.

CaptinJohn 12:18, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

I think it used to be mentioned up until the trivia section went. Banks is listed as a supporter on the Humanist Society of Scotland's website http://www.humanism-scotland.org.uk/ and was one of the 102 signatories of the famous letter (August 2002) that asked the BBC to have non religious people on Thought for the Day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.8.246 (talk • contribs)

For some reason, he's since been removed from the category, despite concise and unambiguous affirmations of his atheism right until death, as shown with http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22780003 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dnCTApJ4Bc . I really can't see any reason why he's been removed. I don't wish to start some sort of edit war or anything, but I intend to readd him, and if he is removed again, I'd appreciate an explanation as to why.Weirdtheory (talk) 00:22, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Middle name - does he definitely have one?

I'm sure I've seen an interview of Banks by Mark Lawson in which he explains that he doesn't really have a middle name or something the "Menzies" was omitted from his burth certificate in error. Anuoen able to confirm the details?--Peter cohen (talk) 19:37, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Ah I now see a mention in the article. I'm going to remove the Menzies form the first sentence.--Peter cohen (talk) 19:38, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Irrelevant whether it's on his birth certificate or not. Under Scots Law your name is whatever you are commonly known as. If you want to change it you just start using a different one. There is no need for the legal process that other jurisdictions insist upon. So if he says his name is "Iain Menzies Banks" or "Captain Kangaroo", then it is, even if his parents didn't name him that. -- Derek Ross | Talk 13:16, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

Reception

In decent articles about authors on Wikipedia, there is normally a section on Criticism and Reception of their work, where there is so information about how critics and the public valued their work, often even an assessment about what books they wrote were superior to others rather than just having titles on a list. I think this article would be greatly enhanced with the addition of such a section. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:23, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. Someone just needs to write it... --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 03:47, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Inversions is not obviously a Culture novel.

Having read all of the Iain M Banks novels it seems that describing 'Inversions as a Culture novel is pushing it a bit. Although it is clearly intimated that the 'Doctor' is probably of non terrestrial origin in the context of the world described in the book, that does not lead to the inevitable conclusion that she must be an agent of the Culture. In my opinion the book stands alone as an independent work. It might be guessed that the Doctor is an agent of the culture but this can only be speculated upon. Banks' fictional universe was not limited to that of the Culture. The fact that the Doctor appears to use technology that is clearly advanced and beyond that which would be found in the world that is described in the book does not mean it is culture technology. Inversions is a novel that explores many themes and just happens to have a protagonist that is almost certainly 'alien'. It is too simplistic to assume that she was just another culture agent. If this was actually what Banks intended then so be it but the book works brilliantly without any need for reference to the Culture. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.1.41.161 (talk) 22:52, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

First, do look up WP:OR. Second, read the second sentence in the lede of Inversions (novel), which was a quotation from Banks.Wzrd1 (talk) 23:00, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

Opinions?

A new user wishes to include an inline link to the Banks memorial page, and an unreferenced mention of the car that banks had just before his death. What do others think? I am against the first as it seems to violate WP:NOTMEMORIAL. I could live with the second if it was sourced to a decent source. Can it be? --John (talk) 17:51, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm a bit dubious as to including a memorial page, per the mentioned policy. As for the car, is it a notable occurrence or automobile, or just a car? We also need to avoid WP:TRIVIA.Wzrd1 (talk) 05:53, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

I've removed the memorial site from the external links. If it can be shown to have been a significant part of his story, as told by the relaible sources rather than fans, we could re-include it. I have no doubt that the car story is true, but I am against including it. It's trivia. --John (talk) 22:00, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Banks-related interview

Posting this interview here in case this article's authors find it relevant. Parrot of Doom 19:24, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, that is interesting. --John (talk) 22:06, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

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Merge

Merged as per talk page discussion on the other article, here. Richard75 (talk) 20:11, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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