The State of the Art - Iain Banks

The State of the Art

There are many writers of good science fiction. There are also many writers of good horror. There are not, however, many good writers. Iain Banks is, without a doubt, a good writer. In his stunning first novel, The Wasp Factory (1984), he explored the dark side of human nature and paranoia. This was followed up with an imaginative multi-layered and multi-faceted fantasy work, Walking on Glass (1985), and a visit to a nightmarish dream-world, The Bridge (1986). In Consider Phlebas (1987) he began an association with the Culture, an advanced and incredibly detailed extraterrestrial civilization, and expanded his ideas and themes in both The Player of Games (1988) and now Use of Weapons (1990).

To describe Iain Banks as ‘another author’ is like describing Shakespeare as ‘another playwright’, and yet despite all the many accolades he has deservedly received, the Fife-born writer remains modest and casual about his writing.

We began by discussing the development of his work and the actual order in which he had written the novels.

‘Consider Phlebas was actually written just after The Wasp Factory. In fact, the first draft of The Player of Games had been written just before The Wasp Factory. That was in 1979 - long ago. The Player of Games had come fairly close to being published back then - there were a couple of readers’ reports on it from publishers who seemed interested - and everything would have been different if it had. I’d have been a ‘Science Fiction’ writer! It turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise as it could have been difficult to break out of that mould once in it.

‘The problem was that I wasn’t getting anywhere with Science Fiction. I was about 26, and I’d written so much that I thought it was about time I got something published. I thought I’d try something that wasn’t Science Fiction because, if nothing else, I could send it to more publishers! The problem was that I didn’t have much confidence in myself to write ‘correct’ literature and in many ways The Wasp Factory was a compromise between the two. By taking such an individual central character, and having the book related in first person, and removing the action physically from society by setting it on an island, I was able to create my own background, and to an extent my own religion as well. If you are writing about an alien world, you can do a lot of things which apply in Science Fiction as a matter of course, but now you can apply them to a conventional novel.

‘I have always been interested in Science Fiction. In fact before I wrote The Wasp Factory, I used to think of myself as a Science Fiction writer. Not as a conventional, normal writer at all.’

The most recent novel, Use of Weapons, was one of the first ideas that Iain worked on, preceding even The Player of Games.

‘I’d been thinking about the Culture since - I’d guess - the early Seventies and Use of Weapons first evolved around 1974. I used to meet in a pub with a good friend of mine (Ken Macleod, to whom Canal Dreams was dedicated) and talk about it a lot. Ken contributed considerably to the development of the Culture. The Culture is quite simply my idea of utopia. The thing is, I’ve been bending over backwards trying not to couch it in such glowing terms until it becomes boring or silly. I actually get some very strange looks from people when I explain that it’s utopia, because the actual material used in the books tends to be quite violent. The Culture itself is actually very peaceful, but things happen on the periphery, as it were.’

One of the joys of reading an Iain Banks novel is that, aside from the basic story, the books are plotted with a skill that takes your breath away. The narrative flows and weaves through time and space and then, when you least expect it, all the threads are pulled together to create a rich tapestry of words and concepts.

‘I like making my books, not necessarily complicated, but just a wee bit more involved - more fun to work with. Ideally what I want to do is write something that makes some sort of sense but which also makes you want to go back and re-read it at some point in the future, if not immediately!

‘I don’t want to be too tricksy, but I do want the novels to have some depth. I always see each book as an individual; an upshot of how well I can do it at that particular time. Use of Weapons was reasonably successful in that respect, but I don’t think it’s a particularly easy read. On the other hand I was trying to fill it with interesting scenes, especially at the start. It’s a bit like watching a film in a foreign language with no subtitles, and trying to understand what’s going on.

‘Although The Bridge is by far the most splendidly structured, the one I have a lot of affection for is actually Consider Phlebas, which is a rag-bag in comparison, I like the energy there. However, The Bridge works in a way that, for example, Walking on Glass doesn’t. Walking on Glass didn’t do exactly what it set out to do and I think you’ve failed to an extent if the reader can’t understand what you’re saying. On the other hand, we’re very used to having things nicely explained to us. I worry sometimes that people will read Walking on Glass and think I was trying to fool them in some way, which I wasn’t.’

In many of Iain’s novels, there are examples of his unconventional approach to writing. There is the whole structure of Walking on Glass and Use of Weapons for example. In The Bridge we are introduced to a Scottish barbarian who speaks only in unpunctuated lower case, phonetically translated from a broad Scots accent - you occasionally have to read it out loud to understand what is being said! This love of the structure of writing also spills over into his short fiction which is now available in a collection called The State of the Art. A good case in point is the collection’s final story. Entitled 'Scratch', through the use of words, disconnected thoughts, punctuation and abbreviation, it tells of the end of the world. I asked Iain how the story came about.

‘It was the culmination of my reading a lot of stuff that didn’t seem connected but was - issues of the Guardian, a couple of articles in my girlfriend’s Cosmopolitan - and an absolute high dudgeon about Thatcherite Britain, about what the Tories are doing to the place and people’s attitudes towards it. There’s the gradual, deliberate, destruction of the welfare state and the National Health Service, there’s the harshness that the poor are shown, particularly in London, and the worldwide situation regarding our ability to mutually destroy each other. All this just sort of flooded out and became 'Scratch', which was a somewhat experimental piece.’

State of the Art also contains forays into other areas of Science Fiction - my personal favourite being 'Odd Attachments' - as well as more material exploring the Culture. The collection’s title derives from a novella telling of an episode in Diziet Sma’s life when she visits Earth in 1977. I wondered where that fitted in the wider context of the novels (Sma is actually a leading character in Use of Weapons).

‘In Sma’s introductory letter in The State of the Art, she says that she’s been off-planet with her drone for a hundred days or so. It’s during that time that the events in Use of Weapons happen. There’s also a tiny reference to The State of the Art in Use of Weapons where Sma’s about to be lifted off the planet, she gives an instruction to ‘send a stalling letter to that Petrain guy’. ‘That Petrain guy’ is actually the person to whom the novella is addressed (Parharengyisa Listach Ja’andeesih Petrain dam Kotosklo). Another nuance is that Petrain is also the scholar who wrote the essays at the end of Consider Phlebas. He forms a sort of scholarly link between the books but he doesn’t appear in any of them.’

The above highlights one of the most infuriating aspects of the Culture - the names of the people in it. I wondered if Iain had a rationale for the names.

‘It’s very simple. The Culture has got an individual, unique name for everybody without using numbers. To take Diziet Sma’s full name as an example (Rasd-Codurersa Diziet Embless Sma da’Marenhide): Rasd is the name of the star, Codurersa is the geological plate or planet she was born on, then there’s her given name (Diziet), the name she chooses when she’s an adult (Embless), the family or Clan name (Sma), and finally the village, street, house or whatever (da’Marenhide - ‘da’ or ‘dam’ meaning ‘of’). I magnified the position of having two names so that in the Culture you have five or six names enabling you to actually place where people come from, that’s the idea anyway.’

As well as the science fiction and fantasy work, Iain has also written two excellent ‘straight’ novels, Espedair Street and Canal Dreams. His next novel is also in this vein.

‘It’s called Cruel Road and is set in a mythical part of Argyll, more or less over the last forty years. It’s about one specific family and one central character in particular, but it’s also about three families, and a whole town which doesn’t actually exist - an amalgamation of all sorts of places. So far, I’ve written about half of it, and I think it’s funny but weird - of course! The next SF novel is going to be a non-Culture one. More baroque, a bit more rococo. You’ll have to wait and see!’

With his track record to date, any new novel from Iain Banks will be an event worth waiting for. Make sure you don’t miss it.

1694 words
1980

Christmas Horror Picks

Christmas is a time for gathering your friends and family around a blazing fire, sipping brandy as you listen to the wind howl outside and the rain beat against the window panes. Then someone clears their throat and starts to tell tales of ghosts and ghoulies, of strange crazed men scuttling along alleys lit only by the full moon, of werewolves and of vampires. David J. Howe presents his pick of horror and fantasy books published in 1994.

Title / Publisher / Format / Author	Plot	Shocks	Character	Imagination	Gross Outs	Entertainment Value
The Ghosts of Sleath (HarperCollins h/b) James Herbert	Haunted psychic investigator checks out a ghost-infested village and finds more than he bargained for.	Subtle and varied. Hauntings include an eerie burning haystack, a small drowned boy, a bleeding gibbet. The ending is guaranteed to leave you squirming.	This is a sequel to Herbert’s novel Haunted and features the same lead characters. The people come over as very real with believable problems and anxieties. It might help to have read Haunted first.	Very much a ‘traditional’ ghost story told in Herbert’s unique voice. A modern-day fireside chiller.	Herbert is fairly restrained in this novel. However scenes in which a man has his face planed off with carpentry tools are pretty nasty.	A classic story by Britain’s master of horror.
Caliban’s Hour (Legend h/b) Tad Williams	Caliban, anti-hero of Shakespeare’s The Tempest returns to extract his revenge on Prospero and Miranda. But first he must tell his story.	This is a superb short fantasy novel taking recognised characters and revealing their hidden past. Biggest shock is when Caliban’s mother dies.	Caliban comes alive in this novel. He is portrayed as a tragic and sensitive character, full of true human regrets and passions. A superb prequel/sequel to The Tempest.	Williams is a natural storyteller and his fertile imagination transports you effortlessly to Caliban’s verdant isle. A totally believable and convincing tale.	Emotional rather than visceral horror. The slow realisation that the beast Caliban is more human than those who would teach him to be like them. Revulsion at man’s vanity and pomposity.	Superb character study by one of the finest Fantasy writers working today.
Nocturne (Gollancz h/b & p/b) Mark Chadbourn	New Orleans: the dead start to appear on the streets as a young Englishman, David Easter, searches for his lost love, Fermay, and his lost memory. The key to all these strange happenings is buried in Fermay’s past, but can David discover the truth before it is too late.	Many and varied as the plot twists and turns, keeping you guessing as to how all the pieces fit together. The realisation of what Fermay has to do with the horrific killings is a classic.	Fermay is a wonderful creation with whom you instantly fall in love. David Easter is also very believable as are the assorted crooks and villains who populate New Orleans’ seedy underbelly.	Chadbourn’s love of jazz music, New Orleans and horror are mixed together into a potent brew of suspense and terror. David’s amnesia slowly clears and as he remembers precisely why Fermay left him, we realise that he is in deep trouble.	An attack by a half-man half-bird creature is powerful stuff. Fermay’s role in the proceedings and why she left England also provide a stomach-churning scenario.	Spooky jazz/horror mix with a keen edge. Incredible pulling power.
Feersum Endjinn (Little Brown h/b) Iain Banks	In a future world where reality exists as levels of Virtual Reality in a massive super-computer, the rulers realise that someone is spreading a computer virus through the chaotic levels of the software, resulting in rampant instability and chaos in life’s infrastructure.	The beauty and effectiveness with which Banks draws all his disparate plot threads together into one seamless tapestry. There are many shocks along the way as the characters realise what is going on and how it affects them.	The novel follows three main characters and all are varied and colourful. Most distinctive is Bascule the Teller, a minor prophet who can only write in phonetic English making for challenging reading.	Banks’ imagination is awesome. This is a science fiction tour de force involving computers, virtual reality and altered states of existence. All rolled up in a triumbrate plot involving the saving of civilisation. Incredible, breathtaking stuff	When a soldier, digging in the ground, breaks through to find he is several miles above another ‘ground’ and falls to a rather messy death. Also, several attacks on Bascule by a disembodied skinless face which gibbers at him.	Science Fiction for people who think they don’t like science fiction. Superb storytelling from a great writer.
Lost Souls (Penguin p/b) Poppy Z. Brite	A rites of passage story involving vampires, death-rock musicians, and unrequited love.	Brite’s vampires are incredible, sensuous creatures. Fatally attractive to human females, once impregnated, the unborn foetus literally devours the mother from inside. There aren’t many female vampires keen to have kids!	The lead human characters, Steve and Ghost, are sensitively characterised and totally believable. The vampires are eternal, lonely, vicious, violent and ultimately tragic. The book is a literary and sensual feast which works on many levels.	It takes guts and certainty to put a new spin on vampires these days and Brite manages it in a pervasive and evocative debut novel which feeds all our senses. Taste the blood, smell the cloves and spices, sip the green Chartreuse. Never has a hidden world been better realised.	When the new vampire Nothing kills his schoolfriend. Vicious and loving, brutal and understanding. A twisted love story of epic grandeur.	Incredible sensory overload. A novel to be experienced and savoured.
The Sleepless (Heinmann p/b) Graham Masterton	An ancient life-force sucking evil has been manipulating events since the dawn of time. An accident investigator stumbles onto the secret and comes face to face with the terrifying ‘Mr Hillary’.	A brilliant twisting tale of an evil insidiously entwined throughout our history. Shocks aplenty.	Masterton’s characters are realistic and identifiable. We know these people and the situations with which they are confronted stretch their human abilities to the very limits.	With over 24 horror novels to his name Masterton still writes a fresh tale. This book takes as its premise the children’s rhyme ‘Green grow the rushes-oh’ and imbues it with a sinister and horrifying meaning. Not for the squeamish	Masterton is king of ‘squirmy’ fiction. Here we have multiple murder by pneumatic bolt-cutters and felines found in unnatural places. Gross, great fun and completely terrifying.	A superb chilling story from an accomplished writer. Not for the weak hearted.
Host (Penguin p/b) Peter James	A college professor invents a ‘learning’ computer called ARCHIVE which will, it is hoped, eventually mimic human behaviour. A student discovers how to download memory onto computer disk and then upload it to another host. When the student dies, her memory and personality gets uploaded to ARCHIVE with horrific results.	A novel dealing with cryonics and sentient computers. Numerous nervous moments: the discoveries, the science, the intrusion of a stranger into a formally happy family life. The ending.	James handles his characters with care and attention and they become effective as a result. Both the older professor and the young student with whom he forms a liaison are well written. The computer is cold, as is the cryonics. It all works well together.	James’ work is often based on real life fact and this is no exception. The skill is in projecting it just far enough ahead to be terrifyingly real with the ‘scientific breakthrough’ scenario that is both effective and plausible. These fictions of today may well be the fact of tomorrow.	Some superb set pieces. The dropping of a cryogenically frozen head has shattering results. The kidnap of the professor’s son and what his eventual fate might be. Chillingly effective.	Detailed research gives this novel a ‘true life’ edge which leaves the reader wondering if what they have just read is really fiction. Very enjoyable stuff, especially for those who consider  computers to be an unknowable force. You are being watched!
The Pan Book of Horror: Dark Voices 6  (Pan p/b) Edited by David Sutton and Stephen Jones	This annual collection of horror is still going strong and proves that short stories are just as popular and effective as their longer counterparts. This volume features multiple personalities, mythic terrors, Mexican ghosts, man-eating plants, medical experiments, metamorphosis, maggots, maniacs and loads more brilliant stuff starting with the letter ‘m’.	There are shocks aplenty in its 19 stories. A Roman curse rebounds on its modern day initiator with devastating results; a son finds the ideal base material for his maggot farm; a multiple murderer discovers that his latest intended victim is not as helpless as he thinks. There are too many to list but you are bound to find something here to touch a personal nerve.	Imagination …? A supergroup comprised of Elvis, Joplin, Hendrix, Lennon, Moon and Bonham … making love with a dolphin …  a comedian who makes his big entrance from inside another comedian … a husband who discovers that you shouldn’t two-time your wife if she is a seamstress … all from the cream of todays short horror story writers.	With stories by John Brunner, Michael Marshall Smith, Kim Newman, Nancy Holder, David Case, Nicholas Royle, Daniel Fox, Kathe Koja and others, the characters who populate these tales of terror are either bitter, twisted or dead. Sometimes all three … and before the end of the stories. Hardly a duff one in sight.	There are several wincingly good denouements to the stories but I can’t tell all here or there would be no point in reading them. Trust me on this.	If you like your chills to be short and sharp then this collection delivers. Superior horror fiction.

 

David J Howe

1994