I'm sick of criticizing people I don't like, you know. Let's argue about cool people instead.

@eclectech @futurebird The Wasp Factory really really got to me ... can't think of one particular scene without feeling queasy ...

@eclectech @futurebird (which I think is good writing btw but I do find it very difficult to reread that book)

@futurebird @mherbert This thread is making me want to reread Banks in general (it is a long while since I have read them) but The Wasp Factory won't be the one I start on, even though it was the first of his I read as an impressionable teen.

@eclectech @futurebird my first was Use of Weapons which I think was a far tamer introduction ...

@mherbert @eclectech @futurebird
I wonder what Banks *really* felt about the Culture? They seem to be at one and the same time both his ideal society, and a warning about what you might end up doing to others in the name of your ideal society.
And do the Minds really value the lives of the humanoids they coexist with or do they merely keep them around as amusing pets?
Difficult to discuss without plot spoilers...

@kbm0 @eclectech @futurebird I think Banks is on record somewhere talking about his feelings on the Culture ... as for the Minds, given how competitive they are it totally makes sense to me that the turnover rate of humans on any one vessel would definitely be a point of comparison and keeping that low by making things aboard hospitable seems like a goal ... they do claim at one point that differences are to be celebrated and keeps a society healthy, so maybe in that light they would appreciate co-existing with humanity? but then there's the Grey Area ...

@futurebird @kbm0 @eclectech I would argue the same, but they ended up being ostracised anyway by being willing to go there ...