When you talk about people you make them important. I want to think more about who I choose to make important.
Even if you are criticizing someone, burying their bad ideas with logic and all the knives of science you're still making them and their ideas important.
You can expect me to talk about Iain M. Banks more and the questions I have about his work.
It's why it's probably is a good idea to do a critical review of Newitz and their "Terraformers" which I also have questions about.
@futurebird Ooh, OK. My starter. I think Iain M. Banks wrote slightly better books as Iain Banks, than Iain M. Banks. Controversial I know.
He wrote my favourite opening line of a book ever.
"It was the day my grandmother exploded"
I couldn't put it down, but I was NOT having a good time.
@mherbert @eclectech @futurebird
As long as you noticed the chapter names the first time. I was deeply confused the first time I read that book because I didn’t realise that it started in the middle and went forwards and backwards in time in alternating chapters (made slightly more confusing by one of the chapters being a near-death experience where he has a flashback to even earlier).
I took it on a trip where I had a lot more time than I expected, so probably read it seven or eight times as a teenager. I’ve reread it a few times as an adult, but a few of the later books knocked it down my list of favourite Culture novels.
@mherbert @eclectech @futurebird
The clue is the chapter numbers. The forwards timeline has Arabic numbers that count up, the backwards timeline has Roman numerals that count down. Once you notice this, it makes sense. I tried once reading it in chronological order but it’s less good: the backwards bits of the story have revelations that explain things in the forward timeline and are introduced at the important point in the narrative.
myrmepropagandist
eclectech
Malcolm Herbert
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)