The State of the Art – Iain M. Banks

My goal this year is to read all the books in The Culture series. This collection is peripheral to it. And it is the book I most dread reading, mostly because I tend to dislike short story collections.

One wonders to what extent some of these stories fit the criteria of even being part of The Culture. There is a very obvious Culture novella in the middle of this book, but for everything else, not really. With one of the stories, were it not for the passing mention of ‘knife missile’, it wouldn’t make the cut.

Were these stories any good? There is with a doubt a lot of talent here. Banks can write a story about a man and his spacesuit walking on the surface of a desolated planet and keep my attention for 20 or so pages. That seems laudable. But on the other hand, I don’t really remember any of the other stories in the collection, except thinking that the last one in the collection was perhaps to experimental for its own good. I also vaguely remember the first story in the collection, but mostly came away with it feeling like I missed the point.

Then what about the Culture novella itself? It was better, and it gave me a little bit to chew on regarding the culture series. The story largely takes place on Earth, our earth, in what must be the 70s or 80s. This is the most interesting bit because, up until now, in my mind’s eye I had defaulted the characters in the series as being people that would look like you or I. They still might do, as the modification character from the Culture need to fit in are not so much cosmetic as they are internal. It left me with some questions, and felt a little not too well thought especially (for those of you who recall the details of the story well) (SPOILERS) when at a banquet towards the end of the story human meat is served, and the character serving it jokingly refers to themselves as cannibals from space.

Yea, it didn’t work for me. Partially because at that point I was overwhelmed with the feeling that this was all little more than Bank’s own political leanings, and they felt sophomoric.

Banks also kind of annoyingly had some ‘translation notes’ scattered within the text which were really immersion breaking, as they translated things that we (the readers) wouldn’t know because they were translated from Marin, the Culture’s fictitious language. The text was meant to be something that the assumed readership would understand. On the other hand, Disneyland is glossed over without a footnote, though I very much doubt the average culture citizen would know it, and there would have been a delightful opportunity for Banks to have described Disneyland from the perspective of a Culture drone. I feel like that would have been some lovely world-building.

Overall, this was a ‘meh’ for me. It was also another book I read a decade ago. The next Culture book is a fresh read for me, so I am ready to tackle it.