The Wasp Factory: Ian Banks

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In April 2013, Banks announced he had inoperable cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year. [6] He died on 9 June 2013. [7] Early life [ edit ] After graduation, Banks took a succession of jobs that left him free to write in the evenings. These supported his writing throughout his twenties and allowed him to take long breaks between contracts, during which time he travelled through Europe and North America. During this period he worked as an IBM 'Expediter Analyser' (a kind of procurement clerk), a testing technician for the British Steel Corporation, and a costing clerk for a law firm in London's Chancery Lane. [8] Career [ edit ] Writing career [ edit ] a b "BBC News – Five Minutes With: Iain M Banks". Bbc.co.uk. 3 November 2012 . Retrieved 9 April 2013. My Review: Much has been said in disgust and even anger about this polarizing book. Some have called for it to be banned. Others have written the equivalent of a silent finger-down-the-throat mime. And secondly, he doesn’t legally exist as his father never bothered getting around to registering his birth. So Frank has to pretend that he actually doesn’t live with his father, is an orphan and just visits from time to time. Also, he has to ensure that he’s never around when Diggs the local policeman calls. He’s found to be strange by the locals as his brother Eric went crazy and they wonder whether he will follow in the same direction.

The book sold well, but was greeted with a mixture of acclaim and criticism, due to its gruesome depiction of violence. The Irish Times called it "a work of unparalleled depravity." [2] Plot [ edit ] I'm also an ardent partisan of Lolita, that deeply disturbing and very beautiful book by a pedophile about his pursuit of the perfect lover. I loved Mrs. Dalloway, the chilling, near-perfect narrative of a wealthy woman's desperation and crushing ennui. Hall, George (4 October 2013). "The Wasp Factory – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 1 February 2019. Kelly, Emre (12 February 2018). "Elon Musk: New SpaceX drone ship, A Shortfall of Gravitas, coming to East Coast". Florida Today . Retrieved 13 February 2018. Appeals to reason, international law, U. N. resolutions and simple human decency mean – it is now obvious – nothing to Israel... I would urge all writers, artists and others in the creative arts, as well as those academics engaging in joint educational projects with Israeli institutions, to consider doing everything they can to convince Israel of its moral degradation and ethical isolation, preferably by simply having nothing more to do with this outlaw state. [41]More rejection slips. More rejection slips from a smaller number of publishers, as fewer had SF lists within which to bring my deathless prose to an unsuspecting but, I was certain, ultimately extravagantly appreciative and indeed rightly thankful public. Frank has a mysterious disability serving as yet another reason he's disinclined to venture very far from the island. And speaking of taking a pee, Frank pisses on the Sacri Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies ( / ˈ m ɪ ŋ ɪ z/ ⓘ). After the success of The Wasp Factory (1984), he began to write full time. His first science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, appeared in 1987, marking the start of the Culture series. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". [5] The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks makes for one hellofa compelling read. I finished it in an evening - once started, I simply couldn't put it down.

The Wasp Factory is a difficult read. Piecing together the truths –if there are any- from Frank’s narrative are nearly impossible. The only thing that remains clear is Frank’s hatred for women and the sea. The story is less about Frank’s relationship with Eric and more about Frank’s relationship with himself. In the end, Frank’s revelation and the author’s point is somewhat diluted by Frank’s own mental instability. Is any of this real?In 2010 Banks publicly joined the cultural boycott of Israel, refusing to allow his novels to be sold in the country. He was a frequent signatory of letters of protest to the Guardian and a name recruited to causes of which he approved, from secular humanism to the legalising of assisted suicide to the preservation of public libraries. Banks himself was a self-declared "evangelical atheist" and a man of decided political views, often expressed with humorous exasperation and sometimes requiring ripe language. He relished his public status as no-nonsense voice of a common-sense socialism that had an increasingly nationalistic tint. You are all entitled to your opinion. Here is mine: This book is brilliant. It will be remembered long long after the pleasant entertainments of the day are more forgotten than Restoration drama. (Hands up anyone who knows who Colley Cibber is. And don't front. Or use Wikipedia.) For lovers of the grotesque, there are some truly disgusting imagery in The Wasp Factory. The event which serves as the catalyst for Eric’s own descent into psychosis is among the best written passages to ever grace horror literature. Banks is to be commended for the work, but the ending loses much of its intended purpose. Frank is not a scion from which lessons can be learned and that leaves only the madness. Enjoy the journey.

a b Banks, Iain M. (10 August 1994). "A Few Notes on the Culture". Originally posted on rec.arts.sf newsgroup. AND NOW, MAKING IT AN EVEN 10, THE NEWEST MEMBER TO JOIN THE “THEY MAKE STEVE SCREAM LIKE A LITTLE KID WHEN THEY LOOK AT ME” CLUB IS..... Yes. True! I doubt we would see a father trying to change the gender of his child, though, and a murderer who proudly announces three completed murders before reaching adolescence, - using bombs, snakes and kites to kill off even younger children in the family - explaining it "with hindsight" at age seventeen as a "phase" he went through because of some very odd Freudian sexual issues and stereotypical misogyny!"

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Of course, I know how small a piece of land my island is; I’m not a fool. I know the size of the planet and just how minuscule is that part of it I know. I’ve watched too much television and seen too many nature and travel programmes not to appreciate how limited my own knowledge is in terms of first-hand experience of other places; but I don’t want to go farther afield, I don’t need to travel or see foreign climes or know different people. I know who I am and I know my limitation. I restrict my horizons for my own good reasons; fear--oh, yes, I admit it--and a need for reassurance and safety in a world which just so happened to treat me very cruelly at an age before I had any real chance of affecting it.” By his death in June 2013, Banks had published 26 novels. A 27th novel The Quarry was published posthumously. [19] His final work, a poetry collection, appeared in February 2015. [20] In an interview in January 2013, he also mentioned he had the plot idea for another novel in the Culture series, which would most likely have been his next book and was planned for publication in 2014. [21] A project to publish Banks's unseen early drawings, maps and sketches from the Culture universe alongs with his writings and notes on the setting was underway in February 2018. [22] In 2021, the delayed single volume of The Culture: Notes and Drawings was cancelled and replaced with two separate volumes: a landscape artbook of The Culture: The Drawings and a companion volume containing notes, excerpts and new text from Ken MacLeod. [23] In 2023, the release date for The Culture: The Drawings was confirmed for the 7 November that year while the still-untitled companion volume was scheduled for late 2024. [24]