The State of the Art
by Iain Banks · first published 1989
20% recommend70% neutral10% critical
The first ever collection of Iain Banks’s short fiction, this volume includes the acclaimed novella, The State of the Art. This is a striking addition to the growing body of Culture lore, and adds definition and scale to the previous works by using the Earth of 1977 as contrast. The other stories in the collection range from science fiction to horror, dark-coated fantasy to morality tale.
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Advanced API Security by Prabath Siriwardena Just started it, but so far it's a well-written discussion of OAuth, OpenID Connect, UMA, and JSON for API security. The State of the Art by Iain Banks I have been forcing myself to ration out the Culture books so I don't run through them too quickly. Such a great series. The Trauma of Everyday Life by Mark Epstein The fourth book I've…
on “Ask HN: What is HN reading?” ↗Interesting take :) You should read (if you haven't) The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks, particularly the eponymous novella. Summary from the wikipedia page: "The State of the Art" At 100 pages long, the title novella makes up the bulk of the book. The novella chronicles…
on “Millions of US farm animals to be culled by suffocation, drowning and shooting” ↗…generally treat their human pets well, and with respect. There are effectively no limitations on what people can be, do or have. Except perhaps meaning, and that's a major theme. But there is a novella, State of the Art, which features contact between the Culture and 1980s Earth. And that is very dystopian. As are his treatments of various other civilizations that the Culture manipulates. Edit: grammar Also, many of…
on “How Dystopian Fiction Shapes Political Attitudes” ↗State of the Art by Iain M Banks
on “Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?” ↗…recordings of human minds, and experiments with them. Other Minds strongly disapprove. But then, the Culture overall experiments with other civilizations that it encounters. Also, it wasn't until I read State of the Art that I realized that the Culture is not part of Earth human future. I gather than he assumes humanoid panspermia and/or convergent evolution.
on “How Dystopian Fiction Shapes Political Attitudes” ↗…that he wants to join the Affront civilisation, and injecting someone permanently into another civilisation that is much less developed is not taken lightly - but happens (Similar deal is done in The State of the Art). A lot of the people who die "of old age" in Culture seem to die through ennui - those who find interest to live on, easily do so. And social pressure depends on accepting it - IMHO later books quite…
on “The Culture War: Iain M. Banks’s Billionaire Fans” ↗That reminds me of the GCU Arbitrary from the Culture novella The State of the Art - which liked to matchmake its crew members.
on “How fateful?” ↗> We see brief glimpses in Player of Games (at its very start) and perhaps Inversions (the story about when they were kids) but mostly it's all SC all the time. Was The State of the Art SC? Been a while since I read it.
on “The Culture novels as a dystopia” ↗…book it would have been the introduction of the culture/ship ai ideas for people which would have made a big impact. unfortunately I read it after going through a lot of Iain Banks' books such as The State of the Art, The Crow Road, The Bridge and Feersum Endjinn, and found it to be just ok.
on “Consider Phlebas Published by the Folio Society” ↗…characters you cant't remember, you know this is not for you. There is only one brilliant story from Iain Banks. Quote Grok: The Iain M. Banks novel that features a space suit carrying a dead human is "The State of the Art". Specifically, the short story within this collection is titled "Descendant." In this story, a Culture soldier and his sentient space suit struggle to survive after being shot down and crash-landing…
on “Fans of Iain Banks, please explain – a.k.a. "player of games" book review” ↗…accomplices, while a few were just too full already. But the majority laughed and ate, comparing tastes and textures. “If they could see us now,” Roghres giggled. “Cannibals from outer space!” The State of the Art by Iain Banks (The Culture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_State_of_the_Art#Collectio...
on “Where's the Beef?: The lab-grown-meat revolution that wasn't” ↗