DATE FROM SUBJECT CODES
<Trond Bulland > wrote:
>on Monday Christina Siun O'Connell
>> for the more physics able than moi, try Greg Egan (sigh - I get all lost
>> in his)
>that other Greg ain't bad either... Greg Bear, that is.... "queen of
>angels" is a great mix of voodoo and AI, and "moving mars" seems to be
>ok (i've just reached page 100 so far)
>
>> ...C
>> who is on a Iain Banks binge now ...
>
>yeah, Banks seems to pop up un FC ever so often. anybody here reading
>his "brother" Iain M.(?) Banks' "mainstream" novels ("slipstream" more
>likely....) any comments on
>a) the quality of t-h-a-t side of his literary personality as compared
>to the sf-writer side
Personally I just find , his books to carry a similar vein of Black Humour.
They are all scattered with references to popular culture , and carry the same
wry poke at accepted mores. It is just the offworld settings and the tech that
separates them , but occasionally some of the stories have overlaps - take _The
Bridge_ as a good example , and _Walking on Glass_ . Spotted a new one just out
in Hardback , can't remember the title , but have been working so much the past
month , have lost a certain degree of touch with the arts.
>b) how a writer is able to separate his two different personalities
>to the degree Banks seems to be able to
As in above - he doesn't , the same person shines through as the author . The
ability to change and morph his characters depending on the milieu he uses to
illustrate his tales , is IMHO , the sign of his greatness as an author of the
latter part of the century. _The Wasp Factory _ is now an examined book in the
GCSE syllabus in the U.K .... alongside such books as _Lord Of the Flies_ ,
_Catcher in the Rye_ and the inevitable Will Shakespear .
>(dammit, i've got severe problems separating my academic writing from
>my sf! but then i'm no Banks either.... ;-))
>
>have a nice day :-)
You too Trond
>
>tb
>
Grazoid waitingforthenewparebacksohehasacompletecollection