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The '''Culture series''' is a [[science fiction]] [[book series|series]] written by [[Scottish people|Scottish]] author [[Iain Banks|Iain M. Banks]] and released from 1987 through 2012. The stories centre on [[The Culture]], a [[utopia]]n, [[Post-scarcity economy|post-scarcity]] space society of [[humanoid]] [[extraterrestrial life|alien]]s, and advanced [[Superintelligence|superintelligent]] [[artificial intelligence]]s living in [[socialism|socialist]] habitats spread across the [[Milky Way]] galaxy. The main theme of the novels is the dilemmas that an idealistic more advanced civilization faces in dealing with smaller, less advanced civilizations that do not share its [[Ideal (ethics)|ideals]], and whose behaviour it sometimes finds repulsive. In some of the stories action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of (or non-members of) the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture (knowing and unknowing) in its plans to civilize the [[galaxy]].
The '''Culture series''' is a [[science fiction]] [[book series|series]] written by [[Scottish people|Scottish]] author [[Iain Banks|Iain M. Banks]] and released from 1987 through 2012. The stories centre on [[The Culture]], a [[utopia]]n, [[Post-scarcity economy|post-scarcity]] space society of [[humanoid]] [[extraterrestrial life|alien]]s, and advanced [[Superintelligence|superintelligent]] [[artificial intelligence]]s living in [[Space habitat|artificial habitats]] spread across the [[Milky Way]] galaxy. The main theme of the novels is the dilemmas that an idealistic more advanced civilization faces in dealing with smaller, less advanced civilizations that do not share its [[Ideal (ethics)|ideals]], and whose behaviour it sometimes finds repulsive. In some of the stories action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of (or non-members of) the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture (knowing and unknowing) in its plans to civilize the [[galaxy]].


==The Culture==
==The Culture==

Revision as of 15:33, 11 February 2021

The Culture Series
Author
Iain M. Banks

The Culture series is a

artificial habitats spread across the Milky Way galaxy. The main theme of the novels is the dilemmas that an idealistic more advanced civilization faces in dealing with smaller, less advanced civilizations that do not share its ideals, and whose behaviour it sometimes finds repulsive. In some of the stories action takes place mainly in non-Culture environments, and the leading characters are often on the fringes of (or non-members of) the Culture, sometimes acting as agents of Culture (knowing and unknowing) in its plans to civilize the galaxy
.

The Culture

Main article: The Culture

The Culture is a society formed by various

Minds, very advanced AIs.[4]

Although the Culture has more advanced technology and a more powerful economy than the vast majority of known civilizations, it is just one of the "Involved" civilizations that take an active part in galactic affairs. The much older Homomda are slightly more advanced at the time of Consider Phlebas (this is, however, set several centuries before the other books, and Culture technology and martial power continues to advance in the interim);[5] the Morthanveld have a much larger population and economy, but are hampered by a more restrictive attitude to the role of AI in their society.[6] The capabilities of all such societies are vastly exceeded by those of the Elder civilisations (semi-retired from Galactic politics but who remain supremely potent) and the Sublimed, entities which have abandoned their material form for existence in form of non-corporeal, multi-dimensional energy beings, but these generally refrain from intervention in the material world.[7]

Some other civilizations hold less favourable views of the Culture.

Zetetic Elench. Others simply drop out temporarily or permanently.[11]

Books in the series

The Culture series comprises nine novels and one short story collection. The list, ordered by date of publishing, is:

Title First published Date in which set ISBN
Consider Phlebas[9]19871331 CE[5]1-85723-138-4
An episode in a full-scale war between the Culture and the Idirans, told mainly from the point of view of an Idiran agent.[8]
The Player of Games[12]19882083 to 2087/8 CE (approximate)[13]1-85723-146-5
A bored member of the Culture is blackmailed into being the Culture's agent in a plan to subvert a brutal, hierarchical empire. His mission is to win an empire-wide tournament by which the ruler of the empire is selected.[8]
Use of Weapons[14]1990[15]2092 CE[16] in the main narrative stream. 1892 CE[17] at the start of the secondary narrative stream.1-85723-135-X
Chapters describing the current mission of a Culture special agent born and raised on a non-Culture planet alternate with chapters that describe in reverse chronological order earlier missions and the traumatic events that made him who he is.[18]
The State of the Art[19]1991[20]Various (title story takes place in 1977 CE)0-356-19669-0
A
control group in the Culture's long-term comparison of intervention and non-interference.[7]
Excession[11]19961867 CE (approximate)[21] in main setting. 1827 CE (approximate)[22] and 633 BCE (approximate)[23] in flashbacks.1-85723-394-8
An alien artifact far advanced beyond the Culture's understanding is used by one group of
Minds to lure a civilisation (the behaviour of which they disapprove) into war; another group of Minds works against the conspiracy. A sub-plot covers how two humanoids make up their differences after traumatic events that happened 40 years earlier.[11]
Inversions[24]1998Unspecified1-85723-763-3
Not explicitly a Culture novel, but recounts what appear to be the activities of a Special Circumstances agent and a Culture emigrant on a planet whose development is roughly equivalent to medieval Europe. The interwoven stories are told from the viewpoint of several of the locals.[25]
Look to Windward[10]20002167 CE (approximate)[26]1-85723-969-5
The Culture has interfered in the development of a race known as the Chelgrians, with disastrous consequences. Now, in the light of a star that was destroyed 800 years previously during the Idiran War, plans for revenge are being hatched.[8]
Matter[6]20081887 CE (approximate) or 2167 CE (approximate)[27]1-84149-417-8
A Culture special agent who is a princess of an early-industrial society on a huge artificial planet learns that her father and brother have been killed and decides to return to her homeworld.[28] When she returns, she finds a far deeper threat.[6]
Surface Detail[29]
2010Some time between 2767[30] and 2967 CE (approximate)[31]1-84149-893-9
A young woman seeks revenge on her murderer after being brought back to life by Culture technology. Meanwhile, a war over the digitized souls of the dead is expanding from cyberspace into the real world.
The Hydrogen Sonata[32]20122375 CE (approximate)[33]978-0356501505
In the last days of the Gzilt civilisation, which is about to Sublime, a secret from far back in their history threatens to unravel their plans. Aided by a number of Culture vessels and their avatars, one of the Gzilt tries to discover if much of their history was actually a lie.

Main themes

Since the Culture's biological population commonly live as long as 400 years

expansionist Idirans—otherwise the Culture's economic and technological advancement would only have been an exercise in hedonism.[5]

All of the stories feature the tension between the Culture's humane,

utilitarian calculations predicted would be the best course in the long term.[5]
The Idiran War serves as a recurring reference point in most of the subsequent novels, influencing the Culture's development for centuries and dividing its residents—both humanoids and AI Minds—along the pacifist and interventionist ideals.

In subsequent novels, the Culture—particularly SC and, to a lesser degree, Contact—continue to employ subterfuge, espionage, and even direct action (collectively called "dirty tricks") in order to protect itself and spread the Culture's "good works" and ideals. These dirty tricks include blackmailing persons, employing mercenaries, recruiting double agents, attempting to effect regime change, and even engaging in false flag operations against the Culture itself (potentially resulting in the death of billions).[2][11][12] Though each of these individual actions would horrify the average Culture citizen, the Culture's Minds tend to justify these actions in terms of lives saved in the long-term, perhaps over the course of several hundred years. The Culture is willing to use not only preemptive, but also retaliatory actions in order to deter future hostile actions against itself. Banks commented that in order to prevent atrocities, "even the Culture throws away its usual moral rule-book."[37] Andrew M. Butler noted that, "Having established the peaceful, utopian, game-playing tendencies of the Culture, ... in later volumes the Culture’s dirty tricks are more exposed."[38]

The Culture stories have been described as "eerily prescient".

Koran, "Idolatry is worse than carnage".[40][42] However, it was as much a "holy war" from the Culture's point of view.[40]
Throughout the series, Contact and Special Circumstances show themselves willing to intervene, sometimes forcefully, in other civilizations to make them more Culture-like.

Much of Look to Windward is a commentary on the Idiran-Culture war, from a viewpoint 800 years later, mainly reflecting grief over both personal and large-scale losses and guilt over actions taken in the war. It combines these with similar reflections on the catastrophic miscarriage of the Culture's attempt to dissolve the Chelgrians' oppressive caste system. In neither case, however, does distress over the consequences of Culture policy lead its representatives to reject that policy. The book illustrates the limitations of power, and also points out that Minds and other AIs are as vulnerable as biological persons to grief, guilt and regrets.[40]

Place within science fiction

Main articles: Science fiction and Space opera

When the first Culture stories appeared, science fiction was dominated by

Stainless Steel Rat and Bill, the Galactic Hero stories,[44] while televised and film space operas such as Star Trek and Star Wars were thought to have dumbed down the subgenre.[45][46] The Culture stories did much to revive space opera.[4][38]

Literary techniques

Banks has been described as "an incorrigible player of games" with both style and structure – and with the reader.

Minds, speaks in cryptic verse, while the Sleeper Service, acting as a freelance detective, adopts a hardboiled style. On the other hand, Banks often wrong-foots readers by using prosaic descriptions for the grandest scenery, self-deprecation and humour for the most heroic actions, and a poetic style in describing one of the Affront's killings.[43]

He delights in building up expectations and then surprising the reader.[citation needed] Even in The Player of Games, which has the simplest style and structure of the series, the last line of the epilogue reveals who was really pulling the strings all along.[47] In all the Culture stories, Banks subverts many clichés of space opera. The Minds are not plotting to take over the universe, and no-one is following a grand plan.[43] The darkly comic double-act of Ferbin and Holse in Matter is not something most writers would place in "the normally po-faced context of space opera".[48] Even the names of Culture spaceships are jokes – for example Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill, Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall (part of a running gag in the series[37]) and Liveware Problem (see liveware).[50]

Banks often uses "outsiders" as viewpoint characters,[51] and said that using an enemy of the Culture as the main character of Consider Phlebas, the first story in the series, enabled him to present a more rounded view of the Culture.[citation needed] However, this character realises that his attempts to plan for anything that might conceivably happen on a mission are very similar to the way in which the Culture makes all its decisions, and by the end suspects he has chosen the wrong side.[8]

The focal character of The Player of Games is bored with the lack of real challenges in his life,[8] is blackmailed into becoming a Culture agent, admires the vibrancy of the Azad Empire but is then disgusted by its brutality,[citation needed] and wins the final of the tournament by playing in a style that reflects the Culture's values.[8]

Use of Weapons features a non-Culture mercenary who accepts the benefits of association with the Culture, including immortality as the fee for his first assignment, and completes several dangerous missions as a Culture agent, but complains that he is kept in the dark about the aims of his missions and that in some of the wars he has fought maybe the Culture was backing both sides, with good reason.[8]

Look to Windward uses three commentators on the Culture, a near-immortal Behemothaur, a member of the race plunged into civil war by a Culture intervention that went wrong, and the ambassador of a race at similar technological level to the Culture's.[36]

The action scenes of the Culture stories are comparable to those of blockbuster films.[52] In an interview, Banks said he would like Consider Phlebas to be filmed "with a very, very, very big budget indeed" and would not mind if the story were given a happy ending, provided the biggest action scenes were kept.[53] On the other hand, The Player of Games relies mainly on the psychological tension of the games by which the ruler of the Azad Empire is selected.[49]

Banks is unspecific about many of the background details in the stories, such as the rules of the game that is the centrepiece of The Player of Games,[49] and cheerfully makes no attempt at scientific credibility.[54]

Genesis of the series

Banks says he conceived the Culture in the 1960s, and that it is a combination of wish fulfilment and a reaction against the predominantly right-wing science fiction produced in the United States.[55] In his opinion, the Culture might be a "great place to live", with no exploitation of people or AIs, and whose people could create beings greater than themselves.[56]

Before his first published novel, The Wasp Factory (1984; not science fiction), was accepted in 1983, Banks wrote five books that were rejected, of which three were science fiction.[57] In Banks' first draft of Use of Weapons in 1974, his third attempt at a novel, the Culture was just a backdrop intended to show that the mercenary agent was working for the "good guys" and was responsible for his own misdeeds. At the time he persuaded his friend Ken MacLeod to read it and MacLeod tried to suggest improvements, but the book had too much purple prose and a very convoluted structure. In 1984, shortly after The Wasp Factory was published, MacLeod was asked to read Use of Weapons again, and said there was "a good novel in there struggling to get out", and suggested the interleaved forwards and backwards narratives that appeared in the published version in 1990. The novella The State of the Art, which provides the title of the 1991 collection, dates from 1979, the first draft of The Player of Games from 1980 and that of Consider Phlebas from 1982.[58]

Reception

Inversions won the 2004 Italia Science Fiction Award for the Best International Novel.[59]

The American edition of Look to Windward was listed by the editors of SF Site as one of the "Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2001" after the UK edition had missed out by just one place the previous year.[60]

Use of Weapons was listed in Damien Broderick's book Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985–2010.[61]

As a posthumous tribute to Iain Banks, aerospace manufacturer SpaceX named two of its autonomous spaceport drone ships after sentient star ships Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You which first appeared in the novel The Player of Games and names a third one A Shortfall of Gravitas which is taking inspiration from star ship Experiencing a Significant Gravitas Shortfall in Look to Windward.[62]

References

  1. ^ a b c Banks, I.M. "A Few Notes on the Culture". Archived from the original on March 22, 2012. Retrieved 2015-11-23.
  2. ^
    ISBN 90-420-0032-5
    . Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  3. ^ Parsons, Michael; Banks, Iain M (16 November 2012), Interview: Iain M Banks talks 'The Hydrogen Sonata' with Wired.co.uk, Wired UK, archived from the original on 2015-11-14, It is my vision of what you do when you are in that post-scarcity society, you can completely indulge myself. The Culture has no unemployment problem, no one has to work, so all work is a form of play.
  4. ^ a b c Johnson, G.L. (1998). "SF Site Featured Review: Excession". Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  5. ^
    ISBN 1-85723-138-4
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84149-417-3
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57003-736-8
    . Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Horwich, D. (21 January 2002). "Culture Clash: Ambivalent Heroes and the Ambiguous Utopia in the Work of Iain M. Banks". Strange Horizons. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  9. ^
    ISBN 1-85723-138-4
    .
  10. ^
    ISBN 1-85723-969-5
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 1-85723-457-X
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 1-85723-146-5
    .
  13. ISBN 1-85723-146-5
    . The war in space ended in 1367. The events of the book take place over a period of four to five years from the time of this statement.
  14. ISBN 0-356-19160-5
    .
  15. ^ http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?935
  16. ^ the events of the book are almost simultaneous with Diziet Sma's writing an account of her visit to Earth in 1977. In her preface to this account in "The State of the Art", she dates the visit to 115 years earlier.
  17. ^ at the end of the main narrative stream, Zakalwe says it has been two centuries since the battleship was taken.
  18. ^ Horton, R. (5 March 1997). "Use of Weapons: Review". Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  19. ISBN 0-356-19669-0
    .
  20. ^ http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?353224
  21. ^ The Gray Area reflects that the Excession is the most dangerous thing to be seen in the galaxy since the worst days of Idiran war, which took place five centuries before.
  22. ^ It's stated Dajeil has been pregnant for 40 years.
  23. ^ It's stated the GCU Problem Child found the black Dwarf star, and the first Excession, 2500 years before the events of the main plot.
  24. ISBN 1-85723-763-3
    .
  25. ^ Langford, D. (1998). "Iain M. Banks: Inversions". Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  26. ^ The book says it occurs about 800 years after events near the end of the fighting in space in the Idiran War.
  27. ^ The book refers to the Sleeper Service incident in Excession as occurring 20 years previously; however, it also says that the Liveware Problem has been wandering for 800 years, having begun at the end of its service in the Idiran War.
  28. ^ Johnson, G.L. (2008). "SF Site Featured Review: Matter". Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  29. ISBN 978-1-84149-893-5
    .
  30. ^ The book states that the events of Look to Windward occurred about 600 years earlier ("However, as part of what were in effect war reparations after the Chel debacle, six hundred years ago..."), and repeatedly refers to the Idiran war as occurring about 1500 years earlier; the war formally ended in 1375.
  31. ^ "Wired.co.uk talks to Iain M Banks about his latest Culture novel, Surface Detail". Wired. 14 October 2010.) "This one takes place about eight hundred years later on in the chronology of the culture" at the time he was speaking the latest book in the culture chronology was set around 2167
  32. ISBN 978-0356501505
    .
  33. ^ The book states that the Interesting Times Gang from Excession has not been seen in almost 500 years; also, that it is about 1000 years after the Idiran war.
  34. ^ Shoul, S. "Look to Windward – a review". Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  35. ^ "A Quick Chat With Iain M. Banks". The Richmond Review. Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  36. ^ a b Gevers, N. (2000). "SF Site Featured Review: Look To Windward". Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  37. ^ a b "Iain Banks – Interview". Archived from the original on 24 November 2007. Retrieved 2009-02-15. Originally published in The Guardian, 2000
  38. ^ a b Butler, A.M. (November 2003). "The British Boom: What boom? Whose boom?" (PDF). Science Fiction Studies (93). Retrieved 2009-02-14.
  39. ^ Baker, N. (2003). "Review of Dark Light". In Butler, Andrew M.; Mendelsohn, F. (eds.). The True Knowledge of Ken MacLeod. Reading, UK: Science Fiction Foundation. pp. 95–97.
  40. ^
    doi:10.3828/extr.2007.48.3.12
    . Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  41. ^ "Samuel P. Huntington, 1927–2008". American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. 14 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  42. ISSN 2047-7708
    . Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  43. ^
    ISBN 1-4051-1218-2
    . Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  44. ISBN 0-521-01657-6
    .
  45. ^ http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/documents/introduction72.htm
  46. ^ http://macha.itc.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/31808/59792_1.pdf?sequence=1
  47. ^ a b c Holt, T. (November 2007). "Must-read Classic of SF Literature: The Player of Games" (PDF). SFX Magazine: 114. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 10, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  48. ^ a b Sleight, G. (March 2008). "Locus Magazine's Graham Sleight reviews Iain M. Banks". Locus Magazine. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  49. ^ a b c "Review: The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks". 18 November 2005. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  50. ^ Poole., S. (9 February 2008). "Review – "Matter" by Iain M. Banks". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-02-15.
  51. ISBN 978-0-8020-9052-2
    . Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  52. ^ Palmer, C. (March 1999). "Galactic Empires and the Contemporary Extravaganza: Dan Simmons and Iain M. Banks". Science Fiction Studies. 26 (1). Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  53. ^ "Interview with Iain M. Banks". SFF World. 2002. Archived from the original on 2009-07-15. Retrieved 2009-02-17. (page 2 of the interview; page 1 is here)
  54. ^ "I know it's all nonsense, but you've got to admit it's impressive nonsense." Banks, I.M. (1994). "A Few Notes on the Culture". Archived from the original on 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  55. ^ Lowe, G. (24 March 2008). "Iain Banks – Interview". Spike Magazine. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  56. ^ Gevers, N. (2002). "Cultured futurist Iain M. Banks creates an ornate utopia". Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  57. ^ Mitchell, C. (3 September 1996). "Iain Banks : Whit and Excession: Getting Used To Being God". Spike Magazine. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  58. ^ Wilson, A. (1994). "Iain Banks Interview". Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  59. ^ Silver, S.H. (2004). "SF Site: News (March 2004)". Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  60. ^ Walsh, N. "Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2001: Editors' Choice". Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  61. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-04-26. Retrieved 2013-05-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  62. ^ Calla Cofield (9 April 2016). "SpaceX Sticks a Rocket Landing at Sea in Historic First". SPACE.com. Scientific American.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Culture_series&oldid=1006194049"