Scottish writer Ian Banks: biography, creativity and books

A Scottish science fiction writer on the list of the fifty best writers in Britain, Tarantino from literature, in the opinion of literary critics and journalists, Ian Menzies Banks was born in February 1954 in the Scottish city of Dunfermline. Few would have managed to save as much memory as Banks Ian in only 59 lived years. A brief biography contains not only books. The name of Ian Banks is an asteroid.

The writer lived the same way he wrote, honestly. And what happened to him on earth, even the most seemingly insignificant event, all this unfolded colorfully and widely in a completely different world - science fiction. However, for a completely normal school of realism, he worked a lot. The author signed the fantasy so - Ian M. Banks, and the reality is just Ian Banks. Such a split happened.

The main milestones of the road

Ian Banks graduated from the University of Stirling, where he studied English, psychology and philosophy. Then he lived in London until 1988, and after returning to his homeland in 1992, he married. The marriage was happy, but lasted only fourteen years. After the divorce, Ian Banks for a long time could not come to his senses and for four years did not publish his works.

In 2013, he felt ill, turned to doctors who diagnosed cancer of the gallbladder. How would an ordinary person behave? Hard to say. More often people at last recollect about any trifles. Ian Banks acted differently. He declared to numerous admirers of his work that he was deadly sick and he had few months to live, so he asked him not to disturb him any more.

Stopping public activity, he suddenly married his old friend. Perhaps, offended by God, he did it on Good Friday 2013, when Christ was crucified. Or maybe, on the contrary, by this step the best-selling author Ian Banks wanted to give the dying God a little joy. As the writer married on March 31, and on June 9 he was no more. Too little time was left for joy. Ian Banks did not want to cry a single day.

World outlook reference points

Such a plan eccentric deeds have happened before. For example, the case of a passport in 2003. The Scottish writer Banks Ian adhered to left-wing political views, that is, the principles preached by the British Labor Party, were not alien to him. Labor leader and Prime Minister of England was at that time Tony Blair - the record holder, by the way, by the time of stay at the helm with him, only Margaret Thatcher could compare.

And the act was eccentric, that's why. Ian Banks was disappointed with the politics that Tony Blair's office was conducting. As we recall, 2003 was sadly marked by the invasion of Iraq by US forces and the coalition, which included the United Kingdom. The world-famous author Banks Ian tore up his passport in protest and sent scraps to Blair. In addition, the writer was always for the independence of Scotland and put his signature under the declaration initiated by the Scottish Socialist Party.

Humanoid Banks

Most interesting are sci-fi books, united by the author in the cycle "Culture." This is about the supercivilization of humanoids of absolutely unearthly origin, which are not people in the generally accepted sense of the word. The artificial intelligence of this world has far surpassed the human.

In unbridled fantasy, writer Banks Ian opens, whose books force the reader to move into the world of intelligent stars, drones, Razumov (highly intelligent machines that live in each orbit) and, of course, representatives of intelligent races that evolved biologically.

Banks's Utopian world is fascinating: there you can be immortal, you do not have diseases, hyperspace is conquered, so travel can be as distant as possible, taking up minimal time, orbitals not planets, but asteroids artificially constructed in space where absolutely any desire can be satisfied. There is no power as such, it is created as needed (adhokratiya), worlds-zvezdoloty, worlds-asteroids.

Problematics and plot construction

When a society of general abundance and prosperity is built (see the old programs of the British Labor Party, again this is the terminology of their dreams, faithful and forgotten), no writer can build an exciting story. Naturally, Banks also could not do without adventures in the pages of his books.

The reader encounters in the novel "Remember the Flebus" with hostile cultures, in "Excess" - with the events that came with "the world from the outside", in "Inversion" - with insufficiently intelligent civilizations. An interesting moment when the culture ship lands in 1977, where we meet it ("The Last Word of Technology"). No less interesting novels such as "Troublesome tool", "On the other side of darkness", "Algebraist" and "Transition" do not belong to the cycle "Culture".

"The Aspen Factory"

This is the first of Banks' published books (1984), his business card. The novel is provocative, very rigid. The opinions of readers and critics did not coincide with this book: along with the elegant style and beauty of the narrative, the plot itself contains scenes of cruelty and violence.

According to the story, a teenager named Frank creates his own world, where he assigns himself the right to kill insects. And he does it ingeniously and ritually. Fencing the space that he named the island, Frank dominates the lower creatures through an aspen factory. His brother Erik escapes from a madhouse and promises to come soon. Frank waits for him, walks along the island with a reader who more and more learns about his brothers, and even the causes of their psychosis are becoming clear. But it turns out that the reader was mistaken in everything - completely and completely.

"Crow Road"

The book came out 12 years after the "Aspen Factory", and during this time Banks began to recognize literally from the first lines. This novel is much more populated - the family saga, where each character has his own way through a variety of adventures - to death, as usually happens with the characters Ian Banks.

In addition to the psychological disclosure of the inner world of heroes, Banks contributes many pictures of beautiful Scotland in the descriptions, talks about the war in Iraq and much more. Reviews for "Crow Road" also differ in their opinions, but all are marked by interest. According to this book in the 90's the series was shot.

"Steps on the glass"

Here the narrative is divided into three parts according to the theme, all of them are related to the game, where there are also society, and consciousness, and sexuality. The first is a thematic story about an ordinary love triangle, the second is phantasmagoric, it tells about veterans of various intergalactic wars that can not leave the castle until they answer the question posed to them. Well, the third, as usual, is about the nutcase.

Despite the strangeness of the plot lines and the whimsicalness of the construction, the unusual behavior of the characters, the reader gradually clarifies the logical chains, comes the understanding that otherwise people themselves do not behave this way. It is interesting to the reader to find out for himself, what kind of complexes will he get out of himself in the extreme situations that have developed in this way?

"The Stone Song"

This time, the author chose the background corresponding to the psychological research of the characters - here the war, where the moral foundations are much easier to break down and people are hardened to beast-like animals. War, especially not domestic, but civil, just as brutal as all that we know. Two lyrical heroes are considered - Abel and his wife Morgan, who can not escape from military operations. On the contrary, they are in the heat, despite the fact that they are at home, in their own castle. Both heroes do what people owe to their moral organization: they seduce and seduce, they lie, betray and mercilessly take revenge on each other.

"Player"

This work is from the latest fantasy books by Ian M. Banks. The second novel about the supercivilization from the series "Culture". Again intergalactic games, the main character of the novel - Gurdj. He carries out the assignment on behalf of the Department of Special Circumstances and must participate in an unthinkable adventure. Empire games - Azad, and the winner of the game gets the imperial crown. The notion of destiny comes to the fore. The whole cycle "Culture", even in style, is radically different from all other books written by Ian Banks. The reviews are nevertheless eloquent and numerous on the books under all his pseudonyms.