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In a vacuum I'm uncomfortable with someone taking Banks's notes and drawings and putting something together out of them, but Ken MacLeod is exactly the sort of person I'd trust the job with.
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Feb 17, 2018 09:15
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We don't know that it wasn't done at Banks's request or with his consent. He might just not have wanted to share the worldbuilding until he was sure we wouldn't be spoiled.
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Feb 17, 2018 09:45
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Banks would be meh with Musk, Ken MacLeod is the guy genetically adverse to Musk and the type of capitalism that Musk stands for. You have a really weird read in banks if you think he'd be a fan of faux libertarian ultracapitalism. Elon "Elon musk" musk is antithetical to the sort of hierarchy free communalist society banks wrote about.
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Feb 17, 2018 09:46
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Kesper North posted:We don't know that it wasn't done at Banks's request or with his consent. He might just not have wanted to share the worldbuilding until he was sure we wouldn't be spoiled. That's a good point.
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Feb 17, 2018 09:55
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cis autodrag posted:You have a really weird read in banks if you think he'd be a fan of faux libertarian ultracapitalism. Elon "Elon musk" musk is antithetical to the sort of hierarchy free communalist society banks wrote about. Yeah. And the sad bit is that many of these tech bros probably consider themselves SF geeks but don't have the self awareness to realize they're the bad guys in our dystopian future
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Feb 17, 2018 10:46
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cis autodrag posted:You have a really weird read in banks if you think he'd be a fan of faux libertarian ultracapitalism. Elon "Elon musk" musk is antithetical to the sort of hierarchy free communalist society banks wrote about. What do you think the word meh means? A fan of something? Check out MacLeod's Star Fraction series, it is all about hierachy free(almost) communalist societies vs. resource grabbing capitalist assholes who flee the earth/solar system. quantumfoam fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Feb 17, 2018 |
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Feb 17, 2018 15:42
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:What do you think the word meh means? A fan of something? 'Noncommittal'. It's reasonable to guess that Banks would have had rather stronger opinions than that on Musk, given his writings.
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Feb 17, 2018 15:47
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Kesper North posted:We don't know that it wasn't done at Banks's request or with his consent. He might just not have wanted to share the worldbuilding until he was sure we wouldn't be spoiled. He would laugh at this kind of hagiographic sensibility. "Why the gently caress would I care? I'd be dead." Would be closer to the mark.
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Feb 17, 2018 16:54
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Syzygy Stardust posted:The Economist had an Elon Musk article last week that used Culture ship names for all the photo captions and subheads. Ah yes, the GUA-class ships I'm Not As Clever As I Think I Am and Egocentric rear end in a top hat.
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Feb 17, 2018 17:57
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Xtanstic posted:Unfortunately, I'm saving the books since I'm watching the TV show. I'm a jerk that can't enjoy a book adaptation if I've read the book first. I really enjoyed it.
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Feb 17, 2018 19:51
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In one of his non-Culture books, Banks described libertarianism as a simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard. I don't think meh quite captures that.
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Feb 17, 2018 19:52
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Sinteres posted:In one of his non-Culture books, Banks described libertarianism as a simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard. I don't think meh quite captures that. Yes, this.
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Feb 17, 2018 21:02
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Sinteres posted:In one of his non-Culture books, Banks described libertarianism as a simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard. I don't think meh quite captures that. It reminds me of Paul Ryan being a big Rage Against the Machine fan.
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Feb 17, 2018 21:03
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Ken MacLeod & Iain Banks were tight scifi writer friends, and where Iain Banks was ambiguous with his personal views in writing, Ken MacLeod has been very open about his personal views, cough trotsky cough fourth international cough scotland cough. Elon Musk's name could literally be cut and pasted over the adversary character's name in MacLeod's the Stone Canal and the Cassini Division books, and those two books were published years before Tesla Motors & Space-X were founded. I admit that I haven't read everything that has been published by/about Iain Banks. Personally, I enjoy the M. Banks output over the non middle initial Banks writing. Against a Dark Background, Feersum Endjinn, State of the Art and the Algebraist were/are my favorite Iain M Banks stories.
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Feb 18, 2018 01:10
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Iain Banks was ambiguous with his personal views in writing Not really. Read "State of the Art" which explictly describes the Culture in relation to Earth, and read Player of Games where the Empire of Azad could be a stand-in for our civilization. For the non-M books, Complicity oozes his hatred for the capitalism in the British context.
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Feb 18, 2018 02:11
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Fair enough, I was wrong. Still recommend people check out Ken MacLeod's Star Fraction series.
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Feb 18, 2018 02:17
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shrike82 posted:Read Player of Games where the Empire of Azad could be a stand-in for our civilization. This is a piping hot take.
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Feb 18, 2018 02:37
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NoNostalgia4Grover posted:Fair enough, I was wrong. I'm just gonna second this because they're a real good time. Also as I was looking up The Stone Canal to refresh my memory of it a bit, I found that both it and The Star Fraction won the Prometheus Award. I confess that I really do not understand Libertarian sensibilities.
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Feb 18, 2018 03:22
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Surface Detail is probably closer to how he felt about modern society.
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Feb 18, 2018 03:33
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pseudorandom name posted:Surface Detail is probably closer to how he felt about modern society. Yeah, and Jolier Veppers happens to be an overweening billionaire industrialist.
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Feb 18, 2018 04:48
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Sinteres posted:In one of his non-Culture books, Banks described libertarianism as a simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard. I don't think meh quite captures that. nailed it. although it is important to note that the culture starts with the idea of a post scarcity economy. pretty sure banks may have disliked musk, he was also a huge believer in the need for humanity to advance space technology - ken mcleod said it of him after his death. ##fake edit## here: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/iain-m-banks-culture-novels/
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Feb 18, 2018 14:25
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This quote pretty much sums up Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution(Star Fractions) series.quote:The Reformed Humanist nods gravely. ‘At some cost, moral and material, to themselves.’ It's the last 5 sentences from the Cassini Division. Reid is the not-ElonMusk character in the Fall Revolution series.
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Feb 18, 2018 16:49
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Clark Nova posted:Yeah, and Jolier Veppers happens to be an overweening billionaire industrialist. Overweening doesn’t even begin to describe him.
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Feb 18, 2018 17:11
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Turboweening Transweening Postweening
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Feb 18, 2018 17:38
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Sinteres posted:In one of his non-Culture books, Banks described libertarianism as a simple-minded right-wing ideology ideally suited to those unable or unwilling to see past their own sociopathic self-regard. I don't think meh quite captures that. At work, one of the nurses will simply describe some people with a nasal "Mehrrrrrrr" sound, sort of like a cross between "Meh" and a moo sound. It's actually quite perfect for expressing that a patient encounter is going to be an utter waste of everyone's time. And that, my friends, is libertarianism. Mehrrrrrr.
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Feb 18, 2018 18:24
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facile dismissal of a broad and fairly heterodox school of thought, nice [i am not a libertarian] does banks explain his views at any length anywhere? despite everyone calling him a socialist i presume he's more properly called a social democrat. mcleod sounds like a straight up socialist in its more precise sense, though
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Feb 19, 2018 02:47
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MacLeod calmed the gently caress down about socialism in his later books, but got more bitter & less enjoyable to read. MacLeod's 2nd book series(engines of light) was a long string of UFO jokes mixed with speed of light travel + mineral galactic intelligences. It is better than it sounds, trust me. MacLeod's standalone books: restoration game, learning the world, and night sessions were decent with good twists. Execution Channel is very skippable(it was the book where MacLeod worked out his frustrations with Bush2 & the USA's GWOT), with unlikable teflon main characters. If people want to read full socialism/communism NOW/libertarian scifi stories, track down old Mack Reynolds stories/books. Warning: they are so goddamn dated.
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Feb 19, 2018 04:58
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Macleod is straight up a Stalin-apologist tankie, but we love him despite his flaws.
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Feb 19, 2018 04:58
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China Mieville's another writer whose politics shines through in his work (especially Iron Council).
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Feb 19, 2018 05:04
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pseudorandom name posted:Macleod is straight up a Stalin-apologist tankie, but we love him despite his flaws. Nah, MacLeod was a straight up Trotsky-apologist tankie, get it right. Bush 2 getting elected was like Stalin getting Trotsky killed a 2nd time for MacLeod. My favorite book series built around a one-off joke remains David Brin's Uplift Universe. that gorilla war joke in Uplift War 
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Feb 19, 2018 05:19
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shrike82 posted:China Mieville's another writer whose politics shines through in his work (especially Iron Council). it feels fairly organic in most of his stuff, though. like, he never requires readers from different political persuasions accept his premises in order for character actions to make sense (mostly; there is a bit in the Scar where my reaction was 'There's no way things would work like that). if i reflect more on it i find things to disagree with, but i can still enjoy the books. i've liked some of macleod's books, and will probably continue reading him, despite not agreeing with his his politics, too, despite him being a lot less subtle.
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Feb 19, 2018 06:02
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Neurosis posted:facile dismissal of a broad and fairly heterodox school of thought, nice [i am not a libertarian] Pretty sure Banks wasn't a social democrat: quote:Let me state here a personal conviction that appears, right now, to be profoundly unfashionable; which is that a planned economy can be more productive - and more morally desirable - than one left to market forces. From here, where he goes in to some depth about the Culture setting. Prolonged Panorama fucked around with this message at 08:39 on Feb 19, 2018 |
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Feb 19, 2018 08:17
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Macleod just finished a new trilogy about competing factions of robots and uploaded humans in freefall combat robot bodies mining asteroids and comets in an extrasolar system. He's still political but manages to be smoother about it than usual. It's pretty fun.
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Feb 19, 2018 08:45
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Prolonged Priapism posted:From here, where he goes in to some depth about the Culture setting. thanks for that Kesper North posted:Macleod just finished a new trilogy about competing factions of robots and uploaded humans in freefall combat robot bodies mining asteroids and comets in an extrasolar system. He's still political but manages to be smoother about it than usual. It's pretty fun. i read the first book before getting distracted; i thought it was a good mil sci fi-ish (in the sense that it covers similar ground, i know it's very distinct from the median mil sci fi novel) book. i did find the idea of someone trying to recreate in the near future the aristocracy as a public political ideal rather than a de facto reality questionable but it didn't detract. i could see that ideal re-emerging after posthuman tech starts becomes available, though - francis fukuyama wrote a book warning about how transhumanism could undermine the fabric of liberalism which is an interesting read for sci fi nerds
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Feb 19, 2018 09:58
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Whoa
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Feb 19, 2018 21:44
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Holy gently caress that's gorgeous. I can't wait!
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Feb 19, 2018 22:23
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Yeah, not only is it cool in general, It's a mask, it's probably Baru's face, and something happened to her eye in the first book so it relates to the story as well.
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Feb 20, 2018 06:55
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God drat that is fantastic. You got lucky with covers, General.
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Feb 20, 2018 06:56
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Kesper North posted:God drat that is fantastic. You got lucky with covers, General. Seriously one of my most anticipated books over next year or so. Can’t wait.
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Feb 20, 2018 09:04
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TOOT BOOT posted:Whoa Volume 3: The Literally Hitler Baru Cormorant.
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Feb 20, 2018 14:24
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