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Tulip posted:lol accurate Iain Banks didn't write Use of Weapons, they're thinking of Iain M Banks.  
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Oct 19, 2022 10:28
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josh04 posted:https://twitter.com/automythopoeia/status/1582633822247882753?t=eurXG5MCRdI0jgwFYL-l1A&s=19 gently caress TBF I think any depiction of Culture spaceships needs to include A) a bunch of atmosphere, B) a bunch of layers of terrain C) some kind of external forcefield effect Because without something to change the silhouette of what you're looking at, even the best depictions of the whole ship as a flat plate with some geography are going to look like a giant cellphone.
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Oct 19, 2022 19:23
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josh04 posted:https://twitter.com/automythopoeia/status/1582633822247882753?t=eurXG5MCRdI0jgwFYL-l1A&s=19
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Oct 19, 2022 21:21
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:Iain Banks didn't write Use of Weapons, they're thinking of Iain M Banks. I don't recognize/remember this, but is it from Hot Fuzz?
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Oct 20, 2022 00:35
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Prolonged Panorama posted:I don't recognize/remember this, but is it from Hot Fuzz? Yes. Bill Bailey is both actors playing twins, but one works day shift and one works night shift. Using the Banks novels is part of the visual gag when Pegg does a double-take. josh04 posted:https://twitter.com/automythopoeia/status/1582633822247882753?t=eurXG5MCRdI0jgwFYL-l1A&s=19 Lmao
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Oct 20, 2022 00:43
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xpost from TBB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4vR9onntoE https://www.foliosociety.com/usa/consider-phlebas.html Cool to see a nice edition, although I can't say I love the direction they've taken it, beyond the cover and frontispiece being pretty good. They're "hoping to begin negotiations" on the rights to the rest of the series, so maybe there will be more, maybe not. It would depend on the execution but I'd love an illustrated Excession or Look to Windward.
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Mar 23, 2023 03:05
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Whenever I see covers like that, I feel like they're embarrassed of the book.
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Mar 23, 2023 03:23
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I know what you mean, but I think we just got unlucky with the art direction on this one.  Folio covers run the gamut, from minimalist to unconventional to over the top loud. The tone of the underlying work doesn't seem to have too much to do with which direction they take either. For me, Culture novels should announce themselves with colorful, energetic paintings of spacecraft or megastructures, but what do I know.
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Mar 23, 2023 03:49
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Megillah Gorilla posted:Whenever I see covers like that, I feel like they're embarrassed of the book.  But yeah, it's a known problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOr5ALigmHA And this is just one of like, two dozen that came up when I searched "book covers suck" on YouTube. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror have it the worst. Publishers (correctly) intuited that most Millennial and ancient Gen X/Boomer audiences really REALLY do not want to advertise that they're reading dork-rear end kiddie poo poo for nerds who get wedgies, especially when strategically placed in view on their marble countertops or left carelessly around their matchbox apartments. But nah miss me with that. Culture books mostly have really bland covers, but I love the really pulpy ones, particularly the ones in the mid/late 90s. Honorable mention goes to Player of Games with its "I am going ham on my 3D Printer" cover:  Excession is just dope:  Consider Phlebas:  Use of Weapons gets two boss covers:  (this one always screamed "90s" to me more than any of the others)  (I only found this one looking up the others, and gently caress yes this one is rad) and special mention to Inversions (couldn't find a higher quality cover on the quick) for its lovingly genuine Fantasy depiction:  And the best part is all of these really do depict poo poo from the books without being all "this is the one with the chair, this is the one with the shellworld, this is the one with the black thing" etc. Inversions comes close with the Dagger but the airbrushing and patchouli vibes are novel enough to offset it. Does anyone have a full run of these covers or any poster art? They deserve better preservation. mind the walrus fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Mar 23, 2023 |
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Mar 23, 2023 03:53
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Hell yes, that Inversions cover is really great. Some other covers: A nice sci fi painting, but incredibly generic. What the Culture looks like to 99.9% of its citizens?  A... not so great painting, but with a lot more weirdly placed ambition and some connection to the text. The basic composition/idea is really bland, and then the details go bonkers without supporting any broader idea. Looks more like a fantasy/sorcery novel? I do like the game depicted as vast volumes of space, since those are the real stakes.  No comment. This Phlebas cover is well done and connected to the text, so bravo!   Wraps around the back nicely too.  1991, the sci-fi cover.  2007, the sci-fi cover.  This one gets the melancholy, ominous mood, but did we have to sacrifice all color to do so?  An ok attempt at what the Culture might look like at street level, but it just comes across as super generic. Where are the aliens and drones? The "epic" plaza feels cramped and tiny. And now it is my solemn duty to report that we have been absolutely bodied by the French.           Just when Matter was looking only slightly more interesting than the bland American cover, and Surface Detail is the same lame photoshop except for the much cooler title Virtual Hells, Hydrogen Sonata pulls out one last masterpiece. French artist Manchu did Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, Excession, Look to Windward, and The Hydrogen Sonata. I don't think he did State of the Art or Inversions (those are both obviously digital works, he paints traditionally), but Inversions is still pretty rad, if a little too loose, especially compared with Manchu's generally tight rendering. Special shout out to The Player of Games, looking like an Atari game box-art. The actual nature of the game/play is a complete mystery!  The full painting for Look to Windward. Sold at auction for about $38,000 of today's dollars. I don't think this depicts any specific moment from the novel, but the melancholy meditation on past violence vibe is strong.
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Mar 24, 2023 03:21
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I like the translation of look to Windward as "the feeling of wind"
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Mar 24, 2023 06:39
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I want giant dork-rear end prints of every single one of those Manchu paintings framed and mounted in a way that makes my girlfriend have second thoughts about me
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Mar 24, 2023 22:48
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Look more, find more. Manchu did do a Surface Detail cover: No, wait. He did two.  For a two-volume edition from a smaller publisher. Roughs for the Surface Detail covers:     Roughs for The Hydrogen Sonata:    Look to Windward rough: 
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Mar 25, 2023 02:09
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Those two are great, especially the Wheel, but the text boxes are killing me; like they added the title in MS Word on top of a piece of a magic eye image.
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Mar 25, 2023 02:26
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Really wish 7 or 8 could get refined. Virtual hellworld needs more visuals.
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Mar 25, 2023 02:38
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I'm pretty sure the Look to Windward cover is supposed to be Quilan getting rescued at the end of the prologue. Just, we know that's not what Quilan's supposed to look like.
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Mar 25, 2023 05:10
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That was my initial thought too (although it's Worosei who gets rescued initially, Quilan is pinned, left, and captured later). But they're on an Orbital, and it doesn't look like much of a battlefield. It could be a depiction of Quilan meeting his first Culture ship right after he finds out Worosei's Soulkeeper wasn't backed up in the wreckage of the Winter Storm (!). An unwelcome "rescue." Though that happens in space. You could interpret it as the Mind swap the twin Lasting Damages do in their final battle. Maybe the best fit is Quilan deciding to join Masaq' Hub at the very end. it is a good book, and a good painting
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Mar 25, 2023 06:06
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lol this rules
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Apr 8, 2023 04:33
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drat, these images make me want more. Does anyone know of more culture inspired art out there?
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Apr 14, 2023 06:51
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Nektu posted:drat, these images make me want more. Does anyone know of more culture inspired art out there? Well, after years of "coming soon" type announcements, it looks like maybe, possibly, potentially, it might finally be happening: https://twitter.com/orbitbooks/status/1649095648577306640?s=20 $60 standard "Contact" edition, and a ~$300 limited "Special Circumstances" edition of 750 with a fancier cloth and foil cover, a presentation box, and a print. Scheduled for release November 7, 2023. I like the design! The limited edition isn't doing much for me though, especially at that price point. If the scale bar on the cover illustration goes with the central object depicted, it's nearly exactly 175km across, so I think the only thing it can be is a System class GSV viewed edge on. Angular!
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May 5, 2023 04:10
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Might have to grab that.
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May 5, 2023 05:23
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That's nice but lmao on 750 chumps spending 300 bucks on an artbook
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May 8, 2023 13:11
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They're called "whales" in the biz.
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May 8, 2023 22:17
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Please, the preferred terms are "dirigible behemothaur" or "tensile aeronathaur," depending.
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May 9, 2023 00:59
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Guess ill get the standard edition of that. Still, what im really looking for is some culture inspired art prints. googleing "culture art" is ... not helpful
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May 9, 2023 21:56
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Hmm. Not sure. I remember you used to be able to buy prints of these bits of cover art alt here (done by a goon, IIRC), but I can't find that any more. (I think those covers actually ended up getting used for an edition. Maybe the Czech one?) Speaking of covers, I believe the artist for the original UK covers of the earlier novels sells prints of the wider pieces at https://www.salwowski.com MikeJF fucked around with this message at 12:30 on May 10, 2023 |
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May 10, 2023 12:19
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Nektu posted:googleing "culture art" is ... not helpful try "culture art iain m banks". Also google is becoming increasingly terrible so I've started to search on specific sites like pinterest instead.  https://za.pinterest.com/IV1987/iain-m-banks-culture-novels/
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Aug 3, 2023 15:04
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Resurrecting this a bit to mention that people have started receiving copies of The Culture: The Drawings. Time to figure out the best way to get a copy in Australia.
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Nov 1, 2023 05:45
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I hasn’t heard of that and will probably get a copy now. Thanks!
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Nov 2, 2023 16:58
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Just got the Culture Drawings book, it rules, my man Iain ruled, the Culture rules. There's even a whole section on Marain. Listening to the audiobooks now goddamn they're so good.
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Nov 7, 2023 20:34
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Alchenar posted:Banks cheats a fair bit. 'Greed' doesn't exist as a vice in The Culture because anyone can instantly satisfy any material desire they have. I don't believe for one second that greedy humans beings today would ever be satisfied by infinite material wealth. If anything, I would assume they'd see that mutual infinite resource itself as a problem they need to be in control of to stop everyone else from having everything they need. I don't think greed and selfishness are qualities of those who do not have enough that can be satisfied by being given enough. I think they are fundamentally settled into the disparity between what they have, what they can have, relative to what others can and do have.
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Dec 25, 2023 21:19
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Khanstant posted:I don't believe for one second that greedy humans beings today would ever be satisfied by infinite material wealth. If anything, I would assume they'd see that mutual infinite resource itself as a problem they need to be in control of to stop everyone else from having everything they need. I don't think greed and selfishness are qualities of those who do not have enough that can be satisfied by being given enough. I think they are fundamentally settled into the disparity between what they have, what they can have, relative to what others can and do have. This is a fundamental philosophical difference that kind of defines major political boundaries. Banks was a socialist and a materialist: peoples ideals follow from their material interests, and bad behavior is encouraged, indeed driven, by their relationships with the materials around them. He believed, and it comes through in his writing, that a society with the "correct" set of material relations would be a society liberated from many of humanity's worst vices. e: I'm not trying to argue with you on whether or not you vs Banks are correct, just highlighting that this is a difference at the level of axiom and that the most basic vision of humanity that he has (which he shares with quite a lot of people!) diverges from yours at a pre-evidentiary level. Which is fine, this is fiction not nonfiction, but I think its worth being explicit that you're just gonna have to suspend some disbelief when reading culture books. And bluntly I'd say that the core of his books are about him trying to push up against the limits of that. Calling it "infinite material wealth" to me feels like an inappropriate description of what's going on, just because even if you were to consider all the wealth and power in the culture combined as a single political entity, that would not in fact be the most powerful political entity within the setting. What is instead going on is a society where the forms of ownership that exist do not really make it possible to control other people in straightforwardly coercive ways. This is part of why I like Player of Games so much, because while nobody in the culture seems to really be able to force anybody to do anything, the main character is still very ambitious and arguably even greedy, and not only does he have to find ways to express and explore those urges within a system where there's no landlords or stock market, the story is fundamentally about how those traits of his are not only understood in the culture but can be put to genuine utility to the culture's ends. Tulip fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Dec 25, 2023 |
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Dec 25, 2023 21:37
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Tulip posted:the story is fundamentally about how those traits of his are not only understood in the culture but can be put to genuine utility to the culture's ends. While at the same time excising those traits by showing him where they ultimately lead, and thus making him into a better Culture citizen.
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Dec 25, 2023 21:46
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:While at the same time excising those traits by showing him where they ultimately lead, and thus making him into a better Culture citizen. good book i should re read it
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Dec 25, 2023 21:47
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Fair points and I think I do suspend that belief when reading the book(s). I would love for folks to be like that, I would love to believe folks' greed comes from circumstance and could be fixed, probably why I find the Culture so appealing. And good point that it isn't infinite, greedy people as I see them today could still function considering there's more to be acquired and controlled. I can also see the utility of people with those drives, the qualities that make people succeed under capitalism are not all negative destructive qualities and I look forward to seeing the Culture take those qualities and make them positively productive. Started Player of Games today and have taken as non-spoilery glance around the thread as I can
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Dec 25, 2023 21:48
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This drone is named Mawhrin Skel and I keep seeing it as Martin Skrelli and it's making me hate the character.
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Dec 25, 2023 23:54
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:While at the same time excising those traits by showing him where they ultimately lead, and thus making him into a better Culture citizen. Yes, the story basically is about the lengths the Culture will go to to improve even a single member's life and make him a better citizen of the Culture. Gurgeh plays literal nine dimensional hyperchess, but had no idea he was being played himself.
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Dec 26, 2023 00:10
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How the hell is Gurgeh supposed to be pronounced? Gur-gay? Gurgy? He shoulda included pronunciation guides in his books.
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Dec 26, 2023 00:46
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I've been reading it as Gur-gee hard g. Do they ever explain the naming nomenclature of people? I can accept that it's just how they are, all having long rear end names of many parts, but I suspect maybe the names indicate more information than just a designation for an individual? I don't think I've yet learned how The Culture reproduces, unless the Changer mentioned it dismissively at some point.
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Dec 26, 2023 01:44
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Non-Ship Names in the Culture books are one of the weakest parts by a lot, to the point where Banks was clearly having a laugh with himself to avoid taking it all too seriously. I go with "Gurg-ae" in my head and let it be.
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Dec 26, 2023 01:49
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