The Banksoniain #06

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #1

The Banksoniain

#

6

An Iain (M.) Banks Fanzine

May 2005

Editorial

Issue #6, and we deviate from the UK

publication history to write a book biography

of The State of the Art and the rest of Banks

short fiction. Editorial justification for this, if

you need one, is based on those immortal

words sung by new Dr Who assistant Billie

Piper, “Because I Want To”.

The only bit of The State of the Art turned

into something else is Piece which has been

covered in previous Banksoniains. So The

Unwritten Banks returns, with newly

researched information, to The Bridge.

We also have a couple of special features:

Investment Banks, uses articles from Book

and Magazine Collector to see whether those

first editions gathering dust are also

appreciating in value, and Trick of the Mind,

which examines, with pictures, Iain‟s recent

mind-boggling appearance on TV.

Banks in Translation examines how the

Finns have taken to his work. Banks

Obscura is taken over by a more detailed

look at the race for this year‟s Hugos and

brief history of other awards Iain has picked

up over the years.

Not “THE” Iain Banks fails to appear. I

seem to have run out of Internet savvy Iain

Bankses to email questions to about their

namesake, but have no fear this column will

return.

Scary stuff happens. Searching for Banks

related references on the University of

Liverpool library system, which includes the

impressive Science Fiction Foundation

collection, I discovered that they now have a

listing for The Banksoniain with the paper

edition of issue #3 residing in their archives.

Anyway, thanks this issue to, Gary Lloyd,

and, of course, Iain M. Banks.

Award News

The big news for this issue is that The

Algebraist has been nominated for the Best

Novel Hugo award. That is the informal

name for the World Science Fiction Society

awards that are given out at each year's

Worldcon. The nominations are voted for by

members of that year's and the previous year's

Worldcons. This year the convention is in

Glasgow and all the Best Novel nominees are

British which pleased the crowd when the

announcement was made at Eastercon. The

other nominees are, alphabetically: Iron

Council by China Miéville; Iron Sunrise by

Charles Stross; Jonathan Strange & Mr

Norrell by Susanna Clarke and River of Gods

by Ian McDonald. See also page # 11.

Banks Live

10:45am 20

th

July 2005 at Buxton Festival.

Iain Banks will talk, read and answer

questions in the Opera House. Tickets are £9.

See http://www.buxtonfestival.co.uk/literary.htm

Publication News

The UK paperback of The Algebraist is due

for publication in July, as is the first French

edition of the title from Bragelonne. The

Russian, Finnish, Italian and Germany rights

have also been sold.

The US publication, from Night Shade Books,

is due in September. No news on the cover or

artist yet, but there are plans for a limited

edition as well.

Banks’s Next Book

Time Warner have included an “Untitled Iain

Banks” in their latest rights list as planned for

publication by Little Brown in September

2006.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #2

Media Scanner

The Birmingham Post (16/02/05) as noted in

their birthday listing for that day still believe

that Iain won the Booker Prize in 1998 (see

Banksoniain #2).

Ansible #212 reported that Iain was

mentioned in the Round Britain Quiz on BBC

Radio 4 (28/02/05).

The sale of the rights to The Algebraist to a

US publisher (see page #1) saw an interesting

and lengthy interview in the online magazine

The Salon. See:

www.salon.com/books/int/2005/02/17/banks

The publisher had primed the interviewer

with some information which included the

fact that Iain would not be doing a signing

tour owing to his lack of passport. This was

picked back up by some UK newspapers, and

in The Scotsman (18/02/05) Simon Pia

headed his column as „Have book, will not

travel‟ and recycled some Banks quotes about

the passport destruction. Mike Mceachran,

however, in the Daily Record (19/02/05)

didn‟t bother to check dates or do anything

more than the minimum of research for his

article, and claimed that “Scots author Iain

Banks has been forced to cancel an overseas

book tour - after he cut up his passport”. As

the rights were not sold until after the

passport had been destroyed no tour could

possibly have been arranged or therefore

cancelled. Mr Mceachran also alleged that

“fans of the author in the United States have

slammed Banks for being anti-American” but

did not supply any evidence of such attitudes.

With Bush's re-election last year and Blair's

re-election recently it looks like Banks fans

abroad will have to wait for the author‟s near

neighbour Gordon Brown to take over before

they can expect any overseas personal

appearances.

It was announced by the University of

Glasgow (23/02/05) that Iain Banks was

among fifteen “distinguished figures from the

worlds of literature, art, business, science, and

sports are to be honoured” with degrees in

July. This DLitt, the abbreviation of the Latin

Doctor Litterarum, will be Banks‟s fourth

doctorate, and in the citation he was described

as “acclaimed author and ambassador for

Scotland's literary culture”. Ambassador-

staying-at-home, that would be.

I don't know what Iain Banks has ever done to

upset Allan Brown, but the newspaper hack

likes to make disparaging remarks about the

successful and internationally famous novelist

every once in a while. In his „Restless native‟

column in the Sunday Times (06/02/05) after

relating a story of how Jim Kerr threatened to

defenestrate him from the sixth floor of a

London hotel, he revealed that the Saltire

Society had asked him to submit nominations

for its 2005 literary awards. He used this as

an opportunity to attack AL Kennedy, Morna

Sutherland, Christopher Brookmyre and Iain

Banks in the form of some fake mini reviews.

One of which read: “My Fortnight in Hell, by

Iain Banks: A deeply disturbing meditation on

urban alienation and paranoia by the master of

technologically inspired nightmares. When

Garth Metaphor is told that his

malfunctioning Apple Mac will take two

weeks to repair, his world falls apart. The

novel follows Garth's faltering attempts to

leave the house occasionally, speak to other

people, read newspapers and go without

looking up nude photographs of minor

television celebrities on the internet. The

scene where the hero must purchase a book of

stamps is brutal and unflinching.” This is

very similar to his 2002 fake review of The

Beekeeper, some originality in his drivel

would be appreciated.

Susan Mansfield in The Scotsman (26/02/05)

reviewed the Banks/MacLeod joint

appearance at the Glasgow Writer's Festival.

She commented that the pair “functioned as a

double act, Banks the comic to MacLeod's

straight man”. MacLeod, she said, argued

that Sci-fi “is a literature of change. It is a

literature which examines and analyses future

possibilities, not only in technology but in

economics, politics and the structures of

society”, whilst Iain had proclaimed that: “It

has the capability to be the most important

literature on the planet.”

The List published a guide to The 100 Best

Scottish Books of All Time written by

Professor Willy Maley, of Glasgow

University, in conjunction with the Scottish

Book Trust, and sponsored by Orange. This

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #3

aroused some controversy with the definition

of Scottish, which according to The

Scotsman (04/03/05) included books like

Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, because

she was living in Scotland at the time she

wrote it. They should have no complaint

about the Scottish credentials of Iain Banks

and his debut novel The Wasp Factory which

also made the list, note that a limit of one

book per author was imposed by the compiler

in order to “to show as many sides to

Scotland as possible, and to showcase the

forms and genres in which Scotland excels”.

Doug Johnstone wrote the three hundred word

entry about The Wasp Factory and

competently describes the novel.

In conjunction with the booklet‟s publication,

a vote is being conducted to find the Best

Scottish Book of All Time with the winner

being announced at the Edinburgh Book

Festival on August 27th. The Daily Mail

(04/03/05) commented that the fact that this

was being done by text message and Internet

(see http://www.thelist.co.uk) would mean

that "contemporary novels are likely to figure

disproportionately" as the voter profile would

be biased towards the younger age groups and

so, Steven Henry lamented, Trainspotting was

“being tipped as an early frontrunner”.

Iain was quoted in a local paper, the

Greenock Telegraph (08/03/05), as saying

that the town planners in his former home

town of Gourock had done worse damage to it

than the Luftwaffe. This was picked up by in

the national press (Sun 10/03/05) and tackled

in more detail by the quality Scottish press.

The Herald (10/03/05) rolled out an SNP

member of the Scottish Parliament to

comment and also included some words from

the original article by a local councillor to

defend the town. The original article also

mentioned the fact that Iain still visits to play

cards with old friends, but would not move

back permanently because of the weather, “I

remember too much rain,” he said. “It makes

Fife seem like southern California”

The Guardian (23/04/05) quiz asked,

amongst other things, "What links:

Aristophanes; Iain Banks; deadly jellyfish and

privileged Americans?" Answer on the back

page, tucked away in the colophon.

In an interview in The Scotsman (25/04/05)

Iain Rankin postulated “there's me and Iain

Banks and Val McDermid all coming from

central Fife at the one time. We think we may

possibly be the result of some cruel medical

experiment, like the X-Files.” Hmmm.

A book review by Michael Dibdin in the

Guardian (14/05/05) made reference to Snow

is Silent by Benjamin Prado being “not nearly

as wacky as Iain Banks' Walking on Glass”

but sharing with that and Martin Amis‟s

London Fields “the core conceit of an average

bloke who is first set up and then coldcocked

by a tantalising tease for reasons that he could

not possibly hope to understand”.

Not sure if Iain will like this, but the Sunday

Telegraph’s Melissa Kite reported (15/05/05)

in her profile of David Davis “bookies'

favourite to be the next Tory leader” that the

bookshelves in the study of his Yorkshire

farmhouse “are heaving with books on

technology. Beneath them there are texts on

mythology, anthropology and psychology.

There are three shelves of military history.

Novels are predominantly thrillers, Patricia

Cornwell and Iain Banks”.

Danuta Kean in the Independent on Sunday

(15/05/05) also seems to think that Iain Banks

writes thrillers. In an article about book

jackets men it seems “read hard-edged

thrillers in no-nonsense brown or black, real

books for real men from Iain Banks to Ian

Rankin, Dan Brown to Andy McNab”.

The Mirror (16/05/05) reported in an article

about Christopher Brookmyre achieving his

boyhood dream, of playing football with St

Mirren that “fellow Scot Iain Banks, for

instance, decided he wanted to buy an

aeroplane after crashing a Porsche”. Whilst

this is, I believe, chronologically correct, I am

not entirely sure that any causal link should

be inferred. St Mirren is, of course, the local

rival of Iain‟s team, Greenock Morton. For

many years they have been the only two

senior football teams in Renfrewshire, and so

regularly meet in the final of the Renfrewshire

Cup, and have won it 47 times each in its 125

year history, with Morton the current holders.

Media Scanner continues on page #12

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #4

Trick of the Mind

In mid May Iain was on Derren Brown: Trick

of the Mind. This show, as Derren says in his

introduction “fuses magic, suggestion,

psychology, misdirection and showmanship.”

For the trick with Banks, Derren explained

that “the challenge of influencing the choice

of a single word from a pile of books is an

idea that has been occupying me for some

time. I came up with something I thought

might work and invited one of the country‟s

most prolific authors to try it out on.”

Iain was presented with a glass of whisky and

all his books. Derren asked him to pick a set

“classic fiction or science fiction?” and then

wrote down a word on a pad, showed the

people at home, got Iain to sign the back of it

and put the bottle of whisky on it. The SF

was then arranged in two rows of five books

and Iain picked a row to eliminate.

This, after Derren had quickly inspected the

books and rearranged them slightly, left a row

of Consider Phlebas, Inversions, Feersum

Endjinn, The Player of Games and Look to

Windward. Iain picked the middle of these

and when asked if he was happy with the

choice said that he was and that “it is written

in a very strange vernacular in places, so if

you are after a particular word that might

make it slightly more difficult.”

Derren flicked through the brand new looking

copy of the paperback of Feersum Endjinn

and commented that it had about 280 pages

and, whilst asking Iain when he wrote it,

seemed to break the spine at a particular

point. He handed the book back to Iain and

asked him to riffle through the pages and

choose one saying “where ever the book

seems to suggest stop point for you” and

leaving his hand on the author‟s right arm. It

did not appear to stop where Derren had

pressed it.

Derren then asked Iain to pick a page from the

two then move his eyes up and down the page

to pick out a section. When this was done

Iain was to read out a sentence or two from

there, and then choose a word from that

section. He explained that it would be fine to

choose „and‟ or „the‟ but that these were, of

course, in all his books and so “you might

want to go for a word that jumps out at you a

little bit more” and then Iain chose he word.

Derren asked what it was and he said “pop”

(from page 110). Iain was given a chance to

change his mind but did not, and Derren then

recapped that that one word was chosen from

the two million of Banks‟s published works

and asked Iain if he was happy that he had

had a free choice, and whilst Iain answered

“Certainly” handed the pad to him, who

turned it over to see what the audience had

seen Derren write five minutes before, the

word pop on the pad which induced much

laughter and amazement.

Iain said that he wished he knew how it was

done, to which was shot back, “so do I”, from

Derren. There was then a short piece with

Iain talking about the trick and how the book

chose itself by having “the largest number of

bizarrely spelt words” but how he didn‟t pick

one of those in the end. He also commented

that it was frustrating seeing it happen right in

front of him and having no idea how it was

done.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #5

Investment Banks

The Wasp Factory – Safe as Houses

Bibliographies with prices of Banks‟s have

now appeared in two separate editions of

Book and Magazine Collector. The first in

issue #148 was back in July 1996 and the

second in January 2005‟s issue, #251. This

gives us an opportunity to look at the

appreciation in value that his works are

achieving and assess their worth as

investments.

The original article had an accompanying

profile by David Howard and covered Banks

work up to the then in print Whit, and is a

very good introduction to and discussion of

Banks‟s early work. The update has a

decently long interview by Paul Willets that

was done during The Algebraist publicity

round. Unfortunately the bibliography has

only been updated with his major works. It

would have been nice to have a complete list

of new secondary works like his introduction

to Ken MacLeod‟s The Human Front (PS

Publishing edition).

The top three Banks works by their

percentage increase in value are:

Title

Increase

1996

2005

The Wasp

Factory

213%

£35/45

£100/150

Cleaning Up

167%

£12/18

£30/50

Consider

Phlebas

150%

£15/25

£40/60

The methodology used to calculate the

percentages was to compare the average of

the low and high ends of the band given for

prices of fine grade books with dust wrappers

(if applicable) and unsigned.

Two of these are the first appearance by each

of the names used by Banks, which had small

print runs. The other is a limited edition

chapbook from Novacon 17, and other

ephemera from the convention contains

articles about Banks from his then hardback

and paperback publishers.

Other early works by either name have also

appreciated well: Walking on Glass, The

Bridge, Espedair Street, The Player of Games

and Use of Weapons all show increases of

100% or more. The more recent works which

were produced and sold in large numbers with

extensive UK signing tours are much more

widely available and subsequently command

lower prices.

This compares favourably with the stock

market, which saw the FTSE-100 achieve a

30% rise in the period July 1996 to January

2005, although I haven‟t allowed for any

dividend yield. It is on a par with the UK

House Price Index produced by the Halifax

which went from 209.8 in Q3-1996 to 520.2

in Q1-2005, a 148% increase. The Retail

Price Index moved from 152.4 to 188.9

during this time, a 24% increase, whilst new

hardback Banks book have only increased

from Whit’s £15.99 RRP to The Algebraist’s

£17.99 (13%), and with the development of

online discount retailers the price the average

Banks buyer is paying has probably fallen.

I would have to say that based on observation

from prices that items have sold for on eBay

or at auction, these estimates could be

considered to be a little on the low side, and

so may have been back in 1996. There are, of

course, other considerations to be taking into

account when valuing a book.

Condition is everything to a serious collector,

and the prices discussed here are for fine

books with fine dust wrappers. Anything that

detracts from a book‟s condition should

serious affect the price. A large proportion of

the early Banks first editions offered for sale

are ex-library editions which should not reach

anywhere near the prices quoted here.

Signatures are interesting in collection terms.

Personally I try to avoid buying items that

have already been signed, but many collectors

seem to value the associational status that a

signature gives, especially is the signature is

dated on the official publication date.

Banks himself proclaims to have no

sentimental attachment to books, and thinks

that the laws of supply and demand should

mean that the second printing of The Wasp

Factory should therefore command a higher

price. The reprints were in blocks of just

1,500 against the first‟s run of 5,000 or

10,000 depending on which figures you

believe.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #6

The State of the Art

The State of the Art is both a novella and a

collection that includes that work. The

majority of Banks‟s short work was published

in the period 1987-1989, and so it fits in about

here in our book biography series, and it also

makes sense to examine it all in one go.

The novella was published in the US by Mark

V. Ziesing in 1989 with a cover illustrated by

Arnie Fenner. A limited (400) slipcased

edition signed by the author and artist was

also produced. Locus magazine‟s review of

the year listed it at #16 in the novella list

published in 1990.

Originally written in 1979 the novella is set

on Earth in 1977 when the Culture ship

General Contact Unit Arbitrary visits and the

story focuses on how the crew members have

different ideas as to what should be done with

the planet. Asked, in 1989, about how much

was rewritten Iain commented that “I

tightened it up a little bit. The grammar‟s a

little better and the spelling‟s a lot better”

1

. It

was initially intended as a short story but

grew longer than Iain expected the author

admitted in his 1995 interview with Andrew

Wilson

2

.

The setup for the story is that Dizet Sma, a

character who also appears in the novel Use

of Weapons (originally written before this

work but published afterwards), has been

asked to recount the story of the visit to Earth

by a scholar, Petrain, one of apparently many

in The Culture studying the planet. The

hundred days that Sma refers to at the start is,

as Banks noted in the interview with David

Howe

3

, the time in which the events described

in Use of Weapons occur, and in that book she

comments, “send a stalling letter to that

Petrain guy”, who turns up again as the author

of the essays at the end of Consider Phlebas.

Iain goes on to describe the character as “a

sort of scholarly link between the books but

he doesn't appear in any of them”.

Recalling data and conversations we find that

Sma suggested that contact should be made in

1

Journal Wired #1, Winter 1989.

2

Scottish Book Collector #4/9.

3

Starburst #151.

order to fix the problems, although another

crew member, Li, comments that the most

elegant solution would be to use a micro

black hole, whilst another, Linter, „goes

native‟. Linter eventually persuades the ship

to downgrade his physiology to Earth human

levels. Asked in an interview about that

character‟s „affliction‟ with Roman

Catholicism

4

, Iain explain that “he falls in

love with the irrationality of Christianity, with

the ideas of pain and death, but he feels it's

about having fun, and sex, and more fun, and

more sex”. Going onto say, “He dies, because

that's me playing God. If you're stupid, you

die.” Another interview, in SFX, saw Banks

comment on the story: “I thought it would be

interesting to see what would happen if the

Culture found us. Basically it's a joke, Earth

ends up getting used as a controlled

experiment.”

The review in Foundation #49 by Mike

Christie highlighted the contrast that the story

offers between Banks‟s utopia, The Culture,

and Earth. He comments that Banks does pull

off the “high-tech sf” with “good political

utopia”. The Sma-Linter interaction is

described as “the central debate of all

utopias”, that is “Even if it were possible to

live like that, would we really want to?”, with

Christie seeming to delight in Banks‟s

switching round of the usual argument.

Bruce Morton in his review of the collection

in The Times (05/05/91) described the

novella as a “morality play” with the main

characters and the Ship “gods, or Fates in

debate” over what to do with Earth. His view

on the whole book was that it was “shot

through with a dark sense of humour which

makes it all the more appealing for non-SF

readers”. A similar view was expressed

thirteen years later in Publishers Weekly

(01/11/04) which commented “Banks's

unsettling tales bestow a grim gift, the ability

to see ourselves as others might see us”.

The collection was first published by Orbit in

the UK in 1991 with a cover by Mark

Salwowski. It included the novella and seven

other stories that had previously send the light

of day in various publications. The individual

4

Trinity's Alternate Magazine, Feb 1997.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #7

stories were each illustrated in a woodcut

style by Nick Day.

A Gift from the Culture, was originally

published in Interzone #20 (Summer 1987)

with three illustrations by SMS. It has been

described as “a character-study of a moral

jellyfish” by Chris Gilmore

5

.

The Roz Kaveney edited anthology, Tales

from the Forbidden Planet, saw the initial

publication of the other Culture short story,

Descendent, in 1987. The Titan produced

book had stories from authors that had all

done signings at the Forbidden Planet store in

London. Each of the fourteen „Tales of

Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy‟ had an

accompanying illustration, with the one for

Iain‟s work done by Dave Gibbons. There

was also a slipcased limited edition signed by

all the authors and artists.

Scratch was originally in published in The

Fiction Magazine (July-August 1987) an

edition which seems to have been a Sci-Fi

special; including Gary Kilworth‟s story,

Feral Moon, Colin Greenland‟s, The Living

End, and a review of Keith Roberts‟s Graínne

by the Paul Kincaid. David Howe

3

, asked

about the genesis of this story, which he

described as telling the story of the end of the

world, “through the use of words,

disconnected thoughts, punctuation and

abbreviation”. Banks‟s reply was that it “was

the culmination of my reading a lot of stuff

that didn't seem connected but was”. These

articles, Iain mentioned the Guardian and

(his girlfriend‟s) Cosmopolitan, were about

the Thatcher government‟s dismantling of the

NHS and the prospect of nuclear war. “All

this just sort of flooded out and became

Scratch”, he said.

David Howard described Cleaning Up as

“Douglas Adams-inspired”

6

, presumably on

the grounds of the humorous premise. It also

sounds like this description of a short Russian

novel by Arkadii and Boris Strugatskii, “alien

rubbish ... which poses awful dangers as well

as promising fabulous rewards”

7

. The work

was originally published as the souvenir book

5

SF Crowsnest, http://www.computercrowsnest.com

6

Book and Magazine Collector, # 148.

7

Anatomy of Wonder, Third Edition, 4-542.

for Novacon 17 where Iain was the guest of

honour in November 1987.

An anthology called, Twenty under Thirty-

Five, edited by Peter Straus, saw the first

publication of Road of Skulls. This collection

subtitled „Original stories by Britain‟s best

new young writers‟ was published in 1988.

With the storied arranged alphabetically by

author, Iain‟s was first.

Odd Attachment came from another themed

anthology called Arrows of Eros and subtitled

Unearthly Tales of Love and Death. Edited in

1989 by Alex Stewart for New English

Library. The anthology apparently came

about from a discussion in the bar at a writer‟s

conference. Where Iain got his idea for a

story from the perspective of a plant is

another matter.

Piece appeared in the Observer Sunday

Magazine (13/08/89) with illustrations by

Peter Knock, and in the contents is described

as “a cautionary tale of coincidence and

intolerance”. As it concerns the Rushdie

affair and Lockerbie Iain expressed a fear [in

May 1989] that it may not be published

1

but it

was. It has been made into a radio play twice,

the first broadcast on the BBC (see

Banksoniain #1) and for the second see #5.

In the interview with David Garnett

1

the fact

that Iain had promised the interviewer a story

for a collection, Zenith II, was discussed. Iain

admitted that there was a “list of half a dozen

people who‟ve asked for short stories”,

adding, “I think you‟re top”. This story never

seems to have emerged, although the

collection did, and no new short Banks fiction

appears to have been published since Piece.

Foreign editions of the collection have been

produced. The German edition from 1992

played up the Culture connection using Ein

Geschenk der Kultur as the collection‟s title.

Whilst the French, L'état des Arts, and Italian,

Lo stato dell'arte, editions from 1996 and

2001 respectively, kept to translations of the

original title.

A US edition of the collection was finally

published in 2004 by Night Shade Books,

with the addition of the essay A Few Notes on

the Culture which Ken MacLeod posted

online for Iain back in 1994.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #8

The Unwritten Banks

The Bridge Revisited

A recent article in The Sunday Times

(27/03/05) mentioned the stage play of The

Bridge which set me off on another round of

research with the year of production and the

name of the theatre company to help. Gary

Lloyd‟s recently provided some extra

information about his album inspired by the

same book, so we return to the story of

adaptations of Banks‟s most ambitious work

that were first discussed in Banksoniain #3.

The Play

The Sunday Times article by Andrew

Burnett in its Culture section was about

adapting books for theatre productions and

posed the question “Is a stage the place for

novel ideas?”. “There is no doubt that in the

right hands an adapted novel can become a

brilliant piece of theatre, but too many

adaptations are bland, clumsily dramatised

and even preposterous.” He warned. “The

accolade for most misguided adaptation must

go to Edinburgh's Benchtours theatre group.

Having enjoyed success with a piece based on

Cervantes's Don Quixote, it chose to tilt at

even more daunting windmills. The Bridge is

arguably Iain Banks's best novel, but it

doesn't belong on a stage.” Andrew also

related the result of asking Iain Banks himself

about the production. "Couldn't make head

nor tale of it," he replied, "and I wrote the

bloody thing."

The production under discussion was the one

by the Benchtours Theatre which premiered at

the Old Fruitmarket on April 29

th

as part of

the 1994 Glasgow Mayfest where it played

until May 8

th

before a short tour around

Scotland. It was directed by Jean-Frederic

Messier, and adapted by John Harvey in

conjunction with the cast.

The set was a reconstruction of the Forth Rail

Bridge designed by Karen Tennent, and the

lead role was played by Peter Clerke who is

now the co-Artistic Director of the company

along with Catherine Gillard who was also in

the production. Music was by Pete

Livingstone who is also listed as a performer.

He also still works with the Benchtours

company, and all three have been involved

with the latest production from the company,

Michael Duke‟s political farce, The

Emperor’s Opera.

The other cast on the production were: John

Cobb, Clark Crystal, Ralph Heggarty, Angela

Laurier, and Rebecca Robinson. Costumes

were by Hilary MacDonald, and the lighting

designer was Louis Philippe Demers, with

stage management by Louis Barrow, Gavin

Boucher, and Angie Grant.

A contemporary review from The Times

(03/05/94) by Jeremy Kingston who is still

their theatre critic, was headed, “Deafened by

a crashing bore” and began “After this grim

beginning, Mayfest can only improve”. He

didn‟t seem to like the “knotty and arguably

unrewarding novel” in the first place, and

thought it had been turned into “an

incomprehensible and punishing piece of

theatre”. Ian Black‟s preview in The Sunday

Times (24/04/94) predicted that the audience

may well be confused and remarked that “the

script is touched with weirdness”. He also

picked out the fact that guest actress Angela

Laurier is also a contortionist for comment,

describing her performance as “gritty”, and

noting that she had been “nominated best

actress for Puck in Robert Lepage's version of

a Midsummer Night's Dream”.

Other reviews, those quoted on the

Benchtour‟s website, are more positive. The

Independent said, “a highly impressive

production, matching lain Banks' dark and

surreal vision with Benchtours' own assured

imagery and technical bravado”. Whilst The

Guardian said, “The staging is stunningly

inventive, astonishing acrobatics and

explosive acting. The scale, originality and

ambition of the project confirm Benchtours as

a ground-breaking theatre company”.

Scotland on Sunday commented,

“immensely strong and moving, full of

insights into life, death, sex, Scotland and the

miserable split between id and intellect that

plagues western civilisation”.

Whatever the reality, the two-hour production

which was only performed twenty-one times

at the Mayfest and on tour, sounds intriguing

stuff.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #9

The Album

Gary Lloyd‟s personal interpretation of The

Bridge took the form of a 40 minute long CD

that was released in 1997. Gary initially

wrote to Iain about the work early in 1987,

and Iain responded on a Viz postcard to set

off a chain of correspondence that lead to an

invitation to the launch of Espedair Street

later that year.

The interest for Iain, Gary‟s thinks, was partly

based on the fact that lain considers himself a

frustrated musician and was interested in the

music making process, and partly on Iain‟s

fondness for The Bridge, it being his favourite

novel.

The ten years that the production took from

conception to fruition is down to Gary being

“happily and productively distracted” by his

job writing soundtrack music for films, TV,

firework shows, modern ballet, etc., and “not

laziness”. This labour of love, Gary says, “set

out to convey both the sense of the novel's

journey through coma and dreams whilst at

the same time illustrating the structure that the

novel possesses” has been described by Iain

as “a novel distilled down to a sort of

narrative poem set to music”.

There were forty or so instrument players in

the ensemble to organise, which includes: a

small choir, a team of handbell ringers, some

opera singers, guitarists, percussionists, string

players and mad electronica, as well as Iain.

Iain‟s voice part was recorded in 1995 in an

Edinburgh studio called Ice Station Zebra,

chosen because it had the right equipment, but

also a good literary title. It turned out to be

not the most salubrious of places, “a vision of

my own personal studio hell”, says Gary, and

apparently a source of amusement to Iain to

this day. Only about two-thirds of what was

recorded then made the final album as Gary

continued to refine the work, and some of

Banks‟s vocal part dates from a short test

session done in 1992 at a hotel in Manchester.

The album itself has been part of the subject

of a doctoral thesis and several other degree

studies. Gary notes that Iain once described

The Bridge as “the one he says that left home

and got a First” and he feels the same about

his version adding mine “got a Nobel Prize,

and joined „The Strokes‟ too”.

An interesting adjunct to the album has been a

couple of live performances based on its

music. The first of these was a purely

orchestral concert that took place at

Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire in 1996,

where the Lloyd work based on the Banks

book was sandwiched in between some

Albinoni and Bach. Gary rewrote The

Awakening for a string orchestra and it went

under the title Précis as it was acting as a

representative of the whole work.

Unlike Bach and Albinoni, Gary was there in

person to introduce the piece to the audience

which he found nerve-wracking. It went

down very well, and Gary has plans to do a

completely orchestral version of The Bridge

someday, the score for Précis having only

taken a few hours to prepare after the initial

effort of creating the album music.

The second performance involved Iain

himself. This was at the 1998 launch of

another literary inspired work of Gary‟s,

Brought to Light, based on the work by Alan

Moore. Given the opportunity by the

publishers Gary used the launch to have a

performance event that ended up having to

turn people away from the door of Telford's

Warehouse, Chester.

Each of the works was edited down to around

twenty minutes and both Alan and Iain

performed their parts live, with Gary adding

extra keyboards and percussion against the

backing recording. After the performances

there was Q&A session. Gary was

particularly grateful for Iain‟s attendance as it

was just a few days after the Porsche incident

recounted in Raw Sprit.

The Bridge CD is currently out of print, but

will be re-released on a new label in a re-

mastered edition next year. If you cannot

wait until then, Gary is happy to produce one

offs for a nominal cost. Drop us a line here

and we will put you in touch with him.

Gary is just back from South Africa where he

attended the première of a documentary he

composed music for and had some interesting

encounters with the local wildlife.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #10

Critical Banks

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

The last edition of this tome was published in

1999, authored by John Clute and Peter

Nicholas. The former wrote the article about:

Banks, Iain M(enzies), although from the

name of the books discussed, it looks as if it

has not been updated since the 1993 edition.

Clute points out that although Banks

ostensibly distinguishes between his „general‟

and „sf‟ with different names “those

categories tend to merge”. He therefore

discusses Banks‟s first three (i.e. non-„M‟)

novels, and comments that Canal Dreams

“also stretches the nature of the mainstream

novel by being set in AD2000”, which was,

back then, in the future.

The Wasp Factory is noted for some surreal

horror, but Walking on Glass is picked out as

it “radically engages a mixture of genres”.

Clute considers The Bridge to possibly be

Banks‟s “finest single novel”, highlighting the

“hilarious parody of Sword-and-Sorcery

convention”, before moving onto the works of

Iain M Banks.

He notes that early versions of most of these

were written before The Wasp Factory and

are “conspicuously more holiday in spirit and

open in texture”. However, the notion that

they are just Space Opera is, he states, a

“deceptive impression”. The fact that The

Culture is genuinely post-scarcity is, he says,

unusual for Space Opera.

The article then looks at the first four SF

publications of Iain M Banks in turn offering

pithy summaries and punchy assessments. He

concludes that “for many readers and critics,

Iain Banks/ Iain M Banks was the major new

UK sf writer of the 1980s.”

Banks also gets a name check as one of the

“notable sf ironists” in Peter Nicholls‟s article

called „Optimism and Pessimism‟, along with

the likes of Ballard, Bester, Moorcock and

Wolfe. In Brian Stableford‟s article on

„Psychology‟, The Bridge gets a mention.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction; Orbit

1999. ISBN: 1857238974.

Banks in Translation

Finland, Finland, Finland

Finland was one of the first countries to get

into Banks, with Ampiaistehdas (The Wasp

Factory) being published in 1986 by Porvoo.

Translated by Juhani Koskinen, and with a

burning dog on cover illustration by Ilkka

Pesonen.

It was, however, the only Banks title available

up until 1993 when the publishing house

Loki-Kirjat began to produce an eclectic mix

of his works. They began with Muista

Flebasta (Consider Phlebas) and Pelaaja (The

Player of Games) in 1993 and 1994

respectively, and both translated by Ville

Keynäs.

Kävelyä Lasilla (Walking on Glass) followed

in 1997 with a trio of translators: Jonina

Altschuler, Reetu Kurkjärvi and Topi

Makkonen, the same year as Aseiden Käyttö

(Use of Weapons) from the SF specialist Ville

Keynäs. The next year saw the translation by

Anu Partanen of Crow Roadin Käsikirjoitus

(The Crow Road) which in 2005 was re-

issued in a paperback edition.

In 2002 Syyllisyys (Complicity) made its

Finnish appearance translated by Inka

Parpola, and last year Tähystä Tuulenpuolta

(Look to Windward) translated by the paring

of Lauri Mäkelä and Jari Virtanen was

published. I do hope Ville is OK?

Loki-Kirjat has purchased the rights to The

Algebraist which should be forthcoming, but I

think the Finnish Culture fans must be

screaming out for Excession.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #11

Hugos There

A Commentary on the Awards

Looking back through the history of the

Hugos, Banks books have previously been

nominated but not made the top five runoff

vote on three occasions. Against a Dark

Background in 1994, Feersum Endjinn in

1995 and Excession in 1997 all had their

champions but not enough to make the final

ballot.

This may have something to do with the lag

between his publication in the States and the

UK. The Hugo awards have eligibility rules

to do with when books were published in the

US, with some caveats for books first

published elsewhere. Thus after the British

have enjoyed another Banks SF romp and feel

it may be worthy of recognition, most

Americans are unaware of its existence.

Feersum Endjinn and Excession won the

British Science Fiction Association award in

1995 and 1996 respectively whilst just

registered as blips on the Hugo radar.

This year, although the majority of attendees

at Worldcon will still be from the States the

fact that it is being held in Glasgow perhaps

means that the subset that did nominate in the

Best Novel category, all 424 of us, could well

have seen the Brits in a majority. Most of the

other nominated books have been published

in the US, but with the American edition of

The Algebraist not appearing until after

Worldcon, Iain faces an uphill struggle to win

the award. Commentary on SF fan websites

has suggested that Iain may, however, pick up

votes for “his body of work” rather than for

this particular book.

The two favourites look like being Iron

Council which recently won the jury awarded

Arthur C. Clarke award for China Miéville

(beating fellow Hugo nominee Ian

McDonald), and Jonathan Strange & Mr

Norrell, which won Susanna Clarke the 2005

British Book Award prize in the Best

Newcomer category. Miéville also won the

Clarke in 2001 with Perdido Street Station,

which had a Hugo nomination in 2002

followed by another in 2003 for The Scar.

China can be heard occasionally presenting

on the Radio 3 arts show Night Waves.

Susanna Clarke undertook an extensive

worldwide signing tour when her first novel

was published last year which topped the

bestsellers lists on both sides of the Atlantic

last autumn. It made many of „Year‟s Best‟

lists for 2004, and was described, perhaps to

its detriment, by the press as an adult Harry

Potter. It is better than that.

Charles Stross has two of the five

nominations in this year‟s Hugo novella

category. Singularity Sky was nominated in

the best novel category last year, and he also

had novelette nominations in 2002, 2003 and

2004, clearly indicating an award voting

following. He also has more of his books

published in the US than the UK which is

probably a good thing given the expected

voter profile, as is his regular presence in US

based short story magazines.

River of Gods author Ian McDonald has been

publishing as long as Banks, being one of the

five nominees for the 1985 John W. Campbell

Best New Writer award. He went on to win

the 1992 Philip K. Dick award with King of

Morning, Queen of Day, the 1993 BSFA short

fiction award for Innocents, and the 2001

Sturgeon (another short fiction award) for

Tendeléo’s Story.

Whoever wins it will be a day of recognition

for British SF/Fantasy writing when the

announcement is made at the ceremony that is

being hosted by Kim Newman and Paul

McAuley on August 7

th

.

Banks, as already noted, has won the BSFA

award twice. Interestingly in 1995 Feersum

Endjinn beat, amongst other things,

Necroville by Ian McDonald. Apart from a

Clarke nomination in 1991 for Use of

Weapons he has generally been ignored by

English language prize-givers, but seen more

appreciation in translation.

He has won the German language Kurd

Laßwitz Preis for best foreign novel four

times: The Bridge (1991), The Wasp Factory

(1992), Use of Weapons (1993) and Excession

(1998). The last of these also took the Italia

for 1998 making it Banks‟s most honoured

work, and it was also nominated in the 1997

British Fantasy awards.

The Banksoniain Issue #6, Page #12

Media Scanner, contd.

On his semi-regular review slot on 6Music

(26/02/05) Banks revealed that he has now

flown solo, that his favourite track is, Since

I’ve Been Loving You, from Led Zeppelin 3,

and that thinking about the next book will

start in the summer, and writing in October.

Banks explained on his next appearance

(17/04/05) that his flying lessons take longer

as he now has to attend navigational briefings.

He also commented that he would be

abseiling from the Forth Bridge the next

morning for charity, and mentioned Chest,

Heart & Stroke Scotland.

Another possible pointer to the Hugos, could

well be the Locus reader poll. This is the

annual event carried out by the US based

magazine. The voting deadline was May 1st,

with the results due to be announced at the

Westercon in July. The top five contenders in

each category have been made public. In the

Best SF Novel category, The Algebraist is

there alongside Iron Sunrise. Jonathan

Strange & Mr Norrell is in the Best First

Novel category and Iron Council in the Best

Fantasy Novel, so four of the five Hugo

nominees are represented.

Banks has never before made the top five

although he has appeared on the Locus list six

times before. Look to Windward was his

highest placed book at #7 on the 2001 survey.

Things to look out for

The attendee list for this year‟s Worldcon in

Glasgow does not currently include Iain M.

Banks, but as he is nominated for the Best

Novel award, and only lives a short train ride

away he may pop in. Details at:

http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk

The Edinburgh Book Festival runs from 13

th

–

29

th

August this year with the line up due to

be made public in June. Will Banks make his

usual appearance? The „Best Scottish Book

of All Time‟ announcement will be made at

the book festival on August 27

th

, so remember

to vote, see page # 3.

Tickets will be available from June 17

th

. See:

http://www.edbookfest.co.uk

eBayWatch

Want a ready made Banks collection? Try

eBay. A particularly interesting lot recently

offered was a fully signed set of Banks‟s first

twenty novels, everything except The

Algebraist.

This lot sold for £549 with just a single

bidder, but then one is enough, and items are

worth what people will pay for them. The

most basic of UK postage was another £20 on

top of that, and I would have wanted it

insured as well. To me buying a complete set

takes much of the fun out of the hobby of

building a collection over time and the sheer

joy of wandering round secondhand book

shops and finding the bargains you are

looking for as well as discovering books and

authors you have never heard of.

This was closely followed onto the market by

a complete set of the ten SF books of Iain M.

Banks, although just two of the set, and those

being later works, were signed and The

Player of Games was not a first printing. The

starting price was £180 but no bid was

forthcoming.

The Banksoniain is available as a PDF from

http://efanzines.com

If you have any corrections, comments,

suggestions or contributions then email us at:

[email protected]

Guardian Quiz Answer: Wasps. See page #3.