[ExI] Iain M Banks' Culture Novels [WAS Re: Usages of the term libertarianism]

[Stefano Vaj]

On 22 May 2011 09:08, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2011/5/21 Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>:> Conversely, take Stross's
> Accelerando. How should we condone the incredibly
> > parochial hostility to what is cavalierly defined the Vile Offspring
> which
> > is expressed in the last part of the book?
>
> Literary necessity.
> The characters that thread through the book, even the cat were not
> enhanced enough to cope with Economics 2.0.
> The problem is you can't write a post singularity novel from the
> viewpoint of gods or near gods.
> At least I have not seen any so far.
> If you have ideas for how to write such a novel, I would be most
> interested in seeing them.
>

Yes, you may be right. But in fact the book is even a little too quick in
the beginning to take the reasons for Manfred's "evolution" for granted,
including where some post-neolithic paradigms are abandoned without very
plausible alternatives and not always for the best, and yet all the
characters are adamant in refusing further change on the basis of arguments
pretty similar to those raised in the well-known "post-simianism" article -
and even plan at a point to sabotage it!

As far as "modern" posthuman worlds go, I find Greg Egan's scenarios (see
Schild's Ladder) much more compelling.

And while they may be invariably suffer from anthropomorphism, a vast
tradition exists not just in the SF realm, but as well in mythologies, to
put oneself in divine shoes...

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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