Iain Banks, in conversation with The Open University (full)

[@DexFlett]

Been reading sci-fi for over 50yrs, and this man is up there with Asimov, Clarke, Herbert, Heinlein, et al. An absolute genius. He didn't die....he sublimed.

[@AveryHardmann]

Amen

[@MJHaylett]

my favourite SF author hands down. I was heartbroken when I heard the news of his illness and I will be heartbroken again at the end but I will read and re-read his novels for my entire life. Legend.

[@Chazie_]

Iain’s work had such a profound effect upon my life and his untimely passing really upset me almost like I’d lost a loved one rest in peaceful sublimation sir!

[@billyalarie929]

i could listen to this guy speak for 5 hours. such a calming voice. such an intelligent guy. wonderful.

[@philanderson5138]

the first interview i have seen of Iain - love his books, thank you for posting.

[@manekdubash5022]

Lovely to know his voice will remain here to enjoy...

[@timokomulainen]

Thank you for this great interview! I especially love how you did not cut it but gave us the full thing. Like being there.

[@xtenkfarpl]

RIP indeed. He seemed to be a genial and very bright fellow without a shred of arrogance. Someone you'd like to shoot the breeze with over a pint in the pub. Raising a glass in your memory, Iain.

[@karadan100]

I just finished Surface Detail. I fucking loved it! I've never known a book whose final sentence made me shriek with such delight. I've read all the culture novels and it was up there (for me) with Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons and Player of Games. Love you Iain. Keep on writing your magnificent and beautiful sci-fi.

[@blaksu]

He's a pleasure to listen to. Iain is a role model for my writing. He's the basis for a lot of what I try to do and his passing is impossibly sad.

[@weswemyssonbass]

RIP, Iain. You were the greatest Scottish writer of recent times. We'll miss you. Thanks for all the wonderful stories you left us.

[@SmokeyBCN]

Rest in Peace Iain, I hope The Culture you created becomes reality.

[@MegaBanannaman]

❣️

[@nazirkazi2588]

That's up to us.

[@bendybruce]

That's a beautiful sentiment. It occurs to me this may well be one of the aspects that made his books so compelling for me. He made it feel plausible And to this day I still have a deep seated hope that humanity will one day rise up and be a lot better than it is today.

[@SomeGuy-mu9mt]

My favourite writer of all time. RIP big man.

[@ianedmonds9191]

He describes being in the zone so wonderfully. Lu and Peace.

[@SLRist]

Feverishly consumed every Iain Banks audiobook released to date. Peter Kenny is the best audiobook actor/reader around.

[@brandonthesteele]

I liked that "humming at the TV" story, it illustrates the notion of conviction borne from simple subjectivity very well. Gotta remember that.

[@benfel9403]

I still think that TV adaption of The Crow Road was one of the best things on TV to this day. It was so involving and evoked so many emotions. Makes my back go cold just remembering it. Genuinely superb, obviously helped with such an epic cast. Loved the part with the cutting the jigsaw pieces to make them fit. Still laugh at that now.

[@CheeringupTV]

Wonderful writer and inspirational speaker

[@FadingVitals]

Man, I love his books so much

[@croydonrudeness]

Ah Iain. Tis almost a year since you Sublimed (if only)!

[@cacogenicist]

+croydonrudeness I have to think he was going to write one about the Culture "subliming," eventually. Sadly ...

[@davidjsingle]

What are the chances that the video should pause for a few seconds to buffer at the precise moment when he made the humming sound?! Also: that mane!

[@derekbuckley1385]

Mr. Zakalwe, hope he and Sma make a return to print in the future!

[@ianedmonds9191]

I miss Iain M Banks. His legacy and his ideas live on. Luv and Peace.

[@dysfunction1]

What a legend. RIP. Love the culture books

[@Kelly14UK]

Haven't really read any of his books... but I'm Scottish and 59 is WAY TOO YOUNG. Damn sorry for what I learned today. I liked his sense of humor in some of the pages I'd read.

[@madfokkers]

I only heard about the cancer recently and looked up Raw Spirit his final interview as i'd missed it on tv but it has come as a real shock to discover he's actually died and i'm watching these programmes thinking he was still alive. I found i'd read a lot more of his books than i thought. Wasp Factory was my favourite and the first of his i read - RIP Iain

[@bendybruce]

It's fascinating listening to this breakdown some 13 years later. I think what was not really predicted was the extreme monopolization by the likes of Amazon who now hold the digital publishing industry at ransom. Authors have virtually no choice anymore and must agree to draconian contracts just to see their work published and made available to a wide audience. I seriously doubt Iain would be particularly happy with the way things have played out commercially, As things have been made very difficult for the writers.

[@shinrarango]

just finished Consider Phlebas, my first venture into the culture books. which one should i read next??

[@MintythecatIsABeast]

"The Player of Games" is an excellent next Iain Banks to read ;)

[@christinekelley3620]

Player of Games is your safest bet. It's a better book, and just brilliant in its own right.

[@davidmansfield6005]

I liked look to windward, but a really good Culture book (where they encounter earth!) is the novella State of the Art. But their all great. I've read Surface Detail 3 times.

[@rebellion2054]

Excession

[@I_dont_want_an_at]

hydrogen sonata

[@ApathyParabellum]

Oh Iain.

[@deanosumo]

Tragic loss. Every summer holiday I looked forward with anticipation to spending most of my holiday with Iain Bank's latest novel. He's gone now.

[@benfel9403]

Have to say, I also thought Complicity was fantastic TV. I am no critic, but as viewer, the reason I would not watch it again, was it was so well made, and so dark... Maybe too well made?

[@myNTlife]

I wish someone would adapt Against a dark background

[@peterbennett5302]

Loved this. Sadly missed author of tremendous talent and prolificacy.

[@Canyoudigityesyoucan]

RIP Iain, I will be downloading your latest story. I have so far only read the Wasp Factory, but the gory bits put me off a bit!

[@ianedmonds9191]

Legend. Sorely missed.

[@libre-tad6283]

Culture & OU👌

[@sorearm]

RIP sadly missed, a giant of literature.

[@ironjoker101]

He announced he has inoperable cancer and has been given less than a year to live, but doctor's get that wrong more often than not. We'll see, but it's very sad. Such a talent.

[@eziosavva]

any chance to subtitle this English caption?

[@patpowers9210]

I love Banks but trying to cut through that thick Scottish accent is just too hard. Any transcripts available?

[@MichaelLaFrance1]

Just click the "CC" button and read the captions.

[@davidw9736]

@@MichaelLaFrance1 the captions seem to have a problem with the accent as well

[@nhennessy6434]

I discovered him as an author right around 2013, shortly before his death. All I can say is what a loss.

[@Slechy_Lesh]

23:15

[@darthdrezz9237]

The day we lost iain, i had my most selfish thought ever... "Oh no! i will never read a new Culture novel"😭

[@DJMavis]

It was a thought he shared if that's any consolation. When talking about his forthcoming demise and the release of the Quarry he lamented that he couldn't go out on a big space opera bang.

[@ottobell6091]

It is good video

[@I_dont_want_an_at]

I haven't pictured his sci fi characters clearly. The shame I live under

[@chrish12345]

I thought hes like a thin Richard Griffiths

[@محمدالصوفي-ط4ق]

I love lan bank

[@ReachCorporate]

Surface Detail was excellet

[@Davidlopez-np1jx]

kl

[@fburton8]

Seconded!

[@Valelacerte]

Ian M Banks’ Marxist Post Modernist Feminist ideology is stamped all over his work. I have enjoyed his work, but his need to make female characters cunning and sexually liberated leaders, but men to be either stupid and submissive or damaged thugs becomes tedious. He was not a man who liked limits of any kind. Power and material were unlimited and lifespan, gender and species were unlimited.

[@redplague]

He's dead now.

[@TyroVogel]

So are we.