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

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Author Iain Banks talks to Open University Lecturer in Creative Writing Derek Neale about the digitisation of books, his writing process, the impact of world events on his work and much more.
(Full)
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Interview also available as audio only audioboo.fm/boos/263163-author...
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[@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.

[@markmiiwurdz4016]

Amen

[@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!

[@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.

[@billyalarie929]

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

[@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.

[@SmokeyBCN]

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

[@MegaBanannaman]

❣️

[@nazirkazi2588]

That's up to us.

[@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...

[@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.

[@SomeGuy-mu9mt]

My favourite writer of all time. RIP big man.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@brandonthesteele]

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

[@SLRist]

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

[@ianedmonds9191]

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

[@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 ...

[@derekbuckley1385]

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

[@dysfunction1]

What a legend. RIP. Love the culture books

[@CheeringupTV]

Wonderful writer and inspirational speaker

[@ianedmonds9191]

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

[@ApathyParabellum]

Oh Iain.

[@davidsingle2865]

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!

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@peterbennett5302]

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

[@ianedmonds9191]

Legend. Sorely missed.

[@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

[@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!

[@myNTlife]

I wish someone would adapt Against a dark background

[@sorearm]

RIP sadly missed, a giant of literature.

[@libre-tad6283]

Culture & OU👌

[@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.

[@apexxxx10]

Kiitos

[@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?

[@eziosavva]

any chance to subtitle this English caption?

[@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

[@I_dont_want_an_at]

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

[@ottobell6091]

It is good video

[@user-tk1nz4rs5j]

I love lan bank

[@chrish12345]

I thought hes like a thin Richard Griffiths

[@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

[@ReachCorporate]

Surface Detail was excellet

[@apexxxx10]

Sorry. Corrigendum: KIITOS!

[@fburton8]

Seconded!

[@Davidlopez-np1jx]

kl

[@apexxxx10]

Kites

[@redplague]

He's dead now.

[@TyroVogel]

So are we.

[@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.