The title of
this latest Culture volume, like the first one, is lifted from a passage in T.
S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'. The novel is also dedicated to the Gulf War
veterans. This seems to be a quite outlandish political act on the behalf
of the author at first though. 'How dare Banks bring the real world into
the confines of a science fiction novel!' - is one reaction that you may have.
But I don't think that this dedication is out of keeping with the themes
discussed within this novel as a whole. 'Look to Windward' is very much
concerned with the after effects of war - from the Iridan/Culture war of
'Consider Pheblas' to the much more recent Chelgrian civil conflict, which
occurred within the Culture's sphere of influence. The Gulf War veterans
are allegedly still suffering from the drugs that were designed to protect them
from Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons - an unintentional by-product of war
that has wrecked their lives. The United States and its allies embarked
upon the crusade to liberate Kuwait with the best of intentions, but still succumbed
to the ancient truism that the chaos of war can have unpredictable results, and
lead to the kind of scars that will never heal. In this novel, the Hub
Mind of the Masaq Orbital seeks to commemorate a particularly bloody event in
the Iridan war: the destruction of two suns, and the accompanying death of
billions. He turns to the Chelgrian composer Ziller to create a suitably moving
piece of music as an act of remembrance. The choice of composer would
also seem to go beyond mere talent, for the Culture has good reason for
acknowledging the recent Chelgrian caste war. It's been eight hundred
years since the destruction of the two suns, and the light emitted from that
slaughter would soon be visible to Masaq for the first time.
Works of art are often commissioned to mark such defeats or
victories. This summer has seen celebrations of the Battle of Britain,
Dunkirk, and the Blitz. I believe that the tenth anniversary of the Gulf
War was only remarked upon briefly by the news bulletins. Maybe not
enough people died or suffered in the conflict for it to have attained the
status of even the Falklands War in Britain. The nineties have also seen
a much more proactive United Nations continuously involved in such
disputes. Banks would appear to be embarked upon much the same creative
process as that of his fictional composer, Ziller, who literally annotates the
turning points and downfalls for both sides of the Culture/Iridan war in his
music. Maybe Banks has been doing this all along himself, with the United
States as the Culture, and the Soviet Union as the Iridans in 'Consider
Phlebas', and the Chelgrians as particularly embittered Yugoslavs in this
novel. Banks is right to remind us that there are people still in pain
following the Gulf War - beyond the veterans themselves, many Iraqis are even
now suffering from the attrition imposed by the ever present sanctions.
On a more literary note, there have been a couple of recent novels which
have dwelt painfully (on the theoretical level) about the composition of
biography - Saul Bellow's 'Ravelstein' and A. S. Byatt's 'The Biographer's
Tale'. Bellow and Byatt have both surmised that it's near impossible to
bring the dead back through prose with any hope of achieving veracity.
There's also the prevalent notion that future biographers will have difficulty
collecting material about their subjects, due to the virtual nature of modern
communications. Not only can such personal files be easily destroyed but
they could also be faked (will digital fingerprints be authentic
enough?). According to Banks, the Minds of the Culture could easily
compose symphonies in Ziller's style, but choose not to. There's still a
great 'attachment' to the real in this fantasy world.
Having said that, this is also quite a spiritual novel, akin to Mary
Doria Russell's 'The Sparrow' or John Meaney's 'Paradox'. Banks creates a
seemingly Pre-Raphaelite vision of Heaven, with whole societies 'subliming' to
the light. For some, this is the era of eternal life, but it's not the
panacea that you would expect. Chelgrian composer Ziller becomes nervous
when a visitor from his home world arrives on Masaq. Ziller has been
living in the Culture for years, and does not want to return home. In the
company of his friends, Ziller engages in the more hazardous pursuits that
Masaq can provide, in his bid to keep out of the way of the Chelgrian
emissary. But there is one public engagement that he cannot really
avoid. Meanwhile, the Chelgrian emissary, Quilan, discovers that he's on
a quite different mission altogether...It's also great to see more of the
Culture direct, rather the few tantalising hints placed in the more oblique
fiction of 'Inversions'. We get to eavesdrop on quite a few Cultural
conversations (although the dying Ilom Dolince does make a speech quite similar
to the one that Rutger Hauer scripted for Roy Batty in 'Blade Runner').
'Consider Phlebas' fans get their usual intrigues, twists and traitors, and a
symphonic cacophony as well. 'Look to Windward' is a near-perfect blend
of excitement and stimulation, and I highly recommend it.
Gomjabbar Rating: 9/10
Kevin
Patrick Mahoney
Read our Iain M. Banks
interview
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