
Iain Banks dies of cancer aged 59 - andyjohnson0
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22835047
======
elliott34
From his wikipedia:

"Following graduation Banks chose a succession of jobs that left him free to
write in the evenings. These posts supported his writing throughout his
twenties and allowed him to take long breaks between contracts, during which
time he travelled through Europe, Scandinavia and North America. He was an
expediter analyser for IBM, a technician (for British Steel) and a costing
clerk for a Chancery Lane, London law firm during this period of his life.[4]"

Kind of inspiring. Most of my generation (I am 23) want instant gratification
and won't eat shit like a guy like Banks would in order to support what he
really liked to do.

~~~
hartror
My sister is a writer[1] in her mid twenties and she is doing similar things
to Banks.

[1] [http://www.randomhouse.com.au/authors/rhiannon-
hart.aspx](http://www.randomhouse.com.au/authors/rhiannon-hart.aspx)

~~~
Uncompetative
Nice plug you've snuck in there. I'll make a point to avoid her books. I might
of actually read them otherwise.

------
nsns
Here's a strong recommendation to anyone who hasn't read yet The Bridge by
Banks, to go and read that wonderful novel. Not to mention his classic and
highly imaginative Sci-fi novels: The Player of Games, Feersum Endjinn, Use of
Weapons, Excession...

~~~
MikeCapone
On the non-science fiction side, The Wasp Factory is also great, as is Crow
Road and Complicity (if you want something closer to a crime thriller).

~~~
misnome
I also found "The Business" a very good book, that should be good for people
starting to read him.

~~~
crapshoot101
That was the one novel I could not stand of his - I almost thought it was
written as a parody.

~~~
Angostura
Interesting. I loved it too. Sadly, I've just trudged through Stonemouth and
found it deadly dull.

~~~
rosser
...while I found _Stonemouth_ quite compelling and stayed up way too late
reading it more than one night.

------
shabble
It was only yesterday I came across his most recent update[1] and was hoping
the best for him. Truly a sad day for all who knew him, or enjoyed his works.

In the spirit of Douglas Adams' Towel Day[2], I propose the institution of
'Anti-Gravitas Day', date to be determined.

[1] [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/21/iain-banks-
updat...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/21/iain-banks-updates-fans-
cancer)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_Day)

~~~
drakeandrews
How about January 2nd? It's the day on which the GCU Arbitrary left Earth
orbit in The State of the Art.

~~~
shabble
I was just flicking through Excession trying to find some appropriate event,
but yes, I think that would do nicely.

As a bonus, it's also a Scottish bank holiday[1]

[1] [http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/bank-
holidays/](http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/bank-holidays/)

~~~
adw
It's the day after the day you spend recovering from Hogmanay...

------
TomAnthony
Since hearing he was ill on Hacker News, back in April, I decided I should
finally get back to reading. I followed the recommendations here and read The
Player of Games, then moved on to Consider Phlebas which I finished this
morning. Afterwards, I went over to his website to see how he was doing.

The two books I read were fantastic and it is bittersweet to have discovered
them in such a way. However, I'm thankful to him for getting me back to
reading. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

------
egypturnash
/me cracks a bottle of whiskey across the bow of the ROU _The Infuriating
Fragility Of Life In A Pre-Contact Civilisation_

~~~
arethuza
I had rather hoped that Iain was _from_ the Culture - sending a Contact
operative down to drink whisky and write about Drug-using Commies in Space
would be just the kind of sneaky but nice thing they would do.

~~~
egypturnash
In the middle of the night, Iain turned over and whispered to the transceiver
hidden in his wedding ring. "It's over, people. I just can't take any more of
this terrible planet." After a brief argument, there was a soft pop as the
_Steaming Piles Of Freshly-Laid Gravitas_ Displaced the Culture agent, leaving
a cooling meat puppet in his place.

------
porsupah
Iain Banks, for me, was the individual responsible for introducing me to
seriously good Scotch. ^_^

It was East(er)con '90, at the Adelphi Hotel - a rather wonderful example of
architecture, designed by someone with a passion for steps, to the point that
you couldn't walk more than 20' without at least a single step along the way -
after a long, good day of con proceedings. We were gathered around in the
lobby, around 3am, a circle of some dozen attendees, and he begins passing his
whisky flask around. I forget what it was, specifically, but I believe
something at least a dozen years old, maybe even a 21.

It was a revelation. ^_^

There was no barrier - no Famous Person, just a bunch of people who all
enjoyed sci-fi, chatting into the early hours.

He made the world a richer place to inhabit.

~~~
barking
In Liverpool(often passed it, never in it but heard some stories)?

------
crapshoot101
What a shame. One of the most brilliant authors of his generation - I'd urge
everyone here to read Use of Weapons, which is storytelling done right.

~~~
Nursie
Possibly two of the most brilliant :)

RIP writer man...

~~~
crapshoot101
A very good point. In that vein, let me recommend Whit from the non-scfi side;
the most sympathetic book about a 19 year old cult member that you can imagine
(especially from an avowed atheist like Banks)

------
bpizzi
Having defined the most beautiful imaginary world where there's no more
sickness and unwanted death, and dying of cancer before 60. What a cruel world
where're living in.

I'll go and reopen Excession for one more time - just for you, dear Iain.

------
bragh
I hope our galaxy's version of the Culture are good guys and backed him up, so
he can have a very enjoyable and long life. RIP.

------
Tloewald
I'm really getting sick of my favorite people dying of cancer. I hope he had
some fun.

~~~
tomjen3
I just hate cancer, and I can't believe we don't have the cure yet, but I
guess there just isn't enough money in it.

~~~
reaperhulk
Just in case you're not being facetious...Cancer is a label that groups a huge
variety of diseases that involve "unregulated cell growth" (thanks
Wikipedia!). Curing "cancer" is extremely difficult because it isn't one
thing.

~~~
tomjen3
Then at least the cure for one type of cancer. I am okay with there being
different cures for different types. What I am not okay with is that is that I
haven't seen a cure for any type of cancer that doesn't boil down to lets kill
a ton of cells using methods that are slightly less likely to kill normal
cells than cancer cells.

~~~
michaelochurch
Many types of cancer that were uniformly fatal 50 years ago now have near-100%
survival rates. The easier ones have been cracked. The hard ones are left.

The reason cancer is so hard to fight is that it's not so much a single type
of bad cell but an evolutionary process (see: clonal evolution) that continues
to generate hardier bad cells. Cancer is when cells become individually fit
(in an aggressive way) at the expense of the organism. Cancer isn't one
undesirable mutation; a typical cancer cell has at least 5 detectable
mutations. It's a process.

The perversity is that cancer treatments are themselves carcinogenic (of
different cancers) because the stress on the body (exposure to cellular
toxics) causes faster mutation and creates more opportunities for mutant cells
(that thrive amid the toxin, at least differentially) to take over.

This is also why cancer can stop responding to treatment. It's like antibiotic
resistance.

People are working on more targeted treatments (including minimally invasive
ones like radiofrequency ablation) than the typical systemic chemotherapy. The
problem is that these are best used with early detection. At Stage IV, the
cancer is likely to be all over the body and systemic treatments are
necessary... but there are limits to how far those work.

~~~
tomjen3
I want to thank you for that answer, it is the first explenation I have been
given that doesn't simply point out that doctors and their relatives also die
of cancer (but what single doctor can found even a single research cure? FDA
approval would take years and not be very certain at all).

But you say that some of the easier cancers have already been cured (near 100%
survival rate, which is as good as it gets since it would always be possible
to discover too late), or mostly so: do you know why this haven't been more
widely published or talked about? I mean we haven't cured all infectiones
diseases (or even the common cold), but when the cure was found for polio it
was _massively_ published, to the extends that court rooms took a break to
hear the announcements.

~~~
Gatsky
There are only a few cancers which can be cured eventhough they have spread
everywhere. One of these are testicular germ cell tumours (eg Lance
Armstrong), as well as some rare types of gestational trophoblastic disease
(essentially out of control placenta) and acute leukaemia and lymphoma. It's
not big news because these tumours are quite rare, and treatment for
leukaemia/lymphoma has always worked better than for solid tumours. There is
also nothing to be gained from a public health persepctive by telling people
that testicular cancer can be cured with multiple cycles of chemo, surgery and
radiotherapy.

Some cases of advanced colon cancer can be cured if the disease has only
spread to the liver, by cutting out the disease in the liver.

But your most common cancers eg breast, lung, colon for the most part,
gastric,prostate... they aren't curable once widespread.

------
sixQuarks
Why do great people like Iain Banks, Steve Jobs, Carl Sagan all die relatively
young, while evil sons of bitches like Dick Cheney live to a ripe old age
despite having 100 heart attacks?

~~~
ars
Is he so great? His books are great I hear, but he's antisemetic: He supports
BDS.

I haven't decided if I want to read his books anyway. Divorce the artist from
the art.

(And please don't tell me that BDS is not antisemetic because that's nonsense
- just look at who the founders were.)

~~~
mercurial
I didn't know Banks personally, unfortunately, but I challenge you to find a
single anti-semitic statement he made. As for BDS, I wasn't familiar with it
until 5 minutes ago, but it seems to be a group calling for a non-violent
boycott of Israel. I have a hard imagining how you can paint everybody who
supports them as antisemitic.

If you want a shortcut into his politics, I suggest you read _Dead Air_.

~~~
ars
> but it seems to be a group calling for a non-violent boycott of Israel

They are calling for the delegitimization of Israel as a country.

> how you can paint everybody who supports them as antisemitic

I can't. I don't know him, but if you are going to publicly support a group it
behooves you to look into them first.

Thanks for the mention of Dead Air - have you read it? I'm not familiar with
UK politics - why is he so mad at Tony Blair?

~~~
mercurial
> They are calling for the delegitimization of Israel as a country.

They are? They don't exactly advertise that on their website. Even if they
were, it's like saying "Belgium is not a real country". It's orthogonal to
one's feelings wrt Belgian nationals. Unless you think Stephen Hawking,
another BDS supporter, dons a balaclava at night to beat up his kippa-bearing
neighbours.

I have read _Dead Air_. And it's pretty easy to understand why he would be
pissed off at Blair. If your country was headed by a compulsive liar, whose
lies had brought your country in a protracted, costly, pointless war, you'd be
pissed too.

------
Thasc
I am so glad he had the chance to see how much he and his work are
appreciated, and by so many people. RIP.

------
rasur
I recall reading an article by him (about a month or so ago), shortly before
reading an article about a new possible cancer cure (sadly still untested on
humans). A sad loss for the literary world (amongst others). I hope he got the
opportunity to make "an honest widow" (as he joked) of his girlfriend before
he left.

Safe travels Iain, you'll be missed by many.

~~~
cstross
He did indeed marry Adelle back in April.

~~~
corin_
For anyone unfamiliar, that's Adele Hartley, not Adele the singer.

------
sjclemmy
I've loved most of his books since I first read The Wasp Factory in 1987. A
sad loss. I hope someone does a faithful and sympathetic movie version of one
of his culture novels. RIP

~~~
bragh
No such thing as a movie, but there's a short fan film called Something Real:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET8IFxPo61w](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET8IFxPo61w)
If I remember correctly, Banks wasn't opposed to someone making a MMORPG based
on Culture, I don't know how he felt about films. Maybe it's better Hollywood
didn't touch it, the feel of Culture could probably be pulled off only in
anime form.

~~~
sjclemmy
I've heard rumours of rights being purchased etc, however not to Consider
Phlebas. I think given the nature of cgi these days, it wouldn't be that hard
to pull off a big budget version of Excession. Which, as I've just noticed was
written in 1996. Is it really that old?

~~~
glogla
Most of the plot in Excession is however done in space-IRC logs and space-
emails between Minds, so I'm not sure it would lend itself well to movie form.
Player of Games is similar example, lot of what's happening is metaphored
using games and would be hard to transfer to screen without breaking the show-
don't-tell rule of good movies.

Consider Phlebas would work, I think even Banks himself said that from the
Culture series, it's the most Movie-like book. And I think we have some
directors crazy enough to do Use of Weapons right, though it would require
John Murphy for music ;)

------
andyjohnson0
I'm feeling really sad about this. His culture novels in particular had a big
effect on me. Right now it seems like the world just got a little bit less
interesting and less fun.

------
f4stjack
This is a sad day... the world, hell the universe, had become a greyer
place... Rest in peace Mr. Banks. Your books saved me from depression&suicide.

------
cjdavis
I spent six weeks in London for a college exchange class the summer of 1990
and discovered Banks and the Culture; I believe it was Consider Phlebas. One
of the best parts of that summer. I remember the delays in releases of books
once back in the US was agonizing.

Fuck cancer.

------
jacquesm
So quick :(

I hoped he would have a bit more time to enjoy his newly wedded state.

Thanks for all the wonderful stories.

------
vonskippy
Maybe a little more science for science's sake, and less science that starts
with "how many patients and how much money will it make us" and we'd have a
much better chance at beating cancer.

We're allowing gene sequence patents FFS.

Which is why I left academic science in the 90's and became an engineer - my
brain is still stimulated but my blood pressure is way (WAY) lower.

------
defen
Damn. I literally just finished reading _Use of Weapons_ two days ago. I had
no idea he was ill :-(

------
nsns
A list of Culture spaceships:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Cultu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series)

~~~
arethuza
I propose that if Scotland does get independence that we adopt Culture ship
names for our future (tiny) navy.

I rather like the idea of a fishery protection vessel called the "Experiencing
A Significant Gravitas Shortfall".

~~~
grey-area
What a wonderful idea - less intimidating than the UK's use of SkyNet for UK
satellite systems, but unfortunately far less likely to happen.

In the meantime we can always use ship names for online avatars ;)

~~~
arethuza
I would have thought the prize for intimidating ship names goes to HMS
Vengeance, one of the UK's Trident missile subs:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vengeance_%28S31%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vengeance_%28S31%29)

NB I've always assumed Iain's fascination with ship names was related to his
father being in the Navy - like his fascination with Really Big Things was
influenced by living in North Queensferry as a kid.

------
emehrkay
Very far off tangent: I do not know who the author is, but in reading the
first paragraph I thought that "The Crow Road and Complicity" was a single
book because of the exclusion of the Oxford Comma and titles do not capitalize
words like "and." I would assume that the BBC used the Oxford Comma (according
to this article, they do not), does the author?

~~~
Angostura
The Oxford comma isn't taught in the UK, at least when I was a lad. There was
a strict rule - you don't use commas before the word 'and'.

~~~
emehrkay
Interesting, and thanks for the reply. I did see in the Wikipedia article that
there is a divid on its usage in British practice.

The downvotes on my original comment is interesting. I'm certain that a writer
would like talk of his craft after his demise, just like programmers would
like to see comments about if he used ternary operators, why/why not.

------
adrianhoward
Sad, if not unexpected, news.

My only other comment would be to encourage folk to go read his books. All of
'em - not just the "M". Too many geekish folk only pick up his Culture books -
and they're missing out on some really great reads.

------
swayvil
a man of taste. damn good writer too.

------
eli_gottlieb
Welp, I'm now contractually obligated to go read his books.

Yeah, like I needed an excuse to read more scifi /s.

------
Uchikoma
Such a sad day.

------
dschiptsov
He managed to create better Kafkian Castle than Kafka himself in his second
novel "Walking on Glass". He left a lot of pages to enjoy.

