Re: Matter by Iain M Banks
- From: undertoad <sebthirlway@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:15:11 -0700 (PDT)
Well, I've just finished second-reading Matter, and...
If you don't mind SPOILERS, taking in Matter and some of the other
books....
[Multiple Ian M Banks SPOILERS below....]
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I'm trying to figure out why this book doesn't work for me. I think
what Banks is trying to do is very impressive, but it doesn't quite
work.
You've got three main characters, the half-siblings Ferbin, Oramen and
Djan. I don't see any of them really moving and changing as
characters. This is because the real subject of the book is the
tight, inescapable web of laws and agreements organising the power-
relations in the galaxy, for which the concentric levels of Sursamen
are a metaphor. None of the characters (human, alien or Mind) butt
their heads against this deadening structure strongly enough to make
an impression on it - and thus, on me as I read.
I was going to write that this is a new departure, but Banks has been
here before, and (IMHO) more effectively. Zakalwe's acting-out of his
intricately damned soul in Use of Weapons is a matter of relative
indifference to the Culture, rather than threatening it or its values
(at the end, we see Sma efficiently recruiting a replacement for him)
- but we get some very strange, dark, interesting times to read about
on the way; and at one point Zakalwe going wild does threaten to screw
things up (very locally) for SC sufficiently enough for Sma and her
drone to have to irritably start a cleanup of the mess. Zakalwe
remains sufficiently uncontrollable, Out of Context to the Culture
(and us) to remain interesting - and there's always the possibility
that he might be redeemed, though he isn't.
The "it's possibly all a game, being controlled from outside" mind-
game was already explored in The Player of Games. In that book it
doesn't matter that Gurgeh is being used, that the whole adventure is
a setup by SC/Contact - to Gurgeh, it's both a game and sufficiently
real to make an emotionally-satisfying difference to his character.
The revelation that the whole story had an additional level we didn't
know about just piles on more delicious fuel to the "reality/just a
game" ambiguity which was up and running from the start - and Gurgeh's
adventures are rich and satisfying enough to make the book a good read
even if this had been left out. Importantly, Gurgeh taking part in
this game (and winning, not just taking part) is important - he may
not know the full story, but he gets connected to the real issue
underlying the whole SC plot when his disguised drone takes him on a
revolting tour of Azad's underside. He makes a difference, even if he
remains unaware of exactly how and why.
In Matter, playing the game is of no importance whatsoever, in
context. Infuriatingly, the three main characters make very little
difference, to themselves or to the wider context. Sure, the Iln is
prevented from destroying Sursamen - but I found it hard to care about
that, when Sursamen is of little importance - in the wider context.
It obviously matters to anyone on Sursamen - but all those people have
already been dismissed as not-very-interesting savages by voices from
on high. It would be satisfying if this outcome could be interpreted
as "small-planet savages, with their small-planet loyalties, manage to
save beautiful worthwhile planet from destruction, when the infinitely
more capable civilisations supposedly responsible for its welfare
missed the point". But I don't see any sign of that interpretation.
I found myself wishing a character would protest a bit more, rail a
bit at the all-controlling structure in which they don't matter. None
of them can, because they've all internalised the structure and their
place in it very early on. Oramen effectively accepts that tyr Loesp
is in charge and there's little he can do about it; and Djan doesn't
seem to ever act out of emotional commitment to the good of Sursamen.
Her emotional Sursamen/Culture loyalty dilemna seems to have been long
resolved by the time she gets back home (or was it in fact decided the
moment she left home?), and she acts strictly as a professional,
highly-trained SC agent. Crucially, her Culture employers (covertly)
support her in going into Sursamen all guns blazing - so what she does
can't represent an assertion of the importance of her home planet,
rather than the importance of doing her job skilfully.
Perhaps Ferbin is supposed to represent this missing, protesting
tendency, but that doesn't work for me. Partly because he quickly
gets thoroughly discredited as a petulant, immature brat, in favour of
his servant, in their exchanges on the way out of the Eighth, early in
the story. Sure, it's good for Holse to be given space on the page to
display his interesting character - but it feels very unfair to
Ferbin, who could have been written as a slightly bigger character:
still flawed, still ultimately inferior to Holse, but a little more
sympathetic, less of a complete idiot. Holse is developed as a
character too much at Ferbin's expense. (It feels jarring when Ferbin
has any competence at all - e.g. in flying). The result of this is
that Ferbin's sudden turn to eloquence when he _does_ protest against
the Morthanveld D-G's determined non-interference just doesn't ring
true. It's well-written, passionate, and reads like one of the key
passages of the book - but the character whose mouth it emerges from
isn't big enough to carry it. It's hard not to suspect that Ferbin is
trying to inhabit a role thrust upon him, spouting formulaic phrases
of aristocratic outrage, rather than really speaking from the heart.
He's already got a well-established death-wish towards his heritage -
and, cutting forward to the end, his self-sacrifice feels like
submission to this death-wish which was there from the start, rather
than something genuinely impressive. He's reacting to his sister's
power and professionalism, rather than growing into a devotion to
Sursamen that he never had before.
Well, Matter must be a substantial book in some way, or I wouldn't
have bothered posting this. Maybe I'm just not in the mood for the
bleak, barren view of existence Banks presents in this book. I don't
re-read Consider Phlebas very much for this reason - that I find it
horribly bleak. Mind you, in Phlebas, although Banks is very cruel to
his main character Horza, at least Horza contends (and contends like
hell!), and is accorded respect for it. He may be tragic, and
consumed by hatred, but he's "interesting" enough for a Mind to take
his name. In Matter, by contrast, the characters all seem too
disabled from the start (Djan's enforced "gelding" of her SC powers is
the template for all the other characters' positions) to really
contend effectively. The one character who comes out of it well is
the uncontentious Holse, who "knows his place". Well, he's a likeable
enough chap, so I don't grudge him that. But it's a pretty depressing
conclusion. Holse is the only character who "gets" Xide Hyrlis'
depressing worldview - and he's the only one who survives, and goes on
to a future. Not a pretty idea.
Another thing: no-one has any fun in this book. Not even destructive,
chaotic, raising-hell fun. Djan's sexual adventures in the Culture
are glossed over, as passing enjoyments in the past. The only fun to
be had is outside all these rules and regulations and moral
imperatives (which prevent Djan's drone from satisfyingly decapitating
a bunch of nobles in the Prologue). You have to be an Iln, and nuke
thousands of people for your kicks, to have any fun at all.
I wonder whether Banks really likes the Culture anymore.
.
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