Another snippet from Iain M. Banks’ wonderful “Use Of Weapons”, detailing the adventures of the mercenary called Zakalwe within and around the interstellar post-scarcity AI-led super-high-tech Culture. Here, we see a flashback to his cultural adjustment period after being recruited.

“The Liar”, Stephen Fry’s first novel follows a Wildean young man studying language at Cambridge University. I wonder where he got his inspiration.

Another quote from the experiences of Zakalwe, the career mercenary for the Culture.

Another Iain M. Banks quote - this one from “Use Of Weapons”. Herein, Zakalwe, a virtuoso career mercenary who has changed the course of civilizations with assassinations, kidnappings, and sabotages, muses on what it might be like to live a simpler life.

Another snippet of literature (following this one) that I think about regularly - this time, from Excession by the late great Iain M. Banks. The Culture Series describes an interstellar post-scarcity civilization, wherein most of the administration and governance is carried out by hyper-advanced AIs called Minds, and biological beings (who live on terraformed planets, on megastructures like Bishop Rings, or aboard planet-sized space-faring Ships) are free to pursue leisure and self-improvement. Basically, Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism.

Less a blog post, and more “something I want to have a persistent addressable record of”. Terry Pratchett has many pearls of wisdom that bear remembering¹ - this particular exchange takes place between Mightily Oats (a naïve well-intentioned religious missionary) and Granny Weatherwax (the tough embittered rustic crone-witch who will help anyone who needs it, but recognizes that “‘good’ ain’t the same as ’nice’”…)

(Future similar “posts” that are merely short quotations from literature will be similarly tagged with #snippets)