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Barry Foster posted:Banks always freely admitted he wrote Consider Phlebas as if it were a massive-scale sci-fi film. There are so many vital and central aspects of the Culture that I think are simply unfilmable. How would you put the Mind/Ship communication from the Excession onto the screen?
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May 26, 2013 13:21
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Those On My Left posted:There are so many vital and central aspects of the Culture that I think are simply unfilmable. How would you put the Mind/Ship communication from the Excession onto the screen? Of all the things to call "unfilmable," you choose what amounts to a bunch of gods chatting in cyberspace? That's not unfilmable, that's an opportunity! EDIT: Come to think of it, aren't all Mind-to-Mind communications ostensibly dumbed down so a human audience can understand them anyways? You could do literally anything you wanted with those scenes. Play around with visual character designs for the Minds, have them interacting "physically" in simulation. Emphasize the differences in their personalities while putting on a totally unrestrained CGI show because, obviously, a scene like that doesn't need to look real. Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 20:38 on May 26, 2013 |
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May 26, 2013 20:35
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Those On My Left posted:There are so many vital and central aspects of the Culture that I think are simply unfilmable. How would you put the Mind/Ship communication from the Excession onto the screen? As Tuxedo said, what we read is explicitly dumbed down from the ludicrous amounts of information and meaning the Minds are presumably sending each other. Adapting the sort of virtual reality forum Banks describes in later Culture novels would work perfectly well. And the interaction between ships, their avatars and humans could be really well done. I can visualise the interaction between Lededje and the cadavarous, insouciant, slightly intimidating avatar of the Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints', in that tiny enclosed space, and it seems like it'd be pretty compelling to me. What I would worry about being lost in translation from book to screen, frankly, would be the politics of the Culture series.
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May 26, 2013 20:57
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Taratang posted:I'd love to see someone like Neal Asher start writing books set in the Culture universe (only with Banks' blessing of course). The Polity is basically a more human-centered version of The Culture. I started reading Asher, and now when I've read a couple of books from Banks the influences he has had on Asher are clear. Both deal with a human society basically ruled by AIs where nothing is lacking, the AIs have distinct personalities, the AIs have some idea of the greater good where humans can be sacrificed, the AIs have no problem meddling with other human civilizations. Differences are seen in how aliens are depicted where they are invariably treated as hostiles in Ashers universe, and humans themselves are consistently more rebellious compared to Banks. Also, Banks wrote his first books in the 80s, while Asher started writing in the 00s, which for instance is seen in the description of the drones as well in the description of DNA and nanotechnology. Banks to me feels more idealistic, where Asher has a more crass version of humanity.
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May 26, 2013 21:00
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:EDIT: Come to think of it, aren't all Mind-to-Mind communications ostensibly dumbed down so a human audience can understand them anyways? You could do literally anything you wanted with those scenes. Play around with visual character designs for the Minds, have them interacting "physically" in simulation. Emphasize the differences in their personalities while putting on a totally unrestrained CGI show because, obviously, a scene like that doesn't need to look real. They used to be, but now the canonical explanation of Mind-to-Mind communication is them wearing humanoid avatars and sitting around chatting in a virtual reality simulation of a gentleman's club mapping of the galaxy.
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May 26, 2013 21:31
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BastardySkull posted:On the other hand I'd love to see a TV series of something like Use of Weapons. Or a movie (maybe). Use of Weapons could potentially be a 10 (or 13  ) episode miniseries. And you know what? I was just watching the Avengers, and Tom Middleston as Loki is almost exactly how I picture Zakalwe. (If you want a good description of him in the book, look to when he gets to "meet" Tsoldrin in Solotol) Make him slightly tanner, just a shade of five o'clock shadow, put that hair in a ponytail and bam. I think he could pull off the part, to boot.
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May 27, 2013 18:03
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pseudorandom name posted:They used to be, but now the canonical explanation of Mind-to-Mind communication is them wearing humanoid avatars and sitting around chatting in a virtual reality simulation of a gentleman's club mapping of the galaxy. There's a detailed description of the Mind Club in Surface Detail. The club is the galaxy mapped as a rambling manor, where every room can be seen from every other, defying geometry. Ships manifest as whatever they feel like, from humanoids to animals to floating orange clouds. It would be interesting to see in a film.
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May 27, 2013 22:50
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pseudorandom name posted:They used to be, but now the canonical explanation of Mind-to-Mind communication is them wearing humanoid avatars and sitting around chatting in a virtual reality simulation of a gentleman's club mapping of the galaxy. I'm sure their 'speech' is still something beyond human intelligence or comprehension, even in that virtual environment.
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May 28, 2013 06:41
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MikeJF posted:I'm sure their 'speech' is still something beyond human intelligence or comprehension, even in that virtual environment. That visualization is probably just a fad anyway, in a couple hundred years it'll be a dive bar or something.
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May 28, 2013 06:44
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Any movie or series would have to get the mega structures perfect and to scale. A sense of scale is easy to achieve for a GSV or an Orbital but some of the more wacky poo poo, less so.
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May 28, 2013 06:50
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I'm about three quarters way through The Hydrogen Sonata, and I just remembered a question I wanted to ask of you guys, before I forget. One of the many things I love about Banks are his frequent segues into more abstract topics. In The Hydrogen Sonata a good example is his exposition on the Simming Problem, in which he deals with the moral and ethical problems of creating simulations to work out problems. My question is which other sci-fi/fantasy writers deal with these kinds of issues? It doesn't have to be space opera, or even science fiction, I'd just love to read more (epic) stories that incorporate these abstract/philosophical issues in their writings. I'm loving The Hydrogen Sonata, by the way, and in my opinion so far, it's definitely best saved for last in the Culture series.
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May 31, 2013 22:24
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Check out Richard Garfinkle. I've only read two (first two?) of his books but Holy poo poo! Celestial Matters is a book in which the mathematics of Pythagoras are solid so you have spaceships mined and hollowed out from the moon and other mental crazy poo poo*. The Greeks are in a long-standing hot/cold war with China because of differing mathematical principles. *Yellow Hair 
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Jun 1, 2013 01:06
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Taeke posted:My question is which other sci-fi/fantasy writers deal with these kinds of issues? It doesn't have to be space opera, or even science fiction, I'd just love to read more (epic) stories that incorporate these abstract/philosophical issues in their writings.
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Jun 1, 2013 06:32
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I didn't think Anathem actually got into any particularly deep philosophy, but it's a really great primer on basic logic and interesting topics in pure math. Also your first step for any genre book on the philosophy of consciousness should be Blindsight, the definitive Science Fiction About Consciousness.
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Jun 1, 2013 06:52
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For a more bite-sized take on Simming, you can also check out David Brin's short story The Stones of Significance.
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Jun 1, 2013 07:33
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There's a good Stanislaw Lem story about it, in the Cyberiad. You should read the Cyberiad.
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Jun 4, 2013 00:17
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https://twitter.com/cstross/status/343740022924648448 Apparently Iain Banks died this morning. I hoped he would get a bit longer. RIP 
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Jun 9, 2013 16:04
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paint dry posted:https://twitter.com/cstross/status/343740022924648448 
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Jun 9, 2013 16:11
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Talas posted:Wow, too fast since his diagnosis... gently caress cancer What a shame, a wonderful, modest and very thoughtful man, right to the last. At least we are left with the fantastic books he wrote as a consolation.
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Jun 9, 2013 16:26
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On the verge of tears here. gently caress cancer. Too soon. Rest well, Iain.
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Jun 9, 2013 16:36
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Goddamnit.
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Jun 9, 2013 16:40
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From contact to quietus. Rest in peace, you were my favourite author.
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Jun 9, 2013 16:44
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lenoon posted:From contact to quietus. Rest in peace, you were my favourite author. Very sad indeed. A great author, and a great guy to boot.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:12
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Hugely saddened by this. And despite the best efforts of the publishers he didn't quite make it to seeing his last book on the shelves either, which is just a dingleberry atop the poo poo sundae. gently caress. I think I'm going to need some booze to get through this.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:19
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Rest well in Infinite Fun Space, Banks. You've earned it. For better or worse, he made me decide I wanted to become a novelist.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:28
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I'm not a big reader, in all honesty, and if I do read I rarely touch fiction. However, I did read The Wasp Factory when I was younger and it's the only book that had a scene that affected me so much I had to pause, put it down and take a walk to clear my head. RIP Iain Banks.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:33
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Oh no. part of me was hoping for some sort of crazy statistical fluke. RIP Mr. Banks, you created one of my favorite settings and filled it with some of my favorite stories.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:33
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Even though you know its coming it still loving hurts. RIP
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Jun 9, 2013 17:39
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The literary world is a much lesser place today.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:40
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MikeJF posted:The literary world is a much lesser place today. I was going to post the exact same thing, but without the 'literary' bit. RIP, Iain.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:49
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Bye bye Iain 
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Jun 9, 2013 17:50
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The worst news to come back from work to, truly gutted.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:53
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The feeling you get when someone walks on your grave? BBC news:quote:On Sunday, it was revealed the book - to be released on 20 June - would detail the physical and emotional strain of cancer.
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Jun 9, 2013 17:55
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This sucks. RIP
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Jun 9, 2013 18:08
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Comstar posted:The feeling you get when someone walks on your grave? BBC news:  Strangely The Hydrogen Sonata could also be seen as a fitting end to The Culture series.
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Jun 9, 2013 18:09
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drat... terrible news.
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Jun 9, 2013 18:10
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WMain00 posted:
Yeah, I noticed that too. RIP Iain. 
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Jun 9, 2013 18:17
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In a white room somewhere far away, Iain M. Banks is waking up to the word SIMULATION floating lazily in mid-air and being informed about the neural lace implanted in his head 58 years ago. Enjoy yourself, Iain.
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Jun 9, 2013 18:21
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gently caress cancer forever! RIP Mr. Banks, I will miss you
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Jun 9, 2013 18:51
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Reading this is pretty much the first time I've spontaneously shouted out "no" while reading a piece of news. Rest in peace, Iain.
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