In Consider Phlebas, Bora was stupid to try and slip out of his cuffs

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > In Consider Phlebas, Bora was stupid to try and slip out of his cuffs

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The Dennis System: Aug 4, 2014; Nothing in Jurassic World is natural, we have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if the genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different. But you didn't ask for reality, you asked for more teeth.

I seem to remember that the psycho ship in Surface Detail, as crazy as he was, would never step out of line with The Culture's morality and would never kill unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.

# ? Jul 27, 2018 10:14

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 01:04

Crespolini: Mar 9, 2014

The Dennis System posted:

I seem to remember that the psycho ship in Surface Detail, as crazy as he was, would never step out of line with The Culture's morality and would never kill unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.

It raped and tortured a guy for lols. It claimed afterwards that it was just a prank, but if that's true it was still plausible enough of a thing that the other minds believed it, so...

# ? Jul 27, 2018 11:27

The Dennis System: Aug 4, 2014; Nothing in Jurassic World is natural, we have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if the genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different. But you didn't ask for reality, you asked for more teeth.

Crimpolioni posted:

It raped and tortured a guy for lols. It claimed afterwards that it was just a prank, but if that's true it was still plausible enough of a thing that the other minds believed it, so...

Whoops, I'm probably thinking of a different ship. I know there's a psycho ship who tortured a space nazi, but I didn't know that happened in Surface Detail. I was talking about the main ship character from Surface Detail. The super powerfull warship who could break himself off into multiple ships. I know there's a scene early on where he appears to be torturing a guy, but the main woman character asks a different culture operative why the ship is allowed to hurt humans, and the culture operative tells her that the guy agreed to it beforehand knowing full well what would happen. IIRC, the culture operative also tells the woman that the psycho ship character is mostly just teasing her and scaring her a little for fun, and that he's not as much of a psycho as he appears. (I wish I could remember the character's names. Me saying "the main character woman" gets old lol.)

# ? Jul 27, 2018 21:30

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

The Dennis System posted:

Whoops, I'm probably thinking of a different ship. I know there's a psycho ship who tortured a space nazi, but I didn't know that happened in Surface Detail. I was talking about the main ship character from Surface Detail. The super powerfull warship who could break himself off into multiple ships. I know there's a scene early on where he appears to be torturing a guy, but the main woman character asks a different culture operative why the ship is allowed to hurt humans, and the culture operative tells her that the guy agreed to it beforehand knowing full well what would happen. IIRC, the culture operative also tells the woman that the psycho ship character is mostly just teasing her and scaring her a little for fun, and that he's not as much of a psycho as he appears. (I wish I could remember the character's names. Me saying "the main character woman" gets old lol.)

First ship was Grey Area in Excession.

Second was Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints in Surface Detail

# ? Jul 27, 2018 21:43

Richter Scabies: Dec 30, 2012

I've been scratching my head about a book I heard of about a lady on a quest to find a super death/black hole gun, thanks for giving it a name ! Too bad it sounds like it's sorta bad tho.

# ? Jul 27, 2018 21:57

Prav: Oct 29, 2011

i'm willing to say that Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints is probably not morally ok. in fact, it probably does things that are wrong

# ? Jul 27, 2018 22:10

The Dennis System: Aug 4, 2014; Nothing in Jurassic World is natural, we have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if the genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different. But you didn't ask for reality, you asked for more teeth.

Prav posted:

i'm willing to say that Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints is probably not morally ok. in fact, it probably does things that are wrong

Oh, I agree he�s a psycho. He gets off on torturing that dude and on scaring the poo poo out of that woman. And he watches war porn.

# ? Jul 27, 2018 23:07

Crespolini: Mar 9, 2014

The Dennis System posted:

The super powerfull warship who could break himself off into multiple ships. I know there's a scene early on where he appears to be torturing a guy, but the main woman character asks a different culture operative why the ship is allowed to hurt humans, and the culture operative tells her that the guy agreed to it beforehand knowing full well what would happen. IIRC, the culture operative also tells the woman that the psycho ship character is mostly just teasing her and scaring her a little for fun, and that he's not as much of a psycho as he appears. (I wish I could remember the character's names.

Sort of. The guy did sign a contract, but the warships gloats that he thought it was actually for a fun action adventure thing. And the contact operative points out to the woman that he himself is just trying to scare her a little but the warship is being entirely serious, to illustrate the danger the woman is getting herself into by approaching it. Multiple minds are involved and they all take the scenario at face - value. So absolutely best case scenario, where the warship Falling Outside[...] is just pretending to break this guy's fingers as a party trick, everyone believing it means that in the compassionate and loving culture, one can just sign away their fundamental rights and bodily autonomy for years with no chance to back out, even if the contract is made under false pretenses, between two parties where one is a thousand times smarter than the other. Yikes.

# ? Jul 28, 2018 09:50

The Dennis System: Aug 4, 2014; Nothing in Jurassic World is natural, we have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if the genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different. But you didn't ask for reality, you asked for more teeth.

Crimpolioni posted:

Sort of. The guy did sign a contract, but the warships gloats that he thought it was actually for a fun action adventure thing. And the contact operative points out to the woman that he himself is just trying to scare her a little but the warship is being entirely serious, to illustrate the danger the woman is getting herself into by approaching it. Multiple minds are involved and they all take the scenario at face - value. So absolutely best case scenario, where the warship Falling Outside[...] is just pretending to break this guy's fingers as a party trick, everyone believing it means that in the compassionate and loving culture, one can just sign away their fundamental rights and bodily autonomy for years with no chance to back out, even if the contract is made under false pretenses, between two parties where one is a thousand times smarter than the other. Yikes.

I'm sure you're right, since my memory of these books is very hazy, but I could have sworn the dude being tortured by the Falling Outside was some sort of trick. I also remember the Falling Outside giving some sort of speech to the woman at the end where he explains that even though he's a warship, he still
affirms The Culture's values of peace and compassion. But, again, my memory of these books is not so good. (I also don't remember the warship's name being The Falling Outside..etc. I mean, that's the style of name that the ships have, but I remember his name being something like "Dimension". (I guess I can google it lol.)

# ? Jul 28, 2018 10:22

Crespolini: Mar 9, 2014

For what it's worth I think it was a hoax too, I'm just salty that it suceeded yet didn't provoke an intervention until the ship had basically decided to let the guy go anyway.

# ? Jul 28, 2018 10:36

The Dennis System: Aug 4, 2014; Nothing in Jurassic World is natural, we have always filled gaps in the genome with the DNA of other animals. And if the genetic code was pure, many of them would look quite different. But you didn't ask for reality, you asked for more teeth.

Welp, I googled "surface detail falling outside" etc., because I wanted to see if the Falling Outside had some sort of nickname, and one of the first results was a reddit thread about Surface Detail asking about a "gel suit" that the main character wears (I had totally forgotten about the gel suit). But, beyond the gel suit thing, one of the redditors claims that the Falling Outside tortures the guy and that some other mind erases the guy's memory out of mercy. But another reddit dude claims that Falling Outside himself erases the dude's memory of the torture and heal his wounds. (Although, even if that's true, the guy is still suffering in the moment, even if he doesn't remember it.) Also, there's some argument about just how bad the Falling Outside actually is. Also, one of the reddit dudes randomly refers to the Falling Outside as "Demeisen", so maybe he does have a nickname. They also talk about "Demeisen" torturing a character called Veppers, who I have no memory of, but that SC frequently tortures people in order to send a message of "don't gently caress with the culture", which I also have no memory of. (I know people were discussing "don't gently caress with the culture" earlier in this thread, but I don't remember SC actually torturing people!)

# ? Jul 28, 2018 10:52

Pretty good: Apr 16, 2007

Demeisen was the ship's avatar. So basically the same character, just the person-shaped part of them

And Veppers was the moustache twirling industrialist villain

# ? Jul 28, 2018 12:32

w0o0o0o: Aug 26, 2007; bloop.

The Dennis System posted:

They also talk about "Demeisen" torturing a character called Veppers, who I have no memory of, but that SC frequently tortures people in order to send a message of "don't gently caress with the culture", which I also have no memory of. (I know people were discussing "don't gently caress with the culture" earlier in this thread, but I don't remember SC actually torturing people!)

The nanobot assassin from Windward killed those conspirators with pretty excessive brutality, could be referring to that?

# ? Jul 28, 2018 12:40

Crespolini: Mar 9, 2014

w0o0o0o posted:

The nanobot assassin from Windward killed those conspirators with pretty excessive brutality, could be referring to that?

Or I suppose The Killing Time, who upon having its adversery at its mercy mind-controlled it into burning itself alive, essentially.

# ? Jul 28, 2018 12:50

doverhog: May 31, 2013; Defender of democracy and human rights 🇺🇦

Is there any bigger "don't gently caress with the Culture" than the knowledge that they have x number of sleeping warships scattered all over the place. Minds created for war, too violent to wanna stay awake in a galaxy where no one dares to engage the Culture in all out war?

# ? Jul 28, 2018 17:03

Ugly In The Morning: Jul 1, 2010; Pillbug

Was it Use of Weapons where there�s someone on a warship watching a battle they�re involved in, one for the ship�s Mind to be like �lol nah, that was done in three milliseconds, you�re watching a slowed down replay of it�?

# ? Jul 28, 2018 18:06

tractor fanatic: Sep 9, 2005; Pillbug

That was surface detail.

The Dennis System posted:

asking about a "gel suit" that the main character wears

I had the idea that Banks was somewhat less horny than the average sci fy writer but like the first thing he mentions when she puts on the gel suit is that it comes with a butt plug

# ? Jul 28, 2018 19:32

Ugly In The Morning: Jul 1, 2010; Pillbug

tractor fanatic posted:

That was surface detail.

I had the idea that Banks was somewhat less horny than the average sci fy writer but like the first thing he mentions when she puts on the gel suit is that it comes with a butt plug

And can slice her turds.

# ? Jul 28, 2018 20:00

RFC2324: Jun 7, 2012; http 418

tractor fanatic posted:

That was surface detail.

I had the idea that Banks was somewhat less horny than the average sci fy writer but like the first thing he mentions when she puts on the gel suit is that it comes with a butt plug

its very important to know these things

for science, you know

# ? Jul 28, 2018 20:04

Peanut Butler: Jul 25, 2003

I never finished the one about the shellworld because he died and I got sad about it and stopped reading-

think I might have to re-read Excession, it was pretty early in my Culture reading sequence so idk if I totally 'got' it even though I enjoyed it

god he was so good at writing a gripping plot with weird and interesting ideas but also having funny camp stuff like the GFCF seamlessly weave into it. Inversions might be my least favorite mostly because it's so dang serious all the way through

# ? Aug 17, 2018 10:52

bitmap: Aug 8, 2006

Just mainlined Hydrogen Sonata and now I'm on Windward.

HS was a bit meandering and felt pointless in a lot of places. It really pissed me off that Banstegeyne and conspirators got away scott free with genociding the socialist regiment, assassinating the president, his lover and unborn child, thousands of hedonists at that party etc. Off to heaven! Byeee! I did, however, really like the character Mistake Not(...)

# ? Aug 17, 2018 11:52

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

tractor fanatic posted:

That was surface detail.

I had the idea that Banks was somewhat less horny than the average sci fy writer but like the first thing he mentions when she puts on the gel suit is that it comes with a butt plug

I don't think of Banks as a horny writer like Heinlein or Ringo's god awful tom clany/BDSM porn series but more that he uses stuff like that as another device to gently caress with you

# ? Aug 17, 2018 12:29

vortmax: Sep 24, 2008; In meteorology, vorticity often refers to a measurement of the spin of horizontally flowing air about a vertical axis.

After finishing this thread I decided to start rereading the series. I'm going in chronological order (as shown on Wikipedia) this time instead of published order, but both start with Consider Phlebas. It's a very different experience reading this book again after reading all the others.

# ? Aug 18, 2018 03:32

naem: May 29, 2011

vortmax posted:

After finishing this thread I decided to start rereading the series. I'm going in chronological order (as shown on Wikipedia) this time instead of published order, but both start with Consider Phlebas. It's a very different experience reading this book again after reading all the others.

Yeah because it�s not told from the perspective of the culture at all. Kinda clever

It�s �generic space guy� in culture land

# ? Aug 18, 2018 03:41

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Larry Parrish posted:

I don't think of Banks as a horny writer like Heinlein or Ringo's god awful tom clany/BDSM porn series but more that he uses stuff like that as another device to gently caress with you

he likes his torture though

# ? Aug 18, 2018 03:46

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# ? Apr 26, 2024 01:04

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Yeah. But like I said I think it's less because he likes torture than because he uses it as a giant flashing sign saying 'these people suck'. Unlike when your reading a truly horny author and you can basically tell where he came while writing a scene

# ? Aug 18, 2018 18:41

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > In Consider Phlebas, Bora was stupid to try and slip out of his cuffs

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