Talk:Iain Banks

message: I'd like to dispute Inversions being a Culture novel. As far as I'm concerned, the vague assertion that the Culture may be involved in the storyline doesn't make it a Culture novel, any more than references to death make one of Shakespeare's comedies into a tragedy... Excession 22:20, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: To quote Banks, "Inversions was an attempt to write a Culture novel that wasn't."  This is unlike Feersum Endjinn which Banks confirmed being entirely unrelated to Culture, after some people had interpreted it otherwise. Aapo Laitinen 12:39, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inversions as a Culture novel? 

message: The book Transition has been moved from the Fiction section of the bibliography to the Science Fiction section. I think this is worth discussing. The edit comment cites evidence from the Wikipedia article about Transition, and also that it was nominated for a science fiction award. I don't think that is a particularly strong case as those are the opinions of others and the author himself described it as "a mainstream novel that borrows science fiction tropes" (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7948058.stm). 
Personally I think the whole bibliography would be easier to read if it was arranged chronologically, then such demarcation issues would not arise, with entries along the lines of: 
1984, The Wasp Factory, an Iain Banks novel.
1987, Consider Phlebas, an Iain M Banks Culture novel.
--User:DaveH  —Preceding undated comment added 12:45, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Good idea. The attempt to separate his streams of work into two sections is far too subjective, and unnecessary. Those who claim that the nom de plume he used when writing one stream or the other is a definitive guide need to consider that in some markets some books were published under the other non de plume to the main markets. Greglocock (talk) 20:18, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Transition, science fiction or not? 

message: Shouldn't  this be mentioned? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 15:08, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  New TV series in development 

message: "He wrote mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks"
Not this old cliché. The Bridge is a science fiction novel and is published under the "Iain Banks" label. As is Walking on Glass.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.205.241.45 (talk) 12:44, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ming and Aing 

message: I see a later editor removed the field entirely - workable, but a bit drastic IMHO.
So anyway, last week I was checking my watchlist, and a sock had added "British" to the nationality field of the infobox, apparently the first wikipedia edit by that address.  If you are at ALL familiar with the works and life of Iain M Banks like I am, you would know that he fervently disliked being called anything but Scottish. I noted this and reverted it.  The next time I checked I found this in the edit history of the page:
"90.243.22.131 Undid revision 1010729790 by [[[User:Timmccloud|Timmccloud]] (talk)] It's not a matter of identity or style. Banks' passport said 'British' and that is his legal and meaningful nationality"
This was done by an anonymous sock, without any references for the changes made, and had begun an edit war with me. He's been warned about the concept of edit warring, and I told him to weigh in here, like he should.
I still think this deserves a discussion, what is the consensus? Scottish or British? Whatever consensus is, it shall be done.
VOTING:
*British - I assume this is the IP sock vote 90.243.18.24 
*Scottish - This was Iain's personal preference, it's stated in all his book cover bios as such, and I believe it should be reflected as such in the info box.  Timmccloud (talk) 00:05, 17 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nationality - Scottish or British? 

message: This is to answer the comment above that says that there are 4 countries in GB. 82.36.70.45 (talk) 04:14, 28 February 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, the editor wrote "Great Britain is an United Kingdom of four nations". He's confusing two things. Great Britain is an island, consisting of Wales, Scotland and England. It is essentially a geographical, not a political, concept (although it was once a political entity when the Kingdom of Great Britain existed 1707-1800). Nowadays, it provides three of the four home nations of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The other one, Northern Ireland, is a part of the United Kingdom, but is most definitely not part of Great Britain.  --  Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 06:30, 28 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Northern Ireland is not in Great Britain