Use of weapons

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Use of weapons (engl. Original title: Use of Weapons , 1990 ) is the third published science fiction - novel from the culture cycle of Iain M. Banks .

subjects

Three fundamental questions are inherent in almost all of Iain Banks' cultural novels :

  1. Is there a need for a capitalist, hierarchically organized economic model to structure a productive, creative and innovative society?
  2. What criteria can be used to define intelligent life and how does this definition affect the legal status of non-human intelligences?
  3. Where does the “humane” end when the medical-technical possibilities make almost every physical optimization and appearance feasible? Zakalwe, who at the end of the novel, seriously wounded, refuses any medical intervention in order to face his beloved Livueta as the ultimate, suffering person, takes the problem of self-optimization to extremes.

content

The culture's philosophy of life, which is extremely geared towards increasing pleasure and fun, is seamlessly linked to its tendency to interfere in the development of less advanced civilizations. It seems that culture justifies its hedonism by doing this . The contact section is therefore a popular field of activity and BU (see: Special circumstances ), the active intervention department, can hardly save itself from applicants. Nonetheless, there is dirty work that requires barbaric characters that culture can hardly produce by itself. This is why BU often feels compelled to hire mercenaries for these activities. Use of Arms tells the story of a man named Cheradenine Zakalwe, who is just such a mercenary.

The book consists of two storylines that correspond to each other as alternating chapters. The numbering of the individual chapters shows which storyline they belong to; one is numbered in ascending order in words ( one , two , ...), the other in descending order in Roman numerals ( XIII , XII , ...). The first strand moves forward chronologically as a completed narrative. In contrast, the chapters of the second lead on and on in the past of Zakalwe's life. A prologue and an epilogue , both of which take place in a completely different time, and several flashbacks within the chapters make the structure of the novel seem a bit complicated.

Decades ago, at the absolute low point of his life, Zakalwe was recruited for the BU by Rasd-Coduresa Diziet Embless Sma da'Marenhide. Since then, the two have shared a kind of love-hate relationship. Every time Zakalwe has to be persuaded to go on a new mission, it is Diziet who ultimately succeeds. The fact that Zakalwe, on the last attempt to make himself invisible in front of the BU, destroyed the knife rocket guarding him - an extremely powerful military device of the BU - makes his value for the culture clear. He is aggressive, creative, intelligent, intuitive and almost irreplaceable when it comes to certain assignments.

The forward storyline describes Diziet Sma's renewed attempt to recruit Zakalwe for an urgent peacekeeping mission and the subsequent course of the mission itself. As always, Zakalwe asks for compensation in addition to stocks and shares information about the whereabouts of a woman named Livueta Zakalwe - his sister. As every time, after the mission is complete, he will go to her to ask for something and, as every time, he is likely to experience bitter refusal. A dark secret lies about the origins and youth of Cheradenine Zakalwes. It slumbers in him so dark and deeply hidden that not even he himself has conscious knowledge of it, let alone the BU, who have tried unsuccessfully to lift this veil. During particularly brutal missions Zakalwe come across ghastly dreams, incomprehensible associations and apparently senseless scraps of words, such as “stick bark”. Something is begging to be revealed.

The storyline, which moves backwards in time, describes Zakalwe's previous BU missions up to the moment he was recruited by Diziet Sma. At the end of the book, on Zakalwe's home planet, the two storylines meet. Here, at the place of the key traumatic experience in Zakalwe's life, the dissolution takes place. Diziet finds out that the mercenary is not Cheradenine Zakalwe, but rather his adoptive brother Elethiomel. This had killed Zakalwe's second sister in a war and processed her remains into a chair, whereupon the real Cheradenine Zakalwe took her own life. Elethiomel's last attempt to obtain the forgiveness of surviving sister Livueta fails.

At the end of the book, Diziet tries to recruit a new mercenary in a home for the wounded.

Context within the culture cycle

In use of the weapons , the culture is examined from a dual perspective, even from the perspective of outsiders largely Cheradenine Zakalwe, on the other hand that of Diziet Sma and the drone skaffen-Amtiskaw.

Although the whole medical ability of the culture is open to him, Zakalwe is content with physical immortality as far as physical modifications are concerned. In the cultural context, however, this is considered an abnormality . Most of the culture residents consciously end their life after about 400–500 years. They consider the desire for immortality to be a rather childish way of thinking. Zakalwe strictly rejects drug glands, a neural braid or other changes to mind or body. He acts like a dumb outdoorsman who considers all the intricacies of the cultural scene to be decadent nonsense. The novel grants deep insights into working and thinking about special circumstances, even if the higher goals pursued by culture remain hidden from the reader just as often as Zakalwe himself.

Diziet Sma and the Skaffen-Amtiskaw drone, who worked together for Special Circumstances, have a different view of both Zakalwe and life in the culture. They often admire Zakalwe's impetuous actions and despise his sentimental impulses, which lead him to irrational deeds, especially when a mission fails as a result. In any case, they endure the cynicism that is inherent in some BU campaigns much better than Zakalwe, and have partly internalized it themselves. You know that the BU brains are a million times more intelligent than humans, but they still have to make uncomfortable and sometimes morally questionable decisions. In any case, Sma and Skaffen-Amtiskaw do not really question the great goal.

History of origin

In 1974, well before any of his books (both science fiction and fiction ) were published, Banks wrote a much longer version of Use of Arms with an even more complicated plot structure. Even if Bedenke Phlebas and Das Spiel Azad were published earlier, the Use of Arms is therefore the first book that Banks has written in the context of the culture cycle .

In the novella The last state of the art (Engl. The State of the Art ) from the short story collection A gift of culture Diziet Sma and the drone skaffen-Amtiskaw also appear and visit the earth. It stands to reason that the amendment was part of the original version of the use of weapons . Smas ode to Zakalwe, which is printed before the prologue in Use of Arms , was dated by her to the year 115 of the calendar of the Khmer Rouge , so it falls at the time when she wrote her report on the visit to earth.

Banks himself says of the first version of the book: "It was impossible to understand without thinking in six dimensions". In the slightly cryptic acknowledgment of the novel, he states that the suggestion of his friend, science fiction author Ken MacLeod , prompted him to revise the book again and give it a new structure: “It was his idea, the old one to argue warrior out of retirement and he also hit the fitness program before. "in fact, MacLeod used in his own novels like a similar structure, for example in the Mars city (engl. the Stone Canal ).

Awards

literature