In the Shadow of the Culture: The Ethics of Intervention, AI Rights, and Utopia in Iain M. Banks's The Algebraist
Martín Alegre, Sara ![ORCID Identifier](/img/uab/orcid.ico)
(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Date: |
2021 |
Abstract: |
Iain M. Banks's The Algebraist (2004), a Hugo Award nominee for Best Novel in 2005, has attracted far less critical attention than his Culture novels despite being a remarkable work. Born of the author's wish to develop his science fiction beyond the Culture's universe, The Algebraist is a complex novel displaying in its dense pages Banks's wondrous imagination. Here I consider the ways in which the main civilizations he depicts in it, the Mercatoria and the Dwellers, connect with key issues raised in the Culture novels: the ethics of intervention in other civilizations, the use of AIs, and the nature of utopia. The Culture, as I argue, casts a long shadow but Banks's decision to explore another narrative universe allows him to examine these fundamental issues from a different angle. The Algebraist complements, nonetheless, his main tenets in the Culture series. |
Rights: |
Tots els drets reservats. ![](/img/licenses/InC.ico) |
Language: |
Anglès |
Document: |
Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada |
Published in: |
Extrapolation, Vol. 62 Núm. 2 (2021) , p. 181-197 |
Versió en castellà: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/273927
DOI: 10.3828/extr.2021.10
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Record created 2024-01-08, last modified 2024-01-24