Historical
Halfway through The Transgressive Iain Banks and I keep wondering if the old split between “Banks” and “Iain M. Banks” helps readers more than it helps the books.
It’s neat, obviously. Too neat, maybe. So far the essays are making a good case that the divide can flatten what’s actually going on in both bodies of work. The interesting bit is the overlap, not the label.
Also, any critical collection that makes you rethink a tidy shelf category is doing something right.
It’s neat, obviously. Too neat, maybe. So far the essays are making a good case that the divide can flatten what’s actually going on in both bodies of work. The interesting bit is the overlap, not the label.
Also, any critical collection that makes you rethink a tidy shelf category is doing something right.
The split has always felt more useful to booksellers than to readers. Once a writer is doing both mainstream and SF, the interesting question is usually how the same obsessions keep mutating across the work. Labels can tidy a shelf, but they can also hide the messier, more revealing bits.