The Culture/Use of Weapons: Difference between revisions

This is actually the first novel Iain Banks wrote, although it was published much later. Many consider it his masterpiece.

 

* [[Anachronic Order]]: It tells one story going forward with alternating chapters going in the opposite direction to provide flashbacks to Zakalwe's past. This is so confusing with respect to the first and last chapters, that fans disagree on whether they detail past or future events. One online reviewer jokingly referenced the novel as [[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya|The Melancholy of Cheradenine Zakalwe]].

* [[Arc Words]]: The Chairmaker and the Chair

* [[Bait the Dog]]: For a lot of the book, it's easy to think of Zakalwe as a really cool and [[Badass]] secret agent and to think that his handlers from the Culture are off-base when they refer to him as a dangerous psycho. Certain events in his past change that impression.

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: {{spoiler|Elethiomel borders on this in a twisted way; part of him really has come to believe that he IS Cheradenine}}

* [[Cain and Abel]]: Cheradenine and Elethiomel Zakalwe are an interesting take on this, as the flashbacks present Cheradenine as something of the Cain, being a jerk to his adopted brother Elethiomel {{spoiler|then it turns out that the Cheradenine of the novel is actually Elethiomel and he did a [[Moral Event Horizon]] crossing event that made him the Cain figure}}.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Done on both a strategic and tactical level by Zakalwe and Elethiomel, especially in the flashbacks ( {{spoiler|because the latter has assumed the former's identity}}). It's not called ''Use Of Weapons'' just because of the guns.

* [[The Handler]]: Diziet Sma.

* [[History Repeats]]: Zakalwe is painfully aware that he has a bad habit of repeatedly making the same mistake of over-entrenching in an unwinnable situation and then not withdrawing when he should. He is otherwise depicted as a brilliant military mind, capable of turning the tide in a war despite overwhelming odds.

* [[Losing Your Head]]: Special Circumstances operative Cheradenine Zakalwe crash-lands on a primitive planet and is sacrificed by the natives through decapitation. Fortunately his [[Big Damn Heroes|colleages zoom in just in time]] to snatch back his head, but not before he's had a horrified moment to realise exactly what just happened. Later Zakalwe is in hospital waiting for a new body to be grown (they gave him the choice of remaining unconscious but he'd rather watch television) when the artificially-intelligent drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw (who doesn't like Zakalwe much, and has a twisted sense of humor) sends him a present. A hat.

* [[Monster Clown]]: Zakalwe commits an assassination dressed as a jester.

* [[Trigger Happy]]: Zakalwe, hilariously so.

* [[Twist Ending]]: The two main approaches to the ending is one story working forwards towards the events and a second story working backwards to their meaning. Keeping it a surprising twist under these circumstances is an achievement. {{spoiler|The twist is that Cheradenine of the novel is actually Elethiomel from the scenes set in childhood.}}

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: Special Circumstances' guiding philosophy.

* [[Warrior Poet]]: Subverted. Zakalwe would like to be one, but all his efforts at poetry are amateurish. In a particular irony the novel is bookended by the much better poetic efforts of his co-workers.

[[Category:The Culture]]

[[Category:The Culture/Use of Weapons]]