Quotessence
Home / Books / The State of the Art

The State of the Art

Book by Iain M. Banks · 8 quotes · Diziet Sma, Berlin, Choices

Filter quotes by topic

AllDiziet SmaBerlinChoicesCitiesComfortEconomicsEnergyEthological EpicentreFoodFree MarketFuelHackneyedHumilityInequalityLimitedLimitingMankindMarterialist ApotheosisMultifariously FacetedNew York City

The State of the Art Quotes

“There is something about the very idea of a city which is central to the understanding of a planet like Earth, and particularly the understanding of that part of the then-existing group-civilization which called itself the West. That idea, to my mind, met its materialist apotheosis in Berlin at the time of the Wall. Perhaps I go into some sort of shock when I experience something deeply; I'm not sure, even at this ripe middle-age, but I have to admit that what I recall of Berlin is not arranged in my memory in any normal, chronological sequence. My only excuse is that Berlin itself was so abnormal - and yet so bizarrely representative - it was like something unreal; an occasionally macabre Disneyworld which was so much a part of the real world (and the realpolitik world), so much a crystallization of everything these people had managed to produce, wreck, reinstate, venerate, condemn and worship in their history that it defiantly transcended everything it exemplified, and took on a single - if multifariously faceted - meaning of its own; a sum, an answer, a statement no city in its right mind would want or be able to arrive at.”

CitiesMankindBerlinRealpolitikThe WestThe Berlin WallDiziet SmaMarterialist ApotheosisMultifariously Faceted
Book:The State of the Art
Create image

“On Earth one of the things that a large proportion of the locals is most proud of is this wonderful economic system which, with a sureness and certainty so comprehensive one could almost imagine the process bears some relation to their limited and limiting notions of either thermodynamics or God, all food, comfort, energy, shelter, space, fuel and sustenance gravitates naturally and easily away from those who need it most and towards those who need it least. Indeed, those on the receiving end of such largesse are often harmed unto death by its arrival, though the effects may take years and generations to manifest themselves.”

EnergySpaceFoodComfortEconomicsFuelShelterSustenanceLimitedLimiting
Book:The State of the Art
Create image