How goes your peace conference?
Slowly. Having exhausted the possibilities of every other form of mass-murder they could possibly employ against each other, the natives now appear intent on boring each other to death. They may finally have discovered their true calling." - Meaning and context.">
Chapter 19 “Dispatches” (p. 355)

How goes your peace conference?
Slowly. Having exhausted the possibilities of every other form of mass-murder they could possibly employ against each other, the natives now appear intent on boring each other to death. They may finally have discovered their true calling.

— Iain Banks

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "How goes your peace conference?
Slowly. Having exhausted the possibilities of every other form of mass-murder they could possibly employ against each other, the natives now appear intent on boring each other to death. They may finally have discovered their true calling." in the context of "Chapter 19 “Dispatches” (p. 355)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Iain Banks" (Quotes, Culture series, Matter (2008): All page numbers are from the February 2009 first trade paperback edition published by Orbit , 2nd printing All spelling, italics, and punctuation as in the book ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Iain Banks

About Iain Banks

Iain Menzies Banks (February 16, 1954 – June 9, 2013), officially Iain Banks, was a Scottish writer. As Iain M. Banks he wrote science fiction; as Iain Banks he wrote literary fiction.