“State of the Art” (p. 94)
“
I came out stunned. I was angry at them, then. Angry at them for surprising me, touching me like that. Of course I was angry at their stupidity, their manic barbarity, their unthinking, animal obedience, their appalling cruelty; everything that the memorial evoked... but what really hit me was that these people could create something that spoke so eloquently of their own ghastly actions; that they could fashion a work so humanly redolent of their own inhumanity.
— Iain Banks
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I came out stunned. I was angry at them, then. Angry at them for surprising me, touching me like that. Of course I was angry at their stupidity, their manic barbarity, their unthinking, animal obedience, their appalling cruelty; everything that the memorial evoked... but what really hit me was that these people could create something that spoke so eloquently of their own ghastly actions; that they could fashion a work so humanly redolent of their own inhumanity." in the context of "“State of the Art” (p. 94)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Iain Banks" (Quotes, Short fiction, The State of the Art (1991): All page numbers from the trade paperback edition published by Night Shade Books (ISBN 978-1-59780-074-7)
Only A Gift from the Culture, Descendant and State of the Art are set in the world of his Culture series
For details on the original publication of each story, see the Wikipedia page
All ellipses in the original stories )
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
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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.
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.
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