The Business 81
| The Business | |
| author | Iain Banks |
| pages | 393 |
| publisher | Simon and Schuster |
| rating | 9/10 |
| reviewer | Michael Sims |
| ISBN | 0-7432-0014-4 |
| summary | life in the world's most powerful and least visible corporation |
The tale starts off with the protagonist getting woken up at 4AM: one of her subordinates, who is due to participate in an important deal the next day, has woken up with half of his teeth surgically removed.
Who controls the British Crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
The Business is the world's largest and most powerful entity that you've never heard of. Supposedly predating the Christian Church, the Business once owned the Roman Empire (but only for a little while -- it didn't work out), and now has a great many fingers in a great many pies. Swiss banks? Yes. Offshore islands? Yes. Covert operations? Yes. The Business is like a sort of capitalistic fantasy come to life, the Illuminati made real.
Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
Kathryn Telman is a Level Three in the Business, which makes her Rather Important in the scheme of things but she still has ambitions to make it to the top. Kate is one of the Business' experts in the modern world of high technology, and this expertise has allowed her to rise quickly -- she has a natural gift for buying low and selling high, as you will see. But besides the day-to-day operations, the Business is moving strategically: they want to purchase a nation so that they can have a seat at the United Nations. This is one of the few perks that the Business does not already possess, and they are a bit envious of the other Seats ... errr, Nations.
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
The whole book is written in the lyrical, flowing, pleasant style that characterizes several of Banks' less gruesome books, such as Look to Windward or Inversions. It's a bit odd, since most writers would write a book like this in a very tense, clipped fashion and Banks rejects that. It's a fun read, all the way through, and even if it won't leave you with a feeling of wonder like some of Banks' books, it's still well worth your time.
Who robs cave fish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do, we do!
You can find this book at Fatbrain, which also features an excerpt from the book.
Not a troll (Score:1)
Exclusivity.... (Score:1)
Oh, so they use democracy to promote? (consensus reached by a majority of your peers)
Or would that be tyrany? (the only get a complete consensus out of any random (or even not so random) group of people is to scare the living shit out of them... the MAD/bomb, Stalin, Vlad the Impailer, etc...)
I guess it beats Corprate America's Peter Principal (and no, that's not the method where by your boss is a dick). The Peter Principal states that cream doesn't rise to the top; it simply rises to the point at which those around it think that it has stopped doing a good job of rising... then it stagnates (people rise to their own level of individual incompentency by doing a good job, getting promotions because of it and then when they stop doing a good job because they've been promoted into an area they're unfamiliar with, they stop getting promoted and stagnate). I suppose that's what the mangement of appearance is such a big issue within Corporate America... wouldn't want to give the impression a bad job is being done (even though it may be). Oddly enough, several Japanese banks have collaposed for this very reason... how odd.
Iain Banks without the M (Score:4)
I suspect that more members of the Slashdot demographic are familiar with Banks' science fiction (written as Iain M. Banks) than his "normal" fiction (written as Iain Banks without the M), and I'd just like to say: if you're in that category, do yourself a favour, and check out some of his non-M books NOW!
I do like his SF.. some very good ideas in there. But I think his non-SF work is better than good, it's some of the best stuff I've ever read in my life!
The Business is great.. and better still are Espedair Street (the story of a washed-up (or not?) Scottish rock star gone into seclusion), The Crow Road (the story of a rather odd Scottish family), and Complicity (the story of a Scottish journalist and a sinister conspiracy). Iain Banks is very Scottish. :-)
Not so unusual (Score:3)
That's not really unusual, I interviewed at CMG [cmgplc.com] a while back, and they have a similar policy. Also, like The Business, they are financially transparent internally, everyone knows what everyone else makes.
Re:Iain Banks without the M (Score:1)
Take Consider Phlebas: Section 1: main character finds other characters. Section 2: most other characters are killed off. Section 3: main character does what he was supposed to do in the first section.
I've nothing against reading long books (no problem with Cryptonomicon) but CP seemed long for no reason, and Banks easy-to-read style didn't really help.
All his SF books seem to have the same problem; his 'normal' books don't.
Not his best (Score:4)
Which is not to say that The Business isn't entertaining, just that it's some way from his best. And it has his usual problem: the female characters are just not very well formed (they're just men with breasts). Unfortunately, a female character is the hero...
Iain M Banks reviews (Score:2)
Danny.
Re:Get your facts straight. (Score:1)
Re:_Complicity_ is much better (Score:1)
Re:you are LAME! (Score:1)
Re:If you didn't like this, you also may not like (Score:1)
mahlen
Q: How many Californians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: NONE! Californians screw in hot tubs, not light bulbs!
Female characters (Score:1)
Crap! I can only assume that YOU want women to be boring bigbreasted fluffbrained stereotypes. I love Banks' female characters. I love that they have guts and brains and their own agendas. Oh, is that somehow "being male" to you? Get over it.
BTW, I liked this one but agree that it's not his best.
hrmph (Score:2)
now this, I don't know about you, but businesses are pretty damn near the bottom of my list of things that I want to read about in my spare time. sorry, just not interested. if I want to read about business practices and organizations, workplace power struggles, etc, there are enough of them in the real world that I don't need fiction about them. but thanks anyway :)
Iain Banks as a satirist? (Score:3)
Re:Novel? (Score:1)
Stonecutters Unite! (and SUE!) (Score:3)
Stonecutters UNITE!
Jethro
Re:Wow! Another corporate conspiracy novel! Pass. (Score:2)
Just because something's antagonistic doesn't mean it's a troll. I too think there are much better books to be reviewed on Slashdot, eve nby the same author.
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Review WAY overrates the Business (Score:4)
I have to agree with stephnd's comment [slashdot.org]:
And it has his usual problem: the female characters are just not very well formed (they're just men with breasts). Unfortunately, a female character is the hero...
I think a basic problem of this book is that ultracapitalists are boring people, unless they are completely insane and godlike (c.f. James Bond villains, Felix Jongleur of Otherland, the Tessier-Ashpools of Neuromancer). They all have too much money and cleverness and inability to find satisfaction in non-material things, so they have lots of toys. There's the eccentric Brit with his castle and aforementioned airplane-catapult; the eccentric American with military surplus and war movie fetish; the eccentric Japanese who likes to destroy ships. What seems like variety at first reveals itself to be a cookie-cutter approach to humor. They have no real fear of failure (since they have too much money and power and sense to ever lose all of it), are much too rational and intelligent to suffer severe emotional struggle, and can't really experience any kind of spiritual sense, since they've replaced that with the effective but boring belief in the Invisible Hand. Those who aren't cut out right, who are in the Business but suffer from one of the seven deadly sins, all get their tediously moralistic comeuppance.
Or maybe it's just the main character (and the book is in the limited first person, so it's all about her and from her perspective) who is painfully, painfully boring. She is a dull woman. Yes, she's beautiful, smart, clever, and driven, but she doesn't really suffer a bit in the book. (Ooh! She loves a man who she can't have, and doesn't love the man she can! But, in the end, she does the right thing, and ends up slowly growing fond of the man who she can have. Maybe it's the best ending for her, but it's painfully dull for the reader.)
The peripheral male characters lead interesting lives and act irrationally and pout and suffer and all those things that make a non-flashy book like this (aka "a Novel") enjoyable and satisfying, but they are mere garnishes on the gray, tough meat of the book. Read the first chapter to get the witty description of the Business (or just read Michael's fawning review), and then put the book down. The promises made of an interesting mystery and unusual situations are not kept.
But if you want to read how very incapable Brits are of being happy (or sad, really), this is a good choice.
Read the Bridge instead, a lyrical and strange novel that lies in the realm of Borges and Calvino.
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Re:Not so unusual - Maverick! (Score:1)
But I'm intrigued, if capitalism can't provide a
good standard of living, for example in Africa,
South America, former Soviet Union or US inner
cities, then you think a revolution would be a
good idea?
Re:Iain Banks without the M (Score:1)
All his SF books seem to have the same problem; his 'normal' books don't.
So, what fault did you find with Feersum Endjinn? I agree that slogging through CP was pretty painful, but FE was such a joy that I strded myzbeling wirdz wyfoat evn nowtzing.
Re:"Offshore Islands"? (Score:1)
Inland islands, as in, islands in the middle of rivers. Largest of that type is Sauvie Island in Oregon, where the Williamette meets the Columbia.
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Re:Novel? (Score:2)
Continuing patterns (Score:1)
'The Business' is a bit of froth really, maybe it's me getting old or it's Banks getting lazy but he doesn't get me excited anymore. I might only buy a couple more ;).
Re:Novel? (Score:1)
And such radical Communists as Texas Instruments: [u-net.com]
__
Re:Different (Score:2)
Re:Espedair Street.. (Score:2)
So is the "Church" that is talked about in the book- when I lived in Glasgow it was known as Cardinal Follies, and was a nightclub.
Re:Not so unusual - Maverick! (Score:1)
I forgot the catholic church & political democracy (Score:2)
as other examples of peers electing one of their own to lead them (cardinals electing a pope, citizens electing a president). Gosh, examples just popping up like mushrooms!
ObOpenSourcePlug (Score:3)
Workers councils, good OSS projects, you name it...
First Scientology revealed here, now Stonecutters? (Score:2)
Who made Steve Guttenberg a star?"
All you need to know about this book (Score:1)
This isn't one of them. Not that it actively sucks, just that I expected more given his track-record. It is readable but inspiring. It is OK but nothing to write to slashdot about.
Re:All you need to know about this book (Score:1)
Arrgh, need more proffraeding. Better make that "It is readable but uninspiring
Iain Banks (Score:2)
slud
Re:Espedair Street.. (Score:2)
Re:Do your research (Score:1)
Bovarian
The cow is of bovine ilk
One end to moo
The other milk
If you didn't like this, you also may not like (Score:1)
Very slow reader (Score:1)
The Business is something of a light read by Bank's standards. IMHO The Crow Road is the best (and it starts with the immortal line 'it was the day my grandmother exploded'), with Complicity and Espeldair St being pretty good too.
If you ever get the chance go and here him speak too - terribly nice, funny and entertaining guy.
His non-SF novels are also interesting if you live in Scotland because they usually very much grounded in real geography - Complicity, Wilt and Crow Road in particular. One of my friends was actually the next door neighbour to the guy at Gilmerton with the multiple Austin 7's outside mentioned in Complicity (and the mechanic who looks after the weird off-road vehicle at Lix Toll Garage mentioned in the same novel also services my car). I know that doesn't give it any literay merit, but it is kinda interesting to see how his imagination uses and extends the local colour :-)
Overrated (Score:1)
In fact, i read it with mild pleasure, but once finsihed, I found the plot too unbelievable, the characters too schematic, and the ending too predictable.
I would not advise somebody to read it.
David
Re:I forgot the catholic church & political democr (Score:2)
Grab.
Re:Iain Banks without the M (Score:1)
Re:Places you know in books... (Score:1)
Lovely when stuff like that happens.
TomV
This book made me confused (Score:2)
I think I liked microserfs for many of the same reasons I liked this book although I don't know what those reasons are.
Well read the book anyway. Some parts like the one where the heroine tortures a guy by overloading the engine of his ferarri are just hillarious.
Stonecutters themesong (Score:2)
For those of you who are (*gasp*) Simpsons [thesimpsons.com]-challenged, the quotes that michael tossed into the review are from Episode #115 (2F09), entitled, "Homer the Great," which premiered on 8/1/95. The Stonecutters are a secret society, like The Business.
You can listen to a WAV file of the whole song here [homestead.com].
Re:Do your research (Score:2)
Re:Do your research (Score:3)
The Bovarian Illuminati? What, they raised the price of milk? Started the whole "Cow Rights movement? A-HA! This explains all of the Chik-Fil-A campaigns!
Re:Get your facts straight. (Score:2)
Re:If you didn't like this, you also may not like (Score:1)
Re:Espedair Street.. (Score:1)
More of Iain _M_ banks.. (Score:2)
Some interesting stuff.
The illuminati made real ... (Score:1)
Re:_Complicity_ is much better (Score:2)
Re:Not so unusual (Score:1)
Re:Novel? (Score:1)
Inside a company hierarchy? What a truly revolutionary idea!
Phil
Re:Novel? (Score:1)
This state pretty much lasted until the Kornilov putsch, which failed miserably. Shortly afterwards the Bolsheviks gained control of the soviets, at least in part because the Kerensky government reintroduced the death penality for those fighting on the front (Russia was still engaged in WW1 at this stage). Shortly after this the second revolution took place.
The Soviets went through a number of different changes after that time, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing in power, and eventually ending up as the Stalinist parody that they became.
I am not sure where you get the stuff about inflation of wages and benefits from. You will remember that at the time Russia had just been (and was still going through) the disaster of WW1, which had cost millions of lifes taking massive numbers of people off the land resulting in large scale starvation and famine. This was followed up afterwards with the activities of the white army. I think drawing a clear line as you seem to have done between inflation and the activities of the soviets is really somewhat nieve. What appears to have been the case both in Russia and in the Paris commune was that considering the terrible circumstances, and the presence of large hostile armies, both societies managed to function pretty well.
I accept that the history is highly complex and open to lots of interpretation of course, but my interpretation is that there were many many positive things about both of these periods, and that we have much to learn today from what happened during those times.
Phil
Novel? (Score:3)
Yes very novel. Workers councils in short. Pioneered during the February and October Russian Revolutions, and before that for the two months of the Paris commune.
Worked pretty well by all accounts.
Phil
Re:no.. (Score:2)
Re:Not his best (Score:1)
I guess it's very important what order you read him in, in order to get a good impression. I picked up The Business and Feersum Endjinn, as well as Use of Weapons, because I had recently heard much fooferaw about this Iain Banks fellow and those were the books I found when I went out looking. I read a lot of SF and a lot of books in general, and I didn't even get to Use of Weapons because neither Feersum Endjinn nor The Business held my interest long enough for me to finish reading it.
Feersum Endjinn was also confusing enough [and annoying enough- huge parts of it are written phonetically] that, while bits of it were interesting, I didn't care enough to find out what happened next.
I'll try to hunt down Complicity or one of the other books recommended here (thanks folks) before I give up on Banks as an author completely. His ideas are obviously unique but that isn't enough to carry a book.
Re:Very slow reader (Score:1)
It wasn't Jon this time. Or didn't you look?
Re:Get your facts straight. (Score:1)
And of course, both of him are Scots, not English.
Espedair Street.. (Score:1)
..is the correct spelling. Great title, when you think about it, almost-anagram of Despair.
But I agree wholeheartedly, Banks is definitely worth getting into. He writes SF and non-SF with the same amazing inventiveness and style.
Titles of note are The Use of Weapons (SF), and The Bridge (Non-SF, but fantastical in its own way.)
Places you know in books... (Score:1)
I love Iain [M] Banks with a passion: He would have to be my favourite author along with Umberto Ecco and David Eddings. The "Culture" novels are excellent as are most of his "real world" books. Complicity and The Bridge are the two best, followed closely by The Wasp Factory and then The Crow Road. The TV version of The Crow Road wasn't bad either - got it on video.
In short, he rules. Go buy the books.
Elgon
Re:Review WAY overrates the Business (Score:1)
no.. (Score:2)
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do, we do!
No, I think you'll find this was the Stonecutters (now known as the No-Homers)
:-)
Re:Iain Banks without the M (Score:2)
The Wasp Factory -- how can you resist something billed by one reviewer as "the most perverse book ever written?"
What's going on in The Bridge (spoiler alert) (Score:2)
My favorite line is in the list of reflections he is making as he tries to decide whether to let himself sink further into the fantasy/coma or struggle out into the daylight world and the pain of his inevitable recuperation. He begins thinking of all the things he hasn't done, and finishes off with going to bed with three women at once!
It is distinctly implied that this thought pushes him over the edge into choosing life, heh.
Old hats (Score:1)
Good book though. You might like to try some of his other novels too. "Inversions" is good, and
there are a few others whose titles elude me right now.
picking management (Score:2)
Re:Not so unusual - Maverick! (Score:1)
Ricardo Semler wrote a great book about how he transformed his fathers autocratic marine pump company into one where the balance sheet gets posted on the noticeboard every week & people elect their managers every 6 months or so.
I did try to see if they (semco) had a website a while back, but to no avail.
_Complicity_ is much better (Score:2)
Re:Old hats (Score:1)
The reason this is being reviewed now is because it just got published in the US. There's a lag time of about 18 months between publication of a Banks book inthe UK and the US, and many haven't been published at all.
I also find that many people who like his SF don't like his 'mainstream' fiction, and vice versa, which may explain why he uses the 'M'.
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Re:hrmph (Score:1)
Actually, all of his mainstream fiction has an air of the surreal to it. Check out the beginning of "The Crow Road", were the main character's grandmother explodes in the crematorium.
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Re:Novel? (Score:1)
Worked pretty well by all accounts.
Actually it really really didn't. It was an idealistic ploy to prove that the February revolution was, in fact a worker's revolution. It was instituted briefly and caused among other things, an incredible inflation of wages and benifits (you get eleted by promising people stuff that you can't afford; how very democratic)that the state could not afford. Shortly thereafter, they put loyal party members in charge to tow the party line directly and therebye centralize administrative control.
Gorbechev tried it in order to eliminate corruption and increase productivity in the late eighties. It, again, rapidly inflated and reduced productivity as well as recurrent strikes.
Re:Not so unusual - Maverick! (Score:1)
Do your research (Score:1)
Wether you believe that the bovarian illuminati actually controlled anything, the fact is that a real group did (and may still) exist under that name.
-CrackElf
Re:Do your research (Score:1)
spelling flames are most immature.
-CrackElf
Other Books (Score:1)
Different (Score:2)
I felt that more could have been made of the actual Business. How the main character joined the Business seemed a little contrived. But other than that it was a great read (particularly for a transatlantic flight - why doesn't my company fly me around like that?)
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Re:Not so unusual - Maverick! (Score:1)
Re:Not so unusual - Maverick! (Score:1)
If you think The Business confused you... (Score:1)
If you think The Business is confusing, try reading The Bridge (also By Iain Banks).
I've read it four times and I'm still not quite sure whats going on. Must be fun to read though or I wouldnt have read it so many times.
Re:Not so unusual - Maverick! (Score:1)
To deaddrunk:
1. They elected through revolution and not stopping government controls.
2. What is your definition of "evil"? Contorl from the top down doesn't enter into my definition:
Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm.
The difference between a dictatorship and a company is you can leave the company. You have the choice not to be harmed.
3. Corporations have to be efficient in a capitalist society. Otherwise someone who is will win their clients/market. You won't find an efficient democracy, you have to wait for EVERYBODY to vote to get even one thing done.
4. Whenever you remove a person's right to ownership someone has to use force to take it away. The government is the only one who can do that. Hence the Sherman Act reference. That is one set of laws doing exactly what you are suggesting we do. Now we are reaping the results where companies HAVE to bend rules and do all the bad things you say just to stay in business.
The Sherman Act gives the government a blank check to write Retroactive Laws. What I mean by that is a company may not be doing wrong by the laws established in the current justice system, but the anti-trust laws can make a law and apply it to your business befere it was even created. Imagine if someone decides after the fact that picking up a penny on the street is theft or that you helped someone else in your office out to get a better result on a task you were assigned and called it anti-competitive and sent you to jail. Is that fair? It wasn't a law when you did it! But for businesses this process seems to be OK.
Your suggestion of stealing property from a business owner and give it to "the people" would only make this worse. Someone will need to force business to do this and then you get Socialism.
To Telal:
Seems to work well for who? The people that started the company and made the jobs that were taken over? I don't see many new ideas or business starting over there. If I'm mistaken then show me some proof that it works.
To RedGuard:
I don't understand what you are refering to.
To prizog:
1. A stock holder invests money and is only responsible for the loss of his/her investment (That should be pleanty damaging if they make a poor investment decision).
2. Absolutely, the owners should be responsible for it's outstanding loans and losses. That is just bad management on their part. Maybe that will keep those that don't know how to run a company from trying. Capitalism has it's own checks and balances, let it do it's job.
We the consumers vote (with cash and our time) on a company based on their product or service. No one forces us to buy their product. No one forces us to work anywhere.