Iain Banks dies of cancer aged 59

[Bosonic]

Source: BBC

Author Iain Banks has died aged 59, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, his family has said.

The Scottish writer revealed in April he was suffering from terminal gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year.

He was best known for his novels The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road and Complicity.

In a statement, his publisher said he was "an irreplaceable part of the literary world".

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22835047

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[niyad]

1. requiescat in pacem

[closeupready]

2. Too young! How sad.

[petronius]

3. "Irreplaceable" is the correct word - such a sad loss.

Hope he wasn't in much pain, and his family is coping as well as possible...

[Android3.14]

4. I'd only just discovered his Culture tales a year ago

When I heard of the terminal cancer, I was saddened knowing this day would come.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. So soon - damn

Still, he did get to see how admired he was. Yes, irreplaceable.

Just today we got a glimpse of his final novel, in which the main character has cancer:

Guy’s frustration with the current state of Britain is also detailed, as he turns his ire on the Daily Mail, climate-change deniers and “this island’s pathetic, grovelling population of celebrity-obsessed, superficially fixated wankers.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10108598/Iain-Banks-reveals-brutal-impact-of-cancer-in-final-book.html

All too true, Iain.

[DreamGypsy]

6. The Wasp Factory.

Uh-stounding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wasp_Factory

[Codeine]

7. Damn. The Culture novels are in a class by themselves.

One of the few SF writers with actual literary cachet.

[Babel_17]

8. He will be missed. I will miss him

He'll not be forgotten by those who know his work.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Excerpts from an interview to be broadcast this week:

CANCER DIAGNOSIS

"And I just took it as bad luck, basically. It did strike me almost immediately, my atheist sort of thing kicked in and I thought ha, if I was a God-botherer, I'd be thinking, why me God? What have I done to deserve this? And I thought at least I'm free of that, at least I can simply treat it as bad luck and get on with it."

HIS NEW BOOK

"The narrator is an 18-year-old boy who's on one or two different spectra, possibly Asperger's being one of them. But in a sense, the main character's his dad, who's dying of cancer.

"But I was 87,000 words into the book before I discovered the bad news. I had no inkling. So it wasn't as though this is a response to the disease or anything, the book had been kind of ready to go. And then 10,000 words from the end, as it turned out, I suddenly discovered that I had cancer.

"I've really got to stop doing my research too late. This is such a bad idea."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22780003

[phantom power]

10. oh no, already?

[CountAllVotes]

11. Yes, already ... :(

Here is my theory as to why all of these people are dying at such young ages of cancer and the like:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11471435

There is plenty of "evidence" to support this btw.

That Round Up Ready made by Monsanto IS the culprit!

RIP Iain Banks! You were indeed a fine writer and I am sorry you never had the chance to write more books.

& recommend.

[n2doc]

12. RIP, ya done good.

Hell of a writer, hell of an imagination. His books made you uncomfortable at the same time that they filled your head with wonder.