Consider Phlebas - TS Eliot's the Wasteland *spoilers possible (please use html)*

[Brad]

Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was handsome and tall as you.

TS Eliot,
'The Waste Land', IV

Is the significance only in the epigraph, or is there more to be found int he rest of the poem? And what is its significance to Banks' novel? And this isn't the only Culture novel that gets its title from Eliot? Does that have some significance too?

[Jon]

I went looking for the rest of The Waste Land and found it at Project Gutenberg. However, I don't want to read 400 plus lines of modernist poetry. So I cheated and read just the section entitled "IV. Death by Water"

IV. DEATH BY WATER

Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.

***

Then, I cheated some more and found a concise commentary and the "Death by Water" section.

http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/elio...

I've previously read about half of this novel, but I plan to re-read it following your new experimental chapter-a-day method, Brad. Perhaps I'll actually finish it this time.

Having said that, I can see the existentialism (or perhaps just atheism) on the wall (after reading the aforementioned poetic commentary and from my previous memories of this novel).

[Brad]

Awesome links and post, Jon. I am pleased you're going to join the discussion. I've missed your voice around here. We must have been reading different books.

[Jon]

May was a busy month. And June has too many good books to read. And I'm a half-dozen reviews behind. Otherwise, it's been peachy. :)

I'm hoping the chapter-a-day of SF will be just enough for me to digest and comment cogently upon. :)

[Brad]

Up to Schar's World now and I thought I would peek back at this. I love it more everytime I come back. That vision of ineluctable death and forgetfulness. The call for us to remember that we're headed in the same direction. And it also tells me that Banks shows his hand right from the start. Don't hope for any of the characters you come to like in this book. Just Consider Phlebas and you'll be fine. I like that.