Introducing "The Wasp Factory"

     I chose to cover The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks because it was a gift from a very close friend of mine. I had yet to begin reading the book when I made this choice, but I was confident that I would enjoy the story; having now fully read the story, I know that I made a good choice. I actually read the book from start to finish in less than a day, because I could barely stand to put it down after I'd started it. The book poses philosophical questions by giving the reader plenty of statements, attitudes, and beliefs to analyze without ever explicitly telling the reader to think about anything; the social commentary is seamlessly embedded in the plot, which makes the novel more than just an extremely fascinating story.

     The novel is written in the first person, and Banks uses a very dark sense of humor to describe some of the protagonist's more horrifying actions. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at some of the descriptions (a very rare reaction for me), and immediately afterward I would cringe with guilt because the situations really shouldn't be laughed at; Banks, however, succeeds at making these ghastly scenes somehow comedic, and this tone makes the reader's need for analysis even greater, to search for some meaning to everything, some cause. In the end, this need to justify things is criticized at the end, as the protagonist's sense of self is utterly destroyed.

     The above music video, "Warped Carousel" by J.G Thirlwell seems to be a fitting aural accompaniment to The Wasp Factory. If you don't have time to read the book, this song gives a fairly good sense of what reading the story felt like for me. However, I urge you to give this book a read at some point; it's delightfully dark, captivating, and a wonderful introduction into the world of Gothic horror!

I would also like to note that in this blog I will be using the gender neutral pronouns "ze" and "hir" in place of "s/he" or "his or her," respectively, as well as possibly using the occasional singular "they" when referring to Frank, out of respect for the transgender/transsexual community. Kate Sosin of Chicago Now wrote an excellent article explaining why some people are in favor of using gender neutral pronouns, and I strongly encourage all of my readers to read it. As this book deals with gender identity and stereotypes, I feel that this is an appropriate way to address the topic in my writing.