“I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. I already knew something was going to happen; the Factory told me.” – Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory, opening lines.

The Wasp Factory is the first novel by Iain Banks, published in 1984, and the minute I saw the opening sentences I knew I would read the whole book. He had plenty of time to think through the opening, and it is crackerjack. How can you not be irresistibly intrigued by a first person narrator (probably unreliable), “Sacrifice Poles,” an escaped brother (escaped from what?), and a “Factory” (capitalized) that foretells the future.

I had seen mentions of the book here and there – mostly associated with strings of adjectives such as: dark, disturbing, violent, disgusting, hard to read, gruesome, grotesque, unparalleled depravity, monstrous, shocking… and plenty more. Well, so far so good. Then I found it mentioned in a book titled 500 Essential Cult Books. That was enough for me to move it to the front of my to-be-read queue.

Always, when I read a first-person work of fiction, I like to start to work out how reliable the narrator is. In “The Wasp Factory” the protagonist, Frank Cauldhame, is surprisingly honest, reliable, and self-aware. Especially considering he is a sixteen year old serial killer (though he claims his days of killing human beings are over) eunuch, living on an isolated island with his father, trying to deal with life through an endless series of violent, cruel, and depraved rituals – a litany of horrific obsessive compulsive behaviors that, while nasty and disgusting, are the only defense that he has against the hopeless situation that he is trapped in.

As the book goes on Frank’s constructed mythology begins to make internal sense. His series of altars, rites, and symbolic defenses begins to come together as a terrible religion that he has developed in response to a hostile world. For me, one of the surprisingly disturbing sections was a relatively innocent night Frank spends drinking at a pub on the mainland with a friend of his. He drinks way too much and struggles through a horrible night of sickness and vulnerability. It serves as a reminder of how helpless he is once he ventures away from his carefully constructed bulwarks of ritual.

It is a first novel, however, and sometimes you can almost hear Iain Banks thinking, “Let’s see – how can I up the horror a little bit more, what to do next? What taboos can I break now? What will crawl out from under this next rock?” It’s a harrowing ride, but if you are willing to go along with it – there are rewards. Frank is an undeniably unforgettable character and one that you will be glad you met in fiction – because you certainly won’t want to meet him in real life.

Don’t invite him to your family picnic.

The novel picks up momentum, unveiling secret after mystery after shocking revelation. Frank’s brother is on his way home, his father is beginning to seriously unravel, and even the island itself seems about to unleash some final cataclysmic horror as the novel comes to a terrifying climax.

It is at this point that the novel did let me down a little bit. The promised Götterdämmerung never does arrive. Instead there is a “twist” ending – which, although it certainly isn’t expected and does explain more than a few mysteries – for me, it failed to really satisfy the promise of the earlier story. It left me flat – which is a shame, because the rest of the novel was really something – though I’m not sure exactly what.

If nothing else, The Wasp Factory is a unique and polarizing piece of literature. A lot of people have written about the book, with a lot of widely varied opinions. I spent way too much time surfing around looking at WordPress Blogs that discuss The Wasp Factory. Read through some of these – you might learn something.

Blog Reviews of The Wasp Factory

• The Anatomy Lesson – a very interesting and comprehensive review of The Wasp Factory (Be careful –  Spoilers) with an especially intelligent discussion of the ending.
• A Rat in the Book Pile
• Books, my Ego and Entropy
• The Musings of a Dreamer 
• ”The Wasp Factory” – Ritualism, Gender And Deception Through The Eyes Of A Teenage Sadist
• 100bookstoreadbeforeyoudie
• Werewolves on the Moon
• I Just Read About That,,,
• cctheprofessor- Wasp Factory – Oh how it stings
• Exile on Ninth Street
• Sects and Violence in the Ancient World – Wasps
• yuamandaiah207 – The Wasp Factory and Trainspotting
• Yet There are Statues
• IAH207
• obliterating bunnies
• A Book Sanctuary
• The Reading List
• Archetype, Character Function & Resurrection of the Hero
• Benandjerrygirl’s Blog

The novel is saved by a twist at the end.

Themes are:

depravity

mental illness

gender identity

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2007/04/070402_wbc_14?bgc=003399&lang=en-ws&nbram=1&nbwm=1&ms3=14&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=au

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20181130

Real life case:

David Reimer

In 1966, when David Reimer was 8 months old, his circumcision was botched and he lost his penis to burns. Psychologist John Money suggested that baby David be given a sex change. The parents agreed, but what they didn’t know was that Money secretly wanted to use David as part of an experiment to prove his views that gender identity was not inborn, but rather determined by nature and upbringing. David was renamed Brenda, surgically altered to have a vagina, and given hormonal supplements — but tragically the experiment backfired. “Brenda” acted like a stereotypical boy throughout childhood, and the Reimer family began to fall apart. At 14, Brenda was told the truth, and decided to go back to being David. He committed suicide at the age of 38.

Iain Banks is, quite frankly, a phenomenon. He turns out roughly a book a year either under the name Iain M. Banks for his science fiction Culture novels (including Consider Phlebas) or sans initial. The books he writes without the initial tend to be more serious “proper” fiction and not genre work, although many of them do tend to dabble in the realms of fantasy and science fiction rather than a more traditionally literary theme. The Wasp Factory was his debut novel, and I still think it’s arguably his best work- it’s certainly the least forgettable novel that he’s written.

I’ve got a long history with this novel- back in the mid 90′s (all that time ago) The Wasp Factory formed part of my A-Level dissertation, for reasons that I’ll come to in a moment, but it’s a book that I’ve read and reread more times than is probably healthy considering the subject matter. Nevertheless, The Wasp Factory is, in my opinion a truly great book- its slight size belieing a thematic depth that was quite unprecedented for a debut novel at the time, and the myriad debating points thrown up by the novel mean that the book truly does bear rereading and analysis.

The Wasp Factory tells the story of self-confessed murderer Francis Cauldhame. Frank has serious problems (that I can’t go into without spoiling, so sorry)- he’s psychopathic, isolated and has severe identity issues, being that he was gelded in a dog attack as a child. His mother, Agnes, left him to the less than tender care of his mad scientist father Angus and he lives in splendid isolation on a Scottish island. At the start of the novel, Frank has 3 kills to his name (all seriously bizarre) all of whom were weaker children. However, he states that he’s stopped killing- it was “just a stage” he was going through, although the potential still exists within him to snap at any given moment. His elder brother, Eric, went completely insane (a truly harrowing section of the novel) and is now hospitalised somewhere, and The Wasp Factory narrates the days following Eric’s escape before he returns to the island. It has to be pointed out that although Frank is technically nuts, Eric is a far scarier prospect- he’s a full on weapons grade lunatic, and Frank is right to be seriously worried about his return. In the meantime, however, Frank is passing his time by building dams, slaughtering small animals, following bizarre and unlikely omens,  and consuming seriously dangerous levels of alcohol.

So far so good, however, I haven’t really touched on what makes this novel stand out. The Wasp Factory is narrated by Frank, and is laced with absurd comedy and black humour. To call the Wasp Factory darkly funny is a gross understatement: it’s frequently hilarious, but seriously uncomfortable. Eric’s return, for example, is marked by the appearance of running sheep that he’s set on fire. Although there is nothing at all funny about animal cruelty, there is something amusing in Frank’s description of the flaming flock crossing before his view. Frank is a spiky and unique voice, the ultimate unreliable narrator (although to be fair he’s unreliable because he isn’t in possession of the full facts) and his sense of comedy carries the relentless misery of the novel. Furthermore, Frank believes strongly in his “personal mythology”. He’s obsessed with omens and portents that he believes make him unique and special. The irony being that Frank is unique, but it’s nothing at all to do with his bizarre belief system. That just makes him a sadist, whereas the truth of the matter is both more sinister and more pathetic. It’s Frank’s warped outlook and individual narrative voice that made me choose this novel for my A-Level, and his individuality represents the Wasp Factory’s greatest strength.

I hate to do this, but I’m afraid I now have to. The Wasp Factory is also heavily about gender roles and identity in the late 20th Century. Frank is aggressively and psychotically masculine- he drinks to ludicrous excess, enjoys blowing things up, and is consummately jealous of the ability to chase a cigarette butt down a urinal. Frank defines himself by his gender- he is a man, and as such engages solely in purely masculine pastimes (playing war, hunting, building things etc). It’s important to note, however, that the thought of sexual contact with a female induces real feelings of nausea in him. However, the novel itself is a deconstruction of gender identity- Eric was  dressed as a girl as a child, Frank himself was neutered, he comes to believe that his father and mother were/ are the same person etc. The sociopathic violence that forms the core of Frank’s personality has a physiological explanation, but even if it didn’t the point is that Frank is grotesquely overcompensating; trying to achieve some kind of idealised masculinity that is both absurd and unrealistic.

Overall, this is a stunning novel, funny in parts, disturbing in others but above all else seriously interesting and never less than enthralling. The unique voice of the protagonist, coupled with the depth and complexity of the central themes (all layered in a rich helping of black comedy) ensure that this is a simply stellar novel. Iain Banks has now written almost a library worth of book, but The Wasp Factory is, for me, the one that I will always return to and the one that I find both morbidly fascinating and endlessly entertaining.

Until next time,

Jarv.

Inhumane perhaps but pretty funny. But how do you kill a fly without squashing it – heart problem, strangulation, lethal injection? There’s something almost Banksy meets the Wasp Factory about the ‘creations’ below.

Mr Miyaga liked to express himself via the medium of flies

“If opening available there is, penis through it man will put“

~Old Jedi Proverb

I have, over the years, come to the conclusion that along with having a penis, comes the insatiable urge to stick it in things. I’m not sure whether it’s male hormones that cause this phenomenon, after all you don’t get women turning up at A&E units with various items of household equipment stuck on their clitoris do you?  Do you?

Admittedly it is somewhat smaller (unless of course you’ve got a touch of the Iain Banks’ Wasp Factory about you)…but still we don’t seem to have the urge to try and stuff it into things.

A man who went to casualty with his penis stuck in a steel pipe had to be cut free by firefighters using a metal grinder.

It seems to me that if there is a hole of adequate (or sometimes even inadequate) dimensions, then there is not a man who will not endeavour to stuff his manhood into it. Hoses, pipes, exhausts, the list is endless and even the neck of a wine bottle can prove irresistably tempting to those of a somewhat smaller persuasion, I know, I took the call.

I am under no illusions, that were I to be blessed with such an appendage that I would not have reached my 37th year without some scarring caused by insertion into more than one inanimate object…I’ve often thought that I’ve had the propensity for a rather unnatural attraction to the neck of hot water bottles.  Or maybe it’s just the smell of warm rubber…

At this point of typing I was going to move on to discuss those personages who prefer to have things inserted rather than to be the inserter…but having looked at the evidence, that going to require an entry all to itself.

Right. Sorry I’ve been away for so long.

so yeah i chose to work on escape routes from inside to outside as i love maps so much. I got interested whilst watching a wasp try and get through a window when I was seriously hungover on the first day and it really fascinated me. The way it kept persisting even though it was clearly hopeless. This little act, often unobserved or looked over is something I am very  interested in; bringing light to something that is neglected.

I decided to track its movements in my sketchbook and although at first it seemed calm and moved little (maybe surveying the area) it grew irrational and started flying frantically into the glass. The nine drawings follow the state of the wasps mentality and also how it tried to escape.

Although this is all very nice it doesn’t really have much impact as a piece of art.

I then caught a fly in a jar and used the same process as before, however choosing to observe for different intervals of time, the longest being ten minutes. I may choose to go even longer however as it was a ery interesting act observing this fly try to escpae for so long. After a while though I felt bad, as it was leaving little puddles of pee all over the jar and occassionally some red marks which I presumed was blood. So I decided to let it go, considering to catch another one at a later date.

I thought about maybe using the marks as an evidence trail, but quickly dismissed the idea as it lost the concept of inside outside completely.

It seemse as if I need to go back and look at the concet more and also the contextual references it may incure; two of the main ones being Ian Banks’ Wasp Factory and The insectecutor by Damien Hirst which I will look into in great depth, having these beings trapped inside for their entire life, their only mentality being in this horrible contraption. Its brilliant though. Also may look into Houdini and his escape routes, maybe david blaine also.

Over and out

Roger that

F.A.B.

Mick Mercer reviews the singles of the week, 9th December 1989.

Reviewing these singles takes me back and my, what breadth of content on this page. From the mainstream pap of Bros, Brother Beyond and their ilk, a fading Duran Duran, the big hitters like Billy Joel and Bon Jovi to the obscurest indie Metal Monkey Machine and eveything inbetween to Van Morrison with Cliff fucking Richard!

All About Eve took the single of the week honours with a song that isn’t Martha’s Harbour, possibly because they hadn’t written it yet – I can’t be bothered to look it up but I feel they will be *so* pleased to see some retrospective recognition for *any* of their other songs.

It seems like a good time to drop this link to a nostalgic Guardian article and list compilation, where Johnny Dee asks

“1989 was a momentous year for music as De La Soul, the Stone Roses and acid house defined the zeitgeist. So how come we were all listening to Jive Bunny?”

Knock yourselves out.

Movies and music tend to come to me without recommendations.  With those, I am more likely to base my decisions on previous experience, my mood at the moment, or some really good advertising.  Books, however, are completely different.  Books are time consuming and to pick one up that you are not likely to enjoy is a drain on your life.  For this reason, my book choices – more than any other media – tend to be based on the recommendations of other people.  Either that, or positive reviews and ratings on websites.  Life is too busy to waste one’s time in a book that isn’t very good.

The great thing about recommendations is that every once and a while you get a recommender that throws you a curveball.  Most people tend to know what you like and suggest to you something along those lines.  A major exception: people at work.  Your coworkers, unless they have become your friends, often don’t know you well enough to know your tastes.  Conversations about things you like don’t often have the shared spot on a Venn diagram, but if someone is emphatic enough, they may get you to try something anyway.

Enter Carol.  Carol is new to my building this year and probably a more avid reader than I (which is somewhat depressing because I’m the librarian and her job is way harder than mine, but that’s not today’s topic).  Discussing books one day, Carol told me of a must-read.  She described the book and, being in the middle of another thought, I completely forgot what she said within no time whatsoever.  Not too long after, I found The Wasp Factory in my office mailbox.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It’s always nice to get a recommendation that you don’t go searching for, but ends up on your shelf anyway.

To backtrack a moment, you’ll remember my saying that I had completely forgotten what Carol had told me about this novel, named one of the 100 Top Novels of the Century by The Independent.  I don’t like reading blurbs or synopses (they tend to ruin books in the same way that trailers can ruin movies – though I love watching those) and so I went into this knowing naught into of what I was getting…into [umm...sic?].  Carol is not an overly alternative, smarmy, risque, or subversive character – so you can imagine my utter shock when I started reading this totally effed up book.

The tale is of Frank Cauldhame.  He seems a somewhat normal, though slightly odd and isolated, teenager.  He lives on a small island just off the coast of Scotland with his father.  Things get strange rather quickly.  We find Frank’s brother Eric is in an insane asylum where he was sent after burning dogs alive and feeding maggots to children (?).  At the outset, Eric has just escaped and is headed back to his old home.  Frank already knows because the factory has told him, which from the title you know is made of wasps, so it’s a really intriguing opening paragraph.

We also quickly find out that Frank has a disturbing past.  He certainly has his own way of dealing with the world.  He doesn’t function well with other people, which is most likely because he never had a parent he could trust – he is convinced that is father is always lying and withholding information.  He displays a destructive personality that allows him to do all sorts of things to animals and nature, exhibiting an unruly god complex and a warped sense of reality, morals, and really everything.  However, he has been beaten down by society more than once and its clear how much he pains inside.  It almost makes you feel bad for him.

The initial paragraph aside, this book was a little difficult at the start.  However, the more you learn about Frank, the more you want to know and understand (this sort of novel apparently has a name).  Banks keeps you in the dark about almost everything and reveals the pieces like a path of well-laid bread crumbs.  With every bit, you search for meaning about the character, personality, and motivation of this strange and unholy young man.

The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks ( 1984 )

So, it’s about?

A seriously disturbed youngster, his perspective on life and a bunch of disturbing rituals.

The edited highlights?

Frank lives on an island with his dad, in good old Scotland. Frank doesn’t do anything, just goes around the island, roaming and doing ritualistic stuff to little fluffy animals. His brother has just escaped from the loony bin and calls from time to time, taunting Frank.

Life’s little mysteries fascinate Frank, who forms a set of beliefs (maybe a sort of religion?) to sort of explain events and has a set of amusing rituals (not very nice for the faint of heart) to justify his actions or understand why life is a bit stuffy from time to time.

Frank’s relationship with his father is a bit strange: they kind of respect each other and try to outwit themselves. Even if his a bit distant with Frank, you can feel he does care for him. When he’s not killing animals or doing bizarre stuff, Frank goes to town to buy supplies for his experiments and go binge drinking with his only friend, a dwarf called Jaime.

As the novel progresses, Frank speaks to us (in a very disturbing but funny way) how he killed 3 people. A tiny parallel between these murders, Frank’s rituals and the way society defines us seeps around, gelling together for twisty (and nasty) finale.

Is there a movie version?

No studio would let this one go into celluloid. They’d be crucified!

Anything else?

Yeah, I’m gonna rant

I bought this book out of a recommendation from a rag I read in England (Hot Dog magazine…you’ll be missed). It was a bit of morbid interest and I’ve already read a book by this author, Feersum Endjinn (under  his other pen name, Iain M. Banks), so I gave it a shot.

It’s really disturbing, but it’s sort of a dark comedy. The animal cruelty is very taxing on the reader, mind you, but then again, you are not supposed to sympathize with Frank (until the final twist, I guess). Some of the worst parts are lightened up with some situational humour and dark jokes that just make you laugh out loud.

I’ve read it twice, maybe to make up my mind if I really dug it or not, and to finally “get” what’s it all about. My take: it’s a book about society. How a person resorts to strange rituals (the wasp factory from the title) to understand life’s little mysteries, how your personality gets shaped by an authority figure (the father on this book) and how you shouldn’t judge someone until you’ve really known them. This applies specially at the protagonist, whom you think you got figured out by page 50 (give or take a few killings) but then come those last pages and you can imagine a little M. Night Shyamalan popping out and saying “WHAT A TWIIIIST!!!”.

If you have a weak stomach or just don’t want something too macabre/grand guignol-esque, skip this one. If you are up for a no holds-barred criticism of society, religion and the inherent mean spirit we all carry around, give it a go. It’s a good (and yucky) read.

Tell us your sources, you idjit!

The book, of course! For a second opinion, check:

http://www.scwu.com/bookreviews/h/BanksIainWaspFactoryThe.shtml

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6422/rev1153.html

http://speculativereviews.blogspot.com/2006/04/wasp-factory-iain-banks.html

http://www.iain-banks.net/fiction/the-wasp-factory/

A bit more about the author:

Official site

Wiki

An excerpt:

Click here!