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UID:140@sciencefictionbookclub.org
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20141110T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20141110T220000
DTSTAMP:20240926T131343Z
URL:https://www.sciencefictionbookclub.org/events/203467902/
SUMMARY:The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks - OPEN TO PREVIOUS MEMBERS ONLY
DESCRIPTION:The Culture is becoming increasingly concerned about the Azad\,
  a civilization out on the edges of the Galaxy\, where life is dominated b
 y a strange game which determines all wealth and status. One of the things
  I like about the Culture is its moral ambiguity. They first come across a
 s a bunch of laid-back\, peace-loving hippies\, but in fact they are ready
  to fight at any moment\, using whatever weapons they find most appropriat
 e. Sometime\, those weapons are anti-matter bombs capable of destroying a 
 solar system. Here\, they are planning a devious psychological destabiliza
 tion manoeuvrer\, which is in fact no less deadly.\n\n\n\nIn 1938\, Yasuna
 ri Kawabata\, a future Nobel Prize winner\, was assigned by the Mainichi n
 ewspaper to cover a Go match between Honinbo Shusai\, the top player\, and
  his challenger Kitani Minoru. Go has an importance in Japanese culture th
 at is hard for a Westerner to understand\, and was one of the four traditi
 onal arts that a Samurai had to excel in. The match was very even until Ki
 tani played an unexpected move just before an adjournment\; its only purpo
 se was to force a response\, giving him extra time to think about his next
  play. This is completely standard practice in chess\, but\, although perm
 itted by the rules of Go\, was contrary to the complicated etiquette of th
 e game. Shusai was shocked and immediately blundered\, deciding the outcom
 e. He lost\, and died not long after. Kawabata saw Kitani's adoption of We
 stern pragmatism as a symbolic defeat of Japanese culture\, presaging its 
 concrete military defeat in the Second World War. He rewrote his newspaper
  columns from the match as the novel Meijin "The Master of Go"\, and consi
 dered it his finest work. The Player of Games is a kind of SF reimagining 
 of Kawabata's masterpiece\, set inside the universe of Iain M. Bank's Cult
 ure.
LOCATION:Mug House\, 1-3 Tooley Street\, London Bridge\, London\, SE1 2PF\,
  United Kingdom
GEO:51.506486;-0.087755
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=1-3 Tooley Street\, London 
 Bridge\, London\, SE1 2PF\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Mug 
 House:geo:51.506486,-0.087755
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