There is something about the very idea of a city which is central to the understanding of a planet like Earth, and particularly the understanding of that part of the then-existing group-civilization which called itself the West. That idea, to my mind, met its materialist apotheosis in Berlin at the time of the

~ Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks Berlin Cities Diziet Sma Mankind Marterialist Apotheosis Multifariously Faceted Realpolitik The Berlin Wall The West

It was the soul of the machine, the ethological epicentre, the planetary ground zero of their commercial energy. I could almost feel it, shivering down like bomb-blasted rivers of glass from these undreaming towers of dark and light invading the snow-dark sky.

~ Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks Diziet Sma Ethological Epicentre New York City Snow Dark Sky