Editing Use of Weapons (section)

==History==
According to Banks, he wrote a much longer version of the book in 1974, long before any of his books (science fiction or otherwise) were published.<ref name="scifi.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue274/interview.html|title=Cultured futurist Iain M. Banks creates an ornate utopia|access-date=2008-05-15|publisher=Science Fiction Weekly|author=Nick Gevers|work=Interview |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080506082535/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue274/interview.html|archive-date = 2008-05-06}}</ref> The book had an even more complicated structure ("It was impossible to comprehend without thinking in six dimensions") but already introduced [[the Culture]] as background for the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe.<ref name="scifi.com" /> Realising that his intended structure was a "fatal flaw", not least because it demanded the story's climax appear exactly half-way through, Banks moved on to write'' [[Against a Dark Background]]'' instead.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/03/use-weapons-iain-m-banks-guardian-bookclub Use of Weapons] by Iain M Banks, 4 August 2012, The Guardian</ref> The book's cryptic acknowledgement credits friend and fellow science fiction author [[Ken MacLeod]] with the suggestion "to argue the old warrior out of retirement" (to rewrite the old book) and further credits him with suggesting "the fitness programme" (the new structure).<ref name="scifi.com" /> MacLeod makes use of similar structures in his own novels, most notably in ''The Stone Canal''.