Editing Inversions (novel) (section)

==References to the Culture==
The initial hardback printing of the book contained the following "Note on the Text", which was omitted from subsequent paperback editions:

{{quote|This Text, in two Parts, was discovered amongst the Papers of my late Grandfather. One Part concerns the Story of the Bodyguard to the then Protector of Tassasen, one UrLeyn, and is related, it is alleged, by a Person of his Court at the time, while the other, told by my Grandfather, tells the Story of the Woman Vosill, a Royal Physician during the Reign of King Quience, and who may, or may not, have been from the distant Archipelago of Drezen but who was, without Argument, from a different Culture. Like my much esteemed Grandfather, I have taken on the Task of making the Text I inherited more comprehensible and clear, and hope that I have succeeded in this Aim. Nevertheless, it is in a Spirit of the utmost Humility that I present it to the Society and to whoever might see fit to read it.|O. Derlan-Haspid III, D.Phys, OM (1st class), ESt, RS (hons).}}

Some reviewers noted the joking reference to "Culture" in this.<ref name="parsec">Nick Gevers, [https://web.archive.org/web/20091018191156/http://geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/2547/skyr.htm Inversions by Ian M. Banks]. Parsec.</ref>

DeWar's tales of Lavishia clearly parallel [[The Culture]] as it is described in Banks' other novels.<ref name="parsec"/> He also tells of a pair of close friends who disagree about how their advanced society should manage contact with more primitive cultures:

{{bquote|Was it better to leave them alone or was it better to try and make life better for them? Even if you decided it was the right thing to do to make life better for them, which way did you do this? Did you say, Come and join us and be like us? Did you say, Give up all your own ways of doing things, the gods that you worship, the beliefs you hold most dear, the traditions that make you who you are? Or do you say, We have decided you should stay roughly as you are and we will treat you like children and give you toys that might make your life better?<ref>''Inversions'', chapter 6</ref>}}

It is evident that Vosill and DeWar are these two alien friends, now no longer in contact with each other, who have both come to the medieval planet and are independently attempting to do the "right thing" in their own differing ways, with Vosill being active and DeWar reactive.<ref>[[Space.com]], [http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/books/inversions_000217.html "New Iain Banks Novel Sets Archaic Setting Against the Stars"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050305223511/http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/books/inversions_000217.html |date=2005-03-05 }}</ref>

Doctor Vosill also habitually carried with her a dagger that came to be peripherally involved in circumstances suggestive of a disguised Culture knife missile, to which dagger she referred as having been useful in "uncultured places".  This dagger is also described as being encrusted with small gems, the number of which decreases over time—each gem probably one of the many different kinds of ammunition drone missiles are seen to be capable of firing throughout the Culture series.

The Epilogue contains this passage:

{{quote|[...] the Doctor had been invited to dine with the vessel's captain that evening, but had sent a note declining the invitation, citing an indisposition due to special circumstances.}}

Special Circumstances is the euphemistic name given to the "[[black operation|black ops]]" division of the Culture's Contact unit.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/09/fiction.iainbanks | location=London | work=The Guardian | first=Steven | last=Poole | title=Culture clashes | date=9 February 2008}}</ref>

The epilogue also relates two different accounts of the fate of DeWar and Perrund. The second of these, where DeWar and Perrund hastily leave after she had killed UrLeyn, tells that the couple became merchants with their company symbol being "a simple torus, a ring, which might be cut from the end of a hollow pipe." Oelph then goes on to speculate that there is some connection between this symbol and facets of his own and the Doctor's story, though is of course unaware of the resemblance between the company's symbol and a Culture orbital.