Whit, or, Isis amongst the unsaved is a
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by the
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
writer
Iain BanksIain Banks is a Scottish writer. He writes mainstream fiction under his birth name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M...
, published in 1995. Isis Whit, a young but important member of a small, quirky
cultCult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices...
in Scotland, narrates. The community supects that Isis' cousin Morag is in danger, and sends Isis out to help.
Isis, otherwise The Blessed Very Reverend Gaia-Marie Isis Saraswati Minerva Mirza Whit of Luskentyre, Beloved Elect of God III, is the 19-year-old granddaughter and designated spiritual heir of Salvador Whit, patriarch of the Luskentyrians.
Whit, or, Isis amongst the unsaved is a
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by the
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
writer
Iain BanksIain Banks is a Scottish writer. He writes mainstream fiction under his birth name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M...
, published in 1995. Isis Whit, a young but important member of a small, quirky
cultCult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices...
in Scotland, narrates. The community supects that Isis' cousin Morag is in danger, and sends Isis out to help.
Plot summary
Isis, otherwise The Blessed Very Reverend Gaia-Marie Isis Saraswati Minerva Mirza Whit of Luskentyre, Beloved Elect of God III, is the 19-year-old granddaughter and designated spiritual heir of Salvador Whit, patriarch of the Luskentyrians. They are a religious cult who live in a
communeA commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important for many communes...
in
StirlingshireStirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a registration county of Scotland, based around Stirling, the former county town. It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-west.Until 1975 it was a county...
and reject most
technologyTechnology is a broad concept that deals with human as well as other animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt to its environment...
. They run their lives according to a collection of beliefs and rituals "revealed" to Salvador after he washed ashore on Harris in the Western Isles and "married" two young
AsianBritish Asian is a term used to describe British citizens who descended from mainly South Asia. In British English, the term the 'Asian' usually excludes East Asians ....
ladies (Aasni and Zhobelia Asis). (
HaggisHaggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' , minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours....
pakoraPakora ; is a fried snack found across South Asia. Pakoras are created by taking one or two ingredients, such as chicken, onion, eggplant, potato, spinach, cauliflower, tomato or chilli, dipping them in a batter of gram flour and then deep-frying them...
becomes a staple of the cult's
cuisineCuisine is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. It is often named after the region or place where its underlining culture is present...
.)
The novel opens shortly before the Luskentyrian Festival of Love, held every four years, about nine months before every
leap yearA leap year is a year containing one or more extra days in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year....
day (February 29). The Luskentyrians believe that those born on that day have special power. This includes Isis herself, Elect of God, and expected to take over leadership of the cult.
The bulk of the novel tells of Isis' voyages in the world of "the Unsaved" (also known as "the Obtuse", "the Wretched", "the Bland" and "the Asleep"), through Scotland and southern
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in search of Morag, who is feared to have rejected the cult.
Because of Isis' anti-technology and self-denying puritanical beliefs, she has to use a Sitting Board (a hard board she can put over the comfortable seats in cars and other means of transportation in order to deprive herself of cushioning). She also uses the technique of Back-Bussing in order to avoid paying for a ticket on the bus. This consists of getting on buses, and when the conductor comes along, asking for a ticket in the opposite direction while looking confused. This normally results in being allowed to get off at the next stop and pointed in the right direction.
While searching for her cousin, Isis meets
RastasThe Rastafari movement is a monotheistic, Abrahamic, new religious movement that accepts Haile Selassie I, the former, and final, Emperor of Ethiopia, as the incarnation of God, called Jah or Jah Rastafari....
, policemen, white power skinheads, and other characters of a sort she has never encountered before, and tells the story of the cult and the rationale behind its rules. Isis' maternal grandmother, Yolanda, a feisty
TexanTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
woman, appears and lends her support to Isis' quest. Isis' friend Sophi, although not part of the cult, is very close to her. Isis meets her whenever she goes to her house to use the Luskentyrian method of free (if laborious) telephone communication, using coded rings.
When Isis finds Morag, she learns that though Morag has lapsed somewhat in her Luskentyrian practices (her work as a
pornPORN may refer to:* An abbreviation for pornography* Men of Porn. a San Francisco band consisting of founder Tim Moss, Dale Crover and Billy Anderson* Pornography of The Cure...
actress is not inconsistent with the cult's beliefs) she had every intention of returning for the festival. The story now takes a more sinister turn, as we learn that Isis' brother seems to have cooked up her impossible mission in an attempt to discredit her and put her out of the picture in a bid to take over the leadership of the cult.
Isis also learns the history of her grandfather, and rescues her great-aunt Zhobelia from an old people's home. Confident that Zhobelia's mild senility will recover in a less boring environment, Isis soon learns more of the origins of the cult from her. She finds out that her grandfather was Moray Black, a robber on the run, and that the cult he set up is based on lies.
Returning with her great-aunt Zhobelia, her cousin Morag, enhanced maturity and a lot more information, Isis must decide what to tell the other members of the cult.
Literary significance & criticism
Like many of Banks' characters, from Frank Cauldhame in
The Wasp FactoryThe Wasp Factory was the first novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks. It was published in 1984.-Overview:Written from the first person perspective, it is a deeply unreliable narrative told by sixteen-year-old Frank Cauldhame, describing his childhood and all that remains of it. Frank observes many...
to Prentice McHoan in
The Crow RoadThe Crow Road is a novel by the Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1992.-Plot introduction:Prentice McHoan's life, growing up in a complex but coherent Scottish family with many mysteries is described, seen through his preoccupations with death, sex, relationships, drink and God, with the...
, Isis engages in a half-unconscious search for knowledge which will inevitably turn her world upside down. (The novel thus becomes a type of
BildungsromanA bildungsroman is a coming-of-age kind of novel. It arose during the German Enlightenment, and in it, the author presents the psychological, moral and social shaping of the personality of a usually young main character...
.)
Banks portrays the cult largely sympathetically, especially given its publication just after the
Waco SiegeThe Waco Siege began on February 28, 1993 when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located nine miles east-northeast of Waco, Texas. An exchange of gunfire resulted in the deaths...
in 1993 (which Yolanda discusses within the novel). Banks ensures that the Luskentyrian theology (in which Isis fervently believes at the start of the book) has coherence and consistency, even as events cause her to start to doubt.
Banks has called it:
a book about religion and culture written by a dedicated evangelical atheist — I thought I was very kind to them... Essentially, Isis makes the recognition that the value of the Luskentyrian cult is in their community values rather than their religious ones. She recognises that efficiency isn't everything, that people not profit are what matters.
Trivia
The British Army number 954024 mentioned later in the book actually identified
Spike MilliganTerence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan KBE , known as Spike Milligan, was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet and playwright. Milligan was the co-creator and the principal writer of The Goon Show, in which he also performed. Aside from his well-known comedy and poetry, Milligan did some painting...
.
External links