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	Diziet Sma
		She is a citizen of The Culture in the novel Use of Weapons and the novella The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks.
		As with all conventions in the Culture, it may be broken or ignored: some change their chosen name during their lives, some never take one.
		Sma is her surname, usually taken from one's mother
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/di/Diziet_Sma.html (143 words)

	The State of the Art
		The title novella and some of the stories deal with aspects of his future society, The Culture.
		In particular, the novella deals with a Culture mission to Earth, and also serves as a prequel of sorts to Use of Weapons, featuring the earlier activities of one of that novel's characters, Diziet Sma.
		This book includes a variety of styles: among the first and third person narratives, Banks includes one in the form of an incomplete letter (Piece: the narrator is on board the ill-fated 1988 Pan Am 103 flight over Lockerbie).
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/th/The_State_of_the_Art.html (146 words)

	Diziet Sma (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		She is a citizen of The Culture in the novel Use of Weapons and the novella The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks.
		Her full name is Rasd-Codurersa Diziet Embless Sma da'Marenhide.
		Sma is her surname, usually taken from one's mother
	www.worldhistory.com /wiki/D/Diziet-Sma.htm (232 words)

	Use of Weapons Information
		Summary: Diziet Sma, overseeing a conference on some non- Culture world, is interupted with news that a crisis is brewing that requires Cheradenine Zakalwe's help.
		Once there he is contacted by Diziet who tells him to go do what he does best, fight in the war and lead the priests he is with to victory if he can.
		Before he can launch that strike he is informed by Diziet that a deal has been struck while he is fighting and that for the good of the entire local stellar cluster the priests must loose their war.
	www.khantazi.org /Rec/IainMBanks/UseOfWpns.html (1059 words)

	Untitled Document
		That is to say they take place after Zakalwe's secret has been discovered by Sma and 'The Drone'.
		Opinions differ as to whether Zakalwe is still working for Special Circumstances at this stage or whether he has gone freelance again.
		Sma recruits a new operative from Balzeit - this time making sure he's of a more heroic nature.
	members.tripod.com /a.b.i-b/html/faq_sp.htm (509 words)

	The State of the Art - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The title novella and some of the stories deal with aspects of his future society, The Culture.
		In particular, the novella chronicles a Culture mission to Earth, and also serves as a prequel of sorts to Use of Weapons, featuring some earlier activities of one of that novel's characters, Diziet Sma.
		This book includes a variety of styles: among the first- and third-person narratives, The State of the Art itself appears in the form of an edited report.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/The_State_of_the_Art (394 words)

	MyBase - Book Profile
		Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, Use of Weapons is a masterpiece of science fiction.
		Cheradenine is an ex-"special circumstance" agent who had been raised to eminence by a woman named Diziet.
		Skaffen-Amtskaw, the drone, had saved her life and it believes Cheradenine to be a burnt-out case.
	www.sf-books.com /bookprofile.asp?book=819 (189 words)

	Iain (M) Banks - Topic Powered by eve community
		One of the great elements of the series is that the Culture doesn't cop out with a Prime Directive, they evaluate every new species on a case to case basis, they are acutely aware that they're playing God, and constantly question their choices and their worthiness.
		Diziet Sma and the GCU Arbitrary leave the Earth to its own devices, and they don't shy away from the anguish that goes with that decision.
		Sma agreed that Earth had a certain something, a desirable x factor that the Culture didn't and couldn't have.
	neilgaimanboard.com /eve/forums/a/tpc/f/963601826/m/10010731731?r=27310933731 (2681 words)

	Culture in the Culture
		But Diziet Sma thinks only he will do, so he must be armed and re-indoctrinated.
		To make up for her bit-role in the last novel, Diziet Sma becomes the narrator of The State of the Art.
		Even Diziet, the pick of the litter, seems to have swapped her brain for a sheaf of Guardian leaders.
	www.computercrowsnest.com /features/arc/2002/nz5798.php (2654 words)

	Amazon.de: State of the Art: English Books: Iain Banks (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Contact, and our favorite Culture gal Dziet Sma, have to decide whether to get in touch with a world locked in a seemingly desperate arms race and the slow and painful destruction of the planet's ecosystem.
		Sma and her crew-mates travel around the world sampling the delights and the horrors of Earth.
		But if you liked "Use of Weapons", "State of the Art" is worth it just for the title story, which has Diziet Sma aboard a GCU orbiting Earth in the 1970s.
	www.amazon.de /State-Art-Iain-Banks/dp/0929480074 (1252 words)

	Use of Weapons Review
		Diziet Sma, a Culture citizen who has been Zakalwe's "control" in the past, is rudely summoned from her latest (quite pleasurable) assignment in order to find Zakalwe and recruit him for one more emergency mission (involving a situation with which Zakalwe was previously involved).
		The main branch of the story follows Sma forward in time, as she pursues and eventually finds Zakalwe, and as Sma and Zakalwe accomplish, in general terms, the mission on which the SC branch has sent them.
		This involves convincing a retired politician who supports the "right" side (anti-terraforming, pro-Machine Intelligence) of a conflict in an unstable star cluster to return to the arena and forestall a coming war, and then also involves some intervention in a "brushfire" which has broken out as a precursor to the war.
	www.sff.net /people/richard.horton/uow.htm (663 words)

	The Culture - Wikinfo
		Some of these words specify the citizen's origin (place of birth or manufacture), some his occupation, and some (chosen later in life by the citizen themself) denote specific philosophical or political alignments, or make other similarly personal statements.
		See article on Diziet Sma for a good example of human or drone names in The Culture.
		As far as Minds are concerned (and particularly ship minds), they are known by the type of their ship (GCU, GSV, etc.) and by a (generally rather whimsical) name chosen by the mind itself.
	www.wikinfo.org /wiki.php?title=The_Culture (2494 words)

	Novel Reflections: Iain M Banks Use of Weapons Review
		Cheradenine Zakalwe is one of their employees, working in the branch known as Special Circumstances, he is sent into societies on missions to help or hinder whatever may be going on that Culture wants to influence.
		Diziet Sma, his contact in the Culture, and the drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw, have to find Zakalwe and send him on another mission.
		Over the course of the novel we discover a great deal about Zakalwe, why he works for the Culture, and who he is. He is hiding a terrible secret, and only one person can give him forgiveness.
	www.novelreflections.com /authors/iain-m-banks/use-of-weapons/review.php (212 words)

	The Culture (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Some of these words specify the citizen's origin (place of birth or manufacture), some his occupation, and some (chosen later in life by the citizen themself) denote specific philosophical or political alignments, or make other similarly personal statements.
		See article on Diziet Sma for a good example of human or drone names in The Culture.
		As far as Minds are concerned (and particularly ship minds), they are known by the class of their ship (GCU, GSV, etc.) and by a (generally rather whimsical) name chosen by the mind itself.
	www.brainyencyclopedia.com /encyclopedia/t/th/the_culture.html (805 words)

	Culture in the Culture
		But Diziet Sma thinks only he will do, so he must be armed and re-indoctrinated.
		To make up for her bit-role in the last novel, Diziet Sma becomes the narrator of The State of the Art.
		Even Diziet, the pick of the litter, seems to have swapped her brain for a sheaf of Guardian leaders.
	www.sfcrowsnest.co.uk /features/arc/2002/nz5798.php (2654 words)

	Gallileus - The State of the Art (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Contact, and our favorite Culture gal Dziet Sma, have to decide whether to get in touch with a world locked in a seemingly desperate arms race and the slow and painful destruction of the planet's ecosystem.
		Sma and her crew-mates travel around the world sampling the delights and the horrors of Earth.
		But if you liked "Use of Weapons", "State of the Art" is worth it just for the title story, which has Diziet Sma aboard a GCU orbiting Earth in the 1970s.
	www.gallileus.info /search/amazon_detail?asin=1857230302 (1020 words)

	Iain Banks' Culture novels
		I was quite looking forward to reading this collection, since I'd only read his novel-length books so far, and wanted to find out if the man would hold his cool in shorter stories.
		Essentially, it describes the musings of Diziet Sma, an agent from the Culture, about Earth in 1977 - the ship she's on, the Arbitrary, goes into orbit around Earth and starts collecting all the data it can about Earth, and sends Sma and other crewmembers to investigate.
		Of course, you have Banks' trademark (sometimes fl) humour threading its way throughout the story, and the main narrative, apart from the debates between the ship and Sma about whether they should contact the people of Earth, is about an agent of the Culture who decides he wants to stay on Earth.
	www.vavatch.co.uk /books/banks (2373 words)

	For CULTURE Vultures - Fun Facts, Questions, Answers, Information
		Diziet Sma is the female protagonist from "Use of Weapons".
		Bascule the Teller is the semi-literate youth involved in the quest (hence the phonetic spelling of part of the text).
		Skaffen-Amtskaw had once saved Diziet Sma's life and believes Zakalwe to be burnt out.
	www.funtrivia.com /en/subtopics/For-CULTURE-Vultures-122916.html (491 words)

	Jedi Council Forums - Engines of Another War [SW / Iain M. Banks crossover] - COMPLETED 17th April!!
		But another part of her knew that her name was Diziet Sma, and remembered the time, a little over a century (and one Outside Context Problem) earlier, when she had been part of the crew of the GSV Advisory.
		The woman whose name had once been Diziet Embless Sma bent double over the toilet bowl, one hand gripping the steel ring, the other clutching her pulsing belly, retching up the contents of her last meal into the drain.
		At least she was a woman again, she reflected, savouring the foetid, fermented stench of her own vomit, blinking her tear-glossed eyes as her gaze wavered across the spatter of puke around the dark rectum of the outflow.
	boards.theforce.net /beyond_the_saga/b10477/16299456/p1 (7155 words)

	Iain M. Banks
		The book's structure is peculiar in that it alternates chapters involving a "present day" mission for which Zakalwe is brought out of retirement by his fellow agent Diziet Sma with chapters which provide vignettes about Zakalwe's history and origins in reverse order.
		The books gets off to a slow start, as Sma is not a particular interesting character, but Zakalwe is interesting, in his neurotic, eccentric, yet highly competent way, and the book feels alive whenever he's on stage.
		It emerges that Zakalwe has lived for two centuries (half of that in real time, the other half in relative time), and we learn about Zakalwe's sense of morality, and his resignation from the Culture several years earlier.
	www.leftfield.org /~rawdon/books/sf/banks_iain_m (2147 words)

	SpaceBattles.com - Mirror Universes You'd Like To See? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Diziet Sma roams the galaxy subverting lesser civilizations for later invasion and subjugation.
		Sma's ruthlessness and violent temper are only restrained by an old friend, the drone Skaffen-Amtiskaw, a patient peaceful reformer.
		Oh, yeah, and Sma switched sexes to male and grew a goatee.
	kier.3dfrontier.com /forums/archive/index.php/t-72103.html (1863 words)

	Review on Use of Weapons - Iain Banks by rohit4 - MouthShut.com
		Essentially, Use of Weapons is the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe, a non-citizen of the Culture, who had been employed by Special Circumstances as a weapon to influence conflicts on a variety of planets and move their philosophies in the direction of the Culture.
		It involves another viewpoint, Diziet Sma (along with her sentient drone Skeffen-Amtiskaw), Cheradenine’s former ’’control’’, so to speak, trying to bring him out of retirement to complete a final mission.
		The main branch of the story moves forward in time with Sma pursuing and successfully convincing Zakalwe to come out of retirement and complete the final mission.
	www.mouthshut.com /review/Use_of_Weapons_-_Iain_Banks-41681-1.html (724 words)

	Article: Culture Clash: Ambivalent Heroes and the Ambiguous Utopia in the Work of Iain M. Banks, by David Horwich
		In Consider Phlebas, Perosteck Balveda has her mind-state recorded in long-term storage for later revival; after her revival, she lives only a few months more before choosing to autoeuthenize.
		Diziet Sma, Zakalwe's recruiter and control in Use of Weapons and the protagonist of the novella "The State of the Art," eventually leaves Contact and retreats to an Uncontacted, less technologically advanced world, undertaking the occasional SC mission but otherwise living outside of the Culture in semi-retirement.
		In the three novels considered above, the Culture manages to achieve its ends despite the less-than-idealistic means employed.
	www.strangehorizons.com /2002/20020121/culture_clash.shtml (3385 words)

	StarDestroyer.Net BBS :: View topic - The Culture
		It must take place after The State of the Art, however, as one of the characters, Diziet Sma, is present in both; as a member of Contact in TSotA, and a Special Circumstances agent in this book.
		The State of the Art was a letter from Sma to a man researching Earth around the time of official first Contact, ~2110, edited by Skaffen-Amtiskaw.
		It is stated early in the letter that 115 years have passed since the Arbitrary studied Earth, placing the writing of the letter at ~2092.
	bbs.stardestroyer.net /viewtopic.php?t=7419&start=50 (698 words)

	Science Fiction - New York Times
		Banks's superhero, works as a free lance for the Culture, a shadowy superpower that apparently feels justified in intervening in the affairs of entire star clusters for the good of the locals.
		His control is Diziet Sma, who is beautiful and brainy and sexy, and who works with a suitcase-shaped mechanical "drone" named Skaffen-Amtiskaw.
		This drone provides comic relief by talking like an English butler except when it says things like "Trouble, toots"; at other times, like everyone and everything else in this book, Skaffen-Amtiskaw is capable of bloody murder.
	query.nytimes.com /gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE4DE1F3BF930A35756C0A964958260&sec=&pagewanted=all (1022 words)

	Diziet's WWW page copyrights and acknowledgements (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		Thanks to Ian Jackson for providing an account on his system (and allowing me to have `diziet' as an account name.).
		Unless stated otherwise (here or elsewhere) pages physically within my WWW areas are Copyright by me, Diziet Sma (this is a pseudonym).
		I assert the right to be identified as the author, and claim the moral rights of paternity and integrity, in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
	www.chiark.greenend.org.uk /~diziet/copy-ack.html (160 words)

	Iain Banks - Use of Weapons (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-23)
		The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action.
		The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.
		The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people.
	homepages.compuserve.de /Mostral/books/c.html (125 words)

	The Culture FAQ
		The last bit of UoW is there to imply that another story, similar to Zakalwe's (even down to Sma's involvement and some history to do with a [wheel] chair) is about to begin, and has been at least partially instigated by Z's own actions.
		And of course Z is back to his old tricks too, because both the prologue and the epilogue take place after the main action of the book.
		Even Banks' comment above about Sma's involvement doesn't help because she could be involved regardless of whether Zakalwe is working for SC or not.
	www.i-dig.info /culture/culturefaq.html (5024 words)

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