“In the book, the wasp factory itself is a ramshackle device that Frank has built from a huge old clock face,” explains Simon. “It contains 12 chambers, each of which offers a different death to a wasp placed inside. Be it by fire, drowning, electricity or other macabre inventions. Frank believes that the insect’s chosen execution is an omen and a signpost.”
But Banks’ biggest twist comes at the end of the novel. Frank finally gains access to his father’s study and discovers that Angus has been giving him male hormones his entire life. The dog’s castration was a lie. Frank is actually Frances. A woman.
This is the “central image of the novel,” explains Katherine. It is a way of imposing order on the chaos of the world and acts like an oracle. “The wasp factory points to the downfall, to Eric’s return and the finale of the novel.” He also uses it as a “really strange, anarchic, chaotic justification for his violence.”
A Gothic novel
Many consider the book to be modern Gothic literature.
“There is little doubt that The Wasp Factory is a Gothic novel,” explains Dr Monica Germana of the University of Westminster. “There is a domineering father, a house that hides a secret, there are all kinds of monsters in the novel… In some ways Frank is a monster.”
And like the most famous Gothic monster, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Banks’ Frank is a “victim of society,” she says. “We feel deep sympathy for the monster… once we know why the creature behaves the way it does, how feelings of abandonment and exclusion by society and marginalization have led him to murder.”
An epic twist (warning, spoilers!)
Frank’s brother Eric is also a victim. When a medical student witnessed the traumatic death of an infant in an overcrowded hospital, he went mad.
“But Banks builds the biggest twist at the end of the novel,” says Simon. Frank finally gains access to his father’s study and learns that Angus has been giving him male hormones all his life. “The castration by the dog was a lie. Frank is actually Frances. A woman.”
“When you reach the end of the novel, you realize that it was all a diversion, one big joke made by both the narrator and the author at the expense of the readers,” says Monica.
“It raises questions rather than answers about what we mean by gender identity, how we define masculinity, how we define femininity, and everything in between.”
“Although Frank is not necessarily portrayed as a transgender person, the point is to show how a person can be raised completely detached from their biological predisposition and still have a very strong sense of who they are.”
A literary legend who is sorely missed
Banks died of gallbladder cancer in June 2013. When he announced his illness, there was a “huge wave of outrage,” says David Haddock, editor of the fanzine The Banksoniain. A Friends of Iain Banks website was set up and people from all over the world left “incredibly heartfelt messages.”
“The tragedy for Iain Banks fans is that his best years as a writer were probably still ahead of him,” says his friend Ken. “I think he would have done great things and I would have loved to see Iain’s interpretation of the modern world we live in.”
Although his voice is greatly missed, his debut novel continues to captivate contemporary readers. “It is a work that is bizarre, dark and grotesque – but also beautiful and hopeful,” says Simon Pegg. “In its own way, a masterpiece from the hand of a master.”
