I went to hear Iain Banks talk last night and I very much enjoyed his reading of his latest book and the Q&A at the end. In answer to one question he suggested that it’s in the very nature of artists to shock. Which his first novel WASP factory did. However a subsequent book Complexity didn’t get the same level of shocked reaction, even though to him it was more toxic than WASP.
The reason he gave for this was that we don’t have antibodies to new ideas and therefore many of us end up with a fever. Once we’ve built up immunity to an idea we’re not as sensitive, even if a more virulent strain comes along later.
Which would suggest that if we want people to take on change we need to give them a vaccine to let them build up their antibodies so that they accept the change more easily when it does comes along.
