Okay, so I read this years ago- in fact, I have a signed copy- but there’s something I’ve never quite understood. In chapter 5, the Doctor and Oelph visit Slave Master Tunch, a bloating dying man, and the Doctor notices that his wife’s arm has been broken and poorly set.
Then she points out that a rich man’s wife should recieve excellent medical care, and yet she hasn’t, and Oelph then understands whatever it is she’s inferring.
Which is what, exactly? What does it mean if a rich man’s wife recieves poor medical care?
the husband is simply a jerk. This one seems most probable.
the husband broke the arm but didn’t get proper medical care for fear that the doctor would sell his story to the tabloids or report the incident to the police
she’s not really his wife but a somebody who’s been asked to act the part to act as a cover for Mr. SMT’s real sexual preferences (which are frowned upon on his planet). Perhaps she’s one of his slaves.
he’s somewhat overstated his net worth and would actually like to help her but can’t really afford it, all the while bravely keeps up appearances. Heroically, he’s dying so that his beloved wife can collect on the life insurance policy.
she doesn’t want to upset him with her little health problems when he’s dying and all, her being possesed of a saintly and self-effacing character
she suffered the injury before they got marrried, so she hasn’t been rich all her life. Perhaps she used to be a slave and they met on the job.
it’s just a “thing” that the hip kids do in the future, like getting a piercing or something
I forget exactly how that little scene pans out, but my take on it was that he’s a very rich man who calls in the king’s physician to treat him, but can’t even be bothered to get his wife’s broken arm set properly, leaving her crippled. i.e. he is a worthless turd who treats others abominably while expecting the best for himself (as one might infer from his profession). Alhough I too considered the ‘he’s a secret wifebeater’ scenario - but is it likely that would be a big issue in a society like the one described.
But it is, surely? The doctor and whatsisface the bodyguard are SC agents sent to guide the local oligarchs in an appropriate direction. Her ‘dagger’ is a drone or knife missile, which is how it managed to pull off her dramatic escape from the torture chamber and the gassing of the king. Also note that the Culture is not set in the future - one of Banks’ short stories describes a stealthy visit by a GCU to earth during the 1970’s, and a datagathering trip round Paris
He’s been incapacitated for almost a year, according to the wife, and basically incapable of any speech beyond a moan, which would presumably have allowed her plenty of time to seek out medical care herself.
And the “Doctor and Bodyguard are Contact agents” scenario is what originally ocurred to me- the stories the bodyguard tells about “Lavishia” sound pretty much like the Culture- but he never attempts to steer Urleyn’s policies beyond suggesting he be on the lookout for assassins and such.
Also, all the other Culture novels mention… well, the Culture, at some point, and this one never explicitly does.
Well, no, but that’s the whole point; it’s meant to be alluding to it (and does so really heavily in some points) without ever coming out and saying it. After all, it’s narrated from the point of view of a native of the planet who knows nothing about the Culture, so it would be completely jarring if all of a sudden it was explicitly mentioned. DeWar’s stories about the two friends in a place where everyone has what they want and people can fly are surely the total clinchers. Their arguments about intervention in basic civilisations? You couldn’t get a more direct reference to the Culture without actually saying the word.
As for the bodyguard’s mission, it might not have been to direct Urleyn towards more Culture-friendly behaviour; after all, it was King Quience who was coming out with the enlightened ideas of devolution of power and suchlike, and he who was winning out in their ongoing war. In Use of Weapons, Zakalwe has a couple of missions which end up in the apparent failure of “his” side, and the Culture didn’t mind; it’s the global effect they’re after. Maybe they just wanted Urleyn around for a bit for other reasons.
Oh, and chalk me up as another who didn’t see any meaning in the slaver’s wife passage beyond what slaphead described. Sorry.
Err - what made you think the injury was recent? And bearing in mind how medically and socially primitive the environment is there, how is she going to get a badly set limb broken, reset and treated, especially without her husbands say-so?
And my take on it was that Urleyn was supposed to come out on top and replace the existing monarcies with a more modern and meritocratic society, while Quience was supposed to fail. But in the end it turned into a sort of two-steps-forward one-step-back win for the culture anyhow.
You might find the wikipedia article interesting, it covers the whole Culture angle (but not, unfortunately, your original question).
If the knife isn’t enough hint, at the very end when the Doctor is on the ship she begs off an invitation to dinner, citing an indispositiondue to Special Circumstances.
