A Gift from the Culture
"A Gift from the Culture", published in 1987, is a short work of space opera, by the Scottish science fiction author Iain M. Banks. The story is an early venture into the "complex and unusual and very distant" setting of the Culture, which Banks would further develop through various of full length novels, stories, and his essay "A Few Notes on the Culture".
William Irwin (philosopher)
Irwin is best known for having originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books with "Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing" in 1999 and then the popular "" in 2001. He was editor of these books and then series editor of the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series through Open Court Publishing Company, producing titles such as "Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts", "Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful Than You Can Possibly Imagine", "Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way", and many others. Carlin Romano from "The Chronicle of Higher Education" called the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series “the most serious philosophy series on the market, if some link between academic seriousness and real life still exists.” In an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Stephen T. Asma called William Irwin the “chief architect” of the philosophy and popular culture movement.