The State Of The Art by Iain M. Banks

been talking to my friends, Roghres Shasapt and Tagm Lokri, but Li was there, eavesdropping avidly.
    'Ah,' he said, floating over to wag one finger under my nose. 'That's it.'
    'That's what?'
    'That monument. I see it now. Think about it.'
    'The memorial to the Deportation, in Paris, you mean.'
    'Cunt. That's what I mean.'
    I shook my head. 'Li, I don't think I know what you're talking about.'
    'Ah, he's just lusting,' Roghres said. 'He pined when you left last time.'
    'Nonsense,' Li said, and flicked a blob of water at Roghres. 'What I'm talking about is this; most memorials are like pricks; cenotaphs; columns. That monument Sma saw is a cunt; it's even in a divide of the river; very pubic. From this, and Sma's overall attitude, it's obvious that Sma is sublimating her sexuality in all this Contact nonsense.'
    'Well I never knew that,' I said.
    'Basically, what you want, Diziet, is to be fucked by an entire civilization, an entire planet. I suppose this makes you a good little Contact operative, if that's what you want to be -'
    'Li, of course, is only here for the different tan,' Tagm interrupted.
    '- but I would say,' Li continued, 'that it's better not to sublimate anything. If what you want is a good screw -' (Li used the English word)'- then a good screw is what you ought to have, not a meaningful confrontation with a backwater rockball infested with slavering death-zealots on a terminal power trip.'
    'I still say it's you who wants the good screw,' Roghres said.
    'Exactly!' Li exclaimed, throwing his arms wide, scattering more water drops, wobbling in the null G. 'But I don't deny it.'
    'Just Mr Natural,' Tagm nodded.
    'What's wrong with being natural?' demanded Li.
    'But I remember just the other day you were saying that the trouble with humans is that they were too natural, not civilized enough,' Tagm said, then turned to me. 'Mind you, that was then; Li can change his colours faster than a GCU going for a refit record.'
    'There's natural and natural,' Li said. 'I'm naturally civilized and they're naturally barbarians, therefore I should be as natural as possible and they should do all they can not to be. But this is getting off the subject. What I say is that Sma has a definite psychological problem and I think that as I'm the only person on this machine interested in Freudian analysis, I should be the one to help her.'
    'That's unbelievably kind of you,' I told Li.
    'Not at all,' Li waved his hand. He must have scattered most of his water drops towards us, because he was gradually floating away from us, towards the far end of the AG hall.
    'Freud!' snorted Roghres derisively, a little high on Jumble.
    'You heathen,' said Li, eyes narrowed. 'I suppose your heroes are Marx and Lenin.'
    'Hell no; I'm an Adam Smith man myself,' muttered Roghres. She started to tumble head over heels in the air, doing slow foetal-spreadeagle exercises.
    'Rubbish,' Li spat (literally, but I saw it coming and doged).
    'Li, you really are the horniest [*6*] human on this ship,' Tagm told him. 'You're the one who needs the analyst. This obsession with sex, it's just not -'
    'I'm obsessed with sex?' Li said, poking himself in the chest with a thumb, then throwing back his head. 'HA!' He laughed. 'Listen;' he arranged himself in what would have passed for a lotus position on Earth, had there been a floor to sit on, and put one hand on his hip while pointing the other vaguely to his right; 'they're the ones obsessed with sex. Do you know how many words there are for “prick” in English? Or “cunt”? Hundreds; hundreds. How many have we got? One; one for each, for [*7*] usage as well as for anatomical designation. Neither of them swear-words. All I do is readily admit I want to put one in the other. Ready, willing and interested. What's wrong with that?'
    'Nothing as such,' I told him. 'But there's a point where interest becomes obsession, and I think most people regard obsession as a bad thing because it makes for less variety, less