The Wasp Factory ~ Iain Banks (1984)

Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory is a truly bizarre yet brilliant novel, in fact one of the most disturbing stories I have yet to come across. Written with reference to the Gothic novel, the story takes place from the perspective of Frank: a young boy living on an isolated island with only his father while his estranged mother is absent and his “brother had escaped” from a mental institution. This fact is outlined in the opening to the novel, right from the beginning, we are aware this is a story focused on madness and its impending threat which are key Gothic themes. Another support of this is that Frank realises his brother’s escape through information given by the Wasp Factory. In itself, The Wasp Factory encapsulates the brutal and intricate ethos of the novel as in order to predict the future, wasps are lured into an elaborate trap called “the Factory” where their choice of grimly demise such as melted by candle wax or sticking to fly traps indicates future events. Frank revolves his life around this almost supernatural force and the merciless killing of animals both in the Factory and for his Sacrifice Poles paints an image of a psychopath between the violence-loving Alex from Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange and the uniquely individual logic and mentality of Christopher in Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Frank however is a unique construction as he combines the threat of a violent psychopath with the innocence of a child and as this is a common theme in the Gothic, The Wasp Factory can be aligned with this genre. It is an incentive of the novel to detect these genre intertextualities but the most interesting and informative, yet oddly discreet, is Frank himself. In identifying the core Gothic texts, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a key example and its connections with The Wasp Factory are distinct even from Frank’s name, possibly shortened from Frankenstein. In Shelley’s novel, we are presented with a monster creation made by a monster creator and this basic premise is modernised in Banks’ work. This realisation comes through completing the book and the level of Frank’s monstrosity is better left for the reader to discover in a shocking plot-twist which changes the entire story. The novel is worth reading purely for this moment but besides the surprising narrative, the mysterious and quirky inhabitants of this island are interesting to discover as well as the Gothic elements which construct their existence and psyche. The Wasp Factory is frightening, disturbing, depressing and brilliant and these oppositional tones within the compelling story and characters ensures that Banks’ work is a memorable success which makes its way into the Gothic canon.