Diziet Sma
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Diziet Sma is a fictional character. She is a citizen of The Culture in the novel Use of Weapons and the novella The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks. She works for Special Circumstances, a division of Contact.
Her full name is Rasd-Codurersa Diziet Embless Sma da' Marenhide. This is a good example of how names work in the Culture:
- Rasd-Codurer is the solar system of her birth, and the specific object (planet, orbital, Dyson sphere, etc.). The "-sa" suffix is roughly equivalent to "-er" in English. By this convention, human beings would all be named Sol-Earther.
- Diziet is her given name. This is chosen by a parent, usually the mother
- Embless is her chosen name. Most Culture citizens choose this when they reach adulthood (according to The Player of Games this is known as "completing one's name"). As with all conventions in the Culture, it may be broken or ignored: some change their chosen name during their lives, some never take one.
- Sma is her surname, usually taken from one's mother
- da' Marenhide is the place of her upbringing, or her "house", the "da" or "dam" being similar to "von" in German.
Sma's fictional lifetime overlaps the present day of the storyteller. In the novella The State of the Art, Diziet Sma visits our Earth in the year 1977. She is depicted as almost, but not quite, human in form; she has to have her body surgically adapted for the period of her visit in order to blend in with humanity.
[edit] References
(This information largely cribbed from "A Few Notes on The Culture" by Iain M Banks).
