Utopia, a poll (with other completely unconnected question)

[andrewducker]

"The Culture" in this case refers to the space-faring civilisation in Iain Banks' awesome series of novels.

[Poll #1792224]

Comments

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Oops!

With "The Culture" I thought you meant the current culture we are living in today.

[andrewducker]

D'oh! I'll update the post...

[andrewducker]

Also - you can change your answer.

And I like your answer to the final question.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I figured a serious poll like this could use a bit of sarcasm.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

For The Culture, I do know what you're talking about, but have not yet got round to any of Banks' M books, though I probably should (they've always struck me as a little space-opera-y for my tastes).

[andrewducker]

It's very space-opera-y. But I wouldn't hold that against it. Try Use Of Weapons or Player Of Games, which are both very person-centric, and see what you think.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

They're on my to-read list. I know Banks is on record as saying that he sees it as a utopia, but then his politics and social attitudes are probably rather different to mine. I'll reserve judgment until I've read at least one.

[andrewducker]

I'd be intrigued to see what you thought of Player Of Games.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

No; for the utopian angle, I'd recommend "Look to Windward" or "The State of the Art".

[andrewducker]

Look to Windward has a fantastic scene where people are surfing on lava, and it is clear that the majority of Culture citizens _are_ in a state of happy-fun-times similar to Brave New World. Which I thought was a nice commentary on some aspects of their utopia.

But I'm not sure it works as a stand-alone novel, it's too steeped in events from other books.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I once had a conversation with someone who though the Culture was a dystopia. It seemed a rather baffling point of view.

[andrewducker]

Well, basically the humans are pets of AI super-intelligences who luckily _like_ humans, and are thus happy to provide them with interesting things to do, nice places to live, etc.

If being the pet of a benevolent superintelligence fills you with horror then it's a dystopia :->

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Also if you don’t believe in the collective or in weak property rights it might seem pretty bad.

[andrewducker]

It is mostly libertarians that I've seen unhappy with it.

No idea who the weirdos are who think that Brave New World is a dystopia :->

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Well it's just like religion, isn't it? Playthings of an omnipotent being.

I think on of their points was rather the opposite: that drones are basically slaves.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

This. Well, this doesn't exactly fill me with horror, but the proponents of the culture as Utopia view do need to remember who is pulling the strings and that life is damn good providing a Mind doesn't decide you're useful for something or in the way.

In that regard if you're happy in your class in Brave New World, that's Utopia too.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say that I see the Culture as a dystopia, but I certainly can't understand the appeal (of the Culture as a society, or of the books in general)

[nmg.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to note that I wish I'd thought of drplokta's answer to 'favourite utopian novel'.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of Banks for no obvious reason-- he strikes me as a competent commercial author, but I just don't get interested.

However, I can see being dubious about being a pet-- look at some of the things people do to pets. The culture might be modifying people in ways too subtle for people to see, just as dogs and cats presumably don't know know anything about the development of pure breds, something which isn't actually good for a lot of animals.

I'd still choose the Culture over a lot of sfnal world-- I like comfort.

My favorite Utopia isn't a novel, it's "And then There Were None--" by Eric Frank Russell. _To Marry Medusa_ by Sturgeon shows some promise in theory, but I wonder about the gender dynamics.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

Iain Banks has never published a Culture story.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

LOL - well spotted.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Why, are they written under his confusingly similar pseudonym?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Marketing.

He had a promising mainstream career as "Iain Banks". Then he handed in "Consider Phlebas". Orbit editorial/marketing said, "would you mind using a pseudonym?" To which, Iain said, "sure -- sell it as Iain M. Banks".

And that was that.

[dalglir.livejournal.com]

Interesting answers. May have to re-read Look to Windward.