Post #1724842
2026-04-27 11:51 UTC
It’s a day ending in “y”, so here’s another bad rat take on Banks’ Culture:
www.lesswrong.com/…/the-great-smoothing-out
Once again, for the ones at the back, the Culture is not the main subject of the novels. We almost never see the perspective of “normies” in the Culture, it’s always from the view of misfits (Culture recruits into Contact/Special Circumstances) or outsiders (mercenaries like Zakalwe, enemies like Bora Horza Gobuchul, or allies like Ambassador Kabe).
Banks wanted to write novels about characters in dangerous situations facing their personal demons - like almost every other novelist wants - and the Culture was just the backdrop he invented as contrast.
Replies (3)
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@mawhrin@awful.systems 2026-04-27 13:05
agree, plus: that blog is yet another case of people just not comprehending the scale of Culture’s civilisation and Culture’s culture. a Culture orbital is not just a fancy space station ffs.
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@zogwarg@awful.systems 2026-04-27 13:06
You’ve gotta love finding fault with “not preserving heritage” over “imperialistic complete lack of democracy”.
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@Soyweiser@awful.systems 2026-04-27 18:22
Interesting that in the comments somebody also mentions that the people of the culture euthanize after a couple of centuries. No big shock that the LW people would disagree with that, as parts of the LW idea space is living forever in a computer simulation. So the culture can’t be utopian or good just because of that.