# Favorite Fictional Culture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 15, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134 "2007-12-15T21:25:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/21 "2007-12-16T09:40:48Z")
The post-post-post apocalyptic Britain that Russell Hoban created in [_Riddley Walker_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riddley_Walker) > [@](#): > > The novel is set at an unspecified time, at least two thousand years from the present, after a nuclear war has destroyed our civilization. The novel’s characters live a harsh life in a small area which is presently the English county of Kent, and know nothing of the world outside of “Inland” (England). Their level of civilization is similar to England’s prehistoric Iron Age, although they do not produce their own iron but salvage it from ancient machinery. Church and state have combined into one secretive institution, whose mythology, partly based on misremembered stories of the war, is enacted in puppet shows. The main action of the story begins when the young narrator, Riddley, stumbles upon efforts to recreate a weapon of the ancient world. This is a favourite fictional culture in that it’s interesting, not so much in that I’d like to live in it. ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/22 "2007-12-16T15:55:48Z")
I’ve always wanted to live in the world shown in Final Fantasy 7. Magic, steam punk devices, ninjas, and bigass swords. I want my own materia! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/23 "2007-12-16T16:05:30Z")
I want to live in [Dante’s Cove](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante%27s_Cove). Everyone is under 30 (except for the immortal witches), everyone is wicked hot (including the immortal witches), everyone gets laid at the drop of a hat and I could kill people by looking at them. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/24 "2007-12-16T16:09:03Z")
This will come as no surprise but I would pick Aman as a Noldorian. Immortality, virtual freedom from disease and hopefully a chance to work with Aulë or at least his senior assistants. Of course I would want a chance to sail with the Teleri. Jim ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/25 "2007-12-16T16:45:54Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] This is a favourite fictional culture in that it’s interesting, not so much in that I’d like to live in it. [/QUOTE] “May you live in interesting times.” 😉 That’s one way to answer the OP. If you want to know what fictional culture would be my favorite to actually _live_ in, my answer is: the valley of the Kesh people from Ursula K. Le Guin’s _Always Coming Home_. It’s in Northern California many years in the future, a blend of rural living and in-tune-with-earth consciousness with subtle technological sophistication. (IIRC they have something like the Internet, for free, at a kiosk in each village.) Ordinary life there is good enough that in order to have sufficient conflict for a compelling story, the book’s protagonist had to leave the Valley and struggle to return. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/26 "2007-12-16T20:23:56Z")
For _interesting_ it’s a toss-up between Banks’ Gas Giant Dweller culture (_The Algebraist_) and Mieville’s Bas Lag, especially New Crobuzon. Neither of them safe, nor would I want to live in either, but interesting to read about, yes. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/27 "2007-12-16T20:45:31Z")
The post-national tribal culture(s) of Neal Stephenson’s [_The Diamond Age_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age) – not something I’d want to live in, not something I hope ever exists IRL, but it is fascinating to watch how all those tribes coexist in parallel, with all their different ways and values, and form symbiotic economic relationships (e.g., the craftspeople of Dovetail and the hyper-professional Neo-Victorians), and work out their differences in the public sphere. Plus they’ve got nanotech! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/28 "2007-12-16T20:47:55Z")
I think I actually **would** like to live in the post-Green-Revolution culture of Kim Stanley Robinson’s [_Pacific Edge._](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Edge) (Callenbach’s [_Ecotopia_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia) – not so much; just a little bit too **heavy,** y’know?) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/29 "2007-12-16T20:52:06Z")
The post-eco-apocalyptic Neopagan culture of Yerba Buena (the San Francisco Bay Area) in Starhawk’s [_The Fifth Sacred Thing_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Sacred_Thing) is also way cool. (Though I have serious doubts as to whether it would be practical to tear up the city’s streets and turn them into garden strips – they’re probably too polluted to grow anything, and then, even without cars, you still need streets, don’t you?) ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/30 "2007-12-16T21:02:55Z")
Snow Crash. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/31 "2007-12-16T21:09:27Z")
When I saw the thread title I already knew I’d pick something from Middle-Earth, but I had to think a moment of which culture is my favorite. I’ve decided it’s definitely Hobbits. I can get behind honest work, a hot cuppa/evening in the pub, and 6 meals a day (when I can get them). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/32 "2007-12-16T21:09:49Z")
[QUOTE=Paladud] Snow Crash. [/QUOTE] Merely _The Diamond Age_ in embryo. (They’re set in the same fictional universe, separated by time – Y.T. from _SC_ reappears as an elderly Neo-Victorian schoolmistress in _TDA.)_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/33 "2007-12-16T21:25:12Z")
Space-opera cultures are generally fun, if shallow – whether it’s _Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica_ or the _Lensman_ series – cultural values and assumptions are pretty much what you’re used to if you’re a middle-class white American, but the toys are so much cooler! ---
**Author:** ![Paladud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Paladud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paladud)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/34 "2007-12-16T21:35:02Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Merely _The Diamond Age_ in embryo. (They’re set in the same fictional universe, separated by time – Y.T. from _SC_ reappears as an elderly Neo-Victorian schoolmistress in _TDA.)_ [/QUOTE] I think they would qualify as distinct cultures, given the massive changes during that time. The earlier world with its disequilibrium seemed more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/35 "2007-12-16T22:16:48Z")
1920’s chicago-as a member of the Bugs Moran (or Capone) gangs! Shootouts, bathtub gin, and big funerals! ---
**Author:** ![Lilacs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/36 "2007-12-16T22:25:56Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] This will come as no surprise but I would pick Aman as a Noldorian. Immortality, virtual freedom from disease and hopefully a chance to work with Aulë or at least his senior assistants. Of course I would want a chance to sail with the Teleri. Jim [/QUOTE] So you would stay behind with Finarfin during the big exile? I also want to be in Middle Earth, but I want to be a Noldor in Beleriand. For some reason I’m fascianted by Nargothrond, far more than Gondolin or Doriath. Sure, it would suck once the dragon comes, but not everyone died, right? And even then it’s just a little while in Mandos and on to Aman. What’s not to like? I’m a little in love with Finrod Felagund, truth to tell. But I think that’s another thread entirely. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/37 "2007-12-16T22:30:12Z")
[QUOTE=Lilacs] So you would stay behind with Finarfin during the big exile? I also want to be in Middle Earth, but I want to be a Noldor in Beleriand. For some reason I’m fascianted by Nargothrond, far more than Gondolin or Doriath. Sure, it would suck once the dragon comes, but not everyone died, right? And even then it’s just a little while in Mandos and on to Aman. What’s not to like? I’m a little in love with Finrod Felagund, truth to tell. But I think that’s another thread entirely. [/QUOTE] Ideally, I would stay behind, perfecting my craft and then go visiting Middle Earth in the third age or fourth age, maybe I could hitch a ride with Glorfindel or Gandalf. I would love to visit the Shire, Bree, Rivendell, the Ents, Lothlorien, Minas Tirith, the Glittering Caves and etc. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/38 "2007-12-16T22:30:21Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] 1920’s chicago-as a member of the Bugs Moran (or Capone) gangs! Shootouts, bathtub gin, and big funerals! [/QUOTE] Not quite fictional…often fictional_ized_, though. I want to live with the Vanderhoff-Sycamore-Kirby extended family in [_You Can’t Take It With You_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030993/). “Behold the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor sow; yet God does all things needful yield that they may live and grow.” ---
**Author:** ![Lilacs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/39 "2007-12-16T22:42:10Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Ideally, I would stay behind, perfecting my craft and then go visiting Middle Earth in the third age or fourth age, maybe I could hitch a ride with Glorfindel or Gandalf. I would love to visit the Shire, Bree, Rivendell, the Ents, Lothlorien, Minas Tirith, the Glittering Caves and etc. Jim [/QUOTE] minor hijack Seeing Minas Anor, Minas Ithil and Osgiliath around the time of Isildur would be cool. I’d love to hang with Gil-Galad eventually as well. I also would like a pre-Balrog tour of Khazad-Dum. I’m not asking for a lot, am I? heh. /end hijack ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134/40 "2007-12-16T22:44:47Z")
The Loonie culture of Heinlein’s _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ is fascinating, with its group marriages, line marriages, polyandry, and all the other ways that have been devised to deal with a massive gender imbalance under frontier conditions. (The apparent absence of prostitution is implausible, however – considering its prevalence in historical frontier societies with shortages of women.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-culture/430134.md?page=3)